Legacy of Silence Read Online Free PDF Page A

buy jewelry.”
    “Then what’s the sense in selling mine now?”
    “My darling wife, I’m sorry to say that nothing you’ve ever owned is valuable enough for our purposes. We need to have a few small, superb gems, rings that can easily be concealed.”
    Lore spoke. “Let me be the first to leave. I can quickly get things into Switzerland. They won’t bother me, a working girl carrying my shabby suitcase.”
    Mama burst out crying. “Who could havethought? Who could have dreamed? Lore, you, too, to be driven out of your country.”
    “I’m not being driven out, I’m departing of my own free will.” Lore laughed. “I don’t feel like starving my way through one more war.”
    Her laughter lifted the mood. Mama wiped her eyes. Father was busy with his list. And nobody, immersed as they all were in this sudden activity, had looked toward—perhaps had not even thought of—Caroline.
    I N the rear garden, the first snowdrops had poked through the hard earth, and it was warm enough, when wrapped in heavy clothes, to sit in the sun. The Sunday morning quiet was so profound that they spoke almost in whispers.
    “Did you really think that when the time came, I would let you go without me?” asked Walter.
    “I didn’t want to think about it. I only remembered that once you had said, ‘I shall miss you.’ ”
    “That was a thousand years ago. No, I shall never miss you because I shall be with you.”
    “What about your family? Are you going to slip away one day without saying anything, or what?”
    “Slip away, and the sooner the better, because a real crisis is coming. I shall be finished with my examinations by May, and then there’ll be not only a showdown about entering the firm, but worse yet, about taking some sort of position in the Party. Mymother’s in a women’s group, my brother has an army career, my sisters are in Hitler Youth, and I am the only one who’s kept apart from all that. I guess you can have some idea,” he said grimly, “about the pressure that’s put on me. I hate being home even for an hour at dinner. My life is lived at the university.”
    He got up, walked to the wall, and looked out over the avenue into the park. When he came back and stood before Caroline, she saw that he was extremely agitated.
    “The strange thing is that in spite of all I’ve told you about him, I still cannot really hate my father. In all decency, how can a person forget the years of nurture, the labor that made life comfortable for me? When I was ill, when I wanted or needed something, he was there for me. No, I can’t hate him, but only what he stands for and what he is trying to make me stand for, too. Oh, Caroline, when can we get away?”
    “Father and I are promised our visas for America by May. Mama’s number will not be reached for months. She wants us to leave without her. She says it’s wrong for us to be delayed because of her. They almost had an argument about it last night.” And feeling her lips quiver, she stopped for a moment before resuming. “One of the doctors who used to be a friend of Father’s, and certainly isn’t one now, has divorced his Jewish wife. Can you imagine, Walter?”
    “Swine.”
    “Father says if it comes to that, he’ll die withMother. But he doesn’t believe it will come to that. Or at least, he says he doesn’t believe it.”
    “Of course, then, you didn’t have a chance to talk to them about us,” Walter said gently. “Not that they don’t already know.”
    “It wasn’t the proper time. And you’re right, of course they know. It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?”
    “They haven’t wanted to hear it. But now they have to. May we go inside so we can tell them officially?”
    The parents were still at the breakfast table, where they had been sitting since earliest morning, thrashing through their predicament. Caroline’s father looked up in surprise when Walter appeared with her.
    “I wouldn’t disturb you at this hour,” Walter said, “if