Pegasus: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

only place he knew that was home.
    Paul said miserably, “As far as they’re concerned, a half-Jewish mother cancels out
     the rest. They don’t care how old or honorable our family is, by ancestry, you are
     Jewish, even if you don’t agree. And Jews are no longer welcome here, that is precisely
     what the general said. He took a great risk himself in coming here to warn us. He
     said that your file has already crossed someone’s desk in Berlin. They are checking
     all the old families, all the town records, marriages, births, they are systematically
     looking for Jews. He said we have to move quickly. They could come here in a matter
     of weeks.”
    “What am I supposed to do?” Nick nearly shouted at him, butthere was no one to shout at, no one to rail at but the fates. Because of a mother
     he had never known, or even knew existed, Nick and his sons would have to leave their
     home and flee. “What do I have to do? Run away?”
    Paul looked at him with heartbreak in his eyes and nodded. “Yes. Heinrich said that
     people are leaving for America, if they can get sponsors and jobs, which isn’t easy.
     I made a list of people I know there, but I don’t know if they’d be willing to help.
     I want to write to the headmaster of your school in England—perhaps he can assist
     us. We have to reach out to everyone we know, to get you out of here. But to do that,
     you have to have a job.”
    “And what will I do, Papa? Be a chauffeur? I don’t know how to work.” He felt like
     a fool saying it, but they both knew it was true. The world he lived in and their
     circumstances didn’t require him to work, or to know how to do anything productive.
     He hadn’t even learned the little he should, to manage his own land.
    “Perhaps you could work in a bank,” Paul said hopefully. “You can’t take more than
     a certain amount of money with you. They don’t want any large fortunes leaving Germany.
     I’ll give you whatever I can.” Paul looked distressed. He had thought of the same
     things himself. “You have to be able to take care of the boys.”
    “Nothing in my life has ever prepared me for this,” Nick said, with a tone of desperation.
     “We’re brought up to do nothing except ride horses and drive cars, be civil at dinner
     parties and dance at balls. What part of that would make me eligible for a job?”
    “We’ll have to think of one quickly. There’s no time to waste. You could teach German
     once you got there. You speak English well—it’s why I want to write to your headmaster.
     Perhaps he could get you a job in a school, in England or the States. It’s a respectable
     profession and it would feed you and the boys.”
    “And what am I supposed to tell my children?” He couldn’t imagine what to say, it
     was all so convoluted, so ridiculous, and so sick. Toby wouldn’t understand it at
     fifteen, and Lucas even less at six. He didn’t understand it himself. “That we have
     to leave Germany because we’re considered criminals? My sons don’t even know what
     a Jew is. And I’m supposed to tell them that because a lunatic is running Germany,
     we’re now being forced to leave home, to go to a place where we have nothing and know
     no one. Papa, this is insane.”
    “Yes, it is,” Paul agreed, “and when things calm down, which I’m sure they will eventually,
     you can come back, but for now you have to leave. Heinrich made that very clear to
     me, and I believe him. You have no other option. I’ll write the letters, and you need
     to think if there is anyone you know who can help, either sponsor you or give you
     a job.” Nick sat down in silence again for a moment, dumbstruck by all he’d heard.
     And Paul was surprised by what he said.
    “The men I went to school with in England do the same thing we do. Hunt, ride horses,
     and manage their estates. They don’t have jobs. And I’d like to try to meet my mother,
     at least once. Even if she wants nothing to do with