The Runaway Family Read Online Free PDF

are neighbours for if not to help in time of trouble?”
    “You have helped, more than I could have dreamed of asking, but now it is time for us to move on,” replied Ruth. “I must take the children to their uncle. He will look after us until Kurt is released, and Kurt will know where to find us.”
    “Well, if you are quite sure…” In spite of herself, Leah could not hide the note of relief that crept into her voice. Taking in a woman and four children had stretched her home to breaking point, not to mention the danger to which it exposed her and Leo. The Nazis were out looking for Jews, and if you were a Jew it was best to keep your head down and pray that they passed by without noticing you. She knew it, her husband knew it and Ruth knew it.
    Ruth reached out and grasped her hands. “Quite sure,” she said, “we’ve burdened you enough.”
    “No burden,” smiled Leo, but Ruth could see the relief in his eyes as well, and knew that her decision was the right one.
    “How will you get there?” Leah, ever the practical one, asked.
    “We’ll take the train into the city and then the bus. It shouldn’t be difficult.”
    “Have you money?” asked Leah.
    Ruth had counted the notes in the elastic band, and had been relieved at how much Kurt had hidden. She smiled at her neighbour and said, “Yes, enough to get us there, anyway, and to pay back what I owe you, dear Leah.”
    The morning after the fire, Leah had looked at the children in their nightclothes and disappeared to the market. When she returned, each child had one set of clothes to wear, a pair of shoes and an extra set of underwear. Ruth had only the clothes she stood up in, but at least she had not been in bed when the riot started. The old lady had asked Ruth for nothing, but Ruth was relieved that she could now reimburse her for her outlay.
    “You’ve been so kind to us,” Ruth said, “but we can’t stay with you any longer.”
    “How will you contact your brother-in-law?” asked Leo.
    “I won’t,” Ruth replied. “He has a telephone of course, but I think it is better that we arrive at his house, unannounced. Then he must take us in, for Kurt’s sake.”
    “Do you think that he won’t?” asked Leah, surprised.
    “To be honest, Leah, I really don’t know. We were never close; perhaps if I telephoned he would think of some reason why we should not come, but,” she shrugged philosophically, “if we are all standing on his doorstep with nowhere else to go, I doubt if he would actually turn his brother’s family away.”
    “Surely that is not the only money you have?” asked Leo. “Did your husband not have a bank account?”
    “We did, but when things began to get difficult for us, he was afraid the bank might not pay us our money if we asked for it. He withdrew it all.”
    “And that’s what was in your strongbox?” Leo Meyer was incredulous.
    “Some of it,” admitted Ruth, not keen to let even the Meyers know just how much she had found in the box. “The rest he put in different places…” Her voice trailed away as she remembered the extra cash that had been hidden in the apartment and was now almost certainly ashes. She smiled bravely at her neighbour. “Please don’t worry, Leo,” she said. “You’ve both been kindness itself. I can manage on what I’ve got until I get to Herbert.”
    They insisted that she stay to rest her ankle and recover from her bruises for one more day, and Ruth allowed herself to be persuaded. She wasn’t looking forward to taking the four children into the city. As they left the following morning Ruth felt a rush of affection for the Meyers, and it was with tears in her eyes that she bid them goodbye.
    “There are some tins on the floor in the shop,” she said. “Please take them. I can’t carry them, they’re too heavy. I don’t know what’s in them, the labels have all burned off, but if they’re still all right, please have them. A sort of thank you… for