She was right: the song had made everyone a little gloomy. Dottie nodded in agreement and chose “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” next, and Fritz loved it so much he asked her to write down the words for him after she was done.
Then Axel and Wolf decided to get in on the act. They stood by the fire and sang a terrible version of “O Tannenbaum,” which we all cheered for anyway. We continued to sing Christmas songs, the evening a moment’s reprieve from the bitter-cold battle raging outside the door. Watching the German boys joke and laugh and try to sing with Dottie, I knew how desperately we all needed it.
After a couple of hours, I started yawning, and everyone realized that we had to get some sleep while we could. With the sleeping bags and bedrolls spread around the fireplace, I swear I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow. When I woke up a little while later, the candles were out, but the fire was still going. Everyone was fast asleep, Viv’s snoring the only sound in the silence. I looked over at the settee and saw the colonel sitting up, looking at me. He had been out cold through Dottie’s entire Christmas concert, but he was wide-awake now.
“Sir,” I whispered as I went over to him, “would you like some water?” I handed him the glass from the little table nearby. He nodded, his hand shaking as he drank it down in one gulp. I poured him some more out of the little yellow pitcher Elisabeth had left for us.
“Where the hell are we?” he said, frowning, his quiet voice hoarse and scratchy. He had bushy eyebrows and a face pockmarked by pimples from his youth. He wiped his hand across his cheeks and looked down at his bandages.
“Who are all these people? And who are you?”
I introduced myself and told him the story of the evening, and his eyes went wide when I got to the part about the Germans. He looked at the three of them asleep on the floor, incredulous.
“The German stitched me up?” he whispered, pointing to Jens.
“Yes,” I said. “He said you lost a lot of blood and need plasma. Also, food and rest.”
“Well, I’ll be damned.” He was still staring at Jens, sleeping on the floor. “I do feel horrible. Jesus, I don’t even remember the crash.”
“We’ll leave in a couple of hours, before dawn,” I said. “They’re giving us a map to show us the best way to the Allied lines.”
“And you trust them?” Colonel Brooks asked, watching my face. His complexion even in the firelight had a gray hue, and his voice was weak.
“I do,” I said.
“All right,” he said, frowning. “If they send us on a wild goose chase with this map of theirs and we wind up captured or dead, it’s on you.”
I couldn’t tell if he was kidding or not. He must have sensed it because his face softened a little, and with a slight smile he added, “But if you get us the hell out of enemy territory? You and your friends are getting Bronze Stars.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
December 25, 1944
“Of course it’s snowing again,” Viv said, as we packed up the Cheyenne at 4:00 a.m. I had stayed up for a little while talking to the colonel, making sure he had plenty of water to drink and that his bandages were okay before I dozed off again.
“This is the first year I’m not happy about Christmas snow,” Dottie said.
We let the colonel sleep while we packed up our things. The Germans were also up and ready to go, and Elisabeth gave them a bag of food she had packed. We didn’t have much, but I was able to dig out some more ground coffee and K rations to give them too.
We all said our thank-yous and good-byes. They weren’t “the enemy” anymore. Wolf and Axel were somber, devastated that they had to return to the realities of war. Fritz looked like he was going to cry because all of his new friends had to leave.
Viv gave the three Germans pecks on the cheek as they walked out the door, and that definitely lifted their spirits a little.
“Follow the map, and you should get out all right,” Jens said. “I’d go soon, though; this snow . . .” He looked up, also sad that our reprieve from the war was over.
“I agree,” I said. “Thank you. The colonel was shocked when I told him. You saved his life.”
Jens looked at the colonel softly snoring on the settee. “I’m glad I could help him,” he said.
I walked him out, and Axel handed him his gun. The three of them walked backward a few feet and gave us final waves good-bye before they turned and set off into the forest.
Dottie gently woke Colonel Brooks, and he insisted on walking to the Cheyenne himself, which we all took as a good sign.
“Are the Nazis still here?” he barked, rubbing his eyes as Elisabeth smiled shyly and gave him a cup of coffee.
Hoffman said, “Sir, can I help you walk?”
“Oh hell, I suppose you’ll have to,” the colonel said, turning white, wincing and wobbling as he tried to stand. “I think this knee’s in rough shape.”
I got on the other side of him, placing his arm around my shoulders, and we took our time, taking baby steps to the door and then outside.
I felt ill that we had to go back into the snow and our freezing truck, and that we still weren’t in safe territory.
“Please thank your mother for being so generous and brave and compassionate,” I said to Fritz, looking at Elisabeth after we were packed up and ready to go. “We will never be able to thank you enough for your kindness.” When Fritz translated, Elisabeth smiled, stepped toward me, and gave me a hug.
“Bitte,” she said when we pulled away from each other.
“Take good care of yourselves,” I said, hugging Fritz and ruffling his hair until he blushed a deep red.
Dottie agreed to stay in the back with Colonel Brooks, and Viv and Hoffman would ride up front with me to help navigate.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to drive?” Hoffman asked for the tenth time.
“Look, I know you assume she’s a bad driver because she’s, um, a woman, but she’s actually really damn good,” Viv said. “Have you ever driven a Clubmobile before?”
“Well, no but—” Hoffman started, but Viv interrupted him.
“Well, it takes a ton of practice, and if I had to choose between you or Fiona to get us to the Allied lines? I’m putting my money on Fiona,” Viv said.
“All right, fine,” Hoffman said, putting his hands up in surrender.
“Hey, thanks, Viv,” I said, smiling as we drove down the narrow lane we had come in on to get back to the main road. “I just need you two to tell me about any turns coming up so I don’t miss them in this weather.”
I wanted more than anything to drive fast, to get on the right side of the Allied lines as soon as possible, but the weather and the snowy roads wouldn’t allow it. And we had learned the hard way about vehicles coming in the other direction, so I was on the lookout for those as well.
We drove for over an hour as the snow fell heavier, and I had to slow down even more, driving in the lowest gear because the Cheyenne’s tires kept slipping.
“We’ve got to be close, right?” I said.
“The map says we are,” Viv said. “According to this map, there should be a command post somewhere up ahead.”
“Not that we could see it in this whiteout,” I said. It was freezing, but I could feel sweat dripping under my hat. There were no more signs of cottages or shelter. I had four people with me, one seriously injured, that I had to get to safety soon. We couldn’t get stuck out here. If we didn’t freeze to death, we might end up shot. I was sure the next Germans we ran into wouldn’t be friendly.
Suddenly, the Cheyenne started to stutter and then abruptly stalled out.
“No! No, no, no. Dottie, did you check the petrol before we left like I asked?” I yelled over my shoulder into the back.
“I did,” Dottie said. “Of course I did. You asked me four times.”
I closed my eyes and tried to quell the panic that was bubbling up inside of me.
“Do we have any more in the back we can add?” Viv asked. “You know, just in case that’s it.”
“We have some in the back,” I said. “That better be it. Otherwise . . . I don’t even want to think about it.”
“I’ll help,” Hoffman said, following me outside.
“I swear I checked, Fi,” Dottie said as she passed Hoffman the can of petrol.
“I know you did. How is he?” I asked.
“He needs his dressings changed again. And he’s pretty weak and pale.”
“We’ll find that checkpoint soon,” I said, not convinced at all.
Hoffman was already adding the petrol to the tank. I looked up at majestic fir trees all around us, their branches weighted down by the snow.
“This is not how this is going to end,” I whispered under my breath.
“What did you say?” Hoffman asked, frowning at me.
“Talking to myself,” I said. “I was just thinking that my friends and I did not come this far to end up captured by Germans or freezing to death on a road in the middle of enemy territory. I will be damned if that happens. We are getting out of here if I have to push this damn truck across the Allied lines myself.”