The mom wrapped the preschooler in her arms. She held her against her bosom and rocked her. “Now, now, Honeyblossom, mummy has more snacks for you.” She whipped up her shirt and pressed the child to her chest.
The preschooler looked over her mother’s shoulder for just a second and gave Heidi the evil eye—her face a perfect match to her mother’s.
The soldier turned red. He spoke in a low tone to the man he was standing with, very few of his face muscles moving.
Heidi rolled her yarn back up.
“That was a no-win situation, Heidi.” Phoenicia said. “What would that woman have done if you HAD given her kid food?” She shook her head, then shook out her blanket, a vibrant rainbow of yarn daisies.
Heidi wrapped yarn around her needle again. Just make a belt and hope to get arrested. That’s what you are here for.
Step 4
The men stood at the door like sentinels. No knitter dared approach them.
A row of aqua blue plastic temporary toilets were lined up somewhere behind Heidi. After two bottles of Phoenicia’s water, she really needed one.
The Army Recruiting Office was in a little, mostly empty strip mall. The office would have a bathroom, unless holding it in was an important skill for soldiers that they wanted to teach early. And two doors down, the only other occupied space in the mall might have one as well. Did she try and storm the recruiting office or make her way to the Urgent Shred Center?
If she went to the Urgent Shred Center she’d catch the eye of the soldiers, which might make her a candidate for arrest, should things get sticky.
If she stormed the Recruiting Office she’d could get arrested right away.
Heidi stood up. She stretched her cramped legs.
“If you’re going to the toilet, bring your knitting! This only counts if we all knit continuously.” Phoenicia called out.
Heidi picked up her needles. They had been considered a weapon when she had flown from Germany last summer.
Wolfgang.
Her heart sunk. He was her motivation and her driving force, but she couldn’t—absolutely couldn’t—let her think about him until she was on her way back.
But if they were a weapon on an airplane surely they’d be one at a protest.
She shook her feet a little before she stepped across the sidewalk to the two distinguished gentlemen in the doorway.
She licked her lips. She pulled up her knee socks up. She wrapped her yarn around her hands and looked at her feet.
“Yes?” The taller gray haired man had a young face and gentle eyes.
Heidi cleared her throat. “May I use your rest room?” She chewed on her bottom lip. She had hoped to demand the bathroom with a strong voice instead of petition for it with a quaver.
The kind-eye soldier held the door open. “Of course.”
The other soldier frowned.
She passed through to the recruiting office. She went straight to the bathroom. Her knees shook. Her whole body shook.
She stood at the door for several minutes before she went back out. The man with the kind eyes didn’t seem at all like he was going to arrest her.
When she summoned up enough courage to leave the bathroom, he was sitting in a waiting chair. He smiled at her. “I hear a little accent…can I guess where you are from?”
Heidi nodded.
“Stuttgart?”
Heidi smiled. “Yes. How did you guess it in one try?”
“I’ve spent some time in Germany.”
“You’re a very lucky man.” Heidi held her knitting limply at her side.
“I went with the Army, of course.”
“Of course. We German girls love the US Army men.” She looked at her fingernails. She had always loved them, anyway.
“Then why protest? If you have fond feelings for my brother soldiers, why protest war?”
Heidi looked to the heavens. Why indeed? “It’s complicated.”
“Go ahead.” He inclined his head towards the crowd outside his building. “We’ve got time.”
Step 5
Heidi sat in the chair opposite the soldier and crossed her legs. American skirts seemed so short on her long, German body, and she was very aware that it crept up even higher whenever she sat.
“I’m in America working on my PhD in the Economic History of British Columbia.”
A look of confusion crossed the soldier’s face, but he nodded.
“There is no such program of study in Germany.”
“Sure.” He nodded again.
“And I am homesick.” She let her needles drop.
Wolfgang.
It was more than homesickness. It was heartbreak and ennui.
“Stuttgart is a beautiful city.”
Heidi rocked her head back and forth. “I suppose so.”
“You’re missing someone back home?”
Heidi nodded. “Yah. I am.”
“Tell me about him.” A very brief look of disappointment crossed the soldier’s face.
“He’s three years old.”
The soldier sat up, a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
“Pureblood.”
Confusion crossed his face this time.
“A huge, hairy furball, but I love him so much. I thought I could leave him with my sister while I studied, but I can’t take it much longer. I really can’t.”
“A dog?”
“Yes. Wolfgang. My St. Bernard. I raised him from a pup.” She dabbed at the tears forming in her eyes, glad that she hadn’t worn gloves after all. Rubber gloves were cold comfort to a broken heart.
The officer leaned forward. “But what does that have to do with the protest?”
Heidi leaned forward and lowered her voice. “War is an economic necessity. Of course it is, but if I protest the war, someday I will be arrested and then they will deport me. I can go home.”
The soldier laughed, his hearty tones rocked Heidi back in her chair. “Why not just fly home for a visit?”
Heidi held out her empty money-sock. “The program I study with has been cut by the government. No more funding. I’m out of money and stuck here. My visa is good for two more years. I’m legal, but broke.”
The officer held out his hand. “Hello Legal but Broke, I’m Captain John Banks. After this little shin-dig can I take you out to dinner?”
Heidi looked down then up then down again. Then up. Her face was thirty degrees hotter than it had been two seconds ago.
“”I’m Heidi.” She shook his hand.