Robert whistled. “That’s a pretty drastic move!”
“Granted. But I was in quite a bind, and I couldn’t think of anything else to get me out of it. Want to know the icing on the cake, the most absurd part? I actually felt like I’d lost a friend that day. It took me two months to get over his ‘passing,’ and even longer to fill the void left by losing him. I still think of him from time to time, even now. Point is: you can never really get rid of a lie you’ve convinced yourself is true. Food for thought. Anyway, it’s late. We’d better continue this conversation tomorrow.”
“Sorry to say I won’t be here tomorrow, Sam. I’m heading off on a mission, and this time it seems like it might be something serious.”
“Oh? What’s it all about?”
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that. But I need to ask a favor, in the event I don’t make it back.”
“Get out of here! You’ll make it back just fine. Forget your favor.”
“Sam, please. If anything happens to me, my one wish is to be buried back home.”
“And how in the world do you think that I could make something like that happen?” asked the art dealer.
“When things calm down, when peaceful days come again, I know you’ll find a way.”
“And if I’m not around then? If I don’t live to see these peaceful days?”
“Well, then you can consider yourself released from your promise.”
“Careful now: I haven’t made any promise.”
“Oh yes you have. Maybe not with words, but your eyes sure did.”
“You’re not following me. You didn’t think I’d want anything in return? This is Sam Goldstein you’re talking to, my boy! My condition is as follows: should some ill twist of fate befall me before you, take Hanna with you back to Baltimore. And don’t tell me I drive a hard bargain. You and I both know your end of the deal is much sweeter. You get to take a cruise with my lovely daughter, and I with your coffin!”
After a laugh and a nod, the two men sealed the deal with a firm handshake.
As it turned out, Robert did make it back from his mission just fine, and May 1944 came and went with no Lysander arriving to take him back to England. By early June, the war had escalated even further. Stranded and seemingly forgotten, Robert grew more and more involved with the Resistance.
With the arrival of the Allied Forces imminent, the partisans began emerging from the shadows. Armed Resistance fighters rose out of nowhere to strike the enemy. The beaches of Normandy were a world away, and even with Allied Forces on the march, peaceful days weren’t coming nearly as quickly as Sam and Robert had hoped. Backed into a corner, the Germans began lashing out, their crackdowns increasing in severity. The most fanatical members of the local militias had yet to surrender, and instead doubled down on their relentless hunt for Resistance fighters.
One night, an enemy patrol of local militiamen came dangerously close to discovering the hunting lodge. Lookouts spotted them approaching through the forest and raised the alarm. Sam and Hanna ran to hide in the cellar while the partisan crew stationed themselves at the windows, guns in hand.
With tension mounting, Sam came up and begged Robert to join them in the cellar. Once below, Sam led Robert to a wall of some twenty-odd crates that had been stacked up to mask the secret tunnel leading to the weapons cache. The men moved aside boxes until there was a large enough gap for Hanna to slip through. The tunnel was nearly ten meters long, with sufficient space for Hanna to hide for a short time. But she refused.
“Not without you, Papa!” Hanna pleaded. “I won’t be locked up in there without you.”
“Do as I say, Hanna! You mustn’t question me. You know what you’re responsible for now. You have to do the right thing.”
Sam hugged his daughter close, then began stacking up the crates once more to close the gap. Robert stood watching in shock. It was the very first time he had heard Hanna speak a single word, and the mere sound of her voice had left him dumbstruck.
“Well, are you just going to stand there gawking or are you going to lend a hand?”
“Sam, don’t be crazy! Get into the damn hole with your daughter, and let me seal the two of you up in there.”
“No. Not this time, I refuse. I’ve spent too long burrowing down here like a frightened animal. If the good guys are taking on the enemy, I plan to join in and fight by their side.”
Once the crates were back in place, Sam and Robert climbed back up to ground level, and each took position at a window with a Sten submachine gun in hand.
“You know how to use that thing?” Robert asked.
“Well, you don’t have to be a genius, do you? Let me guess: Pull the trigger?”