High Noon

Ch8

After dinner, I could hear Mama go outside as the door slammed shut behind her.

 I stayed at the table for a moment, not wanting to go upstairs because that was where Captain Josef was, not wanting to go outside because I knew that Mama wanted to be alone, so I stayed downstairs.

I went into the living room which was pitch black dark because of the black-out curtains that we had put up and I switched on one of the lamps farthest from the window.

I sat on the couch as I thought about the Captain, he wasn't what I had imagined a Nazi would act like. I thought he would be cold, mean, and impolite, but instead, he was the exact opposite. The Captain was polite and generous, he gave us gifts without us even asking for anything.

I could feel my stomach twist as it felt like he was trying to bribe us.

The next morning the Captain was gone and I sighed with relief, when I got downstairs Mama was wrapping a scarf around her head. 

She held the ration cards in her hands that we now had to use since certain foods were getting limited. 

"I'm glad you're up Sophie, I have to go out for food, can you tend to the garden?" She asked me.

I didn't want to do the garden this early in the morning, but I sighed and reluctantly nodded.

"Oui, Mama, I will."

"Good, I'll see you when I get back," Mama told me.

When she left I pulled on my garden boots and a sweater, then went out into the backyard.
I kneeled in the dirt and had a basket beside me as I began to pull out the weeds from around the rose bushes and tulips that Mama had planted.

 I watered them and before I went inside, I heard someone yell, "Sophie!"

I turned and saw Ruth waving, walking happily into the backyard. 

I smiled, glad to see her and get a break from my thoughts.

"Do you need any help?" She asked me.

I shook my head as I wiped the sweat off my forehead.

"No, I'm done now, if you had come a bit earlier maybe," I said with a grin.

She laughed.

"Good thing, I didn't then."

We went inside and up to my room, and I realized I was impulsively walking to the Secret room and I turned to Ruth.

"Come on, Ruth, I want to show you something," I said as I grabbed her hand.

"What?" She asked as I led her away.

"You'll see," I told her with a smile.

I led her to my closet opened the door and walked in. 

I had hidden the tiny door with a box that was filled with paintings that I was going to put up in my room, I pushed the box away opened the door, and crawled inside.

Ruth didn't follow for a moment and I waited inside the room and called, "Come on in."

I saw her crawl through the door and she smiled as she stood up in the room.

"A secret room." She said with a smile.

"Pretty cool, huh?" I said.

"Oui, but it needs some decoration, it's so empty." She told me.

I nodded in agreement and then walked to the door and pulled out the box filled with paintings.

"We could hang some of these," I said.

Ruth nodded and we began to hang up some of the paintings until the room looked somewhat filled, at least the walls.

"That looks much better," Ruth said. "If only we had furniture in here."

"Well, we can't bring any furniture in here, besides, I want to keep this room a secret between me and you, it could be like a secret hideout," I told her.

She smiled and then made a zipping motion across her lips.

"My lips are sealed."

I heard Mama come home as me and Ruth went downstairs. 

I saw her holding something wrapped in brown packaging and it smelled horrible.

"What is that?" I asked wrinkling my nose at the stench.

She put the smelly package on the counter and shook her head.

"Octopus, it was all that was left by the time I was next in line."

I opened the package slightly plugging my nose and saw something long and red that I guessed to be the Octopus.

"There was no pork, Mama?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"There wasn't much of anything." 

Months passed and the meats that we got began to be hardly meat, sometimes we didn't even get any. Mama made a lot of soups and most of the time Captain Josef ate in the cafés, sometimes he would even bring back sausages and meats that we would have to beg on the streets for, but even then we probably wouldn't get any.

Mama wasn't getting a lot of money, soon we couldn't even use electricity and we used oil lamps and candles to light the house. Everyone was having the same issue and we feared for when winter was going to come.

It was fall now and I went for Mama with the ration cards to try and get some meat. 

I stood in line pulling my sweater around me, the zipper had broken and we didn't have any time to fix it or any money to buy a new one.

When I was next in line I gave the lady that was there my ration card and she gave me a package of mystery meat.

"Merci," I said as I took it from her.

I walked away the wind was blowing hard it was colder than usual and I saw little white puffs of snow drifting from the gray clouds, winter had arrived.

I was walking down an alleyway, shivering in the cold when I suddenly ran into someone, I fell flat on my back clutching the meat that I had been holding, not wanting it to fall into the ground.

"I'm so sorry, Madam, are you all right?" The man that had run into me asked.

I stood up annoyance at first rising in my chest, but that all went away when I recognized who it was.

"Antoine?" I said, shocked to see him.

His eyes widened and he looked around and I could see that he was concealing something in his coat. Before I could ask him what he was hiding he grabbed my arm and shoved me into a room.