would go to Potsdam to Jacob’s aunt while Jacob would contact his school friend with party credentials and leave the country as soon as it could be arranged. Jacob protested, but his parents were adamant. They wanted him to take his sister, Hannah with him, but she refused to leave without her fiancé, Karl. They would follow as soon as they were able. Jacob left the country shortly before the New Year with the help of his good friend and joined the army as soon as he was able. The rest of his family stubbornly remained in Potsdam. Their letters became less frequent and stopped altogether a few months ago.
The Kaplans would be leaving the following day for Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire. Alice told Lily in secret that Jacob would be working on deciphering German codes produced by the Enigma encrypting machine the Germans were using to communicate between headquarters and their U boats in the Atlantic. With Jacob’s education in linguistics and fluent knowledge of German he was a good fit for the code breaking department toiling day and night to break the ingenious cyphers. Jacob would be issued a cottage outside the park for his private use where the Kaplans would make their home.
Alice’s trunk and Jacob’s meager belongings were already in the hall by the time Lily rose the next day to leave for work. Alice hugged her as they said their farewells and Lily watched from the sitting room window as the driver loaded their luggage in the boot of his taxi and Alice disappeared inside followed by Jacob. She waved at Lily as the cab pulled away from the curb and merged into the Monday morning traffic. Alice promised to write, but she wasn’t much of a correspondent.
After a miserable day at work Lily took a bus home and let herself into the empty flat. The silence was deafening. She walked from room to room, going into Alice’s room last. It looked sad and forlorn stripped of all her possessions. There was a faded spot on the flowered wallpaper above the headboard where her icon of the Virgin Mary watched over her as she slept. It had been a gift from her mother, who bought it off another Russian émigré in need of funds. What would she do with it now? Alice’s parents had not been pleased by the marriage, but they made the decision to accept it. Alice was their only daughter and losing her was worse than gaining a Jew for a son-in-law. They would visit the couple once they settled into their new home. Alice neglected to mention her pregnancy to her parents. She felt that one shock at a time was enough. Lily decided not to bring up the fact that Alice herself was born only six months after her parents’ hasty marriage.
Lily firmly closed the door to Alice’s bedroom and went to the kitchen. She put on the kettle and waited for it to boil. “Why is everyone leaving me?” she thought petulantly. Lily’s way of dealing with self-pity had always been to take action. She abruptly got up, turned off the cooker, grabbed her coat and purse and ran out the door. She went to the nearest beauty salon and asked for a haircut. An hour later a more cheerful Lily emerged from the salon. She had cut her hair into a shoulder length bob that was the current fashion. She liked the feel of her shorter hair curling around her neck and she looked at her reflection in the storefront window to adjust her hat to a more rakish angle. With that out of the way she took herself off to the cinema.
As she sat in the darkened theater surrounded by kissing couples she felt her spirits sink again. She missed Nick desperately and left the cinema before the picture was even over. She went to her bedroom as soon as she got home and took Nick’s last letter out of the Christmas tin she kept on her dresser. According to him, he was well, missing her like mad and victory was just around the corner. She felt marginally better by the time she went to bed in her lonely flat. She turned off the lights, hugged Nick’s pillow and tried to inhale his
The Kaplans would be leaving the following day for Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire. Alice told Lily in secret that Jacob would be working on deciphering German codes produced by the Enigma encrypting machine the Germans were using to communicate between headquarters and their U boats in the Atlantic. With Jacob’s education in linguistics and fluent knowledge of German he was a good fit for the code breaking department toiling day and night to break the ingenious cyphers. Jacob would be issued a cottage outside the park for his private use where the Kaplans would make their home.
Alice’s trunk and Jacob’s meager belongings were already in the hall by the time Lily rose the next day to leave for work. Alice hugged her as they said their farewells and Lily watched from the sitting room window as the driver loaded their luggage in the boot of his taxi and Alice disappeared inside followed by Jacob. She waved at Lily as the cab pulled away from the curb and merged into the Monday morning traffic. Alice promised to write, but she wasn’t much of a correspondent.
After a miserable day at work Lily took a bus home and let herself into the empty flat. The silence was deafening. She walked from room to room, going into Alice’s room last. It looked sad and forlorn stripped of all her possessions. There was a faded spot on the flowered wallpaper above the headboard where her icon of the Virgin Mary watched over her as she slept. It had been a gift from her mother, who bought it off another Russian émigré in need of funds. What would she do with it now? Alice’s parents had not been pleased by the marriage, but they made the decision to accept it. Alice was their only daughter and losing her was worse than gaining a Jew for a son-in-law. They would visit the couple once they settled into their new home. Alice neglected to mention her pregnancy to her parents. She felt that one shock at a time was enough. Lily decided not to bring up the fact that Alice herself was born only six months after her parents’ hasty marriage.
Lily firmly closed the door to Alice’s bedroom and went to the kitchen. She put on the kettle and waited for it to boil. “Why is everyone leaving me?” she thought petulantly. Lily’s way of dealing with self-pity had always been to take action. She abruptly got up, turned off the cooker, grabbed her coat and purse and ran out the door. She went to the nearest beauty salon and asked for a haircut. An hour later a more cheerful Lily emerged from the salon. She had cut her hair into a shoulder length bob that was the current fashion. She liked the feel of her shorter hair curling around her neck and she looked at her reflection in the storefront window to adjust her hat to a more rakish angle. With that out of the way she took herself off to the cinema.
As she sat in the darkened theater surrounded by kissing couples she felt her spirits sink again. She missed Nick desperately and left the cinema before the picture was even over. She went to her bedroom as soon as she got home and took Nick’s last letter out of the Christmas tin she kept on her dresser. According to him, he was well, missing her like mad and victory was just around the corner. She felt marginally better by the time she went to bed in her lonely flat. She turned off the lights, hugged Nick’s pillow and tried to inhale his
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