Read Online Wildflowers of Terezin by Robert Elmer - Free Book Online

just a minute. You—"
    "No, you listen. You think you're being safe and neutral, and you don't even see what's happening. You think you see it, but you don't. And you know what? One of these days you're going to be riding your bicycle down the street again, and they're not going to miss."
    "Who are we talking about, now? Who exactly is they?"
    "The Nazis. The sympathizers. Doesn't matter. Meanwhile you just go ahead, keep telling your people to 'Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers,' and you say they need to keep their heads inside their shells. Right? Isn't that what you say? The Nazis won't hurt us. They'll get tired of little Danmark and eventually they'll go home. Listen to yourself! Well, it's not working out that way. The only way these Nazis are going home is if we show them the door and push them out."
    Steffen paced in a circle as he tried to make sense of it all.
    "All right," he finally said, "so now I'm confused."
    "You got that part right."
     

     
    " Nej. I'm confused because just the other day you said I should stay in my church. Stick to my sermons. Isn't that what you said?"
    "Did I say that? Well, after what just happened to that boy, I think maybe I'm changing my mind. Maybe I was wrong."
    "My little brother, wrong? I've never heard those two words in the same sentence before."
    Henning only smiled for a moment, then returned to his serious self.
    "Ja, well, lately the Nazis are shooting first, asking questions later. Everyone can see they're getting desperate. Our people have to respond."
    "But not like this. Not with violence."
    "Well, if you don't choose a side, if you just stand in the middle of the tracks, you're going to get run over by this train, brother."
    "Henning, you really don't understand my position.You—"
    " Nej, this time you're the one who doesn't understand, Pastor. If you keep playing the middle, next time whoever's shooting in the street might think you're a stikker. And you know what they do to them."
    "That's ridiculous. How could anyone possibly think I'm collaborating with the Germans?"
    "I'm just saying, 'He who is not with me is against me,' right? Isn't there something in your Bible like that?"
    Steffen didn't like the way his brother said your Bible.And that was about all of a lecture he cared to hear, for now.This wasn't what he came here for. In fact, what did he come here for? To look up a book, the way he often did? To convince his brother that working in the Resistance was getting too dangerous? He stepped over to the window and pulled out a volume of Kierkegaard's Enten/Eller from the display. Either/Or. Funny that it would have a place in the window next to a collection of fiction, like Jensen's The Long Journey or Dinesen's Out of Afrika. Perhaps a customer had replaced it there without thinking.
     

     
    "Hey, don't touch that!" Henning stepped out from behind his counter and grabbed the book from Steffen's hand before replacing it carefully in the stand where it had been propped up.
    "My apologies. I thought you sold books, here."
    That would be more than enough arguing for one day.Steffen started for the door, but his brother held him back by the arm.
    "Look, Steffen, I'm sorry. But the book has to stay right there in the window." He paused and sighed, a hand on his hip. "It's a signal, okay? When Kierkegaard is in the window, it's clear for my contacts to come inside."
    And do what? Steffen paused to let his brother's words sink in, and he wondered what else was going on right there in the shop, right under his nose. What about the other customers, who still seemed absorbed in their reading? Maybe they all worked for the Resistance, as well.
    "What if it's not clear?" he asked, wishing instantly that he had not.
    "H. C. Andersen."
    "Kierkegaard clear, Andersen away. Come in for theology, stay away from fairy tales."
    "Something like that." But Henning's expression darkened and he pressed his lips together the way he always did when he was in trouble.