Secrets and Shadows: Day 17

Word Count: 102,043

Summary of Events:

Keeleigh thought about her talk with Grandpa at Thanksgiving before getting called by Olivia about the trip to visit Adelejda; which Keeleigh didn't tell her she wanted to do alone. Emil came home battered, having been accosted by Germans; Olga tended to his wounds and was highly embarrassed when he revealed that he'd figured out she liked Henryk Kamiński. Keeleigh and Olivia were out to lunch together and Keeleigh finally told Olivia she wanted to visit Adelejda alone, which Olivia eventually agreed was a good idea. Emil came home from another day out and about to find that his younger siblings were forbidden to play because it would disturb their mother, so he went up to her bedroom to ask her why . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

"Mama lifted her gaze from the foot of the bed to Emil, looking weary and drained even by that simple motion.

"I wish to be alone Emil," she said.

"I asked you a question," Emil said. "You always expect us to respond to you when you ask us a question, therefore you have no right to deny me an answer."

Mama waved her hand feebly at him.

Indignant, Emil stepped forward to be right at Mama's bedside, his arms crossed over his chest.

"I will not leave until I get an answer," Emil said. "Why do you not wish to be disturbed by the pleasant sound of your children playing?"

"There is no joy Emil, only discord," Mama replied. "Now leave me."

It was something of an answer, but Emil didn't believe it was true, and he was frustrated by Mama's whole despondent countenance.

Sighing, he left the room — deliberately leaving the door open after him — and hurried back downstairs to Papa's office, where he put his ear against the door, his hand hovering, ready to knock.

"Yes, I have to do what is best for my family," Papa said, apparently in reply to a question. "It's getting too bad here, I hardly feel it safe to let my adult sons walk the street, as much as I know their capabilities."

"Well, we'll have to see what we can do," Ladislav Kamiński's familiar voice said. "I'm sorry to hear that this is what you believe is best."

"I have children Ladislav," Papa said. "I am doing this for them, but it isn't what I want to do. If I get the opportunity, I want to come back and do what I can — and I'm sure Emil will be intent to accompany me unless a fair maiden should catch his eye."

Ladislav chuckled. "I don't think he'd let them if he knew."

"I'd much rather he go for a good Polish girl anyways," Papa said. "But not while there's all this prospect of death looming for so much as the wrong sort of glance."

"Indeed," Ladislav agreed. "It can't have been an easy decision."

"I'm still not at peace with it," Papa said. "In my mind I wholly believe it is best for my children, and that is what is foremost. But in my heart I cannot reconcile the idea of deserting my homeland for which I've fought before. I feel like a coward Ladislav."

There was silence. Emil considered knocking, but yet he didn't dare.

"I think there is a bravery in what you seek to do Zbigniew," Ladislav said. "You seek to secure a future for Poland, to hide your family away from the danger so that if all the Poles herein are annihilated, there will still be Poles to create a new Poland. More people should join you so that this is not the end of Poland."

Uncertainty and confusion swirled in Emil. He lowered his hand and stepped back from the door to stare at it. Was Papa planning on their leaving Poland?"

The novel will resume on Monday.