Amerika by Paul Lally Read Free Book Online

boys. They’re grown and in the service of their country; one in the Wehrmacht, the other the Luftwaffe, and I fear for their safety every minute of every day. But you have already suffered what I only fear. The loss of your wife and son, and I am deeply sorry that happened.’
    I wanted to punch him in his prissy little mouth, but the sincerity in his voice stopped me cold. I know the ring of truth when I hear it, so I muttered, ‘Thanks.’
    ‘May this war end soon,’ he said.
    ‘It never even started here.’
    ‘True.’ He took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his short nose.
    ‘But it rages everywhere else. If only Russia would fall, I do believe that der
    Führer would end things once and for all.’
    ‘England will keep on fighting.’
    He smiled as though I were a two-year-old. ‘You know that cartoon where the big man places his hand on the little man’s head who’s trying to punch him? That’s Germany and England at the moment. Churchill can plot and plan all he wants to up in Canada while the King and Queen drink their afternoon tea with him and listen to him go on and on about fighting on the beaches when they return. But the truth is, England is no longer a nation, it is an idea.’
    ‘Don’t tell them that.’
    He replaced his glasses.  ‘Don’t worry, I won’t.  The Gestapo has enough criminals for me to chase that will keep me busy for years.’
    ‘Minus Herr Ritter, of course.’
    He laughed, his teeth were slightly pointed. ‘Why is it that people never think other people might be watching them? Especially when they’re breaking the law.’
    ‘Were you always a policeman?’
    ‘You mean before...’
    ’Yes.’
    ‘A police inspector in Heilbronn, Germany. South of Heidelberg. Do you know of it?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘No matter. It is a small, sleepy town with sleepy citizens and I loved working there.  But when Hitler came to power the nation woke up, and so did Heilbronn. Because of my experience and my knowledge of English I was made a Gestapo officer in their International Division. That, more or less, brings me to our present moment.’
    ‘Could you have stayed on in Heilbronn?’
    ‘I would have preferred to, but as der Führer commands, so must his citizens obey.’ He clicked his heels slightly and smiled. ‘Now then, just this final detail.’ He pulled out a sheet of paper. ‘If you two gentlemen would sign here, you can be rid of me at long last.’
    ‘This is the catch, right?’ I said.
    ‘I’m not familiar with that idiom.’
    ‘The part in your little fairy tale where we sign the papers but then end up in prison for the rest of our lives for some obscure reason.’
    ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is a Form 40-78, Personal Property Release form. It’s quite standard.’
    I looked at it. ‘It’s all in German.’
    ‘Natürlich.’
    ‘It could be something completely different for all I know.’
    ‘Yes it could be, but it’s not. You can trust me on that.’
    ‘Can I?’
    He drew himself up and frowned fiercely. ‘Mr. Carter you are pissing up the wrong tree.’
    I smiled. ‘Where did you hear that one?’
    He looked flustered. ‘I can’t remember.’
    ‘You mean ‘barking up the wrong tree.’’
    ‘Ja, das is richtiger!’
    I exchanged looks with Orlando. He smiled and shrugged.
    ‘Okay I’ll sign.’
    When I finished, I handed Orlando the pen and he did the same. When he finished he said softly, ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.’
    Bauer tucked the signed form into his jacket. ‘And we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.’
    ‘You know scripture?’
    He winked. ‘Don’t tell the Gestapo.’
     

     
    The box lunch the Nazis packed for our flight home was even worse than the meal we got in jail. And their bacon and egg breakfast? If you like your eggs cooked about twenty minutes and your bacon warm, slippery and half raw, right up your alley. Still, the cook who made it for us beamed at her