City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin Read Free Book Online
Authors: Ariana Franklin
door.”
“What happened?”
“She thinks she saw a face at the window....My man, if you’d give a hand over there.” This was addressed to Theo with a nod toward the two nurses who were now hanging on to the straitjacket’s ties and being dragged through the ink. “Nonsense, of course, but she went howling around the hospital, setting off one ward after another and— Thank you, my man. Take him back to his bed. The nurse will show you.”
With the shouting, kicking patient slung over one shoulder, Theo went off.
As other captives were brought in, the matron saw that they were disposed of while simultaneously speaking to her superintendent over the phone, ordering the gardener to fetch a ladder and a maid to wipe up the ink, all in a calm but carrying voice and without letting go of the wriggling, whimpering boy.
A crash indicated that the battering ram had done its job. Some min utes later Anna Anderson, hanging limp between a nurse and a man with a doctor’s coat over his pajamas, was brought downstairs. Her nightdress was stained, her feet trailed, and her eyes darted this way and that like a trapped animal’s, then fixed on Esther’s. “He find me,” she said. Her voice was raw with screaming and sounded inhuman.
“I have tranquilized her,” the doctor said.
The matron nodded. “Good-bye, Frau Unbekkant,” she said flatly.
“But, but . . .” All at once Esther felt the weight of this new respon sibility. “What do I do for her?”
“She’ll fall asleep soon and will be out for some hours.”
“Hasn’t she any luggage?”
“Such as there is will be sent after her.”
“But if she, well . . . Should she need more treatment, can I bring her back?”
The matron looked around her devastated hall. “No,” she said.
As Theo tucked Anna into the space behind the car’s two seats, there was a shout. “Remember it was me!” Clara Peuthert was ges ticulating from the roof. “Remember me, Your Highness, I found you!”
One of the nurses helping the gardener with the ladder gestured for Esther to go; by staying she was making things worse.
She drove off.
“That matron,” Theo said with admiration, “they make her a general and Germany win the war.”
“Maybe, but don’t tell me a little thing like Anna could cause all that.” Esther was angry. “Two years, Theo, two years and no good-bye, not even a toothbrush.”
“She tiny, maybe, but she damn trouble.”
She still was. After a mile she began emitting hoarse, shuddering yelps. “He come after me, he’s coming, he’ll get me!”
“Where?”
“ There. In the car. He’s coming! ”
“See anything, Theo?” They’d just rounded a curve.
“No.” He was half turned in his seat beside her, holding on to Anna, who was trying to jump out.
“There’s nothing, Anna. No car. Don’t be frightened. You’re safe now.”
“No, no, he’s coming!”
She kept it up for another mile, until the screams became shudder ing little shrieks, then moans, and finally silence.
Esther put her foot down, mentally wrestling with the difficulty of where to lodge Anna. Nick had been handling the matter of Anna’s apartment, but he hadn’t told Esther where it was, nor, she knew, had he yet agreed to the lease; he was quibbling over the rent.
Where to take her? A hotel? Esther didn’t have enough money on her. She thought of her own tiny room at Rabbi Smoleskin’s house in Moabit, then rejected it. For one thing, she wasn’t going to subject the Smoleskin family to Anna’s anti-Semitism.
“Theo, does anybody else at the Hat know what Nick’s up to with Anna?”
There was the inevitable pause that Theo accorded to every ques tion. “Nick say keep my mouth shut, just say he being kind to another poor Russian.”
Kind, she reflected, but it was a relief. There would be no questions if she took just another poverty-stricken émigré back to the club for the rest of the night. That’s what she’d do, then. Nick could deal with
“What happened?”
“She thinks she saw a face at the window....My man, if you’d give a hand over there.” This was addressed to Theo with a nod toward the two nurses who were now hanging on to the straitjacket’s ties and being dragged through the ink. “Nonsense, of course, but she went howling around the hospital, setting off one ward after another and— Thank you, my man. Take him back to his bed. The nurse will show you.”
With the shouting, kicking patient slung over one shoulder, Theo went off.
As other captives were brought in, the matron saw that they were disposed of while simultaneously speaking to her superintendent over the phone, ordering the gardener to fetch a ladder and a maid to wipe up the ink, all in a calm but carrying voice and without letting go of the wriggling, whimpering boy.
A crash indicated that the battering ram had done its job. Some min utes later Anna Anderson, hanging limp between a nurse and a man with a doctor’s coat over his pajamas, was brought downstairs. Her nightdress was stained, her feet trailed, and her eyes darted this way and that like a trapped animal’s, then fixed on Esther’s. “He find me,” she said. Her voice was raw with screaming and sounded inhuman.
“I have tranquilized her,” the doctor said.
The matron nodded. “Good-bye, Frau Unbekkant,” she said flatly.
“But, but . . .” All at once Esther felt the weight of this new respon sibility. “What do I do for her?”
“She’ll fall asleep soon and will be out for some hours.”
“Hasn’t she any luggage?”
“Such as there is will be sent after her.”
“But if she, well . . . Should she need more treatment, can I bring her back?”
The matron looked around her devastated hall. “No,” she said.
As Theo tucked Anna into the space behind the car’s two seats, there was a shout. “Remember it was me!” Clara Peuthert was ges ticulating from the roof. “Remember me, Your Highness, I found you!”
One of the nurses helping the gardener with the ladder gestured for Esther to go; by staying she was making things worse.
She drove off.
“That matron,” Theo said with admiration, “they make her a general and Germany win the war.”
“Maybe, but don’t tell me a little thing like Anna could cause all that.” Esther was angry. “Two years, Theo, two years and no good-bye, not even a toothbrush.”
“She tiny, maybe, but she damn trouble.”
She still was. After a mile she began emitting hoarse, shuddering yelps. “He come after me, he’s coming, he’ll get me!”
“Where?”
“ There. In the car. He’s coming! ”
“See anything, Theo?” They’d just rounded a curve.
“No.” He was half turned in his seat beside her, holding on to Anna, who was trying to jump out.
“There’s nothing, Anna. No car. Don’t be frightened. You’re safe now.”
“No, no, he’s coming!”
She kept it up for another mile, until the screams became shudder ing little shrieks, then moans, and finally silence.
Esther put her foot down, mentally wrestling with the difficulty of where to lodge Anna. Nick had been handling the matter of Anna’s apartment, but he hadn’t told Esther where it was, nor, she knew, had he yet agreed to the lease; he was quibbling over the rent.
Where to take her? A hotel? Esther didn’t have enough money on her. She thought of her own tiny room at Rabbi Smoleskin’s house in Moabit, then rejected it. For one thing, she wasn’t going to subject the Smoleskin family to Anna’s anti-Semitism.
“Theo, does anybody else at the Hat know what Nick’s up to with Anna?”
There was the inevitable pause that Theo accorded to every ques tion. “Nick say keep my mouth shut, just say he being kind to another poor Russian.”
Kind, she reflected, but it was a relief. There would be no questions if she took just another poverty-stricken émigré back to the club for the rest of the night. That’s what she’d do, then. Nick could deal with