Posted As Missing

Chapter Forty-One

Rachel looked up the side streets as they passed them, searching for familiar things. Three blocks along they turned and were soon standing in front of Klettgau Metzgerei. She led Maria and David into the shop, hearing the familiar bell as the door moved it. An elderly woman came through the curtained doorway from the back, wiping her hands on a towel in her apron strings.

"Tante, you're still here!" Rachel's face was beaming.

The woman looked questioningly at her. She adjusted her glasses and beckoned Rachel forward. "Come closer dear, my eyes have faded. You look familiar."

"Tante, it's Rachel, Rachel Meier from over in Unterhallau."

"Gott im Himmel — I haven't seen you in years. You're still as beautiful as ever. That can't be little Maria. I last remember her when her eyes didn't make it over the counter. Which of your sons is this? My God, he's a handsome one."

"This is David."

"You've hurt yourself? You're using a cane."

"A silly sprained ankle getting out of a hot bath last week. It's so much better now. We're out walking and exercising it today... But, enough of this, let me hug you; you're still my favourite aunt."

Part way through the long embrace, Rachel asked, "How is Onkel Aaron?"

"God took him last summer, I've been trying to find a way to move back to Küsnacht, but it has been difficult with the war."

She squeezed Bethia a bit more firmly and said, "Very difficult with the war. Edom was killed fighting in Elsass in September, then Jacob and Nathan in October. Only Maria and me left."

The hug continued. Then Bethia looked up and across to David. "So who's this handsome young lad then?"

"David's a Canadian soldier escaping from capture after he was severely wounded at the front in Belgium. We've adopted each other, all three of us. He's led us over the hills from Gottenheim to here, starting eleven days ago. I had almost forgotten about you."

"What are we doing standing around out here?" Bethia motioned to the curtains. "Come, let's go into the back, sit and relax. What can I get you?"

She led them into the back, through the kitchen, paused to put on a kettle of water, then continued leading them into the parlour. "The crutches? What are they for? David's just carrying them."

"Part of our disguise," David said. "To keep the soldiers from wondering what a healthy young man is doing not in uniform and so close to the border."

"Ingenious. Sit! Sit! You all must be tired. Will you stay here with me for a while? I have two spare rooms. You wouldn't mind sharing a bed with your mother, would you, Maria? My God, but you're beautiful. Just like your mother. The tea water should be boiling soon, what can I bring you? You must be starving."

Maria followed Bethia into the kitchen and started telling her the story of their trip, skimming over the emotional parts, but describing in detail the layout of the spa and the sequence of events there as Bethia scurried around assembling large platters.

She interrupted Maria "You haven't gone back to Kosher, have you?"

"Certainly not. The world is too delicious and exciting to restrict living to old traditions."

"Good, I didn't think so. I'll keep adding the hams. We have a fine variety of them here. Please, go on with your story. What did you do with the venison?"

Maria was part way into the description of the hot pools as she carried two trays into the parlour, following Bethia, who carried the tea and a third tray.

"From what Maria has been telling me, it sounds as though you had a rather comfortable time, even with the Germans killing themselves all around you. So tell me more of the hot pool... Eat! Eat! That's why it's there."

Bethia interrupted Maria again when she was telling about soaking in the hot pool. "Like Adam and Eve?"

"No, Tante, more like Eve and Adam and Eve. We surrounded him. We had only one soaking pool and one bed to share."

"That sounds a cosy arrangement." She looked at David, slowly eyed him up and down, pausing for a long while at his thigh. "Such a handsome young man, he looks very well built — Rachel, I remember you were a wild one when you were young. That was so refreshing for some of us older folk to see. It was so different from the old traditions... So was he a good boy?"

"Very very good," Maria said, then she bit her lower lip and lightly shivered.

"Are you catching a chill? Do we want a fire?"

"No, not that at all. I was just reliving how good he was." She was also recalling stories her mother had told her about her Tante Bethia and how she had encouraged her and instructed her when she entered her teens. Maria was now seeing the deeper meaning of the stories.

"So he was that kind of good." Bethia pursed her lips and nodded. "I am so pleased for you." Then she smiled broadly as she looked again more closely at David. "I can see he would be very good. I'm so pleased to see Rachel is passing on the new tradition. Tell me more of the adventures which brought you here."

Maria continued with the story, and she was describing treating Mama's sprained ankle when the shop door bell tinkled.

"I'll be back shortly," Bethia said as she headed off toward the shop front. "Business is calling."

Rachel looked at David after Bethia had left and said, "She was my early mentor. She's the one who encouraged me to explore and to enjoy. She's such a dear person, so loving."

"I sensed that." He nodded. "She still exudes a wonderful passion. How old is she? She's your mother's sister or your father's?"

"She's my mother's older sister. Mama was born in 1854 and Bethia is five years older, so she's now sixty-six. She moved to Switzerland after visiting Mama and Papa a few years after they had settled. I was just beginning to walk then. She taught me how to swim, and later how to soar."

"I think we should stay the night." He looked around. "There's a lot we can offer each other."

"Yes, I agree." Rachel nodded. "We're safe here, and less than a hundred metres from the border. We can monitor the procedure, see what the foot traffic is like, plan the safest way to cross. Also, we can help Bethia to organise her own return to Switzerland."

"Why is she living here in Germany?" David looked at Rachel with a puzzled expression.

"She met Aaron, whose family lived here and owned and ran a slaughter house. They moved to assist and take over as his parents aged. She opened the delicatessen and joked that she sold Kosher ham. She's a real character."

"Tante's taking quite a while out front." Maria stood. "I'll go see if she needs assistance."

She quietly moved across the kitchen, parted the curtains a crack and peeked out through. Bethia was sitting at one of the two tables in a deep conversation with a young couple, probably in their mid-thirties. She listened and heard friendly, but forceful negotiation with large sums of money being mentioned. She backed away and returned to the parlour.

"I'm not sure," Maria said as she sat on the settee. "But it sounds as if she's negotiating the sale of her business. There's a prosperous-looking couple out there at the table with her, and they were talking large sums of money, June, July, August, I couldn't quite follow them, some of the words were unfamiliar to me."