Through Blood

Chapter 2: Attempts

The wind suddenly blew through a gap in the open window and Ivy went over to close it. As she was closing it, she heard the roar of several planes that were flying over them. Barely visible in the navy night sky, she could see their shadows cast over the bright moon, and then they were gone. Ivy went back to putting the twins to bed. Heidi and Trudi shared a large bed in the guestroom of the Köhler house. Uli's apartment, formerly Kristian's, had now been empty for two weeks.

Ivy wondered if Uli was one of the pilots flying over the city, headed towards Poland yet again. She wasn't as worried about Uli anymore since the previous day, when he had briefly called from the base in Berlin. He was in a rush and sounded tired, but he assured her he was well and that he would soon be back home.

"Again, read it again," Heidi asked Ivy to read Rapunzel for the third time.
"Yes, please! Her hair is so long, I want hair like Rapunzel," Trudi exclaimed.
"Me too. Her hair is so pretty, it's long and it's like gold!" Heidi said and they both giggled.
"You two are so silly, you already look like little Rapunzels," Ivy smiled.
"But she's a princess! I want to be a princess!" Trudi started jumping on the bed.
"Ivy, can I be a princess too? And then can you read the book again?" Heidi asked.

"Girls, if you don't calm down you're never going to fall asleep. No, you can't be princesses, not unless you marry a prince, but royalty is becoming nearly extinct in our Vaterland, we don't need princes and kings we need... never mind," Ivy sighed. "Let's leave Rapunzel for tomorrow. How about I sing you a lullaby?"

They nodded and finally laid calmly on the bed. Ivy sang them her favourite lullaby from when she was a child, a lullaby she had learned from her mother Simone. Although she changed a few words to make it her own:

"Oh young pilot come home,

At frosty sky he's alone,

Oh young soldier come home,

At last to my heart he'll roam

Oh young love come home."

After singing and humming it for a while, Heidi was fast asleep. As Trudi was giving in as well, she sleepily asked "When will Uli come back?"
"Soon, my love. I promise, you'll see him soon," Ivy caressed her hair.
"Goodnight, Mama," Trudi said as her heavy eyelids stopped fluttering.

"I'm... I'm not your..." Ivy muttered. She put her face in her hands, realizing she knew this day would come. They would, eventually, see her as their mother. Almost a year had passed since their mother's death, and although they were smart four year old girls, their memories didn't hold as much pain and suffering as Uli's. He would never forget. I can't tell them the truth. If they are forgetting Gretel, perhaps it's for the best. So young and innocent, how could I tell them that I'm just their sister-in-law, that their father abandoned them and their real mother is dead?

Three days later, Ivy climbed the steps of the majestic building. The German Reich flag, the new one which the Führer himself designed, waved proudly from the Reichstag's posts. She had only been inside the Reichstag once and it had been with her father, they had been able to walk past the guarding officers and the front desk, and straight into its offices. But now she was being stopped by the guards at the inner doors.

"Identification, please," one of the officers said. Ivy withdrew her identification card from her wool coat's pocket.
"Fraulein Köhler, go ahead," he stepped aside. She reached the main desk secretary, an older and harsh-faced woman.

"Yes?" the secretary lifted an eyebrow.
"I'd like to see my father, General Köhler," Ivy responded.
"What's his office number?" she asked.
"Uh... thirty twenty-four," Ivy said.
"Very well. He is in a meeting right now, wait outside his office," the woman dismissed Ivy with her hand.