Nazi-occupied France, 1941. A novelist, Adeline Beaumont was forced to billet a German Officer, Wilhelm Von Müller in her house. Since his arrival, she refused to speak to him as the resistance effort against the occupier. Yet, the barrier between t...
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The setting sun gave off an orange light in the sky. Before the German officer occupied Louis' room, Adeline and Jeanne packed away his stuff. Uniforms, clothes, picture albums and military documents were crammed into the cupboard in the shed. They didn't let his evil hands defile them. Silent and still, in the living room, they sat and waited for the conqueror who would be living alongside them.
When they heard footsteps getting closer to the house, they stared at each other in shocked silence. Shortly thereafter, knocking was heard from the front door. They concurrently flinched and their faces grew pale.
"I think it's him," Jeanne said.
"Let me deal with him."
Adeline walked toward the door. Her heart was pounding fast as if she was facing a terrifying killer. She tried to compose herself by takinh a deep breath. She opened it and then a familiar face appeared.
They looked at each other in stunned disbelief. In a split second, the memory brought them to the first place they met. They still remembered how they met before: an Alsatian dog and a German soldier who ran toward a French woman to give back her hat. They were destined to meet each other through that unforgettable event.
Jeanne was wondering why it took so long for her to open the door. She began to fidget on her seat. She was worried if terrible things happened to her. She came up to her and saw the German officer standing in the doorway.
"Bonsoir. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Lieutenant Wilhelm von Müller. I am billeted in your house. I apologize for the inconvenience."
When he spoke, they didn't look at him as if he was not there. Coldness and indifference, all those feelings were mirrored in their faces. They intentionally showed him those expressions ini order that he was aware that they didn't like his presence. He was not surprised if they treated him like that. He understood his presence was not really wanted.
"I will try not to trouble you," he said and then looked at the clock on the wall. He realized that they hadn't set it to German time. "I know about the obligation for the French people to set their clocks to German time. As long as I am in this house, you don't have to implement it. I can use my wrist watch."
They remained silent.
"I don't know where my room is. Could you please show it to me?" he asked politely.
Adeline turned around and steered him to Louis' room. He bid Jeanne good evening but she didn't respond to him. As soon as they reached Louis' room, Adeline opened the door for him. He stepped inside and looked around just like a hotel guest who had just arrived in the room he booked, assessing whether it was decent or not.
He expressed his gratitude to her, hoping that she responded to him, "The room is perfect. Thank you very much."
Irritated, she left him without saying a word.
Darkness enveloped the village like a heavy, pitch-black coat. The Germans ordered the inhabitants to obey the curfew: they forbade them to go out of the house from nine o'clock in the evening until five o'clock in the morning; they forced them to close the windows and turn off any light to prevent the Allied aircrafts from using their lights for navigation. Towards nine o'clock in the evening, the street echoed with the quick steps of passers-by who wanted to go home . "Can you walk faster? If the Germans see us, they'll arrest us," one of them said with a frantic tone of voice.
The truck engine whirred outside, passing Adeline's house. It was the German's truck. Beneath the moonlight, they patrolled around the village to check if the inhabitants abided by the curfew. They found themselves confined in their homes, with curtains drawn and no entertainment as their radios had been confiscated. Even though they lived in their own country, they couldn't do what they wanted. They had lost their freedom.
At a dressing table, Adeline combed her hair before going to bed. She looked at her reflection in the mirror: a young woman - long brunette haired, hazel eyed with cheeks as smooth as satin. At this moment, she didn't feel like sleeping. She was eager to continue writing her novel she'd been working on for half a year. The war and the misfortune of France inspired her to write. She became the main character in her novel, a French woman who struggled during the German occupation. The presence of the German officer in her house gave her story ideas. She moved closer to a desk with the typewriter on it. She began to write. The clack of the typewriter was so noisy that Wilhelm had to cover his ears with a pillow. She heard him complaining in the room next door where he slept, "Oh mein Gott. Warum tippt sie so spät in der Nacht? (Oh my God, why is she typing so late at night?)" She laughed quietly. She was filled with an extraordinary sense of happiness, contentment and pride because she managed to make the enemy annoyed. She got back to writing. One after another, typewritten papers were stacked up on her desk. After some time, she was overcome with tiredness. She set down her work, threw herself down on the bed and fell asleep over a blanket.
One morning, Adeline and Jeanne had breakfast in the dining room. They had the same menu almost every day. Since the occupation, they had been eating unusual vegetables like rutabaga. That's the food for animals. Farmers usually feed their cows with it. Everything was scarce in France meanwhile, the French people were starving. They had no choice unless they had to find a substitute; cornstarch would be added to water with an egg to create an omelet, coffee was replaced with chicory, sugar with saccharin and roasted corn with tea.
They heard the door open with a faint creak and the sound of footsteps in the house. From the dining room, they saw Wilhelm's orderly passing by. Their eyes flitted to a brown violin case in his hand.
"It seems like the Lieutenant can play a violin," Jeanne said in a low voice.
"If he plays it in this house, will you allow him?"
"There's nothing I can do. He's in charge here."
A little while later, they saw Wilhelm's orderly passing by again. Behind him, came Lieutenant Wilhelm. He stood in the doorway once he saw them.
"Bonjour," he waited another moment and when they said nothing, he reverted to speaking, "I had a good sleep last night. I hope you had it too. You don't have to prepare my meals. I'll have it in town."
They remained silent and continued to eat their breakfast. Jeanne tried to glance at him secretly but she was caught by him. He greeted her with a nod of the head and then walked away.
Adeline let out a deep sigh. "How long will the enemy live with us?"
