The Voice of Heart

9| The First Voice

Several days passed. Adeline was starting to feel better. Her temperature had dropped, her throat, the inside of her mouth no longer cracked from the heat and dried out by the intensity of flames, The pain in her body and muscle had also gone. She woke up and rubbed her eyes. From where she was lying on the bed, she saw the late afternoon sunlight shining through the open window. She sat up in bed.

As she sat staring out of the window, her mind drifted away and she found herself thinking of Wilhelm. She remembered the moment he saved the French man from the assassination, the help he gave when she was ill and how he behaved toward Jeanne and her in a courteous way. The stigma of being a heartless German soldier seemed to fade away in him. She pondered all the kindness he had done. Deep within her heart, layer upon layer of hatred had disappeared. She began to realize the good side of him.

At that very moment she heard the front door open and close, followed by the chatty voices that broke the silence. She kept overhearing the same phrases in the conversations around her: "ration cards, food shortage . . .", "ration cards became more precious than identity cards", "everyone was ravenously hungry", "You can still get carrots without ration cards. Look at your face! Your face turned yellow because you ate so many carrots." Then a riotous laughter ensued.

The conversations shifted to stressful matters. She heard the frantic, anxious tone of voice saying, "You also knew the threat on the red poster, didn't you? It announced from 23 August, all French men who have been arrested in France will be considered as hostages and will be shot after the Barbès-Rochechouart station attack. It's scary. You can feel the hand of the occupation."

"Words spread from mouth to mouth. I heard the Germans will take one hundred hostages for every German killed."

"What if this nightmare befalls us, in our village?"

"Oh God, let this chaos end quickly. Please let us get back to a normal life."

She walked out and found Gisele sitting next to Jeanne in the living room. Adeline greeted her. Then she responded to her with an exaggerated reaction by talking at length.

"Oh Adeline, I hope you feel better now. I came here to visit you. Your mom said to me you were sick and I heard Boche summoned a French doctor to your house to examine you. It sounds unbelievable."

Jeanne made a faint grimace of scorn as she heard her saying a pejorative term used to refer to a German soldier during the Great War in 1914.

"That's true. He helped us. He paid the doctor fee and the medicines," Adeline added.

She was mute with surprise. Her lips were moving but she made no sound. She shot Jeanne and Adeline with a suspicious stare that troubled them so much. She suspected them of getting friendly with the enemy.

"Please don't look at me like that! You seem to regard us as collaborators. He himself went up to me and offered his help. I accepted it because I couldn't bear to see her suffering from sickness. What kind of mother am I, who lets her daughter be in pain?" she exclaimed and then added, "I appreciate his help but it doesn't mean I consorted with the enemy who had thrown my son into a prisoner camp," Jeanne replied in a usual tone of voice, simultaneously respectful and bitter.

After a moment, they heard the Germans outside the house. There was a hoarse, masculine voice that shouted in German, "Jawohl! Herr Oberleutnant." Immediately afterwards they heard a man's light cough and the sound of the German boots getting closer to the doorstep. The front door opened; Wilhelm appeared. They all fell silent. Gisele's body was as tense as a frightened deer in the forest as a lion got closer to hunt it. He greeted them in a voice so attractive that Gisele couldn't refrain herself from stealing a glance at him due to curiosity. Jeanne and Gisele replied with an icy nod of the head. Meanwhile, Adeline was unsure of what to do. With an impassive face, she remained silent and lowered her eyes. He turned around and then went to his bedroom.

Gisele sighed with relief, "That Boche behaves politely."

"Ssh! Keep your voice down. You know very well, the Germans don't like being called like that!" Jeanne said.

The last rays of the setting sun caressed the lawn and Forsythia shrubs in the garden. Little by little, cool darkness spread across the sky. The presence of the German officer made Gisele uncomfortable to linger in Adeline's house. She sat nervously, fiddled with her white necklace while she was having conversation with them. She gave in. she could last in fifteen minutes only. She went home.

One night, Wilhelm and Adeline ran into each other in the passage. There was a moment of awkwardness between them; they stood staring at each other without saying a word. He didn't want to bother her because he knew she hated him. He walked while greeting her with a nod of the head. Out of the blue, a soft, beautiful voice prevented him from walking further. It was her voice. A voice he madly craved to hear a long time ago. It miraculously slipped through her lips, calling his name for the very first time, "Lieutenant Müller."
He stopped walking, stunned in disbelief. He felt a strange intermingling of happiness and astonishment, a kind of feeling when he wanted something that it seemed to be impossible to achieve but in the end, he succeeded to get it; it was like a dream came true. He turned around and then came up to her.

"Thank you for your help," she said.

"No problem, I am glad to help. How are you today?"

"I feel better."

"I am glad to hear that," he smiled. "It's getting late, you should go to bed. Having enough good rest is important for recovery."

"I agree with you," she smiled and then walked toward her bedroom.

It was the first time she gave him a smile. Seeing it, he was lost in admiration. When he no longer heard her footsteps in the silence of the night, he came closer to the door of her bedroom and said softly, "Gute Nacht. Schlafen sie wohl (good night, sleep well)."