In the Shadow of His Wings

Chapter 20

– You –

You made it through the night without waking up even once. As you opened your eyes in the early morning, you felt well-rested and relaxed. The first thing you saw was the window, of course it was still pitch-dark outside. You turned around to see Josef sitting on the edge of the bed with his back to you, sipping on a cup of coffee.

"Guten Morgen," you whispered.

He turned his head and smiled at you. "Ah, guten Morgen! Did you sleep well?"

You nodded tiredly. "I did."

You laid there for some time in silence, thinking. So now it was the second day of 1945. A wave of nostalgia washed over you as you recalled all of the previous New Year's Days you had experienced in the past... with your family, safe, nothing to worry about.

My family. You wondered if they were worried about you, or if they were even... alive? Who knew, maybe the Gestapo had carried them off as well because you were related to them. I hope not.

You spotted a telephone on Josef's desk, and suddenly you got an idea. "Josef?"

He turned to you. "Ja, Liebes?"

"I... I would love to talk to my parents... could I maybe... call them?"

"Sure, I have a telephone over there." He pointed at the phone on his desk.

He allows me. You slowly pulled the thick blanket aside, shuffled to the edge of the bed and got up, stretching. Before you sat down, you glanced at him one last time. He gave a single reconfirming nod and you took a seat.

"You have to call the local toll exchange first," Josef explained. "I wrote the number down on a note next to the phone."

You took the yellow note and entered the number on it with the dial, then held the phone to your ear. It started ringing, and after a while someone picked up.

"Toll exchange, how can I help you?" you heard a friendly female voice ask. I have contact to the outside world, you thought. Never thought I'd live to experience that again.

"Hallo," you greeted her. "Connect me to the (L/N) family from Rosenheim, please."

"Alright, please hold on."

You knew that the hold time would be very long. It always took some time until the operator could connect you to your desired collocutor. Especially now that they were so far away, basically in another country. It rang... and rang... and rang.

"I know, it takes pretty long," Josef said behind you. You nodded without looking at him.

It must have been at least 20 minutes later when you heard someone picking up at the other end of the line. You listened closely, getting a little nervous. They probably don't even think I'm still alive...

"(L/N), hallo?"

You immediately recognized your mother's voice. Your heart skipped a beat, and all of a sudden you completely forgot what you wanted to say.

You gulped before starting to speak. "Uh... um... hallo? Mama? It's me, (Y/N)..."

For a couple of seconds, there was complete silence on the other end. "Was!? Nein, nein... this can't be. ...Is it really you? (Y/N)? My daughter?"

"Yes. It's me."

"Oh mein Gott!" She let out a cry of joy. "My daughter... where are you, what happened to you? You've been missing for a month now, nobody knew what happened, we were all so worried! We alerted everyone immediately, some assumed you were dead, but I never gave up hope, I prayed for you every day... But now tell me, where are you?"