CHAPTER 14 - OLDENBURG, GERMANY—DECEMBER 3, 1916 #2
Anna hooked her arm through Emmi’s. With their appetites curbed by Waldemar’s anti-Semitic outburst, they took a walk around the grounds.
For the rest of the afternoon, they tended to the care of shepherds.
Nia, who was still viewed as lame, received less than an hour on the obstacle course with a trainer, and she spent most of the day curled near the stove.
Often, Anna peeked out the window to check on Max.
She hoped that his dog handling skills would improve, and that his initial poor performance would soon be forgotten.
But her hopes were dashed when the trainers finished their work and Fleck called Anna aside.
“Is everything all right, Herr Fleck?”
He shook his head. “Max did not respond well to training.”
Anna’s chest ached. “I’m sure he’ll do better tomorrow.”
“He lacks focus,” Fleck said. “I informed him that if does not display that he wants to be here, I’ll have no choice but to fill his spot with someone else. Dr. Stalling has quite a long waiting list of veterans in need of a guide dog.”
Anna swallowed. “Why are you telling me this?”
He smoothed his mustache. The lines in his face softened. “I thought you could have a talk with him.”
“Ja, sir,” Anna said, feeling relieved that Fleck was not determined to expel Max.
“Also, I want you to be prepared to take on another boarder, in the event that things do not work out for Max.”
She nodded.
Fleck turned and left the barn.
Anna and Emmi finished caring for the dogs and they, along with Nia, met up with Max, who was hunkered on a wooden crate outside the barn.
Under a setting sun, which painted the sky in ribbons of navy and magenta, they walked toward town.
Max spoke little, despite their attempts to engage him about his day.
Becoming frustrated with Max’s solitude, she insisted that he hold the handle to Nia’s harness, something she wished she would have done sooner.
Maybe if I had required him to walk with Nia from the train station, as well as to school, he wouldn’t have had such a horrible first day.
Reaching the outskirts of town, Emmi said her goodbyes and gave Nia a pat on the head. She turned onto a cobblestone street and disappeared from sight.
Anna and Max, with Nia between them, continued their walk. Alone with him, she thought he might begin to open up. Instead, he shuffled along the route, making no effort to talk. With each step, her patience waned.
“I understand you had a rough day,” she said.
Max adjusted his grip on the harness. “Ja.”
“Would you like to tell me about it?”
“Nein.” He walked, tapping his stick over the ground.
“You’re going to have to make more of an effort if you want to continue training.”
“I know.”
“They’ll expel you if you don’t show them you want to be here.”
Nia paused at a curb.
“Why did she stop?” Max asked.
“Curb,” Anna said.
He tapped his stick until he found the obstruction, and then stepped onto the sidewalk.
Anna’s frustration swelled. “What happened, Max?”
“Nothing.”
She clasped the handle to Nia’s harness and gave a backward and downward jerk. “Halt.”
Nia stopped. She panted, her breath producing a mist in the frigid air.
Max lowered his head.
“You promised me you’d try.”
He rubbed his face with a glove-covered hand. “That’s not it.”
“Then what is it?” Anna touched the sleeve of his coat. “Please, tell me.”
He took a deep breath and pulled an envelope from his coat pocket. “This morning, I found this in my suitcase.”
A foreboding ache grew in her gut.
He held out the envelope. “Will you read it to me?”
She led him and Nia to a public bench near St. Lambert’s Church—its neo-Gothic spires towering toward early evening stars—and sat.
A horse-drawn carriage passed by; the clopping of hooves faded into the night.
Under the flickering glow of a gas streetlamp, she removed her gloves and opened the envelope.
Her anxiousness grew. She’d read scores of letters to maimed soldiers at the hospital, but this one, she worried, might have far different consequences.
“Are you sure you want me to read this?” she asked.
He nodded. “I think I know what it’s about, but I need to know for sure.”
She unfolded the letter and read aloud.
Anna trembled. She squeezed the paper between her fingers to steady her hands.
A wretched ache grew beneath Anna’s sternum. She paused, loosening her scarf, and then continued reading.
“I’m so sorry,” Anna said, tears welling in her eyes.
“Danke,” he said.
Nia padded to Max and placed her chin on his lap. She stared at him but didn’t wag her tail.
He rubbed Nia’s head.
“Are you okay?” Anna asked.
He nodded. “Our relationship was over the day I came home from the front. My blindness changed everything between us. It was na?ve of me to think that with time, and me gaining mobility, our fondness for each other would rekindle.”
She wiped her eyes. “You knew this was coming, didn’t you?”
“Not the letter. But I didn’t expect her to be at the apartment when I came home.”
Anna looked at him, his face filled with melancholy.
“I’m so sorry you had to spend the entire day with the letter in your pocket.
” No wonder you couldn’t concentrate at school.
She folded the letter, placed it in the envelope, and gave it to him.
“I could have read it for you this morning when you discovered it.”
He slipped the envelope into his coat pocket. “I didn’t want to ruin your day.”
His fiancée has rejected him, and he’s worried that he might dampen my spirts.
Her heart ached. He’d lost everything—family, fiancée, sight, range of hearing, and his passion for music.
To make matters worse, he would have no one when he returned to Leipzig.
They sat silently on the bench, with Nia taking turns to nuzzle their hands, until the biting cold compelled them to leave.