“Sabine,” a voice called to her as she stepped out of the small row house where she and Werner lived.
She turned toward the voice to see Lily Kerber, her neighbor and former classmate, waving to her from the door of her own home. Lily had lived alone since her mother died a couple of years ago. Sabine always wondered how Lily managed to keep the house for herself, when so many others were assigned bombed-out victims to live with them.
“Good morning, Lily. How are you?”
“Fine, thanks. I saw Werner come home a while ago. Is he working nights again?”
“Yes. He’ll sleep most of the day now and will be leaving again when I return from work.” Sabine and Lily exchanged small talk every now and then, the way neighbors did, but they had never been close friends, despite the fact that they’d grown up on the same street and attended the same class at school.
Lily had been the popular girl at school, the one all the boys courted: the first one to show female curves, and the only one to have the audacity to smoke in public.
“That must be so hard for you.” Lily pouted her carefully painted lips. “Would you like to join me in going out to dinner this week?”
Sabine raised a brow. After knowing Lily for almost twenty years, this was the first time she’d ever invited her out. “Uhm, well…Werner’s schedule is all over the place and I have to work…”
“You said he’s working night shifts, so what would stop two lonely women from keeping each other company? How about tomorrow night?”
Sabine almost fell backwards. Lily had never been lonely in her life. Even in middle school Sabine had lost count of the many admirers in Lily’s life, and that number hadn’t changed since. Sabine didn’t want to assume anything improper, since Lily never invited any of the men inside, but she sure knew how to turn heads.
For lack of a valid reason to deny the request, Sabine said, “Thank you. I’d love to meet up and chat about old times.”
“Good, I’ll ring at seven p.m. My treat.” Lily said with a broad smile and waved a gloved hand, before she stepped back inside her house, and shut the door.
Sabine looked after her for a long moment, muttering beneath her breath, “Strange. That was just strange.”
Shaking off her concern, she walked to the bus stop and waited for the line taking her to work. In the evening, she arrived home just as Werner pulled on his uniform for the upcoming night shift.
Lily and her invitation had been uppermost in Sabine’s mind most of the day. Now that she thought about it, her neighbor seemed to be untouched by the hardships of war everyone else had to cope with. Today, she’d worn a flashy red woolen coat that must have cost a year’s supply of ration cards. And in contrast to Sabine’s own shabby coat, it didn’t hang loose on her curvy frame.
Sabine had lost at least ten pounds over the years and sometimes Werner joked that her protruding ribs would give him bruises. What wouldn’t she give for a dozen pounds more on her scrawny bones? But then, nobody in Berlin had fat on their hips anymore.
“Darling, I’m home.” She walked over to wrap her arms around Werner and stood on her tiptoes to receive his kiss.
“I wish I could stay,” he said. “But on the weekend, I’ll be off duty and I thought we could go to the Wannsee lake. See whether it’s still frozen? Take a walk across the ice?”
“That would be nice.” Sabine grabbed his neck to press another kiss on his lips. There were so few fun things to do these days, a trip to the lake – even in wintertime – seemed like paradise. Then she remembered the dinner invitation and said, “Lily invited me to join her for dinner tomorrow.”
Werner looked up, confusion on his face. “Lily Kerber? Our neighbor?”
“Yes, her. She asked me this morning and even offered to pay. I don’t quite know what to make of her invitation.”
“Maybe she’s just trying to be your friend?” he said, moving out of Sabine’s embrace to finish dressing.
“After ignoring me for twenty years? I don’t know.” Sabine paused, unsure whether she should voice her suspicions. She usually didn’t spread gossip, but if she were to have dinner with Lily, Werner needed to know. It wouldn’t be appropriate if the wife of a fireman were seen with a woman of dubious reputation. “Have you noticed that she doesn’t seem to be…hard-pressed… like everyone else?”
“In what way?” Werner put the cap on his short brown hair, and the breath caught in her breast at his dashing looks.
“Well, she’s always wearing new clothes. Things the rest of us stopped even dreaming about long ago. And eating out and offering to pay for me as well…that just seems odd.”
Werner gave a rueful laugh. “You worry too much, Schätzchen. Lily probably has fetched herself a lover high up. An influential Party member would be able to afford giving her all those clothes you seem to yearn for…although I do like you a lot without clothes.”
Sabine’s face heated up to the roots of her hair. “That’s not very moral…”
“I can’t find anything immoral about enjoying my wife,” Werner teased her, and she felt the heated blush intensifying. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy her marital obligations, but why did he have to speak about it?
“I didn’t mean us…I meant Lily, if that’s even what she’s doing…” Sabine covered her mouth with her hand, averting her eyes from her husband.
“Times have changed. Those things happen.” Werner laughed at her. “People don’t necessarily marry anymore to share a bed, you know?”
“I know that,” Sabine said, giving him another hug and lingering long enough to let herself be reminded how safe she always felt in his arms. He was her protector, the strong man who always looked out for her. And if they hadn’t been so unfortunate as to lose two babies, she’d be happily at home tending to her small family instead of having to work in that awful factory producing weapons.
“Well, then. Enjoy a lovely dinner with Lily and don’t worry so much. How the money came her way is none of your concern.” He pressed a kiss on her lips, before he walked out the door. “I’ll see you in the morning, Schätzchen.”
Sabine busied herself doing the chores around the house. Cleaning, dusting, washing. And preparing a meal for Werner when he came home in the morning after a long night shift.
Then she retreated to bed, trying not to worry about the unusual invitation her neighbor had extended. Probably Lily was simply as lonely as Sabine was and needed some company.