“I don’t understand what just happened in there.” Willi scratched his head as he stood with Sabine on the front steps of St. Ludwig’s.
First the mystery message from Erich’s friend, then the heartbreaking apology from Oma. What did the girl want to talk to them about, and what was Oma so sorry for? And finally their quick exit, thanks to that rude nurse. Sabine crossed her arms and looked at the ornate front door, wondering.
Especially about Oma.
The door flew open. “There you are!” Greta exclaimed. “I was afraid you’d already left!”
She stopped next to them and caught her breath.
“Oh, well, no, we — ” Sabine wasn’t sure how much she should tell this girl, even though she’d said she was Erich’s friend. What if she worked for the Stasi as an informant, a snitch, like half the city? She could be pretending, looking for information to get Erich in trouble. Greta seemed to read her mind and rested a hand on the girl’s shoulder.
“You don’t have to worry, Sabine. If we weren’t on your side, believe me, you’d have been rounded up long ago.”
“You said before that you wanted to ask us something?” Sabine wasn’t going to believe just anything.
“Right.” Greta nodded. “But first I need your word that you’ll keep this just between us.” The older girl looked first at Sabine, then Willi. And Sabine gave her friend a warning look, though she couldn’t say it out loud: Don’t you dare mention anything about “on your honor as a Junge Pioniere.”
He held up his hand and opened his mouth, but Sabine beat him to it.
“Fine.”
Whoops. What had she just promised?
Greta nodded seriously. “All right, then. We need to know about the underground . . . the hole you fell into.”
“Oh, you want to know about that?” Willi perked up. “I’ve been down there. It’s dark and musty, actually. And the car isn’t as nice as she made me believe at first, and — ”
“Willi!” Sabine interrupted. “She doesn’t need to know all that.”
“A car?” Greta’s eyebrows registered her surprise. “Actually, all we want to know is how you managed to get down there again. By the time we figured out that’s where you printed your flyers, the workers had already sealed up the street. You know of another way?”
Sabine bit her lip. “Why do you want to know?”
This time, Greta looked nervous, and she checked the door behind them. Did she really trust them or not?
“We’re planning to dig a tunnel under the wall,” she finally whispered. “But we need a place to start from and someplace to pile all the dirt. We want you to show us the hole because it might be the perfect place to start digging.”
“Oh!” Sabine could hardly believe Greta’s words. “I’ve heard stories about people escaping that way. I just didn’t know if they were true.”
“They’re true. And we’re going to do it too.”
“But through the sewers and such. That’s what they’re trying now, isn’t it?”
“A few have tried. But the Stasi have begun welding the manhole covers shut. Three of our friends died down there before — ”
She wiped a tear with the sleeve of her blouse.
“This isn’t a sewer, though,” Sabine said, trying not to imagine Greta’s friends in the sewer. She took a breath and explained about the underground rooms, the passageways, the way down through the bombed-out building. Greta nodded as if she were taking notes.
When Greta asked her to take them into the bunker, Sabine hesitated. Finally she said, “I guess I can. But . . . what about Erich?”
“Well — ” Greta looked away as she straightened the little white nurse’s hat pinned to her hair. “He doesn’t like getting you involved, but he’ll get over it.”
“Yes, but is he planning to — ” When Sabine closed her eyes, all she could see was the Stasi agents putting the seal on Frau Finkenkrug’s door, going from apartment to apartment. Next time, it might be their mother. “Is he planning to escape too?”
The question hung in the air, and Greta swallowed hard.
“You’ll have to ask him yourself. But look, I have to get back to work. Thanks for helping.”
And without another word, the nurse’s aide turned to go.
“Wait!” Sabine held up her hand. “Do you want me to meet you somewhere? You didn’t tell me.”
Greta paused in the doorway without turning around.
“Erich will let you know when it’s time.”
Which turned out to be sooner than Sabine expected. As in, that night just after dinner.
“I’m going for a walk.” Erich rose from the table first. As usual, Uncle Heinz was just reaching for a second helping. “May I be excused?”
Uncle Heinz lifted his eyebrows at his nephew and kept chewing as he spoke. “I’m just curious; you’re not spending time with anyone special at the hospital, are you?”
Erich stiffened, and Sabine nearly choked on her last bite.
“Would it be a problem if I were?” asked Erich.
Uncle Heinz stretched, making his chair creak and groan. “Maybe. I hear some of the staff there are, uh, under observation.”
“You mean being watched by the Stasi? The way they’ve been watching me, stopping me, asking me dumb questions all the time? Every time I go out the door, old Wolfgang reports back to them!”
“I would be more careful, if I were you,” Uncle Heinz warned. He frowned and kept eating while Erich went on — hotter than ever.
“What kind of a country is this? First it built a wall to keep its own people in. Then it expects everyone to spy on each other to keep people from disagreeing with it?”
Aunt Gertrud closed her eyes as if she felt another headache coming on.
“Erich.” Their mother turned pale. “Let’s not talk politics at the table. Please.”
Uncle Heinz tossed his fork to the table and pushed back.
“I’m just telling him that he needs to be careful who he talks to, that’s all. The Stasi are only trying to do their jobs. And I’m trying to do Erich a favor.”
“Thanks, Onkel Heinz.” Erich leaned over to dip his hands in the bowl of sudsy water in the sink. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Case closed — for now. A few moments later, Erich brushed by Sabine in the hallway.
“Follow me in ten minutes,” he whispered.
Nine minutes later, she was standing on the street in the early summer evening, wondering what her big brother was up to. It didn’t surprise her when he stepped out from behind Fegelein’s Bäckerei.
“All right, now listen” — he leveled a finger at her in a big-brotherly way — “I didn’t want to bring you into this, and I told them so. But we couldn’t see a better way. So all you’re going to do,” he continued, “is show us the way in, and we’ll take it from there.”
“Nein.” She kept going. “I told Mama I’m going to check up on Willi. So that’s what I’m going to do first.”
“But I told them we’d meet them in — ”
“I’m not going to lie to Mama. Besides, Willi’s in on this too.”
Erich grumbled something about how they might as well show Wolfgang a big sign announcing their plan to build an escape tunnel. She did her best to ignore him, and a half hour later, three of them approached the bombed-out apartment building.
“We’re not just all going to march right in, are we?” Willi looked around nervously. The streets were still full of people at 7:00 p.m. on a warm summer evening.
“And what about your friends?” asked Sabine.
“You just show me which part of the building.” Erich ignored their questions. “Keep walking, tell me in a low voice, and don’t point.”
Okay. She could do this.
“About in the middle, past those two walls that fell on each other, around the back side and — ”
“Good enough,” he said, interrupting her. “Stop behind that pile of broken bricks, then go in first. I’ll follow when nobody else is walking by. By the way, how’d you ever get in there from this direction without anybody seeing you?”
“I don’t know.” Sabine shrugged. “I guess I was just careful about it. And the first time, as you know, I sort of fell into it.”
Another groan from her brother. But Sabine did as he’d said, climbing carefully through the rubble until she stood once again in the room with the crumbled walls and the flowery wallpaper.
Not bad for a girl on crutches! She congratulated herself as she looked around. What had this room once been? A living room? An office? Hard to tell. With all the walls tumbled upon one another, it looked like the inside of an earthquake site.
“You’re sure this is it?” her brother asked when he joined her a couple of minutes later.
Then two others seemed to melt out of the shadows: Greta and Dietrich.
“Whoa.” Willi whistled as he joined them, not as quiet. “You guys really must be serious about this. Wait until I show you the car.”
“Where is it?” asked Dietrich. Sabine knew he meant the trapdoor, not the car. She pointed to his feet. He stood on a low pile of crumbled cement blocks.
“You’re kidding.” He lifted first one foot, then the other. “We would never have found this on our own.”
“We covered it back up with junk last time.” She got down on her knees and started to brush away the rubble. “Here, let me show you.”
“You don’t need to do that.” Erich put his hand on her shoulder. “All we needed was for you to show us the place. We can take it from here.”
But Sabine didn’t stop.
“If you’re building a tunnel, we’re going to help.”
She glanced at Willi out of the corner of her eye to see him nod. Erich only laughed.
“What are you talking about? You’re going home before Onkel Heinz reports you to Comrade Ulbricht. And you can’t go home all dirty again.”
“What about you?”
“That’s not the question. Besides, this is going to be dangerous, you know.”
“I know. That’s why you need my help.”
“You’re crazy. And you can’t just leave Mutti here in Berlin with Oma.”
“But you can?”
“Listen, I’m helping my friends. That’s different.”
“And I say you need to go home before you get hurt.”
“I’m not a little kid. I’m thirteen, you know.”
“Doesn’t matter. I say no.”
Sabine wasn’t surprised. But Dietrich looked over at Greta, who nodded.
“They already know where the entrance is,” Dietrich told Erich quietly. “And we could use the help, Erich.”
“What are you talking about?” Erich’s voice rose a few notches. “She’s my sister, and I say she goes home.”
But it looked as if Dietrich could be just as stubborn. Or rather, Dietrich and Greta. Two against one.
“You remember how we agreed to do things,” she said. “Dietrich leads.”
“But if we disagree — ” Erich wasn’t giving up just yet.
“If we disagree, the three of us vote.”
Sabine looked from her brother to the others.
“They can stay, if they want,” Greta finally announced. “As long as they keep quiet about what we’re doing.”
Willi zipped a finger across his lips and grinned. But when Sabine had a chance to think for a second, she wasn’t so sure. Not about keeping quiet. But as she looked down at the hole they’d opened in the floor, she wondered: what had they gotten themselves into?