Remembering You (26 page)

Ava tried to remember names as her grandfather introduced his friends again. Bob, John, Arthur, Frank, Harold, Ray…

The restaurant was busy, and they found a round table in the corner. Dennis sat by Grand-Paul, and the look in his eye said that he never wanted to leave his grandfather’s side. The realization that they’d soon be losing Grand-Paul hit her again, and she was thankful that they’d had this week together. Grandpa Jack sat by Dennis. He pointed to a small table near the back of the room.

“Ava, I’ve convinced a few of the guys to talk to you,” Grandpa Jack said. “I asked the waitress to save that table for you.”

“Really? That’s, uh, great.” Ava didn’t have the heart to tell him that it would be hard to videotape with all the noise. She’d figure out a way. Ava scanned the guys’ faces, and none of the men looked away or seemed intimidated. She had a feeling that if she had enough time, she could get each of them to tell her a story or two. “You told them I’m videotaping, right?”

“Yes.” Grandpa Jack nodded. “Ray here said that was fine just as long as you taped his good side. But I told him that would be hard if he was sitting on it.” Laughter burst from the guys, and Ava joined in, surprised. Her eyes widened as she looked at her grandfather, and she had a hard time catching her breath from her laughter. “Grandpa, did I hear what I just thought I heard?”

Grandpa Jack was as gentle as they came, but Ava had forgotten how puckish his humor could be when he was around his veteran friends. It was as if he could be freer with them—even freer than he was with his friends at home. Maybe because they’d seen him at his best and his worst, and they still respected him. Maybe because he felt young again when he was in their presence, and some of the spunk of his younger years dug its way out.

A man entered, and all heads turned his direction. Grandpa Jack tugged on her arm and then pointed. “That’s Mitch Thompson—Major Thompson now. He has a great story about how he and his brother met up on the battlefield. You should talk to him about that.”

“Jack! There you are,” the man called from the doorway.

Mitch Thompson strode over to them, and Ava found herself sitting tall in his presence. He still looked tough, with his broad shoulders, square face, and crew cut. Even though he wore a simple blue blazer and jeans, he had an aura of command.

“We missed you on the bus, but I’m not sure you missed us,” he teased Paul. “Heard you were gallivanting through Europe with a beautiful woman.” Mitch looked at Ava and winked.

“Yes, well, Ava here didn’t let us say no. She figured since we were here, we might as well see it all. How was your trip?” Grandpa Jack asked.

“Helluva trip, if I say so myself. Not what we thought, but we’ve seen a lot of the countryside. My only regret is not seeing Bastogne, but maybe that’s for the best.”

“Major Thompson,” Ava dared to say, “my grandfather told me there’s a story of you and your brother meeting up on the battlefield. I’d love to interview you sometime.”

He cocked his head and looked at her, as if taking stock of her. Finally, he winked and he smiled. “Well, young lady. It’s quite a story. If I do talk into that video camera you’ll have to shoot my left side; it’s the more handsome of the two.”

More laughter rumbled around the table and Mitch looked puzzled.

“Yes, your left cheek is the best,” one of the other guys said.

Ava tried to hold in her own laughter. She straightened her shoulders even more and lifted her chin. “Of course, Major. I’d be happy to shoot whatever side you’d like.”

Her comment made him smile even wider. He squeezed her shoulder. “I knew I liked you.”

Major Thompson asked the waitress for a quiet place in a side room. He then ordered the house special for Ava’s dinner, and they exchanged small talk until it arrived.

“Feel free to eat while I talk, miss. I’ve lived around soldiers my whole life; nothing much distracts me from my mission. Enjoy.”

“Thank you, Major.” She set up her camera and then pressed Record. Then she dug into her food.

“There were six of us boys total. Two in the navy and four in the army. My oldest brother, Howard, was in Europe. He was an officer.” Then he went on to tell her how their divisions met on the battlefield, how the two brothers found each other when their two units fought side by side. They were allowed one meal together before returning, not knowing if they’d ever see each other again. Thankfully, they survived and made it home.

“Well, thank you, Major. Thank you for your story.”

“One more thing, miss; I think this is important. Look around and you’ll see everyday heroes. Each time you perform an unselfish act in spite of your own desires or needs, it takes courage. I don’t know about you, but the unselfish act does not come naturally to me. I am a self-centered person. So it takes some effort and some courage to ask the God of grace to help me to be selfless.”

Ava smiled, wondering how many men under the major’s command had heard this speech through the years. She’d have to note where it was on the tape. It would work well for her video.

“You’re right.” She glanced at her grandfather, Dennis, and Grand-Paul, who had snuck in at the end of the interview.

The major rose and then left everyone with a firm handshake before walking over and finding a seat with another group of veterans.

Grandpa Jack smiled. “Mitch always was that intense.”

“You’re telling me. He was a twenty-four-year-old kid and acted like he was running the show,” Grand-Paul said, chuckling. “At least it makes for an interesting Friday night.”

Ava turned to Dennis. “Yes, and I’m thankful it’s Friday. I don’t have to turn in a video for tomorrow! I’m so excited I don’t have to stay up late. I get to sleep.”

“It also means tomorrow’s the ceremony at Mauthausen. It’s going to be a busy day and a hard one.”

“We should head for bed, Jack. Let’s give these young ones time to say good night without chaperones.” Grand-Paul winked and stood. Then he started his slow journey to their hotel across the street. Grandpa Jack joined him.

“It really seemed you were enjoying those guys’ stories,” Dennis said.

“I did. They’re great and I hope I get to talk to more of the guys tomorrow. They have so many tales. I want to hear them all, but…” Her voice trailed.

“But what?”

“The more I think about it, the more I see now that this is how God planned it—for us to travel separately from the group. If we’d been with all of them, I would have missed so much about my grandpa’s story. Grandpa’s not loud or bold. He steps out of the limelight. If there’d been all these strong personalities around, the videos I sent would be completely different, not to mention we never would have gone to the farmhouse, and I never would have heard the story about Angeline.”

“That’s true. Also, there’s us. I don’t think we would have had the chance to talk—not with all the old soldiers vying for your attention.” He stretched his hand toward hers. She took it and allowed Dennis to fold her into his embrace.

“Are you ready for tomorrow?”

She nodded. “It’ll be difficult but good. I’m excited.”

“What about the day after and the day after that?”

Ava stepped back slightly and looked into his face, unsure. “What’s the day after?”

Dennis smiled. “The beginning of the rest of our lives.”

* * * * *

Dennis’s words played through Ava’s mind as she made it up the stairs to her room. She wished she could say that she was as optimistic about their future as he was. She still had to face talking to Jay. Ava had a feeling that only then—when she had closure with her ex-fiancé—could she commit herself to Dennis completely.

In her room, she checked her cell phone, but there were no messages. She turned on the computer and tried to connect to the Internet, but it wasn’t working. She called the front desk and discovered the line was down.

She couldn’t imagine how stressed she would have been if the Internet had been down on any of the other nights when she had to send a video.

Ava got ready for bed. She was amazed that it was not even midnight. As she lay there, she thought about everything. The trip. The old stories. The new stories. Jay. The day with Dennis. Sure, she hadn’t found Angeline, but she’d work on that when she got back. She’d come to Europe thinking she’d visit a few sites, make her boss happy, save her job, and have a nice time with her grandfather. But what she’d found was so much more. Her chest felt full, or maybe it was her heart.

Yes, definitely her heart.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Ava hung the camera bag on one shoulder and her satchel on the other, and walked away from the rental car. After leaving Linz, they made their way to the town of Mauthausen, near the concentration camp with the same name. Beyond the grass was a wide river, blue-gray. It flowed gently, peacefully. She set up and filmed the river for a few minutes and then scanned the hillsides. Lush, green meadows. Scatterings of trees. Just a few small farms dotted here and there.

Beautiful.

The countryside around the town of Mauthausen reminded her of the movie
The Sound of Music
. It had the same rolling hills and a large blue sky that seemed bigger than the one back home.

“It’s the Danube.” Her grandfather’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

“Yes, and it’s beautiful.” She wanted to turn the camera on him but refrained. She continued to film the river and countryside and let the audio pick up his voice. She would film him later. Surely when he was part of the ceremony, he wouldn’t mind having a camera in his face.

“It’s beautiful here. I didn’t expect this.”

“It is.” He cleared his throat. “That day started out like this—the day that we got here the first time. But later it rained huge sheets of water. The Germans who surrendered at the concentration camp and were walking behind our jeeps back to headquarters were drenched. It seemed like God was crying with us.”

Ava nodded and listened. She watched him and tried to memorize this moment—her grandfather, the beauty of the countryside. His words that tried to express all he felt but couldn’t. His eyes that in a strange way explained more.

Ava smiled at his words, but she had something else she needed to talk to him about. “Grandpa, I’ve wanted to talk to you this whole trip, and I’ve failed. Before we go up there today, I need to apologize. That conversation we had at Thanksgiving—you were right. I was focusing all my attention on Jay and my job more than God. I’m sorry that I told you that my life wasn’t any of your business. I can see now how brave it was for you to say something to me.”

“Ava, dear, you were forgiven as soon as the words were out of your mouth. I knew you didn’t like to hear my words, but I was hoping they would sink in.”

He paused and looked to the high hill. In the distance, she could barely make out the tall, stone walls of the camp. Horror in the midst of beauty.

“I found God here, you know,” he finally said. “As you probably saw from my letters, I struggled with my faith all through the war. How could God let all this happen? That’s what I wanted to know.

“Then the day I opened those camp gates, He changed me. There were thousands and thousands of prisoners. They were no more than skin and bones. They told us about working in the quarry. They were beaten, starved. I saw what evil and sin does, and God reminded me that He was the way out. If we come to Him, continually, He opens the gates. If we follow Him, He leads.”

He reached into his back pocket, and Ava could hear the rustling of paper. When he held them out to her, she noticed they were letters. “Here are three more letters I brought with me. There are more at home, but they’re just news and boring reports. I’m not proud of my anger at God during this time. Looking back, I’m surprised I wrote home in my pained state. I suppose I had to get those feelings out somewhere, and deep down I knew my parents would love and accept me, no matter what. Two letters tell of my pain and the last one…well, a new freedom, but you’ll see.”

Ava tucked them in her purse. “Thank you, Grandpa, for trusting me with these. I’m eager to read them, the last one especially.”

They stood there, watching the river for a while, and then she finally spoke again. “Has being here after all these years helped you find freedom in all of it?” She wondered about Chenogne, but she refused to ask. In his own time he would tell her.

“No. I can’t say it has. Even at my age, I’m still a work in progress.” He fiddled with the buttons on his dress shirt.

She finished filming and then packed her things. “Should we go see if the other guys are ready?” She didn’t want to press and ask him to explain. He had enough on his mind today. Besides, it wasn’t like they needed to find complete closure before they headed home. They still had weeks and months in front of them to talk, to understand.

“Sure. We don’t want to be late,” he said.

Ava glanced at her cell phone for the time. They didn’t have to be at the camp to meet Martha, the head of the memorial committee, for an hour, but for her grandfather anything less than very early was late. She hadn’t gotten cell service since they left Linz, and the Internet hadn’t been back online that morning. She was glad she’d gotten off the last of her videos on Thursday. And if all went as planned, she’d send some footage of today’s ceremonies when they traveled down to Vienna to catch the flight home tomorrow.

Has the time really gone this quickly?
It didn’t seem possible.

Dennis was waiting by the car when they approached. Grand-Paul was already seated in the front seat.

Grandpa Jack climbed into the backseat, slamming the door.

“I think they’re eager to get there.” She offered Dennis a hug.

Dennis kissed the top of her forehead. “I think so. Everyone should have a day when they’re celebrated as a hero. Our grandfathers deserve this.”

“Yes, they do.”

The two-lane road up to the concentration camp from Mauthausen village was busier than she guessed it was any other time of the year. Cars snaked up the hill, as well as tour buses with advertisements in various languages displayed on their sides.