Together in Another Place (4 page)

●

Simon
walked purposefully away, conscious that the time of evening roll-call was fast
approaching, a tally of those in his block.

He
turned the corner of the building that housed Harriette’s family, noticing the
faces at the window, the looks of curiosity and bewilderment that he should
still be about. It was far too close to ‘appel zeit’ but he felt a sense of
elation at having been able to confess all that he felt for a girl, his lovely
Harriette, for that was how he thought of her now. In a moment, a few more
steps, and he would be at the door of his block.

A
deep authoritative voice startled him.

‘Was
tun sie?’

He
heard the crunch of boots on the gravel of the path, also the hollow sound of
clogs. It seemed an SS patrol and some orderlies had discovered him at the very
beginning of the curfew.

However,
he chose to keep on walking and consulted his watch as he did so. It was but a
minute or so past the designated time and he thought it of no great consequence.
He dodged nimbly around the corner and headed for the door. It would not open.

‘Halt!’

He
felt restraining hands on his arms, then the push in his back. It made him
stumble and he grabbed at his cap just to be sure it wasn’t lost to him if he fell.
He soon recovered his balance and turned.

‘Papers!’
the officer demanded and snapped his fingers impatiently before holding out his
hand. ‘Be quick…idiot! I asked, what are you doing out here?’

Simon
did as was commanded but met the German’s stare with an even look of his own.

‘Was
tun sie?’ he was asked again.

‘What
are you doing?’ an orderly asked, helpfully or so it seemed.

‘I
know very well what he said!’ Simon replied in tight lipped rage. ‘I’ve had
some practice, along with everyone else…in the years since they came here!’

‘Don’t
get clever,’ he was advised in Dutch by another orderly. ‘It won’t help you,
one bit…’

‘I’ll
bear it in mind,’ Simon sighed. He knew it himself. How close heaven and hell
were just then.

‘Do
that!’

‘What
has he got to say for himself?’ the officer now asked.

Simon’s
papers were unremarkable and the German tapped them against the palm of his
hand as he waited for an explanation. It seemed improbable that any would be
accepted.

‘You’d
better answer him, given your German is so good,’ the first orderly advised.

Simon
let the sarcasm pass him by.

‘I’m
a moment late. I was saying good night to someone. Why make a fuss? You could
see I was at the door…’

‘Regeln
sind regeln!’

The
officer shouted the words, trying to intimidate him, but Simon merely shrugged
his shoulders in reply. It made no sense baiting the man but it all seemed far
too petty to be treated in this way; a mistake had been made, although being in
Harriette’s presence for as long as possible couldn’t be thought of in those
terms. He knew that, to the German, rules were rules.

‘I’m
sorry…I’ll obey…next time.’

Simon
held out his hand hoping for the return of his papers.

‘Are
you crazy, behaving like this?’

Simon
saw the man nod and then felt a blow from a rifle butt to the back of his
knees. They buckled and he stumbled before falling to the ground, breaking his
fall with his hands; one still clutched his precious cap. He chose to remain
kneeling in case other blows followed. He had seen often enough on the streets
of his home city, the acts that the occupier resorted to in the process of
humiliating and cowing members of the population, and of his faith.

‘Perhaps
a night in the detention block will clear you head?’ the officer suggested as
he stood over Simon. ‘Tell this man…Gerritse…what could happen if he gives you
any more trouble.’ He made to walk away but stopped. ‘Oh…and tell him that his
name will be on the list next Tuesday. The train journey out of here will
correct any remaining doubts he may still have on who is really in charge in
Westerbork.’

With
that their meeting was at an end.

Simon’s
papers were thrown to the ground and the officer turned his back on them all.

‘Kom!’
he commanded his own men and Simon was left to deal with the orderlies.

‘You’re
a fool,’ an unsympathetic voice soon told him. ‘Why take a chance with
everything?’

‘Life’s
too short,’ Simon replied in an instant for it was what he believed, intensely
now.

He
had known very quickly what he felt about Harriette; in no time at all he had
blurted it all out to her and, moments ago, he had given her a small quickly
fashioned gift from a few wires that he had salvaged from aircraft equipment that
he had been ordered to dismantle. A risk had been taken doing that and it had
made him late. Now he’d fallen foul of the camp’s authorities. Trouble ran in
pairs.

No,
that wasn’t right. He was on a train list, or soon would be.

His
days were numbered, so the saying went. Harriette would be spared the knowledge
of it for as long as it was possible to keep the news from her.

‘Answer
the question!’

‘What
was it that you asked me?’

‘Why
get an early ticket out of here? Why draw attention to yourself?’

‘I…I
met someone…’

‘Well, you’d better
make the most of the time you’ve got left,’ the orderly, who seemed to be in charge
of the group, told him now as he knocked on the door. The count would have to
be interrupted to allow Simon entry. ‘I can let you into the dormitory block…I
can’t change what the lieutenant has told you. Sorry.’

●

The
days were drawing out and the thin evening sunshine was welcome. Families had
chosen to take a stroll before curfew. Children played; their shouts and carefree
laughter filling the air as they chased each other, when they skipped or played
tag. In spite of their confinement, mothers and fathers told them not to stray
too far.

Folk
talked in huddles, exchanged news or confidences, expressed concerns about the
future. Perhaps, some even tempted providence; they talked about Tuesday’s call
for those to leave for the East, or about the health of weaker brethren, or the
passing away of a loved one weakened by circumstances that prevailed all around
them in their daily lives. The change in emotional well-being accounted for some,
just as their weakened physical condition hastened the end of others.

Harriette
walked beside him and held onto Simon’s arm whenever discretion could be
relaxed or parental interest was not upon them.

‘Are
you wearing it now, the necklace?’ he asked. Simon gave her arm a
conspiratorial squeeze.

‘Yes.
No one knows of it…the secret’s ours.’

She
gave him a pouted smile and responded to his touch as, with a single purposeful
step, Simon stopped and turned to her. Others on the path made their way past them
and Simon saw Harriette glance at her parents. They too had stopped to talk to
people they seemed to know, or out of a sense of communal spirit. The distance
between them had lengthened; they had walked slowly, with less intent other
than to prolong their time together.

‘What
is it?’ she now asked him.

‘I
have something that I have to tell you…that I cannot keep to myself any
longer.’

‘Tell
me! Tell me!’ she cried out in dismay. Simon’s deeper voice betrayed his
concern for how she would react to the news.

‘I’m
on Tuesday’s list,’ he said directly.

‘How
do you know?’ she exclaimed in shocked surprise. ‘How can that be? It’s all
decided upon in the morning of the day…on cabaret day! How can you know
it...now?’

She
had been provoked into crying it all out, every distressing thought, when
Simon’s stilled look upon her could be endured no longer. It seemed to her,
then, that he was committing to memory every detail of her face and wishing
that his circumstances were otherwise.

‘I
was late…that night.’

‘What
night…you…you mean, when you gave me this?’

Harriette
fumbled for the necklace, sought to pull it clear of the tight collar on her
blouse.

‘Don’t…don’t
break it…please?’ he said in a muted voice. He wished to be sure that it was on
her, close to Harriette’s skin for as long as they were together in the camp
and then…beyond its barbed wire boundaries and their closed in world.

‘I
didn’t want you getting into trouble over it!’ she now said in a fearful voice
as the full meaning of what Simon had told her became clear. In two days he
would be gone and they would be lost to each other, unable to communicate. She
pulled on his arm and then clutched it fiercely and possessively. ‘Come, we
must catch up. Mother and Pa will be wondering…’

‘That
we want to be alone together.’ He gave her a soft teasing smile.

‘Yes,
there’s that,’ she couldn’t keep from smiling either.

‘Now,
don’t be rough with my present…’

‘As
you command…’

‘No,
as I ask of you…beg of you if you want.’

‘I
certainly don’t want that of you…to beg! Now…as you can see, it’s not damaged.’

She
made a point of showing him the necklace and the pendant with its piece of
quartz still perfectly intact.

Harriette
broke free of his gentle hold upon her and walked away.

‘Wait!
Wait…lievert!’ He saw her hunch her shoulders as if in acknowledgement of the
endearment he had spoken out and she stopped. ‘Don’t be cross with me…’

‘I’m
not that! I’m frightened for you! There’s a difference!’

‘I
know…’ he said softly, chastened by her rebuke. ‘I wouldn’t have missed that
moment with you the other night for anything in the world. It meant everything
to me…everything.’

‘Not
enough that you got yourself into trouble over it. You’ll be leaving me, here.’

Her
voice trembled as she said it and now Harriette flung her arms about his neck
and embraced him, unashamedly.

‘See
how it is for me, now?’ she kissed.

‘’Lievert…’

‘What
am I to do?’

‘Keep
what I made, for only you, safe. Keep it close to your skin…my hands made
it…they’re the only touch…’

‘I
will still have of you…when you are gone.’

She
said it between kisses, oblivious to the scene she was making. After a moment
Simon eased from her embrace and held Harriette’s hands possessively as they
stood facing each other.

‘I…I
spoke out of turn,’ he confessed now. ‘I was happy…so happy to have given the
necklace to you and to see you wear it…that you wanted it. I forgot who I was
dealing with when the German stopped me. I stood up for myself against the
people that run this place. I resisted, when I should have conceded…’

‘No,
Simon, never do that! Don’t change,’ she asserted. ‘Be the man I see…the man
I’m learning about and beginning to love.’

Harriette
saw once again the cheeky grin crease his face; she saw Simon doff his cap to
her before he gave an elaborate bow.

‘Madam
has her ways…her lovely ways of singing and dancing. I loved you from the
moment I first saw you…’

His
elaborate avowal of how it had been for him was interrupted.

‘What’s
keeping you?’ Ma called out.

‘Isn’t
it obvious?’ Simon said under his breath. The way he’d said it made Harriette
laugh. ‘Do that again, on the stage. It changes everything…whenever I hear it.’

‘I’ll
keep it just for you…’

‘Every
day…every minute…’

‘Yes…yes,’
she whispered and sought to hold his hand once more. ‘I don’t know how…but
we’ve found each other.’

‘We’re
in another place….’

‘Yes.’
She stopped them walking on to close the space between them and her parents. ‘I
have something to tell you…call it my confession. I…I haven’t been asked to
sing again. While you were at your work…I went to the camp theatre. I was told
that there’s no news on the next concert…that should concern me.’

‘I’m…I’m
sorry for you,’ he says and there is a sense that it is true. ‘We may leave together…live
on in some other way…’

Harriette
heard a deeply felt wish being expressed and knew that she clung to that hope
too.

‘It
may turn out to be that way…’

‘And…you
won’t be alone…’

‘No,’
she looked at him fondly and soon realised the contrast in their circumstances.

‘I
hope for your sake, Harriette…that your mother, father…and Betty will be with
you…’

‘As
you will be…’

Harriette
raised her hands to his cheeks to make Simon look her in the eyes and she saw
acknowledgment of a truth. However it would be for them, they would find strive
to find a way to be together if they were destined to leave the camp on
Tuesday’s train. It went beyond a transient physical touch that belonged to
them alone; they shared a unity of spirit and the will to survive the tumult in
their lives.