Anna traced her daughter's tiny features. That upturned nose so like her own, those blue eyes and that wisp of dark hair... Perfect.
"Yes," she cooed. "You are so perfect."
"Anna?" She looked up from the bundle of blankets. There in the doorway stood...
"Ilse!" Her friend ducked her head shyly, an unnatural gesture for her. "Come here!" Anna patted the bed, flushed with pleasure.
Ilse cautiously crossed the room and sank down beside Anna. "I was passing through town and met Thea. She told me." Leaning over to examine the baby she asked, "Boy or girl?"
"Girl. Would you like to hold her?"
"I don't think I should," said Ilse quickly.
"Don't be such a baby," Anna chided gently. "Come on. Put one hand under her like so, and support her head with the other." She carefully placed Ilse's hands under her daughter's swaddled body. "There."
"Anna, take her back, I'll drop her!"
"You're fine! Look, she likes you!"
Ilse and the baby stared at each other for a moment, then Ilse's face melted into a silly smile. "She's beautiful, Anna. She really is. Does she have a name yet?"
"Eva Wendla Zirshnitz," Anna recited proudly.
"Wendla."
"I thought... because she's the first baby of any of us... and Wendla would have been the first to have a baby..." She was flailing. How could it be explained, that urge to commemorate the friend beyond help?
"I think Wendla would have been very pleased," Ilse murmured, stroking Eva's cheek. "She loved babies."
"Yes." They fell silent, Anna picking at a loose thread on the quilt and Ilse staring dreamily into Eva's eyes, completely sucked in.
Ilse finally handed Eva back. "I should probably be off, you need rest."
"I'm fine, really!" protested Anna. "Where have you been? What have you been doing? I haven't seen you since the wedding!"
"I've been here and there," Ilse said, playing with a lock of hair that had escaped from Anna's loose braid. "We – my friends from Priapia and I – have been traveling. Just walking, going through the mountains... Looking for adventures. Some nights we'd trade entertainment at inns for a room. We'd exchange our skills for food. We're going to Switzerland next, we just stopped for the day to take care of business."
"You're leaving again?"
"Of course. You know I hate staying still."
"But you only just got back!" Anna's voice rose with ill-concealed anxiety. "Thea and Otto are getting married next month! Aren't you going to stay for the wedding?"
"Anna, calm down!" cried Ilse, jumping up. "I shouldn't have come, I knew you'd do this. I really do have to go."
Anna began to cry, and Eva, sensing her unhappiness, joined her. "Ilse, please, can't you just stay? We've missed you!"
Ilse sat back down and wrapped her arms around her. "Don't cry, you're upsetting Eva. I'll be back again, and soon. I'll want to see this little one."
Anna wiped her eyes on the sheet and studied the woman beside her. She still had the wild brown hair and fierce gray-blue eyes, but something was different. Ilse had always looked ready for a fight, as if she could take on the world and return every punch. Now she looked weary, in need of someone to tell her to slow down. "Doesn't it ever get tiresome? Never knowing what you'll do or who you'll see. Don't you ever just want to come home? You could start a family of your own, and the four of us could raise our children together. That's what we always planned, remember?"
"That was when there were five, not four. I can't stay here, alright? There are too many ghosts."
"Two ghosts and eight living, breathing friends. Ilse, we're still here!"
"Goodbye." Ilse stood up and got as far as the door before running back and roughly kissing Anna's cheek. "Congratulations, Anna."
"They'll still catch up with you," Anna said, catching Ilse by the hand. "Those ghosts. It doesn't matter if you're here or in the Swiss Alps, they'll find a way."
Ilse smiled, and blew a kiss to Eva. "Not if I run fast enough."
Anna shook her head as she watched her friend disappear. "She'll be back," she whispered to Eva. "Maybe in a month, maybe in a year, I don't know when. But she'll get tired of running, and then she'll come home. And when she does, we'll be waiting for her." She absentmindedly jiggled the baby. "Eva, will your life be this complicated?" Eva cooed softly, and Anna smiled. "For some strange reason, I hope it is."