On Saturday, Anton and Patty went on a picnic with Paul and Elizabeth. Elizabeth fried chicken and made potato salad, and Patty brought soft drinks and rolls from the store. She also brought a Black Forest cake she'd baked herself.

"I don't know how it's gonna taste," she said nervously. "It's the first cake I've ever made." She glanced shyly at her friend. "Anton helped me."

"I simply provided the recipe and helped her find the ingredients," said Anton. "Patty did all the work herself."

"Well, it looks really yummy." Elizabeth cut a slice of cake, put it on a paper plate, and passed it to Paul, who tasted it right away.

"This is delicious!" he said. "Just like my mother makes it."

"Thanks," said Patty.

"Where is your mother from?" Anton asked Paul.

"We're originally from Berlin," Paul replied. "We lived in Wisconsin when I was a child, and then we moved back before the war. You're from the northwest, sounds like. Hamburg?"

"Gottingen," Anton told him. "My father is a history professor."

"Mine was a farming equipment manufacturer," said Paul. "Now he's helping rebuild structures damaged in the war."

"It is good that there is work for him to do," said Anton.

"Oh, there's plenty of work for him to do, all right." Paul patted Anton's shoulder. "We got ourselves a bad reputation from that war. It'll take us a long time to live it down."

Anton nodded. "I know."

Max, whose face was smeared with frosting, held a bit of cake to Laura's lips.

"She's too little to eat cake." Elizabeth picked her daughter up and held her. "How's Sammy?" she asked Patty.

"About the same."

After the picnic, Paul and Elizabeth took their children back home. Anton and Patty walked along with them.

"What would you like to do next?" Anton asked Patty when they were alone.

"I don't know. What do you want to do?"

"We could see what's playing at the movies," Anton suggested.

He drove her to the theater in town, where they watched 'The White Tower' starring Glenn Ford and Alida Valli. Afterwards, they went for a walk in the cool summer night air. Anton's arm was around Patty, holding her tight.

"Is it really that dangerous to climb in the Alps?" asked Patty.

"It can be," Anton replied. "Even if you go prepared, there are unexpected hazards like avalanches."

Patty giggled. "I don't think I'd mind being caught in an avalanche with you."

Anton frowned. "I think you underestimate the seriousness of the situation." His face relaxed, and he smiled. "But if I ever were caught in an avalanche, you are the only person I would want to be with." He laughed, then spun her around, then kissed her, but it wasn't like the kiss he'd given her before leaving to catch the train six years before. This kiss had a longing, an aching, an urgency which made her head spin and took her breath away.

"You have to help me," Patty said to Elizabeth. "Tomorrow's Anton's birthday, and I want to bake him a cake, but I don't know how!"

"Can I help?" asked seven-year-old Ginny Walton, Elizabeth's niece.

Elizabeth smiled. "Of course! The more, the merrier. Now, what kind of cake do you think he'd like?"

"I know he likes Black Forest cake, and he says his mother makes something called a torte sometimes."

"I never even heard of that!" said Elizabeth.

"I remember too, he mentioned cake with apples and cinnamon once."

"I don't know how to make that, but I do know how to make an applesauce cake," said Elizabeth.

"I guess he'd like that just about as good - I hope."

"Sure he would," said Elizabeth. She got out the ingredients, and the three of them - Elizabeth, Patty, and Ginny - made an applesauce cake with caramel frosting.

"Happy birthday!" Patty said when Anton came to pick her up the next day.

"Thank you!" he replied with a grin.

"I got you this." Patty handed him a small package. "It isn't much. I made it myself."

Anton opened the package to find a birthday card with wood texture images on it and a homemade bookmark. It was made of leather, and his name was engraved on it.

"This is really nice, P.B.! I can tell you put a lot of work into it."

"I learned how in shop class back in middle school."

"Well, you did a great job on it. Thank you. I will always treasure it." He kissed her lips. "What would you like to do today?"

"I promised Elizabeth I'd visit her again today."

"Well - all right." He sounded just a tad disappointed. "If that's what you really want to do."

"It is."

Elizabeth looked out the window and saw them coming. She got everything ready, and when Patty knocked, she threw open the door.

"Happy birthday, Anton! Come on in!"

Anton and Patty entered the house to see the applesauce cake sitting on the table beside a bowl of punch. Paper plates and cups and plastic silverware were also on the table. Ginny sat in one of the chairs around the table, beaming.

"Happy birthday, Anton!" she called.

"Thank you, sweetheart." Anton chuckled softly to himself as his eyes took in the sight. "P.B., you're really something else! I don't quite know what to say!"

"I helped bake the cake," Ginny put in.

"It looks like a real masterpiece," said Anton. "I cannot wait to taste it."

"We have to sing 'Happy Birthday' to you first," said Elizabeth, so they did. Then she sliced the cake and gave everyone a piece, starting with Anton.

"It's the best cake I've ever tasted," he said, after he'd tried it. "This is all so nice. You didn't have to go to all this trouble for me, but since you did, I thank you all."

"You're very welcome," said Elizabeth.