51.
~ "It's not correct to say the Germans. It's not Germany who cause the war in Europe." Beth said.
"I was there." Ariadne told her knitting a pair baby booties from her spot on the sofa. Beth was typing again. "I know who was shooting at us. Who was bombing us."
"We're supposed to say the Nazis, not the Germans. There's a difference." The socialite said. "The Nazis are a fascist faction of Germans. Just because they are the loudest, doesn't men they speak for all the people of Germany." Beth told her.
"Where did you learn this?" Ariadne laughed. It was a well practiced speech that Beth treated with reverence.
"We have a lot of German refugees coming in right now. They don't like to be grouped together in Hitler's madness. A lot of them were just as much a victim of that mad man as anyone else."
"I see." Ariadne said.
"So, you were in Paris, tell me about how my brother tricked you into marrying him." Beth said.
"Well, it wasn't overnight." Ariadne told her with a smile at the memory. Summer was bearing down on the city and the windows to the girls apartment were open and letting in fresh air.
Ariadne missed Paris. Dieing of summer flowers in the field where she and Arthur had eaten a picnic.
"He took me to see if my Uncles family was still there." Ariadne said. The countryside was still dangerous, but we drove there. On the way we had a picnic. I told him more about the evacuation." Ariadne said thinking about her charming Captain in that field. The way he listened to her and asked no questions as she tired to make sense of the evacuation.
"We went to the house and found it had been looted. Everything had been stolen. The furniture, even the wiring had been stripped out. My uncle and his family were long gone." She sighed.
Beth stopped her typing.
"What do you think happened to them?" Beth asked in a whisper.
Ariadne shrugged as if she didn't really care.
"Who knows? We were told the police, not the Gestapo took them. They never came back. It doesn't matter now." Ariadne said. She furrowed her brow as she realized she dropped a stitch.
"The cook told us my Cousin Phillip had run away before the police came." Ariadne said helpfully. But I have no way of finding out what happened to him. She said as if it made no difference.
~ Robert came to see her. He brought her a neatly packaged lunch and told her it was Chinese food.
"You'll love it." He promised as he showed her how to eat with chop sticks.
"How can you eat with these?" She said feeling deeply frustrated.
Robert only laughed.
"You'll learn. You need to take advantage of all the different cultures that live in this city." He told her.
"How is your dad?" She asked impaling a piece of chicken with her stick and eating it that way.
"Better. He misses you." Robert said. "I want to thank you for the time you've given me with him. He talks to me now like he never has before."
Ariadne smiled to herself.
"How is Cobb?" She asked. Robert looked uncomfortable.
"His wife checked him into the hospital last night." Robert said sadly. "Seems he was having a bad episode. He couldn't calm down. Kept yelling at her. Police were called and they brought him to the hospital."
"Oh God." Ariadne said. She couldn't imagine the soft spoken Colonel acting that way.
"We have him on medication. Were hoping he will take the therapy. His wife is threatening to leave him if he doesn't. He loves her. He doesn't want that to happen."
Her thoughts went to Arthur. Her Major was much less passive then Cobb. What would he be like if he came home.
As if reading her mind, Robert said:
"I'm sure Arthur won't be like that. According to Mal, Cobb was never meant to be a soldier."
She nodded. Arthur was made of a different stock then Cobb. But still, what would he be like when he came home.
"I keep thinking what I'm going to say to him once he's home." Ariadne said. "So much time has gone by."
"Let's not think about it till the time comes." Robert said giving her a fork. He had pitty on the poor girl who couldn't eat with chop sticks.
"I brought you something." Robert said handing her a large soft cover book.
"What is it?" She asked.
"NYU catalog." Robert said. "I've done some checking around, you can do most of your basic's through correspondence. You had some college in Paris before the war, but you might have to take the classes again."
"Robert." Ariadne said in surprise. She liked this gift even more then the baby shoes.
"You also don't have to take a few classes. Your nursing background makes you exempt." He said pleasantly.
She felt her eyes water as she looked over each course. An excitement stirring in her at the idea of going back to school.
Maybe, with Robert's help. She could make it work.
~ "Ariadne." Beth said one evening a few weeks later. "I didn't want to say anything until I knew for sure, but I received a telegram from London the other day." Beth said.
The pretty nurse felt her heart pump too hard suddenly. Her vision fluttering as she felt dizzy.
"Is it Arthur?" She whispered.
Beth shook her head.
"No. No it not Arthur." Beth said with a smile. "No. I have a contact at the paper who is helping people find family in Europe. Ariadne, I found Phillip." She said.
~ Arthur wasn't debriefed from his mission until almost June. His arm had healed and he was disgusted by the ugly scar on his right arm.
"Dames love scars." A cocky soldier said.
"I doubt my wife will." Arthur laughed.
~ He had been placed back on active duty. His wounds not severe enough anymore to cause him to stay in the hospital. He was sent back to Paris to help keep the peace. His days were lonely as he didn't know anyone he worked with now. The Paris he had been in a year ago, was different now. It was like that Paris had been a beautiful dream. He had been so happy. He was with his friends, and he had a beautiful nurse to take out.
Now, ever face he saw was a stranger.
Not even Trixie or anyone from before was left in Paris. The war was ending and he felt like the last person at the party. The one who was help cleaning up the mess.
There was a lot of work to be done. France seemed to have her sprint broken. Her people were sadden by the news paper reports of concentration camps. Pictures flooding news reels and upsetting women as they unshared their children out.
~ "Major, I know it took a long time to do these interviews, but we have a lot to go over." A high ranking general said.
"I understand, Sir." Arthur said stiffly. He hadn't been able to contact Ariadne in almost 6 months now and she surely Believed he was dead.
He spent days with this general giving him details of the camp. The men who captured him, his liberation and the march into Berlin. The general asked about the camps he saw the bodies that looked like old socks and most of all, about Colonel Burch.
"I was hoping to contact Colonel Burch as well." Arthur said remembering the Colonel who had taken the younger man under his wing. Who had saved him and brought him back from the brink.
"Major, I'm afraid the colonel was killed in Berlin a few months ago." The general said.
Arthur felt his ears start to ring. His mind not able to understand.
"No, Colonel Nathaniel Burch." Arthur said. It was a mistake. Surely they had made a mistake.
The general nodded.
"He took some fire a few days after you were evacuated." The general said. "He wrote a very flattering letter of recommendation about you. Recommended you for promotion and another Bronze Star."
"Colonel Nathaniel Burch." Arthur argued not listening to the general.
"I know you were close to him, Major." The general said sympathetically. "Right now were are interviewing all his surviving men. He is on the short list to receive the Medal of Honor."
Arthur said nothing as he couldn't seem to think. The colonel had told him he thought of him as a son. He would never see him again.