Epilogue

They shared a little cottage near the offices of the Radio Security Service. Cosima would work on the project to jam guidance systems for the A-4, or V-2, rockets, while Delphine was allowed to contribute her talents to aid the Voluntary Interceptors, or "Secret Listeners," who monitored wireless transmissions from all over Europe. Cosima came home frustrated more often than not, but would be easily soothed by Delphine's ministrations. It wasn't much later that it was discovered that the rockets had no wireless guidance systems, after all, as they rained down on England, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. With the Germans being pushed back and so many resources being aimed at anti-missile artillery and already decodable wireless transmissions, Cosima's request to be allowed to return to California was accepted. Little did she know, she would see some of the German scientists responsible for the V-2 rockets years later, delivering a lecture on their work in the American space program, later to become the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA.)

Scott and Danielle maintained occasional contact, but agreed to end their romantic relationship not long after his transfer. With Cosima's departure, he was to remain in England just past the German surrender and V-E Day. Upon his honourable discharge, he joined Cosima and Delphine at the University of California, Berkeley, where they each completed their doctorates in Microbiology or, in Delphine's case, Medicine. They would later share stories of the "weird goings-on in the Radiation Lab," and how amazed they were when they found out that the lab had played a big part in the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, forcing the swift end of the war in the Pacific. The horror and conflict between moral and strategic narratives would haunt them the rest of their lives. Scott would eventually move to Minneapolis to take a position at the University. He and his wife, Alison, raised two children whose fondness for "Auntie Cosima," to their mother's irritation, sometimes seemed to border on obsession.

Danielle, given stewardship of Delphine's apartment in Paris and the Cormier country home, continued to aid the needy in Paris through the end of the war. The sale of a number of Delphine's belongings was arranged, and the profits donated to help the Lafranges afford a new home, where the much-revered docteur and his wife returned to their practice. Much to their joy, their son who had gone off when the Germans invaded returned to them safely, surprising them by bringing a very pregnant Romani wife with him. The Lafranges accepted her with open arms.

Suddenly, the news came that Delphine's cousin, Laurent, had returned from a dubious period of hiding in Morocco. Delphine and Cosima were finally able to visit the Cormier estate, and share time roaming the haunts of Delphine's youth. After the cousins' joyful reunion, Laurent helped convert the home to a refuge for orphans and battered women, while living in the guest property and becoming a riding instructor to the local upper class.

Meanwhile, Danielle returned to journalism, becoming the political hound of an editor at a well-respected news magazine. She eventually happily remarried, but had no children, preferring to devote her nurturing to an adopted pack of stray dogs, whom Delphine and Cosima came to refer to as "the problem children," with affection. She was much-respected and received multiple awards. A bust commemorating her was commissioned and placed in the park near her birthplace, two years after her death in 1996.

As the Nuremburg trials of Nazi leaders progressed between 1945 and 1949, it became clear that Öberführer Aldous Werner Heidenreich von Leekie was not considered important enough to warrant being captured and arrested. Although Delphine claimed to have banished him from her daily thoughts, there were times, now and then, when she would awake in the night, thrashing and crying, and Cosima would have to hold her until she could fall back asleep. In 1953, she sat up in bed with wide eyes, and uttered to her partner "I dreamt I killed him." Four months later, they received a small press clipping from a French paper in the mail, containing the information that the body of this Nazi "infamous for his devilish acts as a top S.S. administrator in Paris" had been found in a shallow ditch near Bratislava, bearing multiple contusions and the marks of a noose around his neck. Curiously, although he had been in plain clothes, a portion of his former uniform bearing his name tag and singed at the edges was found arranged in his hand. No suspects were ever named, and no witnesses found. Danielle claimed no knowledge of the affair or the mailed clipping.

Die Klinge had been killed in a bombing in Berlin at the very end of the war. Klaus Barbie, the infamous "Butcher of Lyon," who was finally extradited to France for trial for war crimes in 1983 from Bolivia, where the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps had helped him flee in return for his help in anti-communist and interrogation efforts, once said from his prison cell: "Die Klinge was the most precise and committed interrogator I ever knew. If he had been alive, Che Guevara wouldn't have lived past [the age of] 38."

Unfortunately, Gaizka suffered infections to his wounds. A British medical team, guided by an ambulance driver called Sarah Manning, found him and brought him back to a field hospital for treatment. Despite a double amputation, he did not survive. As no family could be found or contacted, he was buried in Ranville War Cemetery in Normandy, France.

Delphine and Cosima settled in San Francisco, close to their dear friend Felix. The war and its end had seen an influx of homosexuals to the city, and, although things were never easy, they found support in that community. Some years later, after some troubles with a predatory employer, Delphine found herself in need of full citizenship, and she and Felix, who had found someone to pull strings to get his a few years earlier, were nominally and quietly married, solving legal issues for both of them. They divorced some time later, but Cosima would routinely refer to her beloved life partner as "Mrs. Dawkins" when she found them having one of their excited chats about fashion.

Sarah Manning, her daughter, and her husband Cal were able to visit twice, the reunion of the foster siblings leading to a full day of joyful tears, and some trouble with the law at a local bar later that night. Felix visited them in London as often as possible, and became godfather and close friend to his niece, Kira.

After achieving some infamy due to dalliances with wealthy young gentlemen under his riding instruction, Laurent made his way to San Francisco and charmed his way into the household in record time. To no-one's surprise, he and Felix began a life-long, on-again/off-again affair-cum-friendship, sometimes partners in bed, sometimes partners in crime. Laurent became a bartender, a well-loved local party host and raconteur, and later co-owner of and mainstay at a popular gay nightclub. He was mourned greatly by the community upon his passing, in 1989, from AIDS-related complications.

In their early forties, Delphine and Cosima took in a local street youth, Alvin Carter. They were unable to obtain official guardianship before he reached legal adulthood, but later were able to formally adopt him, in a meaningful expression of love shared between them, his girlfriend and their now-adoptive grandchild. When he assumed the office of City Councilman some years later, his acceptance speech was punctuated by a heartfelt homage of thanks that a homeless, half-African American, half-Filipino kid could be taken in by a loving couple of two women who had survived discrimination for who they were and near-death fighting the good fight in World War II, and be raised to be a strong, committed person who would use his position to help the community. He served three terms, married his girlfriend (now a Child Psychologist and author,) and had two more children. He currently works as the CEO of an international non-profit organization helping disenfranchised youth and promoting understanding between cultures.

In the 1970s, Cosima won the first of two awards for distinguished contributions to the field of microbiology. In the 1980s, Delphine took a teaching position at a well-respected medical school.

Kira moved to San Francisco in 1969, wanting to be part of the Gay Rights Revolution. Although she faced difficulties on and off for years for identifying as bisexual, and then polyamorous, society eventually caught up with her, somewhat. In 2002, she became the popular star of a reality show called "Kira Knows All," following her New-Age lifestyle and her work as an acclaimed psychic. She retired to the mountains in Colorado in 2010, but still produces a weekly podcast.

Her mother and father passed in 1999 and 1997, respectively, both in their sleep. Her uncle Felix, after at last gaining recognition for his painting late in life, enjoyed a period of international acclaim, popularity and travel, until his mysterious disappearance from a sinking yacht in 2009. His body was found, two years later and only recently deceased, on a small island off of Tahiti. There was a garland of flowers on his head, a coconut bowl of the local, mildly intoxicating and euphoria-inducing kava drink by his side, and a serene smile on his face.

Scott Smith and his wife, Alison, live with their grandchildren near Bonita Springs, Florida. They attribute their long lives to love, clean living (Alison joined AA in 1980) and being avid golfers. They still root for their favourites on the PGA Champions tour, although Scott can no longer hear the announcers.

In June, 2008, Ms. Cosima Niehaus and Ms. Delphine Cormier were legally married at a small senior housing community in San Francisco, California. They shared one last trip to France, as their "honeymoon," this time with their children and grandchildren accompanying them.

Their children and grandchildren still visit them, in a small patch of private land, beneath a group of towering sequoias, where their ashes were scattered. There is a small marker there, reading:

Cosima and Delphine Cormier-Niehaus
1916-2008

The life that I have/Is all that I have/And the life that I have/Is yours.
The love that I have/Of the life that I have/Is yours and yours and yours.
A sleep I shall have/A rest I shall have/Yet death will be but a pause
For the peace of my years/In the long green grass/Will be yours and yours and yours.

Ils se disent, ma colombe/Que tu rêves, morte encore/
Sous la pierre d'une tombe/Mais pour l'âme qui t'adore
Tu t'éveilles ranimée/Ô pensive bien-aimée!

FIN.

End Notes: The epitaphs are taken from two poems. The first, The Life That I Have, seems simple, but it was actually a poem code written by a cryptographer from the SOE, a British organization that conducted espionage and sabotage in occupied France, to use as a code key for a young French-English woman who was sent to spy on the Germans in the waning months of the occupation of France. You can read more about it here (remove spaces): en. wikipedia wiki/ The_Life_That_I_Have

The second is an excerpt from the poem L'Enamourée (The Beloved,) written by Théodore de Banville in 1859. You can find the full poem and two translations here (remove spaces): www. poemswithoutfrontiers LEnamouree. htm, meredith. bandcamp track/ l-enamoureee and a version of the poem set to music by Reynaldo Hahn on my playlist for this story at theswanandthedove. blogspot. com

Thank you for reading.