Odette's Secrets (10 page)

We'll never escape, not ever.

Soup, a Swing, and Another Secret

Our stomachs growl, louder and louder.

We've been on the train for hours,

with only a little bread and cheese to share.

But at last my friends and I arrive in Chavagnes-en-Paillers,

our new village in the Vendée.

Small houses encircle the church like a fallen halo.

The lady who came with us on the train

tells us we're going to live in one of these houses,

with a blacksmith's family.

We knock on a door.

A small woman lets us in.

She looks young, like a mother.

But she carries a cane like a grandmother.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

She takes us into her kitchen.

A pot of soup steams on the black iron stove.

I glance at it hopefully, but the woman says nothing.

A real grandmother knits nearby.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

The younger woman takes us into the garden,

to see pigeons in a dovecote.

A swing dangles beside it.

But then we march back across the kitchen,

past the steaming soup,

and up the stairs to a small bedroom.

The woman ushers us all inside and closes the door.

Even though it's summer, I feel cold.

Is it because I'm so hungry?

I sit on my fingers to keep them warm.

At last the woman speaks.

“Listen carefully, children,” she says.

“I'm Madame Raffin.

I'm going to take care of you.

If you do everything I tell you to do,

you can eat the soup and play with the pigeons.

First of all, never, ever say that you are Jewish,
no matter what
!

I'm going to teach you to make the sign of the cross.

When you can do that and say two longer prayers by heart,

I will open the door.”

The sign of the cross?

What's that?

Madame Raffin touches her forehead, her heart,

and each shoulder,

“In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,”

she says.

We copy her.

Is this praying?

I've never prayed before.

Madame shows us how to kneel and put our hands together

with our fingers pointing up.

“Our Father, who art in heaven,” we say after her,

the whole prayer, over and over.

Then, “Hail Mary, full of grace,” again and again.

I'm not sure what these words mean.

Madame Raffin says that's not important, not right now.

We just need to remember these words.

That way people will think we're Christians.

At last Madame Raffin is satisfied

that we know the prayers by heart,

that we won't make a mistake.

She takes our hands and squeezes them for courage.

“Never forget that you are Christians,” she says.

“Your fathers are French soldiers taken prisoner.

Your mothers have jobs in Paris.

They sent you to live in my house

so that you'll be well fed and safe.”

We promise.

I know it will be easy for me.

I am used to keeping secrets.

Madame Raffin opens the door.

Mmm … soup.

Odette and her foster family in Chavagnes-en-Paillers. Clockwise, from top left: Cécile Popowicz, Jacques Raffin, Paulette Klaper, Suzanne Klaper, Jean Raffin, and Odette, 1942

A New Life

For the rest of July and all of August,

we listen hard and speak little.

We watch everything.

We learn how to act

just like all the other village children.

Two brothers belong to our new family.

Jacques and Jean are the Raffins' sons and our teachers.

At first, Cécile, Paulette, Suzanne, and I feel shy with them.

But the boys aren't shy.

They show us how to hold the pigeons.

They tell us scary stories

about a ghost who lives at the bottom of the well.

We play hide-and-seek together in the garden.

They tease us and teach us riddles.

I've never had brothers and sisters before … it's fun.

Madame Raffin asks us to pick green beans and tomatoes.

All summer long we twist vegetables from their stems.

She takes us mushroom picking in the forest too.

Sometimes Monsieur Raffin takes us fishing.

He teaches us the names of all the glittering fish

we scoop up in his net.

We have so many good things to eat,

I almost forget

what it felt like to be hungry in Paris,

to sleep with my fists screwed up tight under my stomach

to make it feel full.

We don't have many toys,

but the grandfather of our house carves us whistles from reeds.

He shows us how to make toy pots and pans from acorns too.

Best of all,

we can go anywhere we like in our new village.

We can do anything anyone else can do.

No one knows that we're Jews.

I climb trees

and walk along the tops of stone fences.

If I fall and tear my dress,

the grandmother in my new family mends it for me.

She would never think of sewing a yellow star on my dress.

I wonder if she's ever even seen one.

Monsieur and Madame Raffin,

Jacques, Jean, and the grandparents,

Cécile, Paulette, and Suzanne …

these are the people in my new family.

When September comes,

Madame Raffin takes Cécile, Paulette, and me to school.

Suzanne wants to come too, but she is only two.

All the big girls in the village go to the convent school,

Madame Raffin explains.

“These children have been in a bombing,”

she tells the nun in charge.

“They may act strangely for a while.

Take no notice.”

But no one seems to think we act strangely.

By now, we behave just like all the other village children.

Someday I'll tell Mama that she was right,

that I do feel safe here with my new family in the Vendée.

I wonder what she would say

if she knew that once in a while,

when I swing in the garden and look up at the sky,

I almost forget who I really am….

The photograph of Odette's father that she kept throughout the war

Twilight