Simple Faith (45 page)

England
VE Day, May 8, 1945

Anja heard the cheering before she saw the people begin to rush from their houses and down the middle of the streets of Southampton. As if they had been standing by at the ready, men appeared with ladders and yards of red, white, and blue bunting that they began attaching to storefronts and awnings. Children released from school joined in the celebration, waving small British flags.

It was over.

The war in Europe was finally over.

Anja ran out into the little front yard to the house they had rented in Southampton and stood at the gate, eagerly drinking in the details of this spontaneous celebration. The news spread quickly from person to person. Hitler had killed himself, his mistress, and his dog a few days earlier, and now a German admiral who had been the president of the Third Reich for less than a week had traveled to France—to the headquarters of the American general Dwight Eisenhower to surrender unconditionally.

Anja felt as if her heart could not hold all that she felt as she digested this news. She turned to her grandmother, who had followed her as far as the porch and was watching the passing throngs. “Momse, the war is over,” she told her, and having said the words aloud, she felt an explosion of such joy and relief inside her that she took hold of her grandmother’s waist and danced around with her. “It is finally over,” she shouted, laughing and crying at the same time.

“Mama!”

Daniel was running toward them, weaving his way among the crowds as he clutched his flag. He was getting to be so tall—like his father had been—and the way his eyes sparkled with excitement was also a reminder. For a moment, Anja felt her spirits plummet as she thought of Daniel’s father, Benjamin, their daughter, Rachel, her grandfather, and Mikel. So many lost, and for what?

“Come, Mama,” Daniel pleaded. “Everyone is gathering in town.”

“I’ll stay with the baby,” her grandmother assured her. “Go. Find Peter. Go.”

“I’ll invite Josef and Lisbeth and their children for supper,” Anja said. “We should all be together on this night of all nights. We can make something special.”

Her grandmother smiled and cupped her cheek. “Just go. Peter will be looking for you. You should be together. This is indeed a day of victory for the triumph of the human spirit.”

“Anja!”

She was just grabbing a sweater when she looked up and saw Peter. He had lifted Daniel high in his arms, although their son was getting far too big for such foolishness. He was laughing and exchanging smiles with others, but in his eyes she saw that he was thinking what she was thinking. After everything they had suffered, it was finally over. Starting now they could plan a life that did not always begin with “After the war …”

She ran to him, and he set Daniel down and wrapped his arms around her, lifting her off the ground and spinning around with her until he staggered with dizziness. “Put me down before we fall down and are trampled,” she said, laughing, and her heart was once again filled with the certainty that in staying true to their faith, they had indeed triumphed.

“Let’s go to the hospital and find Josef,” Peter said. “I want to enjoy this moment with our friends.”

In the months since they had arrived in Southampton and been reunited with Josef, Lisbeth, their newborn child, and Daniel, Peter and Josef had become close friends, to both Lisbeth’s and Anja’s delight. The two couples and their children were nearly inseparable, and Anja hoped that now that the war was finally over that closeness would not change. But she had to face facts.

Because of Josef’s German roots, he had not been permitted to practice medicine in the hospital. Instead, he worked there as an aide while Lisbeth had taken a job at a local tearoom to supplement their income and support their growing family. They were expecting their second child. Who could blame them if they decided to start over somewhere else—perhaps in the United States. Lisbeth had recently received word from her father that he and her aunt and cousin were in America—in a fort there that had been turned into a shelter for displaced persons fleeing the Nazis. And of course Lisbeth’s parents lived in a place where there were many people of German heritage.

Anja and Peter could also go to live in America, but Peter had once shown her on a map of that enormous country the distance between where he had grown up and where Lisbeth’s family lived. It would be as if she and Peter had decided to go live in Denmark while Lisbeth and Josef returned to Germany. They could visit, of course, but …

“Hey, where is this sad face coming from?” Peter asked as they hurried down the main street past the shops on their way to the tearoom where Lisbeth worked and then on to the hospital to find Josef.

Anja forced a smile. “It is all a little unbelievable, don’t you think?”

“Believe it, my love. We can finally begin to live, and what a wonderful life it will be. I promise you that. Now come on.” He grabbed her hand, and they followed Daniel into the tearoom, where Lisbeth ran to hug each of them and then quickly abandoned her uniform apron and left with them to find Josef.

Later that afternoon, they all gathered around the radio in Anja and Peter’s small sitting room to listen to Prime Minister Churchill address the nation. There was a single line that struck Anja at her core.

“We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing; but let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts that lie ahead.”

It was true. There had been so much heartache and pain and destruction. How would the world come together again?

After shutting off the radio, Peter stood. “I cannot think of a better time for us to gather in worship,” he said, and other than the sounds of car horns and revelers out in the street, the room was suddenly filled with silence. Daniel had taken Josef and Lisbeth’s daughter, Gabrielle into his bedroom to play a game. With Peter at her side, Anja held their baby—Michael Benjamin Trent—on her lap, rocking him gently as she closed her eyes and tried to empty her mind of the fears that their lives were about to change in ways that would bring more unhappiness to them all.

After several long moments, Anja’s grandmother stood. She took a deep breath and began to speak—her English somewhat improved with the time she had lived with them, but halting nonetheless. “I am thinking of my husband—Anja’s beloved grandfather. I am thinking that he is so pleased with today’s news and that he is especially pleased that Peter was able to arrange for me to come and live here. I am feeling so very blessed.”

She sat down, and the room went still once more.

After a while, Josef stood. “Today I received some news that in many ways was even better than learning that the war is finally at an end.” He chuckled a little and reached down to take Lisbeth’s hand. “To be truthful, when I heard all the commotion in the street, I thought for a moment that everyone was celebrating my good fortune. For today I was called to the office of the hospital’s administration and offered a position on staff—as a physician.” His voice broke with emotion. “Today I learned that my coworkers at the hospital—my British coworkers—had written to the board suggesting that I be considered for the vacancy they knew existed. Today my heart is so full.”

He sat down, and Lisbeth cradled his head against her shoulder as he let the tears of relief and joy come.

They returned to the silence of a meeting for worship, and when it appeared that no one else would speak, Peter turned toward Josef, preparing to shake his hand and signal the end of their meeting. But before he could, Anja was on her feet. “William Penn once said that ‘True godliness doesn’t turn men out of the world, but enables them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it.’ If ever there were a time when the world is in need of mending, it is now.”

She paused, allowing others to consider her words and those of the founder of the colony of Pennsylvania in America, but she had more to say—more that she seemed driven to say. “Those of us in this room and others who are with us today only in spirit have tried to do what we could, and today I feel called and guided to dedicate myself to continue to do what I can to mend what these terrible times have ripped apart.”

After she took her seat again, Peter allowed time for silent prayer before he turned to Josef and shook his hand, signaling the end of their meeting for worship.

“Now we eat,” Anja’s grandmother announced.

“I’ll get the children,” Lisbeth said as she headed down the hall to the bedroom.

Carrying her baby, Anja went to stand at the window. Their neighbors were still out celebrating—laughing and dancing in the street. Someone was playing a violin. Someone else was singing. It had been so very long since she had witnessed such unadulterated joy. But tomorrow as they again faced the need for rationing and rebuilding, would they still be so happy?

“Anja?” Peter placed his hands on her shoulders. “It was you—and Mikel—who taught me the importance of doing what I can and going where I am needed, regardless of the danger or consequences. I don’t know what the future will hold for us, but I know that there is work to be done.”

How much he had changed from the American airman that Daniel had discovered hiding in their field. Then he had thought that war was the only recourse. “Why, Peter Trent,” she teased as she looped her arms around his neck. “If I didn’t know you better, I might take you for a Quaker and a pacifist.”

“Somewhere along the way over the last months, this hundred-pound dynamo showed me how to walk—and I quote—’cheerfully over the world answering that of God in everyone.’ ” He kissed her. “Walk with me, Anja, and together we will do good.”

At supper they talked more seriously of all that would need to be done—just in Southampton for a start—to repair and restore that community.

“I have an idea,” Anja said. “We could start a kind of community center where people in need could come and ask for assistance, and people with skills could come and offer their help and …”

Lisbeth rolled her eyes. “Here she goes again,” she said, nudging Peter. “You should know that this was exactly how she came up with the idea of starting her own escape line.”

“It wasn’t just me,” Anja protested. “There were others—so many others.”

“As there are in this,” Peter assured her. He looked from Lisbeth to Josef to Anja’s grandmother. “Well, are you in?”

“It will be a start—a good start,” her grandmother said.

“I can help as well,” Daniel insisted. “And I have friends at school—friends whose fathers or brothers were killed in the fighting. I bet they would help.”

Suddenly all around the table suggestions for how they might organize their community center and what they would need to get started flowed like wine. Anja sat back and observed the enthusiasm of her friends and family, and it occurred to her that while outside others were focused on their freedom to laugh and dance and celebrate the victory of peace over war, here in this tiny kitchen the real work had begun. After years of living in shadow and the darkness of evil, those she loved were gathered now in the Light.

A
NNA
S
CHMIDT
is the author of over twenty works of fiction. Among her many honors, Anna is the recipient of Romantic Times’ Reviewer’s Choice Award and a finalist for the RITA award for romantic fiction. She enjoys gardening and collecting seashells at her winter home in Florida.

Other books by
Anna Schmidt

W
OMEN OF
P
INECRAFT
S
ERIES
A Stranger’s Gift
A Sister’s Forgiveness
A Mother’s Promise

T
HE
P
EACEMAKERS
S
ERIES
All God’s Children
Simple Faith
A Mother’s Promise

Safe Haven
(coming summer 2014)