“Stop that child!” The general roared. The air stiffened as eyes burned into my skin. I ran. People everywhere - I ducked around trays. I had to get to the doors. Squeals around me - I slammed through the doors, sucking in ragged breaths, sprinting into the shadows. My heart was pounding so fast I couldn’t feel it - my shadow flickered across the grass - footsteps behind me - “Run! It’s me, Louis, they’re coming!” Louis’s shadow was gaining on me, and behind his, larger ones. There. The train, right on time. My Nazi cap shook off, my hair streaking behind me – I stuttered to a stop, the train whooshing past inches from my face - I tensed to jump - wait - Louis. “Louis, jump!” I turned as he caught up to me. We’d lost them for a moment, but I could see them in the distance. Nazi soldiers. “You have to come with me, you can’t stay now!” “I can’t stay…but I can’t leave.” “What can you do?” I cried feverishly above the train’s roar. “This.” His face hardened. My heart dropped. And then he pushed me. Stumbling, I leaped at the last second, sliding into a moving train car. By the time I’d scrambled to turn around, his figure was staring at me slip away. No. No! “Louis!” He ran alongside, but the train was faster. I leaned out as far as I could, wishing - the Nazis had spotted him. They were running. Please, no. “Forgive me. Please.” My eyes stung - stupid wind. “I was wrong. Magpies -” I could hear his laugh crack. “Magpies are the smartest creatures alive.” Shadows behind him. “Louis!” I watched him shoot his hands in the air, surrounded. I heard them ask his name. “Louis. Louis Koch. I’m the one you’re looking for.” Not Adolf. I attempted a shaky smile through tears. You stupid, wonderful boy. I stared at the scene until he faded out of sight, and then still, as though just maybe... My numb hands in my pockets - wait. Something in my pocket. I drew it out. It was his swastika pin - but he’d bent it somehow, into the Star of David. It was pinned to a piece of paper in handwriting I knew immediately was his. Knees curled to my chest and eyes red, I murmured his words to the night. I can’t pickpocket, but apparently I can putpocket. You should have this. As a reminder, that, you know. Maybe things will be okay. May the stars watch over you until we meet again. Ask them to watch over me too. I’ll need it. It was signed, The Magpie’s friend I smiled against the wind. He always assumed things. I pinned the star to my coat. And he was always right. So, maybe I did get scared. And maybe, just maybe, everything would be okay.
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