Katie's Journey to Love Page 26

  The gardens behind the chateau had been the most beautiful of all. There had been acres and acres of plants, taking up much more room than Jesse’s farm did at home. Fountains were everywhere, with a huge one right behind the steps when she walked outside.

  Standing at the steps, Katie could look back and see how immense the chateau was. It stretched from left to right so far that Sharon claimed she had to take three pictures to fit it all in.

  The girls had eaten a sandwich lunch among the planted shrubs, having purchased the food from a vendor tucked in along the long rows of tall greenery. Afterward, they’d found another smaller palace by following the guidebook. The tour there had been nothing like the first one in its grandeur, but there had still been plenty to see.

  Nancy said this chateau was for the king to get away from the big chateau when things became too crowded. And from there they found another smaller chateau even further in. Apparently this was the chateau to get away from the second chateau. It all got a little confusing after awhile, both in the layout and in finding their way back. The distances were vast.

  By the time they were back at the main chateau, Katie figured one could fit two of Jesse’s farms in here. And that night the girls had all slept well.

  Now having made her way past the Paris traffic, Nancy was driving through open country.

  “Bathroom break, anyone?” Nancy asked.

  “Most certainly,” Sharon said.

  Nancy soon pulled into a rest area. They all climbed out and stretched before going inside.

  Once on the road again, silence settled over the car. Katie’s thoughts drifted to Ben. She shouldn’t think about him, but it seemed impossible not to think about what had happened. And then too perhaps it would be better to mourn than to hold the memory inside. And remembering felt possible now. Still, she felt bad that she wouldn’t be telling Ben her experiences on the trip. He would so have enjoyed the news of the time they had spent on the Normandy beaches. Of course, she would tell Mamm and maybe Jesse, but neither of them were as interested in such things as Ben was.

  She’d known only the barest of details of that morning when the Allied forces invaded Hitler’s occupied Europe. It was Sharon, of all people, who was almost as interested in such things as Ben had been. Nancy at first didn’t want to stop, but finally agreed after Sharon had begged.

  “It’s not decent,” Nancy had said. “Stopping in at a place where war was made. Our people don’t believe in such things.”

  “But it’s history,” Sharon had insisted. “And men gave their lives there to stop the evil that Hitler was doing.”

  This seemed to persuade Nancy more than anything—the mention of Hitler.

  “I guess he was pretty evil,” Nancy allowed. “But I still don’t think we should kill as Christians.”

  The sky had been clear on the morning they arrived at the first beach, after they toured the artificial harbor the Allies had built at the town of Arromanches. Omaha, Sharon had said the beach was called. There was a lonely stretch of open water that looked much like the beaches did at home in Delaware. The biggest difference was the German pillboxes on the bluffs that were still there overlooking the beach. They were huge affairs with the tracks of the rotating guns still visible. Margaret had climbed inside one of the smaller ones for a picture Sharon took. The larger pillbox had steps going down into it, which they all used to climb down. Inside, the musty smell of grass and mold filled the place. Looking out the front, it wasn’t hard to imagine what things must have looked like on that morning when thousands of young men came rushing ashore. The Germans had been shooting at them from here, killing brave people who wished only to free a country from evil.

  Omaha had been the American beach—or one of them. Katie couldn’t really remember. But there young men came ashore who had left loved ones at home, perhaps even wives and children. They came here to die on this stretch of sand for the freedom of others. Katie wiped away the unbidden tears as she looked out from the German pillbox.

  What made men kill one another? she wondered. Did they really believe it was right? The Allies might have had reason to think so, but how could the Germans think they were right in killing the Jews and all those millions of others? They would see a site soon in Haarlem where a whole family—the ten Booms—had risked their lives to save others. Here men had also given their lives so that others might be free. Katie shivered. It was a great sacrifice, and one she could not begin to understand. Killing was wrong, and yet men did kill…and continued to kill even today. It was as if the evil never stopped, and Da Hah was left to pick up the broken pieces.

  He must be a great Hah, Katie decided, to care so much and to keep caring about people who seemed determined to destroy their lives.

  They all headed back to the car, and their next stop had been a site above tall cliffs with huge pockmarks in the ground. This came from the bombardment by the Allied ships at sea, Sharon said. It was here that three hundred soldiers had scaled the cliffs using grappling hooks. Only a third of them had survived.

  Katie moved close to the cliff, looking down to the dashing coastline below. Men did both brave and horrible things in war, she decided. Da Hah would have to straighten all of it out someday. As He was well capable of doing. Hadn’t He healed her heart? But thankfully her people didn’t believe in all this killing. The more she was seeing of what happened here, the more she was glad for that.

  Sharon had wanted to see one more place before they drove on to Versailles. The place was in the town of St. Mere Eglise, where paratroopers had overshot their target and landed in the middle of the village. And sure enough, the guidebook had been correct. A dummy paratrooper was still hanging by his parachute from the downtown church’s steeple. A real one had gotten hung up there during the landing, Sharon said, and had survived by playing dead. With the church bells tolling beside him to rouse the sleeping Germans, the soldier’s ears had been rendered deaf for several days.

  Which was understandable, Katie thought. She’d heard enough church bells tolling this trip already to know how loud they were. Apparently almost every little town had its miniature cathedral dating from the medieval ages. Europe had once been a very religious continent even though Nancy said it no longer was.

  Katie closed her eyes and put her head back. She really needed to get some sleep before they arrived at their next stop. Margaret was already sound asleep beside her.

  Chapter Forty

  The following morning Katie stood waiting with the other girls and a small group of American tourists. They were all huddled in the little side street in Haarlem, waiting for the twelve o’clock English tour of the Corrie ten Boom home. The tour had been postponed twice already, but surely soon they would be going in.

  The girls had spent the morning touring another old church in the town square. The place was immense, as so many of the churches they’d seen were. Mozart was reported to have played the church organ here, according to the guidebook. The instrument wasn’t quite as impressive as the one in the Grossmunster at Zurich, but almost. Huge tiles covered the floor of the church. They’d almost finished the tour when Margaret realized that these were actually graves, each containing a body from the ancient past. Sharon followed Margaret in a mad dash outside, where they shivered for awhile in the bright sunlight.

  Katie lagged behind, asking the lady who had sold them tickets, “Are those really gravestones on the church floor?”

  “Oh, yes,” the lady said. “That’s how things were done long ago. It was considered a great honor and a help for eternal salvation.”

  “Thank you,” Katie had told her, joining Margaret and Sharon outside, where the two were still horrified about the graves they’d walked on.

  Nancy had laughed over the whole matter, and they soon forgot about the graves in the church floor. All of them had been distracted by purchasing mementos of their stay in Haarlem at a small shop. Katie purchased a small windmill for Mamm, and after several minutes of thought settled on a set
of wooden shoes for Mabel. She hadn’t thought of Mabel much lately, and perhaps Mabel wouldn’t even speak with her once she arrived back home. But if Mabel was by chance on friendly terms, she wanted to arrive with a gift in hand.

  Now that Ben was out of her life, perhaps Mabel wouldn’t resent her as much. But on the other hand, Mabel might despise her more completely. She might not want any association with her. She might even think Katie knew about the drugs all along and shielded Ben. And that Katie just wanted to bring the family down. Katie sighed. It could be a no-win situation.

  Pushing the dark thoughts away, Katie made the further selection of a cowbell for Carolyn with a colorful ribbon to hang it on the wall. For Joel, she chose a little scarf-wrapped boy, carved out of wood, heading down the mountain on his skis. For Leroy and Willis she purchased a box of assorted chocolate delicacies. Jesse was the hardest to choose for, but Katie settled on a beautiful painting of a Dutch windmill. It cost more than she expected, but for Daett…it was worth it. Katie wiped away a tear, and added a few postcards to her collection before paying for her purchases. One postcard she would mail to Mamm right away. The others would serve as smaller gifts when she arrived home.

  They’d arrived early at the ten Boom house, so Sharon had led them into a jewelry shop—an unrelated company to the ten Booms now rented the place. Sharon hadn’t bought anything, but Nancy purchased an expensive, white-banded wristwatch.

  “You did the right thing,” Margaret encouraged Nancy as they walked over to wait in line. “You’ll probably never come back here again. And now you have a watch from the former ten Boom watch shop to wrap your memories around.”

  Katie would have smiled along with them if her heart hadn’t been sinking at the moment. On the way out she’d caught sight of the most beautiful gold watch chain. It was exactly what Ben needed for his pocket watch. Before the news from home, she would have purchased it for him regardless of the cost.

  After more waiting in line, the American tourists gathered around them were getting restless. From the snatches of their conversation, she gathered they were with various church groups. Katie heard Georgia mentioned and Tennessee. Moments later the street door opened, and the face of an older lady appeared. “English tour,” she announced with hardly an accent. “Ready to go.”

  The group surged forward, and the four girls stayed toward the back. The lady first led them to the living room of the home. They were soon all seated in a circle, using the furniture in the room and chairs that had been brought in.

  “Good afternoon, everyone,” the lady began. “My name is Estes, and I will tell you first of all about the Corrie ten Boom home, and then we will go upstairs to see the hiding place. No pictures here, please. But you may take all you wish at the hiding place. Does anyone have any questions before we begin?”

  No one said anything, and Estes continued. “This is the ten Boom home, of course, where Corrie was raised as the youngest of four children. Corrie’s father, Casper, was a devout Christian who had a great burden for all suffering people. But especially he had a heart for God’s chosen people, the Jews. He raised his family to practice a peaceful and brotherly love toward his fellowman and to reject all forms of racism and hatred.

  “When Hitler invaded Holland in 1940, much opportunity soon arrived for the exercising of these beliefs. The ten Boom home became known as the place where anyone who was hurting or suffering could find shelter. Soon after the invasion, the Nazis issued ration cards since there was a war going on. This produced quite a problem. Because how were the ten Booms to feed the people they were helping without revealing the need for extra cards? Corrie solved this problem with the help of her friend who was a civil servant in charge of the ration cards. Corrie was able to obtain extra cards, which they hid in the house. The Nazis often made surprise searches of homes, and extra ration cards were always a sign of illegal activity. And the Nazis were very strict on the matter. But Corrie and Betsie were able to hide the cards so they were never found. The ten Booms also soon had someone from the Dutch resistance build them a hiding place in the upper floor of their home, which we shall soon get to see. And many, many people were helped by the ten Booms during this time.

  “The family worked out an alarm system, using an all clear signal in the front window. That is the red triangle you saw coming in with what looked like a clock face in the middle. It really was a common item used by jewelry stores in those days. If the signal was up, all was clear. But if it was lying down, then there was danger and people looking for help were warned to stay away.

  “Also an alarm system was installed that could be rung from the front door. And the ten Booms constantly practiced drills, along with whomever was being given shelter at the time. They had things so well planned that within minutes everyone illegally in the house could be inside the hiding place.

  “The ten Booms were betrayed in February of 1944 by a Dutch informer who came to their door for help. Betsie was suspicious but told him to come back later. He did. This time, before she opened the door, Betsie looked out the window and saw an automobile parked out on the street. Betsie knew that no Dutchman drove an automobile by that date in the war. Only the Germans did. And toward the end, even bicycles were taken away from the Dutch people.

  “So Betsy rang the alarm by the door before she opened it. Outside the Dutch informer was waiting, and he was joined at once by German officers. They stormed into the house, but everyone had made it into the hiding place in time and the ration cards had been safely hidden.

  “Still, the Germans arrested the whole family because they were convinced illegal activities were being conducted in the house. Betsie knocked over the signal in the window, but a German officer noticed and replaced it. Because of that, more than thirty people who came calling on the ten Boom home were arrested by that evening. In the meantime, the women and men in the hiding place didn’t know what was going on, and they didn’t dare come out. For close to two days they stayed there until the Germans switched their officers for local Dutch guards, figuring no one could possibly be in the home.

  “The Dutch guards knew about the ten Booms’ activities and their hiding place. So they let the six men and women out, sneaking them out the back windows to safety. Four of those were Jews, two men and two women. One of those men and the two women are known to have survived the war. The other man, we did not know what happened to him. But one day during a tour of the hiding place, this man in the group broke into tears, saying that he was the very person who had once been hidden inside. I must say it was a very emotional experience for everyone.

  “But back to the ten Boom family. Corrie’s father, Casper, was soon offered his release by the Nazis since he was an old man and close to death. The Nazis made the offer on the condition that he no longer give shelter to any Jewish people. Casper refused and died soon afterward in prison. Corrie and Betsie were taken to the concentration camps. First to one close to here, and then transferred to another near Berlin. There Betsie died, but Corrie was eventually released just a week before the other women in the camp were killed. She later learned that this happened through a clerical error. Corrie was sure that this was instead the hand of God wanting her to tell His story around the whole world, which Corrie then proceeded to do with her writings and her speaking. Later Corrie met one of the cruel guards from the concentration camp.

  “‘Can you forgive me?’ the man asked Corrie after her speech that day.

  “And Corrie thought to herself that she didn’t want to. But she prayed to God for strength, and she extended her hand to the guard. When she touched him, Corrie said, a shock like lightning went through her arm, and her heart flowed over with compassion and forgiveness for the man.”

  Estes stood to her feet and motioned toward the doorway. “And now that you know something of Corrie’s story, let’s see the hiding place where those people were hidden. And remember you can take pictures there. All of them you wish.”

  “That was quite some story,” Marg
aret whispered in Katie’s ear as they were going up the stairs.

  “I know.” Katie stole a quick glance in Nancy’s direction. It looked like she had tears in her eyes.

  At the top of the stairs, half the group had to stand in the hallway, while the rest went inside the bedroom. When the next turn came, Katie slipped in last. She craned her next to see the open hole in the wall through the shoulders of the others.

  “And as you can see,” Estes was saying, “this brick wall is quite thick. It was built this solid so that when the Nazis pounded on here, it sounded like an exterior wall. And the closet here gave the bedroom a finished look, while there actually was a small trap door beneath the bottom shelf which opened into this sliver of a space. Does anyone wish to step inside?”

  There were plenty of nods, and Katie waited her turn before stepping inside with Margaret. The enclosed space enveloped them, with only inches to spare in front and back.

  “Yikes,” Margaret said. “I wouldn’t want to stay in here.”

  “I know. And for two days.”

  “I wonder what they did for a bathroom?” Margaret said, scrunching her face.

  Estes, who must have heard the whisper, stuck her head in. “There was a small chamber pot over there.”

  “I still wouldn’t want to be in here,” Katie said as she crawled out, careful not to drag her dress against the stone wall.

  Estes was already leading the second group to the rooftop when Margaret and Katie stepped into the hallway. They squeezed up the narrow stairway and crowded into the open space on top.

  “Then here,” Estes was telling everyone, “is where those in hiding below could come out for a few hours of sunshine each day. Back then the ten Booms had a low wooden fence built around this enclosure to shield the area from prying eyes. Those hiding here used it by crawling around on their hands and knees. At least they could get outside for a little bit.”