Blue as a Fedora

Chapter 5: A Broken Word

Papa was true to his word as, two days later, the house was awoken to the usual chaos of school, however Papa was joining in the chaos, preparing his things for Paris. Papa would be leaving the house shortly after the three girls. Their breakfast finished, they all began running around the house, searching for things, getting changed, brushing teeth, doing hair. Even Mama had joined in, helping her husband get ready and fretting over how dirty the house was (as far as Malvina could tell, the house was as clean as could be). The three girls had finally finished getting ready, their bags waiting by the front door.

"You three girls have a great day at school!" Papa called to the girls, skidding to the living room to get a look at them while buttoning up a fancy suit. "I'll see you in one week, okay?"

"Okay Papa!" they all said back. Malvina, hoisting her bag swiftly over her shoulder, ran towards her father and gave him a big hug.

"I'm gonna miss you!" Malvina said, feeling both happy for her father yet sad at the same time. "Good luck in Paris!"

Malia and Ella went to hug their father as well, then they all bid farewell to each other.

"Goodbye girls!" Mama said to her daughters, as they went to open the door. "Have a good day!"

The three of them waved to their parents, then they opened the door and stepped out into the dazzling sunlight. Malvina looked back inside before closing the door, to see her mother stepping slowly towards her father. Knowing that she probably shouldn't be watching, she gently closed the door and caught up with Malia and Ella, who were already at level with the white fence, chatting to one another. When Malvina had caught up with them, she could tag along with the conversation.

"...pretty surprised you want to be a teacher, Malia," Ella was saying, Malvina listening curiously. "I never got the impression that you liked children."

"Well, yeah, but I can teach older kids," Malia said, looked a little sheepish. "I mean, I doubt I can find any good teaching post here in Albas. I might have to move to Marseille, or Lyon, or maybe Strasbourg for education careers..."

"Or Paris," Malvina added. They had left the wild path that led to their house and were now following the street as usual, starting to go down through the hills.

"Or Paris," Malia agreed. "You know, it kind of pains me to think that I might have to leave Albas if I want to make a living... I mean, it'd honestly be best for Papa if he moved to Paris. He – well he's always on the phone with his clients in Paris, and by the sounds of their telephone calls everything would be so much easier if he just moved there. He must really like Albas..."

"I really like Albas too," said Malvina. "If I can help it, I'll make a living here. This is the best place in the world!"

Malia glanced at Malvina skeptically, clearly thinking that the statement was debatable.

"It might be the prettiest place in the world, Malvina," Malia said indigently, "but for opportunity, you couldn't live in a worse place."

"Don't say that!" Malvina cried, looking at Ella for help. Ella, however, was humming to herself as she studied the trees above in interest. Malvina turned back to Malia and said, "I'm happy Papa hasn't moved to Paris! Then we'd all have to move there too, and it's so crowded there! You can't stand crowds, right Malia?"

"I'd rather be in a crowded place, making a living, then be in a comfortable place, with not a pound in my pocket."

Malvina thought about this for a moment. In the village, many of the people were making a living selling in the business industry. Selling flowers, clothes, paintings, foods and whatever else people liked buying. That's what Malvina wanted to do. She wanted to live in the village, selling things to people every day. Then, on weekends, she'd walk up to the hills and catch up with her parents. It sounded like the dream life to Malvina, only, according to Malia, it was very, very unlikely that it could ever happen.

The topic of conversation eventually reached their father, who had likely left the house already. He had told his children that he was going to be picked up in a car, then driven three hours up north to the nearest airport. None of them had ever heard of a drive so long.

By the time they'd reached the village, Malia, Malvina and Ella were all laughing and feeling happy, but the depressing atmosphere in the village gradually wiped the smile off Malvina's face. No one was waving hello, no one was stopping for chat, and wherever Malvina looked, there was an anxious, blank face sitting there. It wasn't long before two Nazi soldiers had appeared out of no-where, cutting in front of the three girls' pathway.

"Not only are they depressing, they're rude too," Malia spat, scowling at the backs of the soldiers as they walked away. "Why are they even marching through the village, anyway? It's not as if there's any more Jews here, right?"

"There could be some in hiding," Ella said reasonably. "Or maybe some that are continuing their lives here with a hidden identity. I'm guessing the soldiers are trying to find every single one here."

"Like I said, thank God we're not Jews," said Malia darkly. They didn't talk for the rest of the walk to school. They were all trapped in their own dark thoughts, and it seemed like the rest of Albas was, too.

The bell for school rang as they stepped into the entrance. Malvina and Ella went for the building to the left, while Malia went right. They waved to one another, then went to their respective classrooms.

Malvina waved to Ella as the latter went to sit at the front, and Malvina sat in her seat. Once seated, she looked sadly at the vacant spot to her right. Again, she looked down at the necklace she was wearing, looking beautiful as always in the sunlight seeping in through the windows. Malvina took a deep breath and looked determinedly forward, forcibly reminding herself that Papa said Peter would be fine.

Malvina, of course, had friends other than Peter, but he was the only person Malvina liked to hang out with at Recess and Lunch. It was because of this that, when it was finally time for break, Malvina would go out into the courtyard alone, and sit by herself behind the school building. She would think about what was going on to the world around her, sitting alone in the grass with a bright, happy blue sky above her. She wondered how close Papa was to the airport. Hopefully the car-ride wasn't too boring...

The day continued on as normal – well, not including the depressive atmosphere and the lack of a close friend – the day continued quite normally. When the bell rang for the end of school, Malvina caught up with Ella and they both made their way to the bronze lion statue, which was glistening and shining in the light of the sun, reflecting onto Malvina and Ella; this made Malvina's necklace go crazy, emitting all kinds of pretty lights.

They sat themselves down under the lion, but it wasn't long before Malia joined them, carrying her Gone with the Wind book, which, according to the bookmark, was almost completely read.

"Hey guys, let's go," Malia said a little breathlessly. They got up and started walking through the village again, huddling closer together than was usual, as if the surrounding villagers had an illness that was highly contagious.

Walking back home, their path was again briefly cut by another two Nazi soldiers, who were laughing with one another as they went south through the village.

"How many of those idiots are there?" Malia said in frustration, clutching her book up to her chest as though expecting them to steal it. "They don't even look where they're going."

Other than that, the journey back home couldn't have gone smoother. Chatting about how miserable life seemed to have become in the village, the three of them climbed up the hills back to their home.

They walked through the wild path, opened the white gate and went through the front door. Opening it, the three girls saw Mama vacuuming the living room.

"Hey girls," Mama greeted absent-mindedly, over the sound of the loud vacuum cleaner. "I'm just vacuuming the living room since Papa isn't here. I'm never able to vacuum here because of that stupid TV."

The three girls laughed as they dropped their bags onto the threshold.

"That thing is so loud, Mama," Malia said, nodding at the vacuum cleaner. "I think I'll go outside to read."

So Malia went past her mother and through the sliding door, her head bobbing down into the backyard.

"Did Papa leave alright Mama?" Malvina asked, taking her books and pencils out of her bag for her homework.

"Yep, he's on the plane for Paris as we speak," Mama replied happily, now turning the vacuum to the kitchen. "He said he'd call me when he gets there."

For the rest of the day, Malvina completed her homework in her bedroom, the vacuum finally being silenced an hour later. Malia hadn't come back from the backyard and, sitting on her bed, Ella was writing something in a little journal.

The day went by rather fast so that, sooner than Malvina was expecting, Mama's voice was echoing loudly through the house.

"Come on kids! Dinner time!"

Malvina and Ella left the bedroom together and met Mama in the kitchen, where roast was sitting, ready to be eaten on the round table. As the three of them sat down, Malia quickly returned from outside, joining them on the table.

"So, an all-girls week, hey?" Mama smiled, starting to munch through her food. Malvina began eating her mother's roast, which was as good as ever.

"Well, it's always an all-girls week for poor Papa," Malia laughed, also eating away at her roast.

"Has he called you yet, Mama?" asked Ella.

"Yes, he landed two or so hours ago," Mama replied, playing with her food. "Said the drive to the airport was great, but he's never liked planes. I can only remember too well..." Mama suddenly laughed, and the three girls looked up in interest.

"What do you remember?" Malia asked curiously.

"When we went on our honeymoon," Mama said, her eyes glistening cheekily, "he didn't enjoy the plane too much."

"What happened?" said Malia, her eyes wide.

"Take a guess," Mama said.

There was a pause, and then...

"He threw up?" Malvina said.

"Yep," Mama said easily, while Malia shouted "gross!" at her roast. "Got some on me, now that you mention –"

"Do we have to talk about this now?" Malia said with a look of disgust, pushing her plate of food away from her. Ella giggled silently by her side.

"He was better this time apparently," Mama said casually, saying this as if it wasn't very interesting, and it was a shame nothing exciting like vomiting had occurred. "Had a pretty bad headache and clogged ears, but other than that he's okay."

The rest of dinner was very fun. They exchanged very interesting stories with one another, about school, about the village; at one point they even joked about the Nazi soldiers, which Malvina didn't think she'd ever do, as she was secretly very scared of them.

Once dinner was over, Malvina went to have her shower and brush her teeth. It was rather late, so she went to bed; the first to do so out of her sisters. Putting her necklace on the bedside cabinet as usual, she looked up at the ceiling feeling rather happy. That was definitely a fun dinner; it was the first in what must've been years where there wasn't conversation of war, or the sound of the TV in the background. Looking over to her necklace, Malvina prayed that wherever Peter was, he was feeling just as good as Malvina was at that moment.