"Now", he says in the clearest French he can muster, "here's the pillowcase.You run your hand along that wall. Can you feel it? You'll reach an intersection, keep going straight. The street looks mostly clear. Keep the pillowcase high. Right out in front like this,do you understand?"
She turns to him and chews her bottom lip. "They will shoot".
"Not with that white flag. Not a girl. There are others ahead. Follow
this wall." He sets her hand against it a second time. “Hurry. Remember the pillowcase."
Even though he says, he thinks "I don't want to let you go yet". But what choice does he have?
"And you?" She asks
"I will go in the other direction."
She turns her face toward his, and though she cannot see him, he
feels he cannot bear her gaze. "Won't you come with me?"
"It will be better for you if no one sees you with me."
“But how will I find you again?
He hestitates and unconsciously squeezes her hand. And for another minute, they just stand there in complete silence.
"Marie-Laure!" She hears someone yell her name and she turns.
Madame Ruelle and her great-uncle Etienne (he was released from the Fort) proceed towards her and Etienne wraps Marie-Laure in his arms.
Marie-Laure explains about Werner and how he saved her life.
At first, Etienne eyes at Werner suspiciously; looking at his clothes.
"What is your name, boy?"
"Werner. Werner Pfennig sir."
"Werner; thank you. Thank you so much for saving my great-neice's life".
All four of them take shelter in a requisitioned school nearby. The civil affair people have stacks of confiscicated German chocolate in regular cartons, and they all eat too many.
Eteinne asks about Werner and he tell him.
He tells him about his orphanage, his sister, he tells them about Schlupforta, and about radios; about how he and his sister used to listen to the Professor's voice in the radio during their childhood. He tells them about how he travelled all over, and did things he didn't mean to.
Etienne just listened, everyone else did the same. They understood him even though he was a person who they all should be hating with all their might.
They decide to stay the night there and decide what to do in the morning.
Werner looks outside for a bit and his eyes widen.
Volkheimer is exactly how Werner imagines him to be. He is eating by
himself at a little table with a view of the sea.
But Volkheimer has already spotted Werner and is walking towards him; No. He was limping towards him.
Werner tells him about Marie-Laure and Volkheimer just nods.
YOU ARE READING
A different ending - All the light we cannot see
Fanfiction[completed] This is just a fanfiction of the book "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr. This is one of the many possibilities of how the characters in All the light we cannot see may end up
