The Promise

Chapter 29

After the lunch Pierre, Falk, Klügmann, Scherler, Lux and Philip was standing outside the restaurant building with each their smoke in the hand.
-"Hey Anton!" Philip high-fived me.
-"Are you ready? Scherler found a car we can drive into town with." Pierre said.
"Sure." I replied. Then they all quit their smokes in the ground and started walking after Scherler to the car. It was an old small car. We could barely all be inside of it.
-"Just move closer, Engel!" Klügmann said loud. But I'd rather not be to close to him. He disgusted me.
-"Hey man move your ass closer!" Falk smiled his fatal smile. I still remembered the girl he raped. I recognised his smile. It was the same one he had sent to the frighten girl and it gave me goosebumps. I could have knocked him out right there in the moment, but I sustained myself.
"Hell no!" I protested.
-"Just take your girl on your lap, man and save us the seat!" Philip said from the trunk, where he was. But I didn't wanted Alice on my lap neither. I just didn't say anything about that, but ignored them.
-"You can sit with me." Pierre clapped on his lap, from the front seat. Scherler had the driver's seat. Alice smiled and crawled up to Pierre, who smiled. It suited me just fine to be off with Alice. Then we finally drove out of the ghetto. I ignored both Falk and Klügmann next to me through the whole drive. I just couldn't listen to those disgusting monsters, who called themselves humans. They weren't humans. They were something far more animal alike, like the day I had caught them in the snow bending over the girl in the alley. A picture I would be stuck with for the rest of my life.

After a while we arrived outside an old building with a bar sign on the wall. We all went out of the car, and Alice naturally followed Pierre like a puppy, which I couldn't have been more happy about. We went inside and sat down on a solid worn-wood table. I sat next to Philip and Scherler sat next to me. Finally a seat I could live with. A waitress came to our table.
-"What would you gentlemen like?" She looked at some of our jackets, which was from the SS. Besides from that we wore our casual clothing. I was about to laugh. SS made us appear like gentlemen. If only she had known. She was clearly thinking about her possibilities with one of us, as she stood frozen and stared deeply into each of our eyes. Like she was deciding on which one of us looked the most handsome. My guess was Klügmann. He was the tallest, the one with that perfect-picture smile and bread shoulders. Or maybe Pierre. He obviously had his way with women. I looked at Pierre with Alice on the lap. Honestly, Pierre had always catch the women's attentions since he was a teen. Women seem to think Pierre had something nobody else had.
-"You." Falck blinked at her and Klügmann, Pierre and Philip laughed. I pushed Philip in the side.
-"Ouch!" Philip looked confused at me. The waitress blushed embarrassed. I sent Philip the best warning look I could.
-"Sorry." Philip took himself to the side.
-"No, seriously, I want a beer." Pierre said and looked around at the guys.
-"Make it a round of beers for the table. And you, sweetie?" Pierre turned to Alice, who was sitting next to him.
-"The same, please." Alice smiled humbled.
-"That's a girl of my taste." Pierre smiled and sat more leaned back in his seat. The waitress wrote it down and left the table. I got up from my seat.
-"Where are you going?" Philip asked curious. It had caught Pierre's attention too.
"Out smoking." I rolled my eyes. Then I left the bar and stood outside. Lighted my cigarette, and then Lux came after me. He nodded and took up a cigarette pack from his jacket's pocket.
-"Do you got any light?" Lux turned at me. I opened my jacket's pocket and took up my lighter. I handed it to Lux.
-"Thanks, man." Lux lighted his cigarette and gave me the lighter back. I nodded and put my lighter back in my jacket's pocket.
-"Pierre is an idiot. Don't bother him and Alice. But you know him. He's just a bragger, who thinks he owns the world. You should just tell him to back off." Lux said.
"Really I don't care." I replied cold.
-"But she's your fiancé?" Lux said confused.
"Not when she's acting like that." I tried to sound convincing without being too angry or too careless.
-"Don't you love her?" Lux continued.
-"You don't, right? You don't have that spark in your eyes." Lux looked down at the ground. I looked surprised at Lux. What did he know about that?
"Do you love someone yourself?" I switched the subject. Lux looked up and smiled at the sky. He had that dreamy expression on his face.
-"I do. Her name is Pauline." Lux said.
"That's a pretty name." I smiled
"So are you together?" I asked curious. Lux's face turned sad and he looked at me.
-"My parents won't let me marry her. She's a quarter part Jewish." Lux kicked some of the small stones on the asphalt.
"I'm sorry." I put a hand on his shoulder. He smiled at me.
-"I don't care. I'm gonna marry her anyway, when the war is over." Lux smiled. I smiled back and let go of his shoulder.
-"We only got one life, Anton. It's too short to spend with someone we don't love." Lux said and went inside again. I thought about what he had said. It was true and I understood his point of me letting Alice go, if I didn't love her. Which I didn't. I also understood that he was right about life being short. We only had one life, what would I do with mine? Spent it like this in a ghetto, like a deserter, dreaming of a girl on the run? I quit my smoke in the ground and went inside too.