Auf Wiedersehen Sweetheart

Chapter 13

"Are you insane?"

"Lovino, if you'd just listen..."

"I knew I was right not to trust those Americans! I can't believe they would be so irresponsible! To put this stupid idea in your head..."

"It's not stupid! It's the only chance I've got, and I can't do it alone..."

"How can you even ask me this?"

"Because you're my brother, and..."

"You are completely mad if you think for one second that I am going to help you with this, if I am going to let you..."

"You did it for Antonio!"

"That was completely different!"

"How?"

"How? Antonio was an ally being tortured by the Gestapo for information on us, not an enemy being held by the Americans!"

Feliciano finally paused. He spread his hands on the bench before him, tried to calm his rapid pulse and heavy breathing, to think clearly and coherently. The afternoon sun flooded the kitchen and broken silence punctuated his and Lovino's shouting outbursts. Feliciano knew that in the end it was probably useless to try and convince Lovino. But he also knew that he had to try for any chance he could. Because he had to see Ludwig. Even if it was only one more time, Feliciano had to see him. "Does it make a difference who is holding him prisoner?"

"Of course it does!" shouted Lovino, his eyes wide and wild, his expression outraged and frustrated. Feliciano knew he did not understand. Of course he did not understand. "The Americans do not torture their prisoners..."

"How can we know that for sure?" Feliciano felt guilty speaking of this when Lovino was still so broken from what had happened to Antonio. But he had no other choice right now. "The Americans are our allies, of course they are going to tell us that! And even if they don't torture him, don't you see, he will be sent to a prison camp, he might never get out! They'll lock him up for the rest of the war, and that could be forever, and at best he will eventually be sent back to Germany after the war is over and I'll never see him again and I can't bear that, Lovino, I can't... I'm begging you..." The tears Feliciano had tried so hard to hold back finally stung his eyes and threatened to spill. He gritted his teeth and blinked them back angrily. "Please help me." Lovino just looked at him like he really had gone insane.

"Just stop and think for a moment what you are asking me to do. To help you rescue an enemy."

"But he's not an enemy, Lovino, he's not just a German, he is Ludwig, he is the man I love, he is a good, decent man who deserves a chance, deserves better than a prison camp for the next fifty years!"

"If Grandpa were here..."

"Well, he's not here!" Grandpa Roma had left the day before, to carry news and information to Antonio's contacts all over the country. After all, someone had to inform other pockets of the resistance of what was going on. "And he won't be back for weeks yet, so you can't get him to stop me, and you can't..."

"None of this matters!" Lovino was turning red, his words growing louder and louder. "If, against logic and reason and all the odds, you manage to break him free of the Americans, what then? What can you do then? You have a location. That is all! You have no way to make it into this location, you have no information on how he is being held, you have no idea even what to do once this German is freed! You have nothing!"

It was true. Everything Lovino said was true. And yet... "But there must be... must be some way..."

Lovino raised his eyes to the ceiling and turned away in frustration. "I'm not listening to this anymore. You are being completely unreasonable." Lovino pushed through the door to the front room. Feliciano hurried behind him.