The Forbidden Six

July 2nd, 1934

Someone was knocking at Mena's front door. She was currently chopping up green onions to make fried rice. Her mother was at work so it was just Mena at home. The radio was playing music in the background and she quickly shut it off.

She made her way to the window in her bedroom where she could see who was at the door. It was Otto. He was trying to shield himself from the light rain that had started a few minutes prior. Mena hurried down to her front door and opened it.

"Finally," he said. Then he laughed. "Thank you."

"Do you want some fried rice?" she asked, waving the spoon around.

"Sure. I didn't have breakfast because I heard the news."

Mena had started walking back to her kitchen. She turned when he said "the news".

"What news?" she asked, her eyebrows creasing together. Otto pressed his lips together and refused to look at her. "Otto, what news?"

"Uh... Ernst Röhm was killed last night," he explained. "Did you not listen to the news this morning?"

"He's with the Nazis. He's the leader of the SA. Why did Hitler kill him? That doesn't make any sense. Everything Hitler does doesn't make sense," she jabbered. "Isn't Röhm Hitler's best friend?"

"It didn't say why because Hitler controls the papers. He also killed a few others. It didn't say who."

For the past three days, Hitler had been arresting and killing his opponents. In just a few days over forty people had been killed or "detained". The papers said that most of the killings were suicides. The Nazi sympathizers in the country believed what the newspapers were saying. The six knew better than to believe that, albeit almost everyone in the country seemed to think it was the truth.

Mena ran a hand through her hair and beckoned for Otto to follow her. The two walked to the kitchen where Mena saw that her scrambled eggs for the fried rice were burning. She cursed and quickly took the eggs off of the stove. Otto sat at the table and played with a deck of cards he found. He began to attempt to shuffle them. The cards ended up flying over the old oak table and onto the floor. He exhaled through his teeth and swept them all into a pile.

When the fried rice was almost done, there was a knock on the door. Mena knew exactly who it was. Liese always knocked with the "shave and a haircut..." jingle. The older girl opened it for her friend. Liese's face was bright and she was out of breath.

"Oh, hi, Otto." Liese waved to him when she made it to the kitchen. "I got a dog." She grinned.

"You did?" Mena gasped. "Can I see?"

"Me too? You can't just show her and not me," Otto joined in.

"Of course you can see," Liese laughed.

"I have to finish my fried rice first," Mena explained.

Liese sat down and waited for Mena to eat her food. She took a seat next to Otto. She grabbed the cards and dealt them out. She and Otto began to play a short game of Mau Mau.

Mena shared the fried rice with her companions at the table and put the rest in the basement where it wouldn't go bad. Liese bounced up and down near the door as she waited for her two friends to walk over.

"What's your dog's name?" Otto asked when they were walking over.

"Her name is Nelke," Liese chirped.

"Cute name," Mena added.

Liese thanked her as they ran to her house. She had abandoned walking and was sprinting to her new dog. She left the two others to suffer in the rain while she ran to her house. Otto and Mena soon began to jog so they could catch up with their short friend.