The Forbidden Six

September 6th, 1945

Although the war ended, Augustine hadn't been able to return to Kassel yet. Nobody had been told when he was supposed to return. It was just a matter of hoping and praying that they would come home soon.

Liese and Mena spent most of their time at each other's house. Neither one could bear to be alone. When they were alone, that was the time that they could think. The memories would surface like bubbles in water. The two girls would get lost in their own minds and start to drown. Each thought of the other like a lifeboat. Although their friendship lost the sister-like relationship it had, they were still close. As long as they had each other, everything would be fine. That was always how it was and how it would always be.

They were at the train station, waiting for Augustine's train. Pieter stood with them, silent as well. The air was stagnant and full of apprehensive whispers. Nobody quite knew how to deal with the end of the war; they had all been living with it for so long that nobody knew what normal life was like.

"Do you think people know I'm Jewish?" Pieter questioned in a voice barely above a whisper. It felt strange to be out without anybody staring at him like he was merely a rat. Nobody crossed the street when he came by or spat at his feet. It was all so strange and beautiful at the same time.

He waited for Liese to answer. She seemed to be in a trance. Her eyes were trained on a small pebble and she slightly swayed on her feet. Pieter frowned and turned to Mena. Her head was turned to look down the train tracks. All he could see was her dark brown, bushy hair. Amalia was in her arms, sleeping.

"Mena?"

Her head jerked in his direction. Her dark brown eyes scanned his figure for a moment. They had never truly regained the light they had possessed before the war.

"Sorry. What do you need?"

"Do you think— nevermind. Nothing." He waved his hands with an apologetic smile.

Her gaze softened as she looked at her friend. With a small step forward, she wrapped one of her arms around him in a soft embrace. Pieter, taken by surprise, didn't move. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, Piet," Mena breathed.

"Why?"

"Because... because you had to go through it all alone. I wasn't really there for you and I'm so sorry. If I could go back into time, I would do so many things differently."

"Like leaving Germany?"

She chuckled. "Exactly."

Mena let go of Pieter and took a step back. She lightly smiled and he returned it. Turning her attention back to the train tracks, Pieter frowned, wondering what else to say.

"I didn't do it alone. I had you and Liese and Otto and...Werner, I guess. And Leyna."

Mena turned to look at him. He was so resilient and he didn't even know it. His brown eyes held an adaptability that she so admired him for. He used to be the small boy that hated change. He had grown up. They had all grown up.

The squeal of the train was heard and Mena glanced down at her daughter. Once she made sure that Amalia was still asleep, Mena looked up at the train. Faces poked out of the windows, smiling. They all seemed older, now that the war was over. Their faces held unknown horrors. What had they seen? What had they done? It was amazing what a year could do to someone.

Liese found herself looking at every face as the train pulled to a stop. She knew what she was looking for. He was dead and he wasn't coming back. She had to stop looking for him.

A voice calling for Mena, Pieter, and her dragged her attention away from the train and the boys. Joan smiled at the three. Her face seemed twenty years older compared to what it looked like in 1944.

"How are you?" Mena asked, trying to be polite. Liese admired her for this. How could she be polite with everything going on? Liese was simply too tired to be nice.

"I've been better. At least Emmet and Leon are coming home."

"That's good."

Joan nodded. With one arm, Mena hugged her, being careful of the baby. Joan smiled down at Amalia. She knew that Mena and Otto weren't married and she didn't care. Amalia was like a living link to Otto. She could see her son's face whenever she looked at the baby.

Young men began exiting the train. A few minutes passed. Augustine didn't show up. With every passing minute, Liese's anxiety grew. Where was her brother and why wasn't he here? She couldn't lose him too. He was the only true family she had left. He could not be gone.

Augustine's blond mop of hair appeared in the crowd thirty seconds later. Liese stood, her feet glued to the platform. He waved to his sister and wove through the soldiers to reach her.

"Oh, mein Gott."

Augustine dropped his bag in surprise as his sister hugged him. She never touched him, let alone hugged him.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I—"

"What did I do?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't do enough and now everyone is dead. I thought...I thought you weren't going to come off the train because you were late. I'm sorry. I'm not a very good sister."

"And you're just realizing that now?"

Liese hit him on the shoulder in a joking manner. It was true. She hadn't been a very good sister. It wasn't too late to change, was it?

Another train entered the station, this time carrying Leon and Emmet. The soldiers from the first train left and were replaced by a new batch. Joan nervously wrung a handkerchief in her hands.

The soldiers thinned out and the two boys could be spotted. Joan raised a hand above his head. Leon and Emmet grinned and began to run towards their mother, dodging other people as they went. They dropped their duffle bags and hugged their mother. Turning to Mena, they gasped as they saw the baby. Emmet asked to hold her and Mena handed Amalia to him. She began crying and Emmet nervously handed her back to Mena. Liese lightly smiled as she watched them. If only Otto and Werner were there.

Liese turned to Augustine, who stood by her side. "Are you ready to go home?"

"Do I really have a home anymore?"

"You have me."

Augustine lifted his duffle bag onto his shoulder. "Do you really make a house a home, though?"

"A family makes a house a home," she replied.

Liese looked at her friends. They were her family. They may not have been her family by blood, but she had chosen them and they had chosen her.