At shortwave 13.10

Victory

August 13, 1944

Marie-Laure feels Werner's sleeve brush against her arm as he walks into the crowd. She hears their boos and insults that they throw at him. They jeer at him before he is taken away.

There's a feeling of loss that wracks her gut, she knows the feeling all too well, but what has she really lost? He's a German soldier to whom she talked and danced with for all of thirty minutes, ended with a kiss. She doesn't know anything about him, besides that he is kind. She knows that he was starving, she felt his bones as they danced, and yet he still gave her a peach first. She knows that the first thing he did with the radio was broadcast to his sister, he is in the same frequency in his head. She knows from that one moment:

"The most important light is the light you cannot see."

They understand something that nobody else does. There was a connection between them years before they met. So she can only pray that she will find him again, that she is not truly losing him.

~

The Americans give them food and water and time to think. Nobody is really in a hurry, they are relishing in this victory as long as they can. Marie-Laure just sits and takes in the sounds and smells from the crowd. There's alcohol and cheers, but occasionally she hears a wail, whether from joy or grief she cannot tell. Maybe both.

She must figure out a plan. She realizes she has nowhere to go, but also nothing to lose. Besides Werner. She finds her way back into her home and starts trying to carry down the radio. She puts it in the same carrier within she brought her other radio to Saint-Malo all those years ago. They'll meet again at shortwave 13.10