The Privilege of Loving You

Chapter 4- I'll be damned

Once the Germans passed the church, the mayor was the first step out and was escorted to his car by his security.

According to whispers he was required to be as friendly and compliable with the Nazi officers as a sign of peace for our safety.

"Well there's we can do know except obey and... may it be God's will," Said a man.

With that, he stepped out of church with his his wife and children.

We all followed him into the darkness. I wonder what life will be like now. Will we be prisoners inside of our own homes?

For most of us home was in the direction of the town square. Aubervillers town square is very big. There you will find all the governmental buildings, banks, best restaurants, and boutiques. I love going to the town square because it's always so full of life but now, their arrival seems to have casted a dark shadow upon us.

When we arrived, we were stopped in our  tracks. In front of us were several soldiers disbursed around the square and tanks lined up as well. Each soldier stood straight in formation in a impeccably clean and pressed uniform with their shoes polished to perfection. It reminded me of the military school back home at university.

Suddenly a man emerged on top of a tank. He proudly stood in his decorated uniform.
He wore his pride in his posture.
He smirked. His eyes were icy blue, the type the intimidated and pierced through anyone.

"Under the authority and the signature
of the French government ,a new law of the French State is signed guaranteeing the rights of labour, of family and of the Fatherland.You are defeated and we are now in charge.All firearms must be turned into German headquarters first thing tomorrow morning. If you have an officer residing with you, you are to return home immediately and prepare for their arrival.Also all clocks must be changed to German time."

All around me, everyone was quiet and listening to every word the lieutenant was saying with fear in their eyes.

I looked at Elaine who had so much annoyance in her expression.
"I'll be damned if I have to go by German time"she rolled her eyes.
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The house was chaos.
Constant protests made the room annoyingly loud.
"Quiet everyone!" Shouted the Professor.
"I understand your indignation but frankly there isn't anything we can do at this moment until the embassy negotiates our return..."

"But why must the have to hold soldiers here?!?" Someone shouted.

"They're orders from the general and the mayor as well. We have to try to keep everything as peaceful as possible for everyone's safety. Not all countries are the United States and have an a 3rd amendment that protects us. For our safety the university has strongly suggested that no one speak to them unless spoken to, look at them, nor have any type of interaction with them. Everyone is to lock their doors at all times whether you're in your room or not."

There was protest.

"So now we're prisoners in our own home"

The professor rolled his eyes, I could tell this was stressing him out.

"It's for everyone's safety. Now everyone head up to your rooms. The staff and I will receive the soldiers. Dinner will be at the usual times."

With that, foot steps disbursed through out the house. Elaine and I followed to our room.

"Demetria could you come here a moment?"

The professor motioned for me.

"Go I'll be there in a minutes," I said to Elaine.

"What may I help you with Professor?"

"I need a favor of you. I have to meet with the mayor and a commanding officer of the German army to talk about our departure. Would you please accompany the staff as represent me when receiving the soldiers?"

"Of course Professor, not a problem."

"Thank you Demetria, with all of this I hope everyone behaves. Please report everything that happens to me in my office tomorrow morning."

"Of course you can count on me."
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"What did the professor want?"
Elaine looked over her book and I opened the door.

"He asked me to help receive the soldiers and officers."

"Why you?"
She put her book down.

"Probably because with everyone so angry he's afraid someone else would be rude."

"I know I would, those savages, who do they think they are? I'm going to literally pretend they aren't even here."

"Exactly why he asked me. And I understand you but we still shouldn't try to upset them. They are in charge."

"I know but still, they won't get much more than a glare from me."
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I sat in the front room drinking my tea that Pamela said would calm me.
Was I nervous? Definitely. The enemy was going to live in our house and who know what kind of people they are. What was I even going to say to them? People who are considered superior to me intimidate me.

The door bell rang.

My hand shook to set my tea cup on the side table.

"They're here miss," said Clarisse.

"It would seem so, please when you open the door have them come here"

"Of course miss."

I sat up straighter and crossed my legs and slanted my legs like a proper lady.

With every second that went by my heart pounded against my chest.

Then the door clicked open.
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Dear readers,
First of all I'd like to thank you for your patience and support. I know it's been a very long time and I am so sorry, I never intended on letting so much time go by but my life has been pretty busy. Most of my time revolves around school, I say school because I'm learning and applying everything I learned in medical school to live people and the hours are crazy (yes kinda like on Grey's anatomy). Also, and something that I'd like to share and a reason it took so long for me to update is that as I mentioned in my previous post, is that I was engaged. Wedding planning(especially for my dream wedding) took a lot of time and I had a couple months less than I wanted/liked because my then fiancé is in the Air Force so we had to move up the wedding. But finally after months of stress and chaos, a month ago I married the love of my life and became Mrs. Kasowski! Again I'm truly sorry for taking so long but being a resident and planning your dream wedding isn't very easy. I also wanted to not be stressed so everything I wanted to do would go smoothly. My wedding was everything I could have ever dreamed of. Cute story: When Mr. Kasowski and I met during our undergrad and both deep down knew we were the one, I told him that my dream wedding would consist of two wedding dresses, a different flavored six tiered cake and a honeymoon to Europe and he promised me that when the time came, I would get it all and he kept his promise. I had all three things at my wedding. Anyway now that we care happily settled into our home and are getting used to our new lives, I will have more updates and they won't take so long! Thank you again for reading.
-Ximena Navarrete Kasowski