A Country Not Your Own

Chapter 19 The Freedom of Jesus

Chapter 19 The Freedom of Jesus

     As soon as it is early enough for us to go out to meet with Jason, Nachum and I do. The flowers have bloomed overnight in shades of orange, red, and white. There are still little patches of snow on the ground clinging to the last trace of chilly air. The snowman that the little children built is nearly completely melted, and a hedgehog is dragging his carrot nose. Jason is waiting not far from the secret door.

“Look!” I cry.

“What is it?” 

“The key, the key to the door!” I inform as I rush to the door. I find the door knob and quickly unlock it. Jason stands behind me, his green eyes wide with disbelief.

“I can’t believe it!” he exclaims as I shoved the door open.

Nachum wags his tail and lopes inside, stopping to give me a questioning glance.

“Go on,” I permit, and he goes rampant.

I watch as he runs through the flowers of this newfound place. It is so beautiful. Giant fir trees extend for miles. There is a molt in front of me rich with shimmering clear water and decorated with the silvery scales of fish just waking up from their winter hibernation.

“This place is amazing…how did you know where to find the key?” Jason asks.

“My father had it. He gave it my mother a long time ago,” I say. “It belonged to him and a guy named Alphonso. My mother used to play with his sister, Isana, and cousin, Heidi.”

“My mother…”

I stare at him in shock, “Your mother?”

“Yes, my Uncle Alphonso told me about a man who came to my mother one day. He said the man had been his friend when they were children until my uncle moved away. Anyway, the guy went to my mother to ask for a key to this, and she gave it to him after he told her it was for a woman named Sadye, a Jewish Gypsy. She was always protecting Sadye when they were children. She and her cousin, Heidi, were best friends with the girl. They played around here all the time but never knew about this place where the boys explored. They called it Explorers’ Cavern and found out you could reach any European waterway by following this molt. They ostracized the girls and anyone else until one night the guy decided to allow Sadye in this place. She used to dance for him all the time here. The day that he left for the army, Uncle Alphoso gave the keys to his younger sister and showed her the place. She used to come here all the time. It is where my father proposed to her. It is also where she died…giving birth to me.”

“I am sorry to hear that.”

“It’s okay, I never knew her. All I know is that she loved all people, Gypsies, Jews, and Germans alike. I thought of her when I saved you that day, Anne. She always wished that her children would not discriminate.”

I am silent and watch as Nachum shatters the surface of the water with a giant splash. A bird chirps and flies up into the sky, which is just turning pink and lighting into a sunrise instead of the pale grey of early dawn. The light seemed to touch the earth.  

“Are you okay?” he asks, breaking my thoughts.

“Yes, I just can’t believe I have learned so much in such little time.”

“So tell me, your father was the one in the story? The one that supposedly loved Sadye so much? But didn’t he try to kill you and her?”

“Yes, but he loved her once. I can’t hate him, though. Sometimes I think if I had not been born, my mother would not have had to worry about  that day. So long I thought I had killed her…” I say.