Dinner in Deutschland:

Lyle and I made it home just in time. He reached in his pocket and pulled out the key to let us in. (I am still jealous of the fact that my brother gives a key and I don’t. Kat says I’ll get one when I’m older.) Lyle lets me in first before following behind.

“We’re home!” Lyle called.

“In here, babies!” Kat called back. We trailed her voice all the way to the dining room. She sat at the table grading the papers from the university where she worked. My eyes always widen at how much work she has to do.

“Busy night again, Kat?” Lyle asked. She didn’t look up.

“Exams are coming up,” she reasoned.

“Ah,” Lyle and I said. Then, Kat closed up her grade book and smiled at us.

“But,” she said. “That can wait until after dinner. How was your day at school?” We nodded at her.

“Good,” Lyle said.

“Yeah,” I agreed. Kat looked at us as if we a new species of fish just discovered by her. Uh-oh, she’s examining us closely now. Something tells me that she wants more details. Kat always does this to us. Lyle and I braced ourselves for more questions.

“What did you all do today?” she asked.

“Math,” Lyle replied.

“Art and crafts with math and other things,” I added. We didn’t talk about the news today. It seemed too early for that. So, Lyle and I danced around the subject for the time being.

“Any homework?” Kat asked.

“Yes!” we both admitted. (Yes, it was that serious to admit that we actually had homework instead of talking about the news.) Silence passed through us all. We waited for Kat to speak. She smiled and gave us a little nod.

“Good enough,” Kat said. “I’ll go get dinner ready. You must be hungry. Go wash up.” We breathed out easily in our heads. We didn’t show it on our faces, however. (Kat can read us like the paper.) We nodded quickly instead.

“Okay!” we said. Lyle and I ran back to our rooms. Perfect, I have just enough time to hide my loot under my bed. I dashed into my room and closed the door behind me. I crept over to my bed and got down on my stomach. This was my personal treasure chest. I had many things under my bed. Treats, glass bottles, tin cans, coins, and other things I find in the city are all hidden under my bed. Lyle knows about my secret treasure chest. He found it out of curiosity. I had to bribe him not to tell Kat about with some of my own treats. (I just hope that Kat still doesn’t know about my treasure chest…)

I force myself away from the thought and quickly get to work. I took out my bags of gummibären and marzipan and stashed them nearly under the bed. I did it quickly but with care. I almost had trouble getting all to fit. (I still have some much junk underneath. I think I need to start eating the loot before Kat gets suspicious. Can’t worry about that now, I still have work to do.) It took me like a minute, but I got it all under my bed. I sat up when I was finished. I breathed out heavily. I took a moment to think about what to do next. “Right…” I thought. Then, I got and went into the bathroom to wash my hands for dinner.

Kat, Lyle, and I sat at the table, waiting for the food. Our cook, Carla, came out with rollmops with sauerbraten and potato dumplings. I forced myself to smile at the rollmops. I have always hated everything about them. The smell, texture, and taste. But yet, Carla insists on making it almost to a nightly basis. I get chills on my back as she gives that look that says, “You’ll eat this fish and like it!” I eat it, but don’t like it. The rest of the food looked go though.

“Come Carla,” Kat said. “Eat with us. You put so much work into dinner. You must be tired. Come and sit with us.” The cook didn’t speak. She served us the food and sat down with us. Carla cooks for the neighborhood in a small home business started by her great-grandmother. She caters to the housewives and people too busy to cook. She never showed any emotion on her face. The size of this woman scared me the most. She looked as big as an oak tree. When I first saw Carla, I thought she was a man! So, imagine my shock when I found out otherwise.

I put on a brave face, however. Carla turned and looked at me. Her eyes seemed to hate the fact that I was a little English girl. I heard that her great-great-great-great-great grandfather was in the Hitler Youth. I know Kat taught Lyle and I not to judge until we have the full facts, but…

“I can see through you, little girl!” her eyes seemed to shout at me. I quickly turned back to Kat and Lyle. They didn’t seem to notice a thing. They were just happily eating dinner. I forced myself to relax and do the same. The potato dumplings were good. Carla seemed to glare at me as I ate. I think she wanted me to eat the rollmops first. I tried my best not to make any eye contact with her at dinner. That’s when Lyle broke down and asked it.

“Kat, are we going to war?” he asked. She looked up at him as she lowered her fork.

“Why would you ask that?” she asked.

“The teachers in school said that Germany was invaded by the enemy this morning,” I said. “Is that true?” Kat gave us a serious look that seemed a little sad. Uh-oh, this is serious. It must be true.

“Yes,” Kat admitted as if she was a doctor delivering bad news to the family of a dying man. “This country has been invaded in a sense. The first line of defense was knocked down so easily.” We all sat in silence. I looked out of the corner of my eye and noticed Carla trembling as she looked down at her plate. That really threw mw for a loop. I could never tell what that cook is thinking. But, I could definitely tell that was fear.

“So who is our enemy?” I asked. Kat shrugged and shook her head.

“We don’t know for sure just yet,” she said. “We’ll just have to keep watching the news to get a better understanding about the situation.” Nobody responded to that. We just all ate our dinner with no words after that. As I forced down that salty rollmops, an icy pit formed in my stomach. As much as I tried not to think about it, I couldn’t help but to get the feeling that things were not only going to get bad, but they would harden into something worse as well.

	Oasis - Supersonic .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine