In The Presence Of My Enemies

But Gottlieb didn't deny it. He said, "We read. We listen to the radio-there's no televisor in the barracks. We play cards. We're not supposed to do it for money, but I'm about fifteen Reichsmarks ahead so far." He looked smug. Then he added, "And there's a Bund deutscher Madel camp about half a kilometer from ours. Some of the guys sneak over there after lights-out."

There it was, the thing Esther feared. Lots of Bd M camps were near those of the Hitler Jugend. Surprising numbers-or maybe numbers not so surprising-of Bd M girls found themselves pregnant every year, too. "What about you?" she asked, her tone as light as she could make it. If some gentile girl won his heart, or a related piece of his anatomy…

"I haven't. I don't think I will," he said after due consideration very much like Walther's. "You get into real trouble if they catch you doing that-worse than losing your shovel. And besides, it's like I told Aunt Susa

Lise Gimpel smiled. Esther kissed him. She got lipstick on his cheek, but he didn't notice and she didn't care. She wanted to say something like,You're a very good boy, and I'm prouder than I know how to tell you. The only thing holding her back was the knowledge that the usual seventeen-year-old male, hearing something of that sort, would go disgrace himself just to take the jinx off.

On the other hand, Gottlieb was not your average seventeen-year-old male. Esther did say it. And Gottlieb proved his sterling qualities: he gri

Along with the New Orleans Vicki, which currently held pride of place, A

"You're so lucky!" she burst out as soon as they were alone together. "Solucky!"

"How come?" A

But Alicia had an answer for her: "I'll tell you why-because everybody here knows what you are. You don't have to keep any secrets."

Her friend nodded, but then started to laugh. "Don't tell that to Gottlieb, that's all I've got to say. He knew for five years before they could tell me, and it was driving him crazy. Crazier."

"Oh." Alicia hadn't thought of that. "Well, everybody knows now, anyway. Some of the things Francesca and Roxane say make me want to smack 'em, and I can't, because they'd wonder why."

"Just pay no attention to them," A

Alicia didn't know anything about older brothers-or younger brothers, for that matter. She wasn't much interested in learning more, either. The boys in her class were the worst sort of vermin: a poor recommendation for the male half of the species. When she said, "Gottlieb's notso bad," she was offering A

But so had A

"Peaceful," Alicia echoed. With Gottlieb gone, A

"Here, let's do this," A

"Look!" Alicia pointed at the sparrow. "It's an SS bird." It got incorporated into the game, which had been short of villains up till then.

They groaned when A

That was a question Alicia couldn't have heard at the supper table at her house. "It's all right. I've kind of got used to it," she said. But then she decided something more was called for, and she added, "It is what I am, after all. I ought to know about it."

Gottlieb gave her a suddenly thoughtful look. "I said something like that, too. I took longer than you have to figure it out, though."

Alicia needed a little while to realize that was a compliment of sorts. A

Over dessert,Herr Stutzman started telling Gottlieb about something he called a software trap. He hadn't gone very far before he stopped speaking German, or at least any sort of German Alicia understood. Gottlieb followed well enough, and gave back some of the same gibberish. "You got through, though?" he said at last.

"Through the second portal, like I told you. That's how I got the backside look at the trap," his father answered.

"I hope that's not all you did," Gottlieb said.

"Well, I didn't have as much time as I wanted after the trouble at the first portal, and I did want to see what almost bit me," Walther Stutzman said. "But I got to look around a little. The Reichsfuhrer -SS isn't very happy with the Fuhrer."

Like Alicia's father, Gottlieb and A

"All right," Alicia said, though she wouldn't have minded sitting around and listening some more, either. The Stutzmans talked more openly than her own family did. Of course, they weren't keeping the secret around the house any more. They'd probably been a lot more careful before A

It'll be years before we can tell Roxane,Alicia thought sadly. But Gottlieb had been thinking the same thing about A

Susa