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12
Lizzie
Huntsville,Alabama
1950
I’d heard Calvin use a sharp tone a handful of times over all of the years of our marriage, but never before had it been directed at me. I didn’t quite know how to deal with it.
“What the hell were you thinking?”
“I was thinking thatthisis insanity!” I blurted, pointing to his office window and the civilized party beyond it, still taking place on the lawn just a few hundred feet away. “They just bring a bunch of Nazi families here and let them roam free and think everything is going to be fine?”
“Not every German was a Nazi, Lizzie,” he sighed.
“But some of those menwere,” I said quietly. Cal inhaled sharply. “I’m willing to play the game in public, but when it’s just you and me, I shouldn’t have to pretend I don’t know that.”
“You callthatplaying the game?” Cal said, waving vaguely toward the window overlooking the party. “This new program is a golden opportunity for Huntsville and it’s a golden opportunity for me.I needyour support in this.” I scoffed impatiently, and Calvin threw his head back in frustration. “Do you even know who you were shouting at down there?”
“Does it matter?” I exclaimed.
“It was Sofie Rhodes, Lizzie. Jürgen Rhodes’ wife.”Oh hell.Out of all the German scientists, there were only a handful that Calvin seemed particularly awed by—and Jürgen Rhodes was right at the top of that list. “He’s waited five yearsfor her to join him here, and before I even had the chance to introduce myself, you started an argument with her.”
“She started the argument withme,” I muttered.
“It doesn’t matter!” he shouted, and I startled in surprise. Calvin squeezed his eyes closed and drew in a shaky breath. “Lizzie, you’re my wife. Even if you can’t support me, I need you to pretend you’re behind me all the way.”
“I ambehind you,” I snapped. “But you were outraged at all of this too a few years ago. These men didn’t change—you did.”
I spun on my heel and left his office, slamming the door behind me. My temper ran hot even as I walked from the office building, across the lawn, and back to the party. As I returned, I was pleased to see the Rhodes family walking across the lawn toward the cars. It felt a little like Sofie Rhodes was running from our argument, and that was infinitely satisfying.
But Brianna was crying, sitting awkwardly on Becca’s lap, her face pressed into her mother’s neck. My heart contracted at the sight of her. Over the years, I had grown so fond of Brianna, and her sister Ava too.
“What’s all this?” I asked her, taking the seat beside Becca. Brianna pointed to a nasty scrape on her knee.
“That German girl pushed me over.”
Just as my anger started to fade, it burst back. Becca was shaking her head in disgust.
“I didn’t see it but Avril did. She said some Kraut kid came barreling around the tree and just pushed Bri over. She didn’t even apologize.”
“Typical,” I muttered, shaking my head. I brushed a lock of Brianna’s hair back from her face and said quietly, “Don’t you worry about it, honey. You just stay away from those kids, okay? They’ll be at your school this week, but you don’t have to play with them. It’s not right that they’re here. You’re a nice girl, so I know you want people to like you, but you don’t have to go along with something when you know it’s not right.”
The sun was low in the sky as I parked in the driveway, but the lights were out in Henry’s apartment above our garage. Calvin would soon follow me in his own car once he finished saying goodbye to the guests. He was still angry with me and I hated that, but I wasn’t sure what to do about it.
I found Henry in my kitchen. A pot of potatoes was bubbling furiously on the back burner, and on the front, he was frying chicken.
“Mmm,” I said, surprised. “That smells good.”
“I was bored, so I thought I’d cook us some dinner,” he said, looking down at the pan. “How were the Nazis?”
“Terrible,” I muttered, throwing my keys and handbag onto the table. “One of their kids pushed little Brianna clean over and then refused to say sorry, and one of the women actually picked a fight with me.”
Henry looked up at me in alarm.
“Who picked a fight with you?”
“You know how Cal keeps talking about Jürgen Rhodes? The man who designed those V-2 rockets that did so much damage to London?” Henry nodded. “Well, I was talking to Becca, and then his wife started yelling at me about—” I broke off. It was all a bit fuzzy, my memory blurred by the champagne and the anger I’d felt. “Something about how segregation is the same as the extermination camps.” I paused. That wasn’t quite it, but it was close enough.
