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brother?”

    ‚ÄúHe went out riding his bike. He made
me breakfast.”

    ‚ÄúThat was nice of him. He is a very
good brother.” Rebecca nodded. “Do you miss him when he’s not around?” She
nodded again. “What about your parents. Do you miss them?” She looked up at him
and gently shrugged her shoulders.

    ‚ÄúI like it here.‚Äù

    ‚ÄúCan Rebecca stay here with us Father?‚Äù
Christopher asked but the look his father gave him silenced him immediately.
Christopher reached over and took Rebecca’s hand and felt her fingers clasp
around his.

    ‚ÄúAll right, you can stay here for a
few hours, Rebecca. Uncle Uli is going to look after you. I will be back soon
and we’ll see about you coming over to play.” All three children smiled,
thinking that those few hours would stretch into forever.

    They played in the tree house for a
while and then Uli took them down to the rock pools and they waded through the
cool water with their shoes and socks in their hands and the sun gentle on
their faces. They wanted to go swimming but had forgotten their swim suits so
they stayed at the rock pools and threw stones instead. Uli taught them how to
throw them so that they flew faster and they watched the ripples in the water
as the stones plinked in. They stayed down there all morning and Uli brought
them back up to the house where Stefan was waiting for them. He did not smile
as they walked in and Christopher immediately sensed that they were in trouble.
But they weren’t. This was different.

    ‚ÄúHello children, did you have a nice
time down at the beach with Uncle Uli?” They all nodded in almost perfect
unison. “Uli, can you take Alexandra down to the tree house for a moment?” Uli
picked up the little girl he called ‘Sonnenschein’ and carried her out into the
garden. Stefan asked the children to sit down at the table and Rebecca folded
her little arms as she sat down. “Rebecca, you like coming here don’t you?”

    She looked across at Christopher and
then back at Stefan and Christopher felt his heart jump as she answered. “Yes,
I wish I could stay here all the time.”

    Stefan smiled as the little girl
looked up at him and looked at his son and his pleading eyes. “I spoke to your
parents, both your parents.” Rebecca’s face froze. “After I saw your parents I
went down to the police station and I spoke to that nice policeman, Sergeant
Higgins. I must tell you Rebecca that your father does not want you to come
here and play. He doesn’t want you to play in the tree house or with
Christopher and Alexandra at all.”

    ‚ÄúBut Father‚Ķ‚Äù

    ‚ÄúBe quiet, Christopher. Let me
finish.” He ran his hands through his thin brown hair and then back down to the
table. Christopher had never seen him quite like this before. “But I spoke to
your mother and also with Sergeant Higgins and I’ve decided to let you play
here.” Christopher gasped and Rebecca smiled and Stefan even tried to smile
too. “I thought long and hard about it and I really did not want to go against
your father’s wishes, but I think that it is for the best.”

    ‚ÄúOh, thank you, Mr. Seeler.‚Äù

    ‚ÄúBut if you get into any trouble, I
will go straight down to your mother and tell her and you’ll never be able to
come up to this house again. Do you understand?”

    ‚ÄúOh yes, of course. I will be really
good.” She beamed and looked over at Christopher who was as happy as he could
ever imagine being. Rebecca stayed that afternoon and also for dinner and went
home afterwards and came again the next day and every day for the rest of that
summer. They decorated the tree house with pictures they drew and laid out a
tablecloth on the shelf and they all cried when Uncle Uli went back to Germany.

    It barely mattered that they were in different