Read Remember Me for Free Online Page B

clinging to coats, resting on the cobbles, on the streetlights. Flags hung from every building. Flags, red as blood, their centers snow-white circles and, in the middle, swastikas black as ebony. Red and white and black, like the story of “Snow White” by the Brothers Grimm.
    Marianne’s heart pounded so loudly she was sure everyone else could hear it. Her voice shook. She just managed to finish reading the last line.
    “Thank you, Mary Anne. Now all together, class,” the teacher said, and raised her pointer again.
    At the end of the day they were given homework – some spelling – a whole list of words connected with winter: Arctic, blizzard, chilling, freeze, glacial, icicle, numb, shepherd, snowdrift, snowstorm. They were told to write a sentence to show the meaning of each word.
    That night Marianne looked up the words in her dictionary and wrote: “Aunt Vera’s face is glacial when she looks at me. I feel numb with sorrow without my mother.”
    It took her hours to finish the homework, and her head ached.

• 8 •
“My mother … is most wonderful cook”
    “T omorrow when you come home from school,” Aunt Vera said one afternoon in late January, “you may help me serve tea to my friends. Change your blouse and brush your hair before you come in.”
    “Yes, Aunt Vera. Many ladies are coming?” asked Marianne.
    “Mrs. Brewster, Mrs. Stephens, and Mrs. Courtland – my bridge group.”
    Tomorrow.
Marianne hurried upstairs. She had lots to prepare: write down her mother’s address in Düsseldorf, check out words in her dictionary, and practice her pronunciation. One of those ladies might have work for her parents!
    Next day, after scrubbing the ink off her fingers with pumice stone, she handed round plates of thin bread and butter, scones, and sandwiches. Gladys had given her an encouraging wink before she entered the dining room.
    Marianne waited for her opportunity to speak.
    “Your frock is darling, Phoebe,” Mrs. Stephens said.
    “Oh, do you like it? I’m so glad. I’ve found the most wonderful dressmaker. A little Jewess who’s set up shop in the Cromwell Road. She works out of two rooms, my dear, only arrived last year from Vienna. Had her own salon there, I believe. Lost everything to the Nazis. She uses a borrowed sewing machine. Her prices are quite reasonable and she’ll copy any design.” Mrs. Courtland paused and sipped her tea.
    “Please,” said Marianne, “my mother can sew also, and she is most wonderful cook, and my father is very clever and speaks good English. They want to work in England.” Marianne held out the paper on which she’d printed her mother’s address. “Here is the place for you to write.”
    Aunt Vera took it, crumpled the paper into a ball, and dropped it onto the tea trolley.
    Then everyone began to speak at once, as if Marianne had done something awful, like spilling the tea.
    “Are your parents in Vienna too, my dear?” asked Mrs. Brewster.
    “Rather sweet and brave of her to ask. Don’t be cross, Vera,” said Mrs. Stephens.
    “Of course, Dora’s been with us for years. I don’t think she’d approve if I brought a
foreigner
into her kitchen. No one bakes like your Gladys, Vera, my dear. You are so fortunate. Do let me try one of those little scones now,” said Mrs. Courtland.
    Aunt Vera found her voice at last. The lines of her mouth looked pinched. Marianne sensed her anger. “We can managenow, Mary Anne. Please ask Gladys to bring in more hot water.”
    After the guests had left, and Marianne had finished helping Gladys with the drying up, Gladys said, “Don’t know what you did, but you’re to go and see Mrs. Abercrombie Jones.”
    Marianne hesitated outside the dining room. She rubbed the sore place on her thumb, where she’d bitten the skin. Then she walked in and stood in front of Aunt Vera.
    “I am very displeased with you, Mary Anne. I understand that you miss your mother, but I cannot allow you to make a nuisance of yourself.