Fell in the Wrong Hands

Continuing to read the story, Lizzie, Mutti, Karli, Peter and Marlene traveled following Peter´s compass that only pointed in the right direction. On their journey, they met people from other refugees that they shared shelter with and shared their stories with. Karli got sick, very sick, so they had to find a doctor. They reached a big house in the middle of the night, were an angry man opened the door; he didn´t look so pleased when he saw Mutti, Karli, Lizzie and Peter, but a woman appeared from inside the house and told Hans, which was the man’s name, to let them in. She also told Mutti she was going to find a doctor. Then, Lizzie followed Hans into a stable were Marlene could stay, and when she went into the house, she saw it was full of people, that had escaped from the bombing. She immediately understood why Hans did not want more people in the house. When the doctor arrived, he said that Karli had to be kept warm because of his fever and that he had to take some medicine he came with. After the doctor left, the woman that was with Hans introduced herself and said they could call her countess. Peter gave Karli his compass so he had something to look at while he was recovering. Karli made sure that Peter knew it was his compass and that Karli was going to give it back. When Karli began to feel better, he escaped from the room they were staying in and the others had to find him. When Lizzie found him, he was doing his juggling tricks on top of Marlene while a group of choir children and many other people from the refugees were watching. Karli stopped to juggle for a moment with his two balls and showed everyone his big brother's compass and said it was magical. Then someone told Karli to juggle with it and many other people began to encourage Karli to do it, so he did it. At first, he seemed to be very good at doing it but with all the crazy audience around Marlene, she became uncomfortable and made Karli loose his balance until he dropped the compass. Lizzie tried to catch it but she couldn't but luckily, Hans cached it. He began to examine the compass and when he opened it, he realized it was an British or American compass, not German. He asked Karli were he got the compass from but Mutti answered for him and said it was a gift from Papi to her that he had got from a British pilot that got killed when he was fighting the war in France. Hans was not very sure about the answer but he said that it wasn't a toy and that children should not have it. Mutti said that she agreed and then they left. When they were back in their room, the countess came in and told them that Hans didn't believe their story, neither did she, and that he wanted to call the police. She also said that Peter had an American accent and she knew it because her nephews were half German half American. She also didn't believe that he had asthma because he looked strong and healthy. She knew Peter wasn't German. At last she said they had to leave as soon as possible and she asked Mutti if the children of the choir could leave with them. Mutti agreed and the countess gave them and the children enough food for the journey. As they were about to leave, Hans came in from the front door bringing an army officer and some soldiers with him.


"But there were times when he came back with very little: a few nuts and some half-rotten vegetables. Several times he returned empty-handed altogether. Then we just went hungry, and those days were the days, with no food inside us, when it was hardest to keep ourselves warm, even if we could manage to make a fire." (p. 148)

Before Peter, Mutti, Karli and Lizzie found the big house, and they didn´t have any food left, they had to look for food in the forest or in little houses in villages. Sometimes Peter found many things to eat, but sometimes he didn't, that´s why we have to be thankful for having a home and enough food to survive because there are people in real life that don´t have anything to eat. Luckily, Marlene could eat whatever plant or grass that she found on her way.


"Everywhere I looked, every centimeter of the floor space was occupied. People were lying fast asleep, in the corridors, on the landings, and, I presumed, in every room." (p. 157)

I can imagine how hard it must have been for the countess and Hans to make sure all this people had somewhere to sleep and food to eat.  But on the other hand, it was very kind of Hans and the countess to open her house and help those persons who had lost everything and were fighting to survive.

The book is coming to an end and I think that Peter is going to get caught and Mutti, Karli and Lizzie are going to be in problems too. But maybe Lizzie, Mutti and Karli are not going to go to jail because of Marlene, because they have to take care or her. I also think that Peter is going to give Lizzie or Karli his compass before he is taken away by the soldiers so they can find their way to a safe place.   

 
Here is a picture of how a compass from the Second World War looked like.