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Authors: Maryann Macdonald

Odette's Secrets

BOOK: Odette's Secrets
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Odette's
Secrets

MARYANN MACDONALD

For George
Il y a longtemps que je t'aime,
jamais je ne t'oublierai.

Odette Meyers and her mother, 1942

Contents

Rain in Paris

Cracked Glass

My Godmother

Tea with Sugar

My First Secret

Different

War Comes

The Dark

Papa Goes Away

No Eggs or Milk, No Jews or Dogs

Missing Papa

Running Away

Bombers

What Dangerous Looks Like

Lonely

My Mistake

A Second Secret

My Orange

An Empty Bag

Mama's Story

Two More Secrets

The Raid

Trouble

My Cousins

Angels and Demons

Lies

Torn in Two

Courage

My Escape

Soup, a Swing, and Another Secret

A New Life

Twilight

Heaven

Far Away

Mama Comes

Country Ways

Mama Comes Back

A Small Stone Cottage

True Peasants

Signs

Accused

Attacked

Heartbroken

Mute

My Guardian Angel

Heart and Soul

Mother's Day

Beautiful Bluma

The War Creeps Closer

The Soldiers Go Away

Vive la France!

Adieu

Home Again

Growing Up

New Friends

Au Revoir, Madame Marie

Lost and Found

Survivors

My People

The Present

Timeline

Author's Note

Acknowledgments

Rain in Paris

My name is Odette.

I live in Paris,

on a cobblestone square

with a splashing fountain and a silent statue.

My hair is curly.

Mama ties ribbons in it.

Papa reads to me and buys me toys.

I have everything I could wish for,

except a cat.

Every day I push open the shutters of our bedroom window,

lean on the windowsill,

and watch the world below.

Today, rain drizzles down on Paris.

Nuns in white-winged bonnets hurry across the square.

Gypsies huddle in doorways.

Ironworkers sip bitter coffee and read newspapers at the café.

Life looks the same as always,

but it is about to change.

It's Saturday, so Mama and Papa take me to the cinema.

On the huge screen,

soldiers march,

their legs and arms straight as sticks.

A funny-looking man with a mustache

shouts a speech.

His name is Hitler.

Who are these soldiers?

Why do they move like machines?

Some people in the cinema cheer and clap.

Mama and Papa whisper together.

Papa shakes his head.

Then he jumps up.

He stalks out of the cinema.

Mama and I run after him.

“I couldn't breathe in there,”

Papa says outside.

“The air … it was like poison gas.”

Mama rubs Papa's arm.

I hope we'll go back to the film,

but we don't.

Instead, Papa buys us warm crepes,

sprinkled with snowy sugar.

We walk home side by side,

in the chill rain,

just the three of us.

Cracked Glass

Sunday comes.

Mama and I go to the public baths.

We rent a room with a tub and a shower

for fifteen minutes.

I play mermaid in the tub.

Mama scrubs in the shower.

Then I rinse off

while Mama soaks.

When we're done, we rub our clean bodies all over

with scratchy white towels.

Mama kisses my nose.

Then she splashes cologne all over us.

Smelling like violets,

we walk home together, swinging hands.

BOOK: Odette's Secrets
11.66Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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