Tell No One Who You Are Read Online Free Page B

in the bag. Her movements were painfully slow and deliberate. As Régine saw her mother sit down on the edge of the bed to rest, she wondered how her mother would survive the long walk to the train station.
    “You don’t have to come, you know, Mama.”
    “Of course I have to come,” her mother said. “Papa and I will take him.”
    “Yes, and I’m coming with you,” her mother said. “I’ve already told you and it’s settled.”
    Régine watched her mother pack the last sweater. The bag bulged and she struggled with the buckles to close it. Then she took hold of the shoulder straps, pulled the bag off the bed and dragged it along the floor into the other room.
    Her father and brother were sitting on the sofa. They had been speaking in whispers. From the bedroom door, Régine could not hear what they were saying. Her father was doing all the talking. Was he telling Léon the war would end soon and they would all be back together?
    They rose from the sofa as they saw Mrs. Miller with the heavy bag. Léon hurried to take it from her.
    “You don’t have to come,” he told her. “Papa and Régine will accompany me. Really, Mama.”
    “But I want to come,” Régine heard her mother say.
    They left the apartment in silence. Régine and her father helped her mother down the stairs. They stood on either side of her, holding her by the elbows, and supported her on the long, slow walk to the train station, la Gare du Midi.
    Along the way they stopped to rest from time to time. Régine wondered what she would tell Léon at the train station when it came time to say good-bye. It was hard to know the right thing to say.
    She imagined herself at the station, standing on the platform. She saw herself kissing Léon on the cheeks and hugging him. Then he would board the train and, as it began to roll, she imagined him waving at her through the window.
    She repeated this scene over and over in her mind as they walked toward the station. She only hoped that the right words would come to her on the station platform.
    They were getting closer. Just a few more streets and around the corner and la Gare du Midi would be visible. Régine tightened her hold on her mother, who was tired now and dragging her feet.
    The streets showed few signs that a war was going on. In Brussels, there were no bombed-out buildings or craters in the ground. The shops and homes stood where they had always stood. But the streets were usually quiet. Now they were busy with other families walking toward the train station, accompanying men with rucksacks on their backs.
    A group of German soldiers passed. Régine was accustomed by now to seeing them on the street. They marched in pairs or in groups and wore helmets and uniforms and boots and carried guns or bayonets. Sometimes they rode military vehicles. But as far as she could see, they had no one to fight. Where were all the Allied troops that her father said would come to end the war and give Belgium back to the Belgians?
    They turned the corner and saw the train station in the distance. A crowd had gathered in front. Something was going on, some kind of commotion. Her parents and Léon saw it, too, and stopped in their tracks.
    Her father said, “Shhh! Listen!”
    Régine heard the noise from up ahead, a mixture of shouts and screams, as if some shouted over the screams of others. She did not know what to make of it. She looked at her brother and saw from his face that he did not know, either. She tightened her hold on her mother’s elbow.
    “Come on,” her father said.
    The noise ahead of them grew louder. Soon they reached the front of the station. Régine saw now what was causing the commotion.
    People were trying to enter the station and were being stopped. Men and women were pushing and yelling as they tried to pass through the front gate. Only the men carrying rucksacks on their backs were being allowed in.
    Régine stood on tiptoe. The German soldiers swung their clubs and jabbed their bayonets