The Other Half of Life Read Online Free Page B

said.
    Thomas looked up. It was a sharp sliver tonight, bright and gleaming. The stars were overwhelming themselves, so many of them, like minnows of the sky. Thomas had once been the very type of person who noticed the moon and stars and sunlight and flowers. But over the past year he'd stopped caring so much about the world. In fact, it felt wrong that flowers budded and the moon cycled when everything else had turned crazy around him.
    Priska looked at the sky. “
Night is the other half of life, and the better half
. That's from Goethe too—
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship.”
    Thomas rolled his eyes. “Have you read Goethe, or do you just memorize certain parts for your father?”
    “I've read plenty but I don't love it like my father does. He was writing a study on Goethe before the
Reichs-kulturkammer
put an end to any Jew publishing a book. Marianne is named after the actress Wilhelm Meister falls in love with. My father wanted to name me Gretchen—”
    “From
Faust
,” Thomas said. He had to acknowledgethat the name might suit her. Gretchen was the one woman whose beauty Faust would sell his soul to the devil for.
    Priska nodded. “Thankfully, Mutti insisted I be named after her favorite aunt and not a woman who kills her illegitimate child, goes insane, and is condemned to death! My favorite books are
Gone with the Wind and The Good Earth
. Here my father is a professor of German literature and I love American books!” Priska looked up at the moon again. “By the way, what are
you
doing on deck so late at night?”
    Thomas shrugged. “Couldn't sleep.”
    “And you don't have anyone to worry if you're not in bed.”
    Thomas looked away. He was well aware he didn't have anyone to care for him, but hearing it so plainly stung nonetheless.
    “I just mean it was easy for you,” she said quickly. “I had to wait until Marianne was asleep and then tiptoe out. Luckily she sleeps like she eats, like an elephant.” When Thomas didn't reply, she asked, “Did you like having dinner with us?”
    “It was very nice of you to invite me,” he answered. He didn't think he could tell her that being with her family made him miss his own even more.
    Priska blinked but she continued to hold his gaze. The wind blew her hair around her face. “I can't wait till the pool is up, can you?”
    He paused before asking, “How do you do it?”
    “Do what?”
    “Be so happy all the time.”
    Priska glanced at the sky. The moon had slipped behind a cloud. “I guess …,” she began, but Thomas heard voices and he stopped listening to her. He turned his head toward the voices so she would understand that he was trying to listen in.
    A man asked, “How many ships?”
    “What is it?” Priska whispered to Thomas.
    “Shh,” he told her.
    Another man answered the first. “Two. They both left at about the same time we did, but they're smaller and faster. If they get there first, the quotas for Cuba might be full and then who knows what will happen. We'll likely be stuck dragging these Jews back to Germany.”
    Thomas heard footsteps coming toward them. He took Priska's hand and pulled her behind a ventilation shaft. The men walked by. He recognized one of them as Kurt, the officer who had tried to keep him off the first-class deck.
    “This is no ordinary tourist cruise, that's for sure,” the other officer said to Kurt. He was dressed in the same Nazi Party uniform as Kurt.
    “Not when we're asked to treat swine like royalty,” Kurt answered. “I don't care what the captain says, it'll be quite a feat if I can keep looking at them without spitting.”
    Thomas glanced at Priska; her face looked pinched,as if she were wincing. He was almost glad to overhear their talk. It confirmed what he had known from the start—that they were on a ship with a crew composed of their greatest enemies and that arriving safely in Cuba was not a guarantee.
    The men continued across the deck, their voices fading. Thomas realized he hadn't