OOM - The Escape Part 3: moving forward

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee, Herman, and Helga boarded the train, entering one of the third class cars at the rear. The hard, wooden benches could only occupy two persons each, so Emcee and Helga slid in together, and Herman sat across the aisle from them. Since their suitcases were small, they were able to bypass checking them in and simply pushed them under their seats. Helga used hers as a footrest as she tried to get comfortable beside Emcee.

As the train bustled and brimmed with passengers squeezing on and trying to find space to sit, Emcee sat numbly, his thoughts and emotions a whirlwind from which he stayed just out of reach. To think too deeply on this new reality would be to give in to his fears. And he could not allow his fears to take over. Not now. Not when escape was in sight.


When it came closer to departure time, a train conductor made his way up the aisle.

“Tickets, please,” was his monotonous request, as he took passengers’ tickets to clip them.

Following him, several steps behind, was a police officer.

The sight of him roused Emcee out of his stupor. He nudged Helga’s arm and caught Herman’s eye. They also spotted the policeman, and did their best to remain calm.

The conductor approached them. He first clipped Herman’s ticket, then Helga’s, then Emcee’s.

“Thank you, have a nice trip,” he replied in that same monotone as he moved on to the passengers behind them.

Ahead of them, they saw the police officer inspecting bags and identification papers.

Emcee suddenly flushed hot with panic and dread. His heart beat wildly in his chest and his breathing quickened. A sense of claustrophobia overwhelmed him, and it was all he could do to keep from springing up and bolting out the doorway.

He shut his eyes and rubbed the palms of his hands on his knees.

“Are you all right?” Helga whispered, touching his arm. Herman glanced at him with concern as the policeman came nearer.

Emcee cleared his throat and nodded vigorously, as if to shake away the anxiety. “Yes,” he rasped, “I’m fine.”

When the policeman’s icy gaze fell on him, he felt his otherness magnified.

“Good morning,” said the policeman, his tone stiff. “Papers, please.”

They reached into their coat pockets to produce them.

He took Herman’s and gave it a second’s glance before handing it back to him. “Your suitcase, please,” he said.

Herman lifted the suitcase onto his lap and the policeman marked it with an X in white chalk. Then he turned to Helga, took her identification, spared it very little interest, and gave it back to her. He marked her suitcase with an X as well.

But then when he had a look at Emcee’s papers…

“And where are you headed this fine morning, Herr Christofer?”

Emcee nearly didn’t respond to his own alias.

“Hamburg, mein Herr,” he replied pleasantly.

“Holiday?” said the policeman. He slashed an X on the side of Emcee’s suitcase.

Emcee shook his head. “Not exactly. I’m looking to move there.”

“Is this your only piece of baggage?”

“Yes, mein Herr.”

“You’re traveling very light.”

“I like to keep things simple, mein Herr.”

The policeman uttered a grunt and handed Emcee’s papers back to him. “Good journey, Herr Christofer.” He moved on to the next passengers.

Emcee had hardly ever felt more exposed in his life. He looked wide-eyed at Herman, who gave him the same expression of relief. Helga huffed a sharp breath. But they dared not say anything to each other, not now. And even if it was a paranoid notion, Emcee could hazard a guess why the policeman had singled him out for this brief interrogation. Herman was blond and blue-eyed. Helga was a beautiful young woman. But Emcee’s dark looks stood out among them. He could feel it.

Settling into his seat, he began to wonder, and worry, if the magic Abe no Seimei had laced into their documents was truly working. But perhaps it was his fretting that kept getting in the way of his faith.

Finally, at precisely eight o’clock, the train blew a great whistle and gave a sudden lurch. The engine huffed and puffed, every bolt and axle groaning with the weight of hundreds of passengers.

Emcee felt much the same. All his memories of Berlin clung to him, dragged behind him as the train moved forward. Each thread pulled taut and dug into his heart until they snapped and recoiled and stung him deeply. Emcee used to think that being able to let go came easy to him, but it became painfully clear that this was no longer so.

The journey from Berlin to Hamburg would take approximately two hours, two hours on hard seats after a mostly sleepless night. What rest they could get would be insignificant. They ate a sandwich each, a meager breakfast, and saved the rest for later—perhaps it would even last for emergencies on the ship.

At some point, a small child sitting with his mother a few seats behind them began to complain and cry. Several people around them grumbled, because what could be worse than a fussy child on a long trip, especially when the boy’s mother was having a difficult time consoling him.

“Mama, I’m hungry,” the boy sniffled.

“We’ll eat when we get to Hamburg,” his mother assured him.

“But I’m hungry now,” he insisted.

“I know, sweetheart, but I’m sorry, you’ll just have to wait.”

The child could only respond to that with more sniffles.

Herman dug into his packet of food and took out some saltine crackers with orange marmalade smothered between them. Turning around, he reached over and offered them to the woman.

“Maybe this will tide him over until then,” he said with a little smile.

The woman’s face lit up with relief, and she gratefully accepted the crackers. “Oh, thank you, mein Herr, you’re very kind,” she said, as she gave them to the boy. “What do you say, Hansel?”

(Emcee’s ears pricked up at the name. And he wasn’t exactly sure why.)

“Thank you,” Hansel replied, before munching on one of the crackers.

Herman grinned and sat back. Helga smiled at him and squeezed his arm. And of course this only reinforced the reason why Emcee had gone to so much effort to try to get them out of Germany. They were too good for what was happening--for what was going to happen.

*

With an ear-piercing whistle, the train pulled into the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof and slowed to a halt, iron wheels screeching as they braked on iron tracks. Passengers stretched and gathered their things, readying themselves for when the conductors opened the doors.

Emcee tilted his head from side to side with a wince, having spent most of the trip leaning against the window trying to nap. Noticing his discomfort, Helga reached up to massage his neck with warm fingers.

“What time is it?” she asked.

Emcee pulled his watch out of his pocket. “Only ten o’clock,” he replied, appreciating her effort to relieve the tension in his neck. “It feels as if we have been traveling forever.”

Herman leaned over across the aisle. “We will need to have a proper rest before tonight,” he said quietly.

Helga and Emcee both agreed. It would be a long night indeed.

But before they could get off the train, another police officer appeared and began to inspect identification papers again. New passengers had boarded at other towns along the way. Anyone entering Hamburg would have to be checked, along with their belongings.

This time Emcee was better prepared for the eventuality of another round of questioning. But instead of the policeman needling him on his purpose for being in Hamburg, he simply glanced over his papers, checked the X on his suitcase, and bid him a good day.

Emcee murmured in Helga’s ear, “Perhaps the Berlin officer was just a nosy asshole.”

She snorted a giggle. It seemed as if it had been ages since any of them found cause to laugh at anything.

They filed off the train and joined the throngs of commuters making their way out of the station. Only Emcee had ever been to Hamburg before, for rare weekend visits in his youth with friends or wealthy men. The red-light district here was like no other, but this was not a time to play tourist.

After walking about for a while, they stopped to eat lunch at a café in the shadow of the St. Georg church. Not far away in a seedy neighborhood, they found an inn whose owner allowed the three of them to rent a room with a single bed. Herman paid for one night, as it was cheaper than if he opted to pay by the hour. They would be leaving at nine o'clock this evening anyway.

The room was drab and just this side of clean, but it would suffice. Emcee, Herman, and Helga immediately shed their coats and scarves and piled onto the squeaky bed, finding warmth in each other’s arms. It felt safe for now, and a place to rest was all they needed before the most difficult part of their journey.