“If we do what you’re asking,” Dodo said, “we’ll still be heroes. We just won’t be treated like it.”
“The decision has to be unanimous,” Helen said. “If there’s even one dissenting vote, I will go back out there and finish the match. But I have to admit I won’t be playing to win.”
Jeanne raked her hands through her hair. “It’s the goddamn Confederation Cup. Don’t you want to win?”
“Of course I do, but there’s more to life than tennis. And without Meike, I would have no life at all.”
“If you play the deciding set,” Jacobs said, “what would happen to Meike after the match ended?”
“Even if she wins, she loses. There’ll be guards at every exit and she won’t be able to take a step without someone walking in her shadow. If we’re going to make a move, we need to do it now. But whatever you decide, that’s what I’ll do. No questions asked and no hard feelings held. What do you say?”
Jacobs, Dodo, and Jeanne looked at each other but didn’t speak. Helen bit her lip as she waited for them to come to a decision. Finally, Jacobs slapped herself on the knee and said, “I don’t need this trophy. I already have enough hardware. Count me in.”
Dodo shrugged and said, “There’s always next year.”
Helen turned to Jeanne. “That leaves you, skip. What do you say?”
Jeanne was understandably slow to respond. With no Grand Slam champions in her coaching stable and none on the horizon, winning the Confederation Cup could be the pinnacle of her career. “Adding you to this team was the best decision I’ve ever made. And the decision you’re asking me to make now is the hardest.” Jeanne’s voice shook as she squeezed Helen’s shoulder and said, “What do you need me to do?”
“Distract Inge so she doesn’t sound the alarm.”
“What about Liesel? She and that guy Henkel seem pretty tight.”
“You’re right. I don’t know if she can be trusted. Let’s keep her in the dark for now. Getting Meike on our side is more important.”
“And how do you intend to do that?”
Helen scribbled a note on a piece of paper and pressed it into Jeanne’s palm. “Give her this. Just don’t let anyone see you do it.”
“You’re pretty good at subterfuge,” Jacobs said. “Have you been moonlighting as a spy or something?”
“If you only knew.”
*
Meike didn’t know what to think when Jeanne entered the German team’s half of the locker room. Her first thought was that Helen wasn’t able to resume play and had decided to retire from the match. The idea left her with an odd mixture of exhilaration and disappointment. She wanted to win the match because she had earned it, not because her opponent had conceded. When Jeanne slipped a crumpled wad of paper in her hands and drew Inge and Rilla aside, however, she felt nothing but confusion.
“What—”
Meike silenced Liesel’s question with a look, then unfolded the piece of paper and read the message written in Helen’s familiar scrawl.
Come see me if you want to live.
Liesel stifled a gasp as she read over Meike’s shoulder. “What do you think it means?” she asked in a whisper.
Meike crumpled the note in her fist to keep it safe from prying eyes. “There’s only one way to find out.” While Inge, Rilla, and Jeanne continued to talk, she rose from her seat and, with Liesel by her side, walked toward the Americans’ half of the locker room. “You wanted to see me?” she asked as Helen, Dorothy Cheney, and Helen Hull Jacobs looked at her with equally anxious expressions.
Helen’s eyes darted toward Liesel. “Do you trust her?”
Meike gripped Liesel’s hand in solidarity. She and Liesel had never been exceptionally close, but she felt the fault was hers. Tennis was a solitary sport and she had been alone at the top for so long she didn’t know how to let anyone in. But life was about more than tennis. She needed family. She needed friends. She needed someone to love. And here, in this room, she had found all three. “Yes, I trust her.”
Helen, however, didn’t appear to feel the same way. Several moments passed before she finally spoke. “I have a plan that could save your life. To make it work, you need to come with me right now. Jacobs and Dodo will cover for us while we get away.”
Meike tightened her grip on Liesel’s arm. “Come with you? Where?”
“London, to begin with. Swifty’s at the train station now buying us tickets to Brittany so we can catch a ferry across the Channel. After we leave France, the rest is up to you. You can stay in England or emigrate to the US, Canada, or anyplace else that’s out of the Nazis’ reach. My friend who works for the government? He can help us secure the entry visas you’ll need. You can go anywhere you want, Meike, but if you want to be safe, you have to leave before anyone knows you’re gone. You have to leave now.”
Helen’s proposition was utterly ridiculous, incredibly dangerous, and impossibly romantic. Even though Helen hadn’t revealed any details about how she planned to pull off her grand scheme, Meike felt something she hadn’t felt in months: hope. Then reality quickly set in. “But I can’t leave. I don’t have my passport.”
“Where is it?”
“In Oskar’s pocket.”
Helen’s face fell. Meike’s heart sank right along with it. Then Liesel spoke up. “I can get it for you.”
“How?” Meike asked.
“I have my ways.” Liesel flashed a melancholy smile. “Wait here. I shall return shortly.”
“How do you know she won’t tell him what we have in mind?” Helen asked skeptically as she watched Liesel leave. “How do you know she won’t bring him and his friends back with her? If she does, we could all end up in jail.”
Meike carefully considered the situation. Liesel was engaged to Oskar and pregnant with his child. Why would she betray him in order to help her? “Because if the situation were reversed, I would do everything in my power to help her. I choose to believe she would do the same for me.”
“You’re a better woman than I am.” Helen took Meike’s hands in hers. “Then again, I’ve always known that.”
Time seemed to crawl by as Meike waited for Liesel to return with her passport in hand or Oskar and his henchmen in tow. She sat down hard as her legs threatened to give way. “This will be so hard on my family. I didn’t get a chance to say good-bye to them.”
Helen squeezed her hand. “You’ll see them again someday. I promise.”
Meike stared at her. Helen looked the same, but she seemed different somehow. “You’ve changed. You’ve…grown.”
“No,” Helen said, “I grew up. And if you’ll have me, I want to grow old with you. What do you say?”
Meike felt her eyes fill with tears. “Yes. Yes. A thousand times, yes.”
Helen kissed her hard. Meike returned the kiss with equal fervor.
Jacobs, who also preferred the company of women, cleared her throat. “Careful, you two. Save some for later.”
Everyone started when Liesel ran back into the room. Meike held her breath for a moment as she waited for Liesel to either rescue her or condemn her. Liesel pulled Meike’s passport from the folds of her jacket. “I got it.”
“But how?”
“I have a cousin who’s a magician. He taught me sleight of hand after one of his performances. Thanks to Enno’s lessons, I picked Oskar’s pocket while he was introducing me to some of his friends in the cabinet.”
Meike blew out a breath, then kissed Liesel on both cheeks and clutched the passport with grateful hands. “Won’t you come, too? You won’t be safe once Oskar discovers you helped me escape.”
“He’s a good man, Meike, not the monster you think he is.”
“Has he told you what he did to me when he took me to Dachau?”
“No,” Liesel said with downcast eyes, “but I’m sure he was only following orders. I love him, Meike. I know his heart. I can change him. I know you don’t believe that, but I do.”
“We believe what we choose to
believe.”
“And I choose to believe in Oskar. I have to, for my sake as well as the baby’s.”
“Be safe.” Meike placed a hand on Liesel’s stomach, certain she would never see Liesel or her unborn baby again. “Both of you.”
Liesel placed her hands over Meike’s. “Every night before she goes to bed, I shall tell her stories about what an honor it was to play alongside you.”
Meike gave Liesel three hugs. One for her mother, one for her father, and one for her brother. “When you see them, tell them…” Her voice broke and she couldn’t finish.
“I won’t have to say a word. They shall already know.”
Meike hugged her again and held fast, unable to trade one uncertain future for another.
Helen placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Come on, champ,” she said softly. “We’ve got to go.”
Jacobs wheeled a half-empty linen cart toward them. Without bothering to change out of their sweat-dampened tennis clothes, Meike and Helen climbed into the cart. Jacobs and Dodo covered them with towels and piled more on top. A few minutes later, Meike felt the cart begin to move. Then she heard a man’s voice say, “I’ll take it from here.”
“His name’s Paul Lanier,” Helen said in a low voice barely above a whisper. “He’s the one I was telling you about.”
“We’re about to enter the hallway,” Meike heard Paul say. “Please be as quiet as you can until I give you the okay.”
Meike’s pulse pounded in her ears as Paul slowly made his way across the grounds. She waited for the cart to be stopped and examined. She waited to be returned to Dachau. This time for good. Fear of discovery left a metallic taste in her mouth. Rich and coppery like dried blood.
“It’s okay,” Helen whispered as she stroked Meike’s face. “We’re almost home.”
Home. How could such a small word hold such infinite possibility?
Meike heard the buzz of the milling crowd. A crowd that was waiting to see the resumption of a match she and Helen wouldn’t finish.
The cart lurched to a stop. Meike froze, waiting to hear German-accented voices barking orders and guns being cocked in readiness. She blinked as the towels were plucked away to reveal the bright sun that had finally manage to burn its way through the clouds.
“Quickly now,” Paul said. “The car is waiting.”
Meike and Helen climbed out of the cart and ran through the bowels of the stadium to the motor car waiting just outside the gates. They climbed in the backseat while Paul joined Swifty Anderson in the front.
“I picked up your luggage from your hotel,” Swifty said as he punched the gas. “You can change clothes after you board the train. You leave in twenty minutes.”
“Whose car is this?” Helen asked.
“Don’t ask me, kid. I liberated it from a guy who thought I was a parking attendant. I’ll make sure to leave the keys in it so he can have it back when I’m done.”
“How can I ever thank you, Mr. Anderson?”
“This was all her idea. Don’t thank me.” He jerked a thumb in Helen’s direction. “Thank her.”
Meike turned to the woman who had risked her own life in order to save hers. “I have a feeling I will be thanking you every day for the rest of our lives.”
“Having you by my side will be thanks enough.” Helen’s kiss was filled with expectation and the promise of a future they would now be able to share. Together and without fear.
They reached the train station in a matter of minutes. After they boarded and entered their private car, the interminable wait for the train to leave the station began. Meike looked out the window, scanning the platform for potential pursuers.
“Where will you settle?” Paul asked as the train’s whistle blew and the wheels finally began to move. “What will you do?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t had time to give it much thought. I’m still too busy looking over my shoulder. I won’t be able to truly relax until we board the ferry and set sail for England.”
“Relax,” Swifty said. “Take a load off. The world is your oyster now. Stick with me. I’ll make you a mint on the pro tour. Both of you. Picture it. A fifty-city tour. Six-figure contracts. I can see the posters now. Big, bold print begging crowds to come see the finale of the best match that never was. They’ll be lining up down the street to buy tickets. A moment like this calls for champagne. Let me see if I can round some up.”
“I could have beaten you today, you know,” Helen said after Swifty left to find the bar.
“I know.” Meike rested her head on Helen’s shoulder as exhaustion and relief threatened to overwhelm her. “But if Swifty gets his way, you will have plenty of opportunities for a rematch.”
Helen gently pulled the ribbon from Meike’s hair and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “You’ve got a date.”
Swifty returned a few minutes later with a bottle of champagne on ice. “What shall we drink to?” he asked after he popped the cork and poured four glasses. “To fast cars?”
“To family and friends,” Paul said.
“To freedom,” Helen said.
Meike raised her glass, grateful for all four. “I’ll drink to that.”
Epilogue
May 1, 1946
Rheinsteifel, Germany
Helen stared out the window of the speeding taxi as she tried to see the view through Meike’s eyes. The ravaged countryside bore little resemblance to the jaw-dropping beauty she remembered from her last visit eight long years ago. Deep craters dotted the landscape, brutal reminders of five years’ worth of Allied bombing raids over German soil. Most of the homes were intact, but some of the historic buildings she recalled so fondly were nothing more than burned-out shells.
When the taxi neared what had once been one of her favorite haunts, Meike smiled for the first time since they had set sail from New York. “Look,” she said, pointing to Brunhilde’s Bakery. “It’s still there.”
Helen placed a hand on Meike’s knee. “Tomorrow morning, perhaps we could stroll into town for some apple strudel and a cup of coffee just like old times.”
“Yes,” Meike said with a hint of sorrow. “Just like old times.”
Anxiety rolled off Meike in waves as the cab drew ever closer to her ancestral home. The castle looked fine from a distance, but how much damage had time and war inflicted on it and the people inside its walls?
Meike hadn’t seen her family since that fateful day in Paris in June 1938. When Helen had asked her to come away with her and Meike had left without looking back. So much had changed since that day.
They, like Swifty had promised, had grown rich barnstorming the United States on the professional tennis tour. Amateur competition, however, had been put on hold as dozens of players put down their racquets in order to take up arms, Helen Hull Jacobs included. Perhaps inspired by her role in springing Meike from the Nazis in Paris, Jacobs had served as a commander in the US Navy’s intelligence department, one of only five women to achieve the rank. Oskar Henkel had been killed during the war, leaving Liesel a widow, though Helen didn’t mourn his loss. Meike’s brother, Michael, meanwhile, had been drafted into the German army, but he had chosen to flee to England rather than serve. He had pledged his support to the Allies and joined forces with Alan Turing, the British mathematician whose Enigma machine solved the German military’s “unbreakable” code and helped turn the tide of the war. Michael continued to live in London and he and his wife, Lily, were expecting their first child in a few short months.
“The wheel of life,” Helen said. “Once it starts to spin, you never know if you’re going to hit the jackpot or crap out.”
“Lady Luck has treated us pretty well, don’t you think?”
“She’s paid off in spades.” Helen brought Meike’s hand to her lips. “Every day with you is like a dream come true.”
“This day,” Meike said when the cab pulled to a stop in front of Castle von Bismarck and she saw her parents waiting for her on the front steps, “is bette
r than anything I have ever imagined.”
Meike jumped out of the car and ran into her parents’ arms. Helen’s heart filled with joy as she watched the tear-filled reunion she had once feared would never come to pass.
“Thank you for this,” Max said as he pumped her hand. “Thank you for keeping Meike safe all these years and for bringing her back to us now.”
“The pleasure was mine.”
Katja finally released Meike and turned to Helen, who flinched involuntarily. The last time she and Katja had encountered each other, Katja had greeted her with bitter words and a slap across the face. This time, though, Katja’s tone was gentle as she opened her arms and drew Helen into them. She said only two words, but they were enough to reduce Helen to tears. “Welcome home.”
Helen had spent more than half her life trying to convince herself she didn’t need to have a family that loved and respected her. That money could buy the happiness she’d never had. Now that she had more money than she could ever hope to spend, she realized it meant nothing without the love of the woman at her side. The woman with whom she had shared joy as well as pain. The woman she knew she could count on to remain in her corner through good times as well as bad.
Meike dried Helen’s eyes. “Are you all right, my love?”
“I’m fine, darling,” Helen insisted. “Because I have you.”
Meike kissed her, then took her arm and led her inside. Led her to the place it had taken Helen almost thirty years and several thousand miles to find. Meike led her home.
About the Author
Yolanda Wallace is not a professional writer, but she plays one in her spare time. Her love of travel and adventure has helped her pen the globe-spanning novels In Medias Res, Rum Spring, Lucky Loser, the Lambda Award-winning Month of Sundays, and Murphy’s Law. Her short stories have appeared in multiple anthologies including Romantic Interludes 2: Secrets and Women of the Dark Streets. She and her partner live in beautiful coastal Georgia, where they are parents to four children of the four-legged variety—a boxer and three cats.
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