Free Hidden Depths by Ally Rose

lake. It was a beautiful spring morning with a gentle breeze and freshness to the air. Felix would do very well here, he thought, it was a perfect place to heal.
    â€˜You’d best go,’ Dr Wissemann told him.
    Suddenly Felix felt afraid. ‘What if they don’t want me?’
    â€˜They’ll want you,’ Dr Wissemann reassured him. ‘Will you come in with me?’ Felix pleaded.
    â€˜Best not. It would compromise your family and mine if we met face to face. I tell you what, I’ll take a walk to stretch my legs and if you’re not back here at my car in one hour, I’ll know all is well.’
    Dr Wissemann gave Felix a few sterile dressings to take with him and shook his hand. ‘I’ll make sure Susanne’s OK. Once she’s had the baby, I’ll do my very best to bring her home here but it has to be our secret, just for now.’
    â€˜Thank you, Dr Wissemann. I’ll not forget you.’
    â€˜You should, you know. I’m a constant reminder of the hell you’ve come from.’
    Felix threw his arms around the doctor, then took a deep breath, left the car and started his short walk towards the cottage. Dr Wissemann watched him go and crossed his fingers for the boy.
    An hour later, he got into his car and drove home to Dresden without Felix. Feeling good about himself for the first time in ages, he started to dream of different schemes to get more kids out of Torgau. The problem was, if he helped anyone else escape, where would they go? It wasn’t viable to hide more than one kid at a time and they wouldn’t all be lucky like Felix and have a family to return to. Escapees couldn’t be left to fend for themselves in the outside world, leading a life on the run; the Stasi who ran the authorities would pick them up like stray dogs and return them to their kennels.
    Under the pressure of torture, tongues would be loosened and that would compromise Dr Wissemann and his own family. No, he decided he should be content that he’d acted responsibly with Felix and that would have to satisfy his moral conscience for the moment. But he would safeguard Susanne during her pregnancy and try to keep his promise to return her to her family.
    Motzen, in the midst of a bleak, snow-covered winter, looked vastly different from when Dr Wissemann had last been there in the spring. He had seen Susanne at the nursing home just after Axel was born. Life was going to be hard for a 14-year-old teenage mother but he had believed there was a promise of something better to come.
    Jens’s wife had persuaded him to let events unfold and not have any further involvement with anyone from Torgau and to concentrate on their own children, just in case the authorities caught up them. Jens reluctantly agreed and tried to distance himself from his Torgau past and make a fresh start. He paid the owner of the nursing home out of his hard-earned savings to keep Susanne Waltz and her baby safe throughout the winter months of 1989. If the political climate allowed, Jens promised himself to return to the nursing home and help Susanne Waltz the following spring.
    Klaus and Ingrid Felker welcomed Dr Wissemann into their home, their mood sombre. The ticking of a grandfather clock and its’ chimes were the only sounds Dr Wissemann could hear as he clasped Felix’s hands in his, noticing in a distracted way that they were red and flaky.
    â€˜I’m so sorry for your loss,’ he said, softly. Klaus shook the doctor’s hand. ‘I’m sorry we had to meet under these circumstances,’ he said.
    â€˜Herr Doktor, would you like something to drink?’ Ingrid asked.
    â€˜A coffee would be fine. Please, call me Jens.’
    Felix handed Dr Wissemann his identity card. ‘You dropped it – it’s how we knew how to find you. I tried to give it back when you were only five metres away from me in Berlin but I lost you in the crowd.’
    Dr Wissemann was