Free Safe Haven by Anna Schmidt

taking a swallow of the sweet liquid. “You look nice.”
    It was evident that he had recently showered and shaved. His skin was ruddy, and his hair still damp. He wore a plaid, cotton short-sleeved shirt, jeans, and a baseball cap. She was pretty sure that he blushed at the compliment.
    “How did your cousin like her doll?”
    “I think she really liked it,” he said. “She’s quite the little talker once she warms up to you. She told me all about the doll she used to have back in Munich and how she and my sister, Beth, used to play tea party and house and how her father had told her that Beth now had her own real baby and …” He stopped suddenly and looked down. “Now look who can’t shut up,” he muttered.
    “I brought something for Liesl, as well, if you think it would be all right for me to give her a present.”
    “Like what?”
    She took a tissue-wrapped package from her bag and opened the layers of thin white paper to reveal a rainbow of colorful ribbons. “For her hair,” Suzanne explained. “I mean, I guess I just assumed that she would have long hair—pigtails maybe?” She suddenly had doubts. As usual she had simply rushed into buying something she thought a girl would like without finding out anything about this specific child.
    “They’re perfect,” Theo assured her. “She’s going to love them. And yes, she has a braid—it’s not pigtails, just a single braid.”
    Suzanne breathed a sigh of relief. “Good.” She glanced around, noticing that the reception was beginning to break up as some of the refugees wandered back toward the barracks and some of the dignitaries began to get into their cars. “Is this where we’re supposed to meet your family?” she asked.
    “Over this way,” Theo said, indicating a shaded area. “Here they come now.”
    Suzanne reached into her pocketbook for her notebook and pen, but Theo put his hand on hers to stop her. “Maybe for this first meeting we could just talk—get to know them?”
    “Sure.”
    She watched the family coming toward the fence. Theo’s uncle was probably younger than she had first thought. The mother—Ilse—had fixed her eyes on Suzanne, and it seemed to Suzanne that the woman was sizing her up as to whether she might be friend or foe. The little girl—Liesl—wore a sleeveless blue gingham dress with daisies embroidered on it, a single braid of blond hair that reached her waist, and no shoes. She was also clutching the doll Theo had given her.
    “Hello,” Liesl said as she ran ahead of her parents to reach the fence first. “I am Liesl, and are you the reporter who is going to tell President Roosevelt about us so he will let us go home to the farm with Theo?”
    This was one of those trick questions like a lawyer asking a witness if he still beat his wife. Suzanne smiled and stooped down so that she was more at an eye level with the child. “I am very pleased to meet you, Liesl. My name is Suzanne, and yes, I am a reporter.”
    She stood again as Theo introduced his aunt and uncle. Handshakes were impossible with the fence so Suzanne just nodded and said how pleased she was to meet them. A dozen questions came to mind, but they were all a reporter’s inquiries. Suzanne was really no good at small talk, and she knew that if she started firing away with the things she wanted to know for her article, she could scare them off.
    “Miss Randolph brought you a present, Liesl,” Theo said when the silence threatened to become uncomfortable.
    “Another present?” Liesl looked up at her mother. “It’s not even close to my birthday,” she added.
    Suzanne handed Theo the packet of ribbons, and he passed it over the fence to his uncle, who handed it to Liesl. “What do you say, Liesl?”
    “
Danke
—I mean, thank you,” the child murmured absentmindedly as she concentrated on opening the paper without damaging it. “Oh look, Mama! Ribbons and so many of them,” she added in awe as she fingered each one. “Thank you so