Chapter 14
Satine sat sprawled out on her small bed in the room she shared with
several other girls. She looked onto a
piece of paper by the dim light of a nearby lamp and held a pen tightly in her
hand. She kissed the tiny picture of
Sara that she always kept close and began to write.
To my precious
Sara,
How are you,
darling? Oh, I miss you so much it
hurts. I want to be there with you to
hold your little hands and feet and to watch you grow. I will be home soon, little one. I hope that Satie and Chocolat are showing
pictures of me with your Daddy because I want you to see your family. Sometimes I wonder if I ever should have
left; but then I think of the day that I will come home with Daddy. One day we will all be together, I promise.
Mama loves you
so much, baby girl. And the moments will
pass all too slowly until I can hold you close again.
A big hug and
kiss,
Mama
Satine folded up the sheet of paper without reading it; knowing that if
she did so, she would start crying and not be able to stop. She sealed and addressed the envelope and put
it on her rickety bedside table.
After combing out her
soft, curly hair, she turned off the lamp and closed her eyes. And as she did so, a short sob of longing
escaped her lips for her sweet Sara.
Satie wiped his eyes
after reading the letter that had arrived from Satine yesterday. Inside, there had been a note for himself and
Chocolat and then the letter to Sara that had brought him to tears. It was so evident of how much she missed her
child. It
was morning and Satie looked on at Sara’s petite, sleeping form and decided
that even though she probably wouldn’t understand a word of it, he would read
her the letter with a picture of her mother and father close by.
“Good morning little girl…” Satie whispered into
the crib as the second ray of sunlight shot into Sara’s room. She gurgled and
her tiny 6-month-old hands went automatically to her eyes. They rubbed and Sara
yawned as Satie smiled down upon the little joy.
“Sara baby…come now, time to wake up,”
he spoke gently, reaching down to pick her up. She whimpered a bit, but then
snuggled into Satie’s shoulder and gurgled again.
“Choco?” he
called into the kitchen.
“Is she up?” Chocolat replied after
drying his hands from cleaning the breakfast dishes.
Satie carried tiny Sara into the
kitchen humming a little song under his breath to keep her from crying. The
bags under Satie’s eyes showed how much Sara had been
waking up at night. During the day, she was as content as one could imagine,
but after Satine had left, Sara was having trouble adjusting to the change at
night. Her mother wasn’t there to sing her song and there was no familiar scent
of her mother’s perfume floating through the house.
But the gentle kind nature of Satie
and Chocolat had given Sara a wonderful sense of hope for the future. She was
cared for. As Satie fed her a bottle of warm milk, the sun shone on her
beautiful face and he admired the sweet qualities she carried. She had her
mother’s gorgeous curls already starting to blossom on the top of her petite
head. Her hair was a deep brown like Christian’s. Her eyes looked out into the
world curiously and innocently, reflecting her father’s to the tiniest detail.
Her lips were dainty and soft like Satine’s as she sucked upon the bottle
softly.
Satie and Chocolat talked about their
plans for that day and then the conversation faded as they lay their eyes on
Sara, who was playing with Satie’s button on the top
of his shirt. They didn’t say it out loud, but at that moment their thoughts
turned to Satine and Christian. Had they found each other in the midst of
horror?
Satine blew a stray hair from her face
and sat down for the first time in three hours. She’d been bustling around
helping the wounded and comforting those in pain, emotionally or physically.
She rubbed her temples and closed her eyes for a brief moment trying to relax
when her friend approached her.
“Satine, how are you doing?” Emma said
cheerily, taking a seat next to her.
“Oh…I’m alright. I’m quite
tired…and…you know what? Actually, I change my mind; I’m doing very badly,”
Satine finished and sighed again.
“Oh, dear…tell me. What’s the matter?”
“Well…it’s a long story. You sure you
want to know?” she asked meekly.
“No, I just want to sit here and be
curious…of course I want to know!” she replied, laughing. Satine couldn’t help
but smile back sadly.
“Alright…well I’ll shorten it anyway.
My husband is here…somewhere,” she said with a far off look in her eyes. “He…he
came here looking for his sister’s love. She wrote him a letter practically
begging him to come and fight in the war to find this man…and my husband hasn’t
even seen his sister in-in…oh God, I don’t know how long. But the reason I came
to become a nurse was so I could find him again. And I…j-just miss him. It’s
more than that…I-I can’t explain it…I just miss him so much and I want a family again,” Satine eyes began to water.
“Oh…Satine! I had no idea. Tell me;
what’s the name of his sister’s sweetheart? For that matter, what’s your
husband’s name?
“The man’s name is Thomas…Hathaway, I
believe. And my husband’s name is-”
“Did you say Thomas Hathway…?” Emma interrupted, her face going white.
“Y-yes…why? Who is he? What…”
Emma’s face was stunned and she looked
at Satine directly into her eyes.
“Everyone called him Hal.”
New tears formed in Satine’s eyes and
she began to weep openly after comprehending the words she heard. She stood and
began pacing around the room.
“GOD…No…he came fight in this horrible
war for…He’s dead…no!”
Emma sat straight in her chair,
leaning forward a bit with a concerned look on her face. She tried to reassure
her friend.
“Listen…it’ll be alright. You’ll find
your husband and you’ll go home a-and-”
“Emma…” Satine said simply sitting
down again. “All I know is that I need Christian back.”
“Christian…Christian…James?” Emma
replied blankly.
“Yes, that’s him-…no…God,” Satine’s
eyes grew wide with terror in anticipation of news that she couldn’t possibly
bear to hear.
“No! No, he’s not dead…he didn’t die,
it’s alright,” she said hurriedly, putting her arm comfortingly around Satine.
Satine exhaled quickly and wiped away
her tears.
“Then…how do you know Christian?”
“Christian James was one of the men
who was captured by the Germans in May.”
“Christian’s in…captivity? What…what
are they doing
to him???”
Satine’s worry and sadness grew to passionate anger as she stood up once again
and began walking around the room.
“My dear Christian…oh he can’t fight
those enormous Germans; he’ll die fighting…NO!” she sobbed and fell to her
knees, hopeless.
“Satine! Sweetheart, you can’t say
these things!” Emma cried out and kneeled down by her on the dirt brown floor.
“Listen to me…” she lifted Satine’s chin up so she was at eye level with her.
“He will not give up hope. I can feel it; I know you’re going to get him back.”
Satine sniffed and wiped her
tear-stained cheeks.
“Emma…This is all just so
overwhelming,” she looked at her friend gratefully. “Thank you so much for
dealing with me…I just can’t bear to think of him like that. And I dread
telling him that his sister’s true love died fighting,” Satine closed her eyes,
and simply took a deep breath. The breath felt so incredibly different from the
one she took a few minutes before Emma had sat down and the world had fallen
upon her shoulders.
Emma took her arm from around Satine’s
shoulder and took her hands in hers. A hint of excitement that reminded Satine
of herself many years ago glimmered in Emma’s eyes.
“I have a plan, Satine,” she
whispered.
“Anything…please,” Satine replied.
“Here’s what we’re going to do…”
Satine eyes grew wide with intensity
and nervousness as the idea was explained to her. She knew there was no other
way. Right away she began preparing and learning as much German as quickly as
she could. Days turned into weeks, and after a few, Satine had mastered the
basics of German. Emma and Satine had grown even closer as friends over the
time Satine was being taught. They went over how they were going to find her
Christian one last time before they went to carry out their plan.
“Are you ready for this, Satine?” Emma
spoke concernedly, her big brown eyes shining as they did. Her matching brown hair
fell below her shoulders and blew in the warm June air. Satine looked down at
her, being two inches taller than Emma.
“…Yes. I should really be asking you
if you’re ready. After all, you’ve never even met Christian,” she said plainly.
“With the way you speak of him…I know
I’d do most anything to help you get him back. I’ve never been in love; I feel
like this is what I should be doing in my life right now. I want you to find
the man you’re in love with…it’s the least I can do.”
Satine’s eyes brimmed with tears of
overwhelming gratefulness to her dear friend as she pulled her into a warm
embrace. They parted and Satine brushed the tears coolly from her face. They
were both nervous and they both knew it. They didn’t however need to say it out
loud; that would have made the situation more unsettling.
They began their journey, and Satine’s
deep red cotton dress came to right above her knees, blowing a bit as they
walked. Emma wore a dark green long summer dress, to blend with the trees.
Satine and Emma walked in silence for several minutes, stopping once in a while
to listen for voices. After ten minutes, they looked at each other, both
hearing the German-speaking voice they’d been waiting for. It faded and they
continued walking slowly until through the trees they saw the top of a barbed
wire fence.
Emma grabbed Satine’s hand and gave it
one more reassuring squeeze as she went right as Satine continued forward. She
closed her eyes a brief moment, thinking back to her days at the Moulin Rouge
as a courtesan. The face came back to her as she put it on and took the step
out of the forest into the ring of dirt ground surrounded by trees. Half of the
barbed wire fence was sticking out of the forest, but what or who was inside
was barely visible.
“Wer geht dort?” the lone German
soldier boomed from around the side of the fence. Satine thought
quickly…who…who goes…who goes there?
“Ich sind verloren, können Sie mir
helfen, Sir?” I’m lost, can you help me sir? she replied smoothly, remembering exactly
how it was taught to her.
The man began to ask where she was
going, but faded out as he rounded the corner to see Satine’s luscious figure
under the dusk sky. She put her hand to her thigh and rubbed her palm up and
down seductively.
“Ich bin so kalt…” I’m so cold…Satine
whimpered. She faked a shiver and stood like a baby animal wanting to be held.
The German soldier couldn’t physically stop moving forward, swaying a bit in a
cocky way.
“Sie schauen kalt,” he said. You look cold. Satine couldn’t help but think what an
absolute moron this man was. She decided to lower herself to his way of
thinking. He thought he was in control while he didn’t know how much he would
lose in a matter of moments.
“Tun
Sie Sie so...hergekommen.” So do you…come here.
He smiled and grunted as his boots crunched
the ground, making his way to Satine, who heaved her breasts and opened her
mouth slightly. She was hating every second of it, but hiding her hate well.
His hands reached out hungrily and his fingers grabbed Satine roughly around
her tiny waist and groped down her hips as he stared down into her eyes with
lust.
A sound was heard from behind the man,
and he nearly turned around instinctively, but Satine stopped him by doing
something she had dreaded. Satine moved her hand quickly in between his legs
and ran her fingers over his tight pants. He was no longer distracted. His eyes
rolled up and he groaned as Satine continued stroking him through his clothes,
fighting back tears. Next to telling Christian she didn’t love him, so long ago
in
Just as the man was beginning to reach
for Satine’s dress, Satine exhaled shortly as he was hit hard over the head
with the butt of a large rifle. Emma stood panting as the German soldier
stumbled around and finally fell sprawled onto the ground. Satine let out a
choked sob and then pushed the tears away as she looked on to what she came to
do.
“A-are you alright?” Emma whispered.
“…I’m fine. Now, where are his keys?”
Satine said back, wiping her forehead and looking down at the unconscious man.
His keys were attached to his belt, and Emma reached down to unlatch them and
hand them to Satine.
“Thank you,” Satine said.
“Sure…”
“No, I mean, truly. Thank you so much
for helping me. I…I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Emma smiled and gestured for her to
open the lock to the barbed wire fence. She turned and fit the first key into
the lock, and turned it. She stepped into the secluded area and looked around,
her breathing short. Her eyes locked onto a figure sitting on the ground. His
chin was to his chest and he was making small guttural noises. His hands were
at his face and he was rubbing them slowly over his eyes. Satine could barely
speak.
“Christian…”