Jacob's Oath by Martin Fletcher

skin, where she
     could see through his whiskers, was red from the sun and the wind. His youth was gone
     and he had been aged by war. She took it all in as she thought, A sad man.
    After a minute or two Sarah asked again, “What did you see there? They killed them,
     didn’t they, I know. Who was left?” As she asked she felt they were the most painful
     words of her life. Who was left?
    It poured out for an hour and she didn’t say a thing. He needed to talk as much as
     she needed to hear. She didn’t cry. Everything he said, all he had seen, meant one
     thing: the stories were true, then. Nobody could live through that for more than a
     month or two. Not even Hoppi. For three years? They’re dead, she thought. They’re
     all dead. I knew it. Mutti, Papi: She closed her eyes, seeking their faces. It was
     hard to summon them up.
    And Hoppi. It was even harder to see his face. She had promised him. He had promised
     her. Heidelberg. They would go there and wait for each other by the river. And however
     hopeless, that’s what she would do. That’s where she must go. Nothing would stop her.
     I made it, she thought. Maybe he did too. Even as she thought it she didn’t believe
     it.
    Lieutenant Brodsky broke the long silence. He sighed, shifted his legs as if he had
     said it all.
    “Sarah,” he said, taking her hands. “I am so glad that I could help you. You are safe
     now. I will assign one of my men to look after you. You will see our doctor.”
    “What?” Sarah said in alarm. “What do you mean? You are leaving?” Her heart felt like
     it would explode. Finally she had found a good man, a savior, a protector, and he
     was leaving? “Where are you going?”
    “I am sorry,” he said, still holding her hands. “I am a soldier, after all. I have
     orders. We leave tonight.”
    Sarah couldn’t believe it. “But he’ll be back, I know it.”
    “No, trust me, he won’t be back and nor will anybody else apart from the soldier I
     appoint to look after you.”
    “But you, where are you going?” Sarah said, feeling herself sinking into mud. She
     pulled her arm away. I’m lost .
    “I also speak English, in fact before the war I was a languages instructor. I am going
     as an interpreter with some of the senior officers to meet the Americans…”
    “The Americans?”
    “Yes, bureaucratic stuff. To coordinate. We’re allies, I’m told.”
    “Where will you meet them?”
    He laughed. “That’s a secret.”
    “But in Berlin?”
    “Oh no, they’re not here. We’re driving overnight. That’s why I must leave. Somewhere
     in the west. Actually, it can’t do any harm to tell you: Leipzig. To see General Bradley’s
     Twelfth Army Group. It’s an issue of the Allied occupation zones. They’ve advanced
     too far, they must pull back.”
    Sarah’s heart beat even faster. She could feel it banging her ribs. Her eyes widened.
     She squeezed his hands, pulled them to her chest. “Isak,” she said. It was the first
     time she had said his name. “Isak, please, I beg you, take me with you. Leipzig is
     on the way to Heidelberg. You’re my only hope. Please. I must leave Berlin. Please.”
     Holding his hand with her left hand, with her right she covered her mouth, which was
     trembling. “You could take me to the Americans. Or I could take a bus from Leipzig.
     Or a train. Walk. Anything. It would get me out of Berlin…”
    As Sarah spoke she was thinking, This is my first stroke of luck in years. Don’t lose
     it. If he doesn’t take me I will never get out of Berlin. A woman. Alone. Weak. A
     Jew. I’d have no chance. “Oh, for God’s sake, take me with you.”
    She held his hands so tight he had to pull them away.
    Brodsky looked over her shoulder, at the wall, with such intensity it was as if he
     were looking through it. His thoughts were in turmoil. He was imagining the consequences.
     Could I? Thoughts tumbled over each other, half-formed, unfinished: Auschwitz, Jews,
     fear, rape,