Like Father by Nick Gifford

Konstanz said, “I cannot go.”
    Eva stared at her.
    “Bernhard,” Konstanz said. “He would not want to run. I cannot go without him.”
    And Walter, Eva suddenly thought. They had seen each other only briefly over the last few days, and today she had not given him a single thought until now. Would he join them? And what would she do if he refused?
    “We have time yet,” Eva said. “The family will not be divided.”
    Konstanz’s husband would have nothing to do with the proposed escape until late the following week when the first person was shot, trying to escape across the Humboldt Canal. “I could not do such a thing,” he said, several times that evening. “I could not shoot my neighbour.”
    “But you might be ordered to,” Eva told him.
    “I know.”
    So it was that the two sisters, Eva and Konstanz, shut themselves in a small room in the apartment that they shared.
    “Hodeken,” said Eva, softly. “We need you, little one.”
    She glanced at the window, and she saw the little man reflected in the glass.
    She turned, and he was there, perched on the edge of Konstanz’s mattress, bony knees tucked up under his chin and a conical grey felt cap pulled down hard on his head. He looked at them one by one. “Only two,” he said. “I leave you alone for a time and what do you do? You lose your brothers in the West. So what is it you wish for? You want me to make everything all right again, is that it?”
    He was grinning, his yellowed teeth glistening from his leathery old face. Hodeken was happy. He was in his element. He was going to solve all their problems.
    “You see, Danny?” He turned away from the two, who leaned close together, talking and plotting. He was looking at Danny, who was in the room now, sitting on the mattress by the little man’s side.
    “You see, Danny?” he said again. “This is how it has been and how it should be. The family, pulling together. Sometimes the family needs help, though. Sometimes they need their hinzelmannchen .”
    Hodeken straightened proudly. “I am a legend. You know? You are honoured.” He chuckled. “I helped them get through the war, and then I helped them survive the coming of the Soviet soldiers, which I tell you was harder than surviving the war in many ways. And now ... now they need me again, and so I help them with their plotting and their planning.” He nodded towards the two, still deep in conversation.
    “What do you want? What do you want with me?” asked Danny.
    “I want what you want,” said Hodeken. “You told me, remember? You want things how they were. You want your family to be normal again. That’s a tough one, but I’m a legend, aren’t I?”
    “It’s not possible.”
    “Not while your mother behaves as she does,” said Hodeken. “How can the family be whole again while your mother goes off with another man? She did it before, and look what happened. Trust me, Danny. Together we will fix everything and you will have your wish.”
    “No,” said Danny. Wishing something had never happened was different to wishing to go back.
    “Trust me, Danny. You will have your wish.”
    “No. Look what happened to Dad...”
    Hodeken smiled. “Your father didn’t trust me, Danny. I scared him. Do I scare you, Danny? Are you as weak as your father? He didn’t understand. I want you to understand so that we can work together and make the family strong again. If you do not trust me – “ Hodeken shrugged “ – I cannot help it but things may go wrong.”
    “What happened in Berlin?” Danny asked, a thought suddenly occurring to him. “What happened to Eva?”
    A shrug. “That’s not what I’m here to show you.”
    “Why? What happened to her?” She had not left Berlin until much later – they had even thought she must be dead until she eventually made it to the West.
    Hodeken looked cornered. He said nothing.
    “What happened?” Danny demanded, a final time.
    ~
    They sat in the kitchen and drank coffee. Eva leaned