Page 31 of The Girl with a Secret
“Do you know the word in English, ‘jumbo,’ comes from the first elephant housed here at the zoo?” he told her, his expression one of lively, humorous interest. “Its name was‘Jambo,’ from Swahili for hello, and it became a byword for anything large.”
“Jumbo,” Rosa repeated, wrinkling her nose. “I’ll have to add it to my vocabulary.”
“Indeed.” He glanced back down at the brochure. “And Winnipeg, a black bear rescued by a regiment of the Canadian army, was housed here, until fairly recently. She was the inspiration, apparently, for Winnie the Pooh.” He glanced up from the brochure. “Do you know the children’s story? Very popular here in Great Britain.”
Rosa shook her head. She didn’t think she knew any British children’s stories.
“Ah well,” Peter said, “it’s your typical view of English arcadia. Perfect pastoral paradise in this green and pleasant land.” He dropped his light tone as he looked at her seriously. “We are really very lucky to be here, you know.”
He didn’t sound censorious, but Rosa felt a sense of rebuke, and maybe even judgment, all the same. Did she not seem grateful enough, she wondered, for the opportunities she’d been given? Admittedly, their flat was shabby, the building smelled of drains, and her job at the Lyons teashop was far from what she wanted to be doing for the rest of her life,and yet…Peter was right. She was lucky to be here. She didn’t ever want to lose sight of that, especially when she thought of her parents, fuming at their reduced circumstances, or more poignantly, of Hannah and Rachel. They both would have jumped at the chance of immigrating to England, Rosa knew. They’d been happy for her, but there had been a touch of wistfulness, even of envy, to their good wishes, and Rosa had understood it. It had been how she’d felt about Sophie going to America, after all.
“I know we are,” she told him seriously. “Not everyone aboard theSt Louiswas so fortunate.” She’d already told him, on their walk to the zoo, about the fraught and fearful voyage acrossthe Atlantic. Peter had been both sympathetic and horrified. Now, thinking of Hannah and Rachel, she had to blink rapidly a few times to compose herself. She earnestly hoped her friends were safe and well. She longed to hear from them, to be reassured that they were all right, but she suspected it would be months before there was any word.
“Shall we see the pandas?” Peter asked, and there was a gentleness to his voice and eyes that made Rosa’s smile, usually so firm, wobble at its edges.
“Yes,” she agreed. “Let’s see the pandas.”
But when they made their way to the panda enclosure, they found it empty, the space no more than a stretch of dusty ground.
“What’s happened to them?” Peter wondered aloud in English, and a woman holding the hands of two young, snotty-nosed boys paused to answer him.
“They’ve been taken to the zoo in Whipsnade,” she told him. “More’s the pity. The orangutans, too, and the giraffes. My boys were that disappointed. They say the elephants will be next. At this rate, there won’t be so much as a dormouse left in the whole bloomin’ place!” She shook her head, disgusted yet also resigned, while Rosa looked on in perplexity and Peter gave a slow, knowing nod.
“There might not be,” he agreed soberly. “But I suppose the animals will be safer there.”
“You’ve got that right,” the woman replied, “but what about the likes of us?” She didn’t bother waiting for his reply, just bobbed a farewell and hurried on, dragging the two boys along with her. One of them twisted around to give Peter and Rosa a cheeky grin, and then stick his tongue out at them. Rosa let out a surprised laugh, which subsided when she saw Peter’s somber expression.
“What was she talking about?” she asked him in German. “I must confess, I only understood every other word, if that.”
“They’re moving some of the animals,” Peter explained. “Out to the zoo near Dunstable.”
“But why?”
He paused before answering quietly, “Well, I expect because they are worried the zoo here in London might be bombed, when the war comes.”
Rosa gaped at him for a few seconds; he’d been speaking German, but it felt as if he might as well have been speaking English, or some other foreign language.Bombed? She’d read herself that the zoo might close if there was a war, but somehow, she had not connected it to actual bombs falling right where they stood. “You mean… by the Nazis?” she asked faintly, although she knew that was what he meant. Still, she found it almost impossible to believe, or at least to accept.
“Yes, by Germany,” he replied, “if there’s war. Or really, when there’s a war. I don’t think it will be long now, do you?”
Rosa shivered, despite the warmth of the day. Everyone had been speaking about war for ages now—months, if not years. Back in Germany, hardly a single day had passed without a military parade, a regiment of Wehrmacht marching by, a flyover by the Luftwaffe, or some similar display of Germany’s military might. And yet, war had still seemed like a theoretical thing, a concept she could accept without letting herself imagine its consequences—bombs falling, right here in London.
“It is the only way Hitler will be defeated,” Peter stated. “You must realize that.” There was a hint of challenge to his usually mild voice that made Rosa flush, just a little.
“Yes,” she agreed after a moment.
She’d been reading the newspapers, as well as listening to the wireless, and while her understanding of English limited her somewhat, she’d still understood that a potential pact betweenGreat Britain, France, and the Soviet Union had collapsed over the course of the summer, and now it was feared the Soviets would align with the Nazis. Tensions had exploded over Hitler’s insistence that the Polish city of Danzig be returned to Germany, and both England and France had made assurances that they would defend Poland’s independence in this matter.
With every passing day, Europe felt more and more as if it were poised on the threshold of something terrible… and yet, as Peter had said, it was the only way Hitler would be defeated. That was certainly something Rosa wanted.
“Even so,” Peter allowed, his tone still somber, “it is startling, to see the reality right there in front of you.” He pointed to the empty panda enclosure. “To think they’ve already moved the animals… they must know it’s coming, and soon.”
Soon.
Rosa tilted her face to the hazy blue sky, barely a cloud in sight. She tried to imagine it darkened by German fighter planes—Messerschmitts and Heinkels. She’d seen them before, in flybys at one of the many military parades the Nazis loved, their ostentatious and awful displays of sheer might marching down Unter den Linden—Hitler had had the linden trees cut down to make room for tanks—and darkening the sky above.
But here, over England? Over France and Belgium, the Netherlands too, for surely all of Europe would be affected. Out of instinct, Rosa slipped her hand into the pocket of her dress, her fingers reaching for the sliver of emerald she carried everywhere, only to encounter an empty pocket. For a second, she froze, horrified to think she’d lost the precious jewel, only to remember she’d wrapped it in her slip in her underwear drawer this morning, because she’d been worried she might lose it as she walked around the city.
A small sigh of relief escaped her, and she took her hand out of her pocket. The emerald was safe… even if no one else was, with the world about to be at war.
