Page 161 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

Walli guessed that her father had tried to persuade her to have an abortion. "I'm not your father," Walli said. "I'm not going to tell you what to do, and I don't want to talk you into an abortion."

"I'm sorry."

"But is this our baby, or just yours?"

She began to cry. "Ours," she said.

"Then shall we talk about what we're going to do--together?"

She squeezed his hand. "You're so grown-up," she said. "It's a good thing--you're going to be a father before you're eighteen."

That was a shocking thought. He pictured his own father, with his short haircut and his waistcoats. Now Walli would be required to play that role: commanding, authoritative, reliable, always able to provide for the family. He was not ready, no matter what Karolin said.

But he had to do it, anyway.

"When?" he said.

"November."

"Do you want to get married?"

She smiled through her tears. "Do you want to marry me?"

"More than anything in the world."

"Thank you." She hugged him.

The cleaner coughed reprovingly. Conversation was permitted, but physical contact was not.

Walli said: "You know I can't stay here in the East."

"Couldn't your father get a lawyer?" she said. "Or exert some political pressure? The government might issue a pardon, if all the circumstances were explained."

Karolin's family were not political. Walli's were, and he knew with total certainty that he was never going to receive a pardon for killing a border guard. "It's impossible," he said. "If I stay here they'll execute me for murder."

"So what can you do?"

"I have to go back to the West, and I have to stay there, unless Communism collapses, and I

don't see that happening in my lifetime."

"No."

"You'll have to come with me to West Berlin."

"How?"

"We'll go out the way I came in. Some students have dug a tunnel under Bernauer Strasse." He looked at his watch. Time was passing quickly. "We need to be there around sundown."

She looked horrified. "Today?"

"Yes, right away."

"Oh, God."

"Wouldn't you prefer our child to grow up in a free country?"

She grimaced as if in pain at the conflict within her. "I'd prefer not to take terrible risks."

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