In The Presence Of My Enemies

But, things being as they were, yielding to temptation wasn't practical. And so he answered, "I'm sorry, but with all the racket these two are making, I didn't hear a word you said."

Erika Dorsch's sour smile told him she didn't believe a word of it. Whatdid she believe? That he didn't want to go to bed with her? Or just that he didn't want to do anything about it then and there?Isn't that an interesting question?

Deciding he didn't want to know the answer, Heinrich reached out and waved his hand up and down between Willi and Lise. "Can we get back to bridge, please?" he asked loudly.

His wife and Erika's husband both blinked, as if they were coming back to the real world. Willi said, "I don't know why you're so impatient. We just started talking-"

"And talking, and talking," Erika broke in, her voice acid-edged.

"Itwas fifteen minutes ago," Heinrich said.

"Oh,Quatsch, " Willi said. Then he looked at his watch and blinked again. He grinned a rather sickly grin. "Oh. Well, maybe it was." Lise seemed almost as surprised as he did.

"It's your lead, Willi, if you can think of anything besides ancient history," Erika said.

"Let me look at the last trick, please," Willi said, which went a long way toward proving he couldn't. He examined it, muttered to himself, and threw out a low diamond. As far as Heinrich could see, the lead might have come at random as readily as from reflection on what had gone before.

Heinrich made the contract. He and Lise went on to win the rubber, though not by nearly so much as they'd lost the first one. Shuffling for the first hand of the next rubber, Willi said, "We'll really hammer you this time."

"Tell me a new story," Heinrich answered. "I've heard this one before, and I don't believe a word of it."

"You'll see." Willi picked up his hand, arranged it in suits, and said, as casually as if he were asking the time, "Three no-trump."

"What?" Heinrich stared. His own hand didn't have opening strength, but he hadn't imagined Willi owned that kind of powerhouse. He hadn't seen a three-no opening in at least five years. He passed. So did Erika. Willi yelped and sent her a wounded look. Visions of another slam must have danced in his head. Lise passed, too. Heinrich led. Erika laid out her hand as dummy. It was ten-high-no wonder she'd passed.

Willi didn't even make the three he'd bid. With no strength on the board, he had to play everything out of his own hand, and came up one trick short. The honors bonus for all four aces more than made up for that. Even so, he let out a sorrowful sigh. "Twenty-eight high-card points I was looking at, and down one! I'll never see another hand like that."

The rest of the evening's bridge was less dramatic. The Gimpels and Dorsches ended up about even. As Heinrich and Lise walked to the bus stop, she asked, "What did you and Erika talk about while Willi and I were wrangling over Babylonians?"

"Oh, nothing much," Heinrich answered. He knew he would probably end up in trouble for not telling his wife what Erika had said. But if he did tell her, he'd end up in trouble, too.Sometimes you can't win, he thought, and kept walking.

V

AFTER GIVING THE FLAG THE NATIONALSOCIALIST SALUTE, Herr Kessler led Alicia Gimpel's class in singing "Deutschland uber Alles" and the "Horst Wessel Song": the German and Party anthems. That wasn't part of the usual morning routine, but he explained, "This is a special day, children, because the Reich has a new Fuhrer." His right arm shot out again. "Heil Buckliger!"

"Heil Buckliger!" Alicia and her classmates echoed dutifully. She hadn't known about the new Fuhrer till breakfast this morning, when her mother and father talked about him. Aunt Kathe hadn't watched Horst Witzleben, the way her parents did. Instead, she'd played with Alicia and her sisters, and sung silly songs, and told stories that were not only funny but also a good deal sassier than the ones the Gimpel girls heard from anybody else in the family.

Herr Kessler said, "The new Fuhrer will do wonderful things for the Reich and for the Germanic Empire. He is very wise and very good and very strong. He must be all those things, or he never would have been chosen Fuhrer."

He sounded very sure. Almost all the pupils in the classroom nodded without a moment's hesitation. Alicia nodded, too. She was learning to be a chameleon. But she couldn't help wondering,How does he know?

"Will things be any different now,Herr Kessler?" asked a boy-Alicia didn't see who.

The teacher frowned. The question was good enough that he had to answer it, but for a moment he seemed unable to find a way.Maybe nobody told him what to say, Alicia thought.He doesn't seem very good at figuring things out for himself. At last, Kessler said, "I think things will be better. The new Fuhrer is a young man-not too much older than I am-and he is active and vigorous. The old Fuhrer was very old indeed. He was sickly and feeble. Some of you may have grandparents or great-grandparents who are like that."