Chocolate Lies Part 3

"Can’t be. Are you serious?" asked Shirley. "It must have been terribly exciting to walk with him and gather information."
"Wow. You must be brave," said Paulette. "Very brave."
Marie smiled thinly.
Annie looked at the others while she wiped ice cream from the corner of her mouth with a napkin. "To think, we have a relative of Hitler walking in our midst, trying to hide out from the government. Right here in Hershey!" She turned to Marie. "Listen, honey, I’m sorry we ever thought anything different about you. I mean, after all, you’re the big city girl from Philly. But really, this kind of espionage is...is..."
"Like you were doing spy work," said Cathy. "And you know, my dad was even talking about reading about that Hitler relative in the paper. And that Hitler runaway was supposed to be much older, too! You got it right. Think of it - Dietrich Hitler, relative of Adolph himself."
"Well, I didn’t say I knew that for sure, Cathy," countered Marie. "I just said that it seemed awfully suspicious."
"Come on, Marie! What are the odds? You hit the nail on the head, girlie." Annie slid off the stool and jumped nervously. "Marie, I want to be the first to apologize. I am truly sorry for suspecting you of anything. Goes to show what happens when people jump to conclusions."
"Me, too. I apologize, really I do," said Paulette earnestly. The other girls shook their heads and lowered their eyes shamefully.
"Listen, girls, I want to repeat that I don’t know for sure, okay?" Marie said nervously. "It’s just that Dietrich and his father...or grandfather...well, they..."
"Don’t need to say anything else," interrrupted Cathy. "Look, we should act like Christians, huh? I mean, we’ve already made one mistake in jumping to conclusions. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that this will remain our secret."
"Okay, that’s good, keep it a secret," said Marie, but as they headed toward the door, she couldn’t shake a deep, sickening feeling.
As her mother pulled up, the girls walked off in the darkness, waving to Marie. "Don’t worry, we’ll keep it a secret!" They called after her.
They didn’t keep it a secret.
By the time Marie and her mother pulled into the driveway, the phone was already ringing. "What is going on?" demanded Grandad. "Has someone started a war right here? This is the third call that I’ve received, demanding to know why I’m harboring a Nazi. What are they talking about?"
Marie groaned in fear. Her mother looked at her sharply. "Marie, what is this all about? What have you said?"
Marie opened her mouth to answer, but was distracted by the headlights of other cars pulling into the orchard on the far side of the field. "The worker’s huts!" Marie cried, breaking into a run. Grandad a grabbed a flashlight and followed along with her mother, the three of them running down the neat rows of trees toward the worker’s huts at the end of the lane. By the time they arrived at the collection of cabins, four cars were shining their headlights on the cabin and more cars were pulling in.
"Second hut! I seen him go in there once before!" cried someone in the darkness. The flashlights aimed toward the hut and someone honked a horn loud and long.
"No! Wait!" shrieked Marie. A shadow y figure of a man marched up to the steps and pounded on the door with a heavy flashlight.
The door opened slowly and Dietrich leaned out slowly, wearing a pair of jeans and a ragged undershirt. The lights were directed into his face, but before he could shield his eyes, the crowd could see the scarred face and the crumpled nose. A few people gasped and one voice cried out in disgust.
"You! You the Nazi?" Marie recognized the voice as that of Shirley’s dad.
Dietrich looked confused. "Bitte. Please, explain what is going on," he said nervously.
"Hear that? Did you hear? He spoke German!" cried a woman’s voice.
"You," said Shirley’s father, self-importantly. "You, boy, are you the German kid that has been hiding out here?"
"Hiding?" Dietrich stepped out on the porch. "I have not hidden anything. I work for Mr. Warwick, every day this summer that he needs me."
Grandad stepped forward. "That’s absolutely true, Miller. He’s been a faithful worker for me and has caused me no reason to believe he’s anything but a great guy who’s had some hard breaks." Grandad turned and faced the people next to the cars. "Johnson, Bulger, you too, Gaydos...all of you! You can ask the young man questions, but I will not have a kangaroo court on my property. Understand?"
"Someone’s already called the cops, Warwick," called a voice from the back.
"And it’s a good thing, too," growled Grandad, clenching his teeth. Marie fought back a sob.
"Wait!" The voice was Cathy’s. "Marie told us that he wouldn’t give his last name, and that he was shielding an old man. Daddy, that’s what she told us. Just get him to answer that."
Dietrich began to step off the small wooden porch.
"Don’t move any further, boy," said a voice from the darkness. "Just answer. Why don’t you give your last name?"
A look of pure humiliation spread over Dietrich’s face, surpassing the confusion and fear he had shown. He looked down and gulped visibly.
"Answer us, boy," called a voice.
"Okay! I will answer! " Dietrich fought back the tears. "It is because of my father! Yes, my father...when we arrived at Ellis island, I thought my father would change. I thought that being in this Christian land would change his thinking and the way he treated my brother and me. Before, in Germany, he was cruel. As the money became less and the food was scarce, he grew more angry...he would make us live in fear. He thought Hitler would give us the answers we needed, but though there was more food, there was more fear. Yet when we escape Hitler to find freedom and joy in America, he grew worse. It was alcohol." Dietrich drew a hand in front of his face. "It was my little brother he grew most angry with. One night, he got a horse whip to hit my brother’s back. I got in the way. He struck me many times, especially here. " He stepped into the full power of the headlights and pointed toward the scarring on his face. More people gasped. "I was almost blinded, but hatred was even worse. My father’s name was Hundesauger. I vowed I would never use that name again. And I never have repeated it, until now, for you."
The crowd grew silent as Marie buried her face into her hands and wept deeply.
"Wait a minute. The papers said something about the Hitler relative being an old man, " said Shirley’s father. "And you have an old man in there. Explain that, boy."
Dietrich’s jaw stuck out as he looked around. "This is a Christian society, ja? I have heard that is what America is. Then you as followers of Jesus could help me." He spun on his heel and stepped to the front door of the hut. With a few brief German words, he called the man to come to the door. The lights all shone on a shriveled person blinking fearfully.
"Something’s wrong," remarked Marie’s mother. "That’s not a man. Th-that’s a..."
"Yes, Mrs. Warwick, you are correct. It is not a man." Dietrich drew the little person toward him. "This is my little brother Alec. He has what researchers call progeria. It is a mutation that makes him grow old. So old, in fact, that doctors told us that he ages ten years for every one year I age. It is a genetic problem, they tell me." He looked down at the little bald-headed boy clutching him and whimpering. " It is called Hutchinson-Guilford progeria syndrome. You see this seventy year old man here? He is actually eight years old. He cannot stand much noise or many people, so I must give him quiet... until the time... well, you know. Doctors give him five more years at the most. "
As the police car pulled up, there was not a sound among the people. A few turned quietly to go home, but Dietrich and his brother did not move.
"I came here to find peace, to find God outside of the four walls of a cathedral," said Dietrich. "I have been treated well by Mr. Warwick, and I figured that despite my ugliness and my brother’s condition, we can stay for a while and learn. Learn about tugend...goodness. Learn about God." He wiped away a tear. "We learned much tonight, bu not about God, for He could not be happy with this. No, He could not." He helped his brother up the steps into the house. Marie sobbed openly.
Dietrich turned and faced the silent dark crowd. "Tonight you wished to find a monster. You only needed to look among yourselves." He walked in and quietly shut the door. The policeman never even got out of his car, but slowly pulled away. Within two minutes the place had no cars around.
Dietrich did not answer the door the rest of the night despite Marie’s repeated pounding.
The next morning, Marie found the hut empty. Dietrich and Alec were gone. The only thing left was a bag, half-full of chocolate candy.