Maria sighed and gazed out the window at the countryside rushing by. It was fairly quiet inside her train cabin; Lilli was asleep inside her carrier and the only sound was the low rumble of wheels on tracks, accompanied by the occasional turn of a book page.

Maria was fuming. It was ridiculous: moving to a country she didn’t know where the people spoke a language she didn’t understand for a reason she was not allowed to learn. When Max told her they were moving, she had brought these points up, and he became absolutely furious at her. How dare she question the Fuhrer’s orders? She was putting her comfort above the good of her country! Inexcusable! Maria was furious right back, appalled at a side of him she had never seen before. The fighting had gone on for hours, ending only when Maria stormed into the bedroom with Lilli and locked the door. Eventually Max gave up trying to get her out and spent the rest of the night drinking.

Maria’s anger was refuelled by the memory. She glared across the cabin at Max, who was engaged in reading yet another evolution-biology-theory sort of book. Which was what he read when he wasn’t reading the newspaper. But at least he wasn’t making those little opinion noises for once, she considered. If he started doing that she would probably have to strangle him.

Maria was still glaring when she suddenly became aware of eyes watching her. Annoyed, she met the gaze of her observer, the blond young man sitting next to her husband. That Krumens. She didn’t know his first name. He had latched on to Max in university, regarding his classmate as some sort of mentor. Now that Max had established himself in the scientific community, he had taken Krumens on as an assistant, no doubt enjoying the praise and admiration which were lavished upon him.

Maria, on the other hand, couldn’t stand Krumens. He made no secret of his dislike for her either, often outdoing Maria in the field of venomous looks.

As she and Krumens stared each other down, Maria mused over how effeminate his grudge against her was. An image of Krumens dressed like a woman suddenly danced into her head and Maria had to look away from him to keep from laughing. She put her cheek in her hand and pretended to look out the window, but she couldn’t help herself and let out a muffled snicker.

The noise distracted Max from his book and he looked up from behind a forelock of black hair. Maria was trying to compose herself as if nothing had happened.

"What was that?"

"What was what?" Maria returned blank-faced.

She received an eyebrow raised in doubt as Max went back to his book, Irritated, she let out a sigh of frustration.

This time the book descended to his lap. Max was not impressed by his wife’s behaviour. Krumens looked pale.

"Try language," he uttered icily after a moment. "It’s much more effective."

"Sorry, the only language I know is German," Maria snapped, making a far-from-subtle reference to the topic of their feud.

Max suddenly looked very tired. He appeared to have a headache as well, rubbing his eyes under his glasses.

"Maria, we’ve gone over this a dozen times…"

"No, you’ve gone over it a dozen times! I’ve never been given the chance to have any say in the matter!"

Max thrust his face in Maria’s and she could see a cold rage in his black eyes. "Damn it woman, don’t start with me," he hissed. "This is neither the time nor the place." Maria tried hard to stare him down, but finally wavered and gave in. For the first time, she was afraid of her husband.

* * * * * *

It was a bright winter morning when Maria walked out to the mailbox. They had only moved into the little house a week earlier, but already enough letters and packages had arrived for a month. While most of the mail was from family and friends, quite a bit of it was coming from nazi headquarters back in Berlin. Several of the latest packages had contained medical supplies, which Max always opened and inspected right away, muttering things to himself that Maria could not always recognise.

She pulled open the door of the mailbox and felt a dull pain in her upper arm. Max had given her a vaccination before he left for work. There was cholera in the town and he would not have her die on him. Maria rubbed the injection site grumpily and began taking out the mail.

Further along the road, Lonia was looking through her mail when she spotted someone else doing the same. It was the German’s wife. She had watched them move in the week before from the window. The country was crawling with them, the bastards. Decided they were the greatest things in creation and so were obliged to take the world for themselves. Still, Lonia reasoned, if the Allies couldn’t stop them, it was a good thing she had learned German. She could tell her slave drivers to go to hell in their own language.

But what about this one? Did she want to conquer the world? Was she in Poland to watch its demise, or was she here against her will? Lonia eyed the woman curiously. Whoever she might be, she looked harmless enough from this distance.

Maria stopped flipping through the mail and looked up. Was someone watching her? She turned her head and saw another woman further up the road. They both froze.

What do I do now? wondered Lonia. Should I be friendly and wave? She probably hates Poles.

What do I do now? wondered Maria. Should I be friendly and wave? She probably hates Germans.

Lonia took a breath, hoped for the best, and gave the German woman a short wave. Looking astounded, Maria waved back. The both felt silly for being so scared and started walking up to meet each other.

"<Hello,>" said Maria. It was about the only Polish she knew.

"Welcome to Poland," replied Lonia in passable German.

Maria couldn’t believe her luck! "You speak German?" she gasped

"A little," grinned the other. "My name’s Lonia Kiedrowski."

"I’m Maria von Reichter, hi." She thought Lonia was pretty. She had such friendly blue eyes and lots of dark wavy hair. Lucky, Maria thought idly, she never got in trouble for fighting with boys who called her "Carrots" at school!

They ended up in Lonia’s kitchen having tea. Maria gazed longingly at the children’s drawings decorating the walls. .Lonia had two, a boy and a girl.

"Do you have children?" she asked.

Maria shifted uncomfortably. "Um, no...not yet, I mean," she said. Lonia touched her arm and smiled kindly.

"Don’t worry. Sometimes it just takes time. You’ll see."

"Thanks, Lonia." A though occurred to Maria and she felt a twinge of guilt. "Gee, I’m sorry we had to meet this way."

"You mean the war?"

"Well, yes...my country invading yours, doing God knows what...it’s not right."

"But it’s not your fault. You weren’t the one who organised it."

"I know. Still."

"Yeah."

There was silence for a moment.

"So you don’t agree with Hitler?"

Maria grinned mischievously. "Nope." And they giggled like two naughty schoolgirls.

Maria and Lonia found themselves becoming fast friends. Lonia helped Maria with her Polish, and she in turn taught Lonia the things she had been learning in school. They had lunch together, went into town together, and shared secrets with each other. The war be damned, they were friends and nothing could take that away.

Lonia came in from the kitchen. "Well, they’re fighting again," she said sadly.

Her husband looked up. "Who?"

"The neighbours. The Germans." She sat down in an armchair and sighed. "He comes home, and more often than not I can hear them fighting from our kitchen."

"Oh."

"It’s always his fault," she added after a moment. "He loses his temper at everything and his poor wife has to defend herself somehow."

Her husband smiled at her thoughtfully. "You know, it’s funny, but I never would have expected you to pity a German. I just always assumed you hated them like everyone else around here."

"I thought I did," confessed Lonia. "But I guess I realised that some of them are victims too."

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