“Nikolaus, please don’t leave—don’t go away now,” Margaret cried, wrapping her arms around him.
“Margie, it is for our country, it is for Germany, it is for the Fatherland. Otherwise, they will come and take our land. They will take away everything we know.”
“But I want you with me; I will be left alone,” she pleaded.
“Kneel down,” he said. “Feel this,” he put his hands on the earth. “This is our land, this is ours. If we let the British and the Russians and the Americans win, this will be gone. Be brave, Margie, for our country, for us, and for what we are protecting.”
He kissed her gently, stood up, and walked away.
She knelt there on the ground, weeping, until there were no more tears.
– From Part One, Chapter 4
