George glanced over and saw the girl watching Elizabeth talk on the phone. The look on her face said clearly enough what she was thinking. Mad. She was trapped by people who were totally mad. It was more than he could stand, and he burst out laughing. That earned him an even more troubled look from Anna, and a reprimand from Beth.
“George, what’s gotten into you?”
“Her,” he gasped, waving at Anna. “The look on her face, seeing you talking to yourself like a loony.”
“I was not talking to myself, George Blanton.” Elizabeth planted her fists on her hips and glared at him while he continued laughing.
“She doesn’t know that. She really doesn’t know that Jim was on the other end of the phone. She was just standing there, watching you have a conversation with no one. I swear, she was about to run back out of the house.”
Elizabeth stopped snapping at George and looked at Anna. Sure enough, Anna looked like she was about to run away. Quickly grabbing her dictionary, Elizabeth looked up some words. “That; das. Is; ist. Our; unser. Way; weg. To; zu. Speak: oh, this is better. To speak to; ansprechen. Someone; irgendeiner. Far away; weit weg.”
Anna looked at her as if she had grown horns.
“That book ain’t going to do us much good for explaining things like phones or radio or TV. The girl doesn’t have the background to understand. Hell, Beth, you and I both remember when TV first came out. Movies in the home. What a wonder, and we had had radio all our lives. If what you tell me is true, then she doesn’t know what radio is or even that sound propagates in waves. If you showed her, she would probably think it was a demon.” He paused and smiled. “Been known to think of the phone as a demon myself now and again.”
Elizabeth gave him a sour look, but nodded. “Kommen mit mir, Anna,” she said softly. She led Anna into the kitchen and flipped on the light. Anna’s reaction to that was almost comical, but Elizabeth didn’t laugh. “Sit,” she commanded, waving toward a chair, and Anna obeyed. George suspected that Anna hadn’t understood the word, but had understood the gesture.
Over the next hour Elizabeth tried to explain a little of what they knew, fumbling through the dictionary over and over again when Anna clearly didn’t understand what she meant. It was only the ringing of the phone that finally distracted her.
George answered the phone while Elizabeth and Anna looked at him. After saying “hello,” George just nodded and occasionally grunted his agreement with whoever was on the other end. Then he hung up.
“Beth, that was Jim. He wants you to stay here tonight.”
“Why didn’t you let me talk to him?” Elizabeth asked angrily.
George stopped and looked puzzled for a moment, then shrugged. “Didn’t think to. Anyway, I agree with his reasoning. It’s getting dark, and he doesn’t want you to drive home alone. I’d like you to stay and help with Anna. She seems to have taken a shine to you.”
Elizabeth nodded and said, “All right.” Then she looked at Anna. “The first thing that we need to do is to get you cleaned up.” Nodding sharply once, she stood and grabbed Anna’s hand, and led her to the bathroom.
What followed would forever be a mystery to George. There was a lot of shouting in German, more shouting in English, some splashing and banging, and finally silence. The door opened a crack and Elizabeth looked out. Her hair looked like she had been in a tornado. She was splattered with water, and there were flecks of soap foam liberally dispersed around her face. And her dress was in her hand with a wad of other clothes. “Go wash and dry these, George, and get us some robes.”
George raised an eyebrow, but took the bundle. Robes? The only robe that he had was his own. He got to thinking and went to the linen closet. No robes, but there were those huge bath sheets that Dave had gotten. They would have to do. He handed them to Elizabeth and went to the laundry room.