Love In A Time of War

Sometime early in the morning, a pounding sound woke Ephraim. He had been deep asleep and sat upright, uncertain for a moment where he was. The noise was a heavy, plangent downpour of rain. The room was dark, but for the moment he didn’t feel the melancholy of the storm, as thunder crashed. A bolt of lightning illuminated the flawless man beside him, spread akimbo, head sharing their pillow. How astonishing life could be. The day into the night had turned terror into tenderness, lachrymose into love. The danger they were in, wrapped itself around him, but he knew, as he always would, that Klaus Jager had saved them, and he must do everything he could to do the same for him. He looked at the large man beside him, one perfectly shaped hairy leg outside the duvet and he felt a love like he had never felt before. At first sight? Strangely, yes.

He had to pee and wasn’t sure where the bathroom was. There was a door off the bedroom, that must be it or a closet. He pulled on his drawers and was about to get off the bed, when he heard Adam. He went to him in the doorway.

“It’s all right, my darling. We are in Klaus’s grandmother’s house for the night. Are you afraid?”

He didn’t answer right away. He was holding Kringle. “It’s very dark. Where is Klaus?”

“Right there.”

Adam ran over to the bed and threw himself in, causing Klaus to sit bolt upright.

“Holy, fu..” He stopped himself and Ephraim laughed. “Bathroom?” Klaus pointed to the door and when it was just the two of them in the room, Klaus stretched, realized he was naked and reached for his shorts and at the same time had tremendous gas.

Adam rolled around with laughter. “KLAUS!” he yelled, then holding his nose.

Klaus slipped his shorts on. “Me? That was Kringle.” He got back into bed and pulled Adam close, and Kringle, too. “Noooo,” Adam giggled. “Klaus, do you know why it rains?”

“It must be around four in the morning, but of course I do” he huffed. “Lots of bears in heaven, like Kringle, are having a wee.”

There a loud clap of thunder and Adam moved closer, with Kringle on Klaus’s chest. “It rains because clouds are made up of tiny droplets of water and as the droplets grow they become too heavy to stay in the sky and fall to the ground as rain.”

“Like this?” He lifted Adam up and down over his head, like he was a handkerchief, kissing him each time he came down.

Ephraim came out of the bathroom and turned the flashlight on, to look at his watch. “Four-fifteen.” He crawled back into bed.

Klaus put an arm around both of them. “Back to sleep. We need our energy for today.”

Adam whimpered. “I miss mommy, daddy, and Sarah.”

Ephraim kissed his head, and Klaus pulled him close. “We love you; now off to sleep and you and Kringle dream of fish and rain and I will dream of Ephraim and he will dream of me.”

Klaus awoke to the still drumming downpour; a clap of thunder, and a flash of lightning. He had the sensation a brick was on his chest. He realized it was Adam’s head on part of his chest. Gently lifting the slumbering boy and bear, he smiled, as he had the feeling they were forming an impromptu family, one he was loving dearly. How long could the future last was the big unknown? The weather would not help their drive up into the Dolomites and they might have to forestall leaving till later. He sighed, got up to pee, taking the flashlight into the bathroom. It was a little after six. He didn’t want to wake Ephraim, but he had a plan he wanted to enact as one more step to cement their rather perilous foundation.

He thought he remembered a robe and slippers in the closet of his old room, which was where Adam was sleeping. He stood a moment looking down at Ephraim, his heart thudding wildly and he slipped into his old room and as luck would have it found a dressing gown and a robe. Only one pair of slippers, which he could wear now and then give Ephraim once he woke him up. He could carry Adam the rest of his life, as far as he was concerned.

He went into the pantry, had another look around, nodded, took a bucket, thanking God the water was still running, put some water in, got a bar of soap, and went down the hall to the ladder, leading to the loft his grandfather had built, where there were three small beds, where he and his siblings had played and slept. He paused a minute, the memories flooding over him. He brushed away the tears, went down the ladder, got a towel, and from his valise, the container of Vaseline. It was tricky going getting the bucket up, but all the fucking training he had been through, had at least made him strong and agile. He returned to the bedroom and sat in the slipper chair, as a grey dawn began to emerge.

What were they to do? Klaus knew as well as he knew his own name that Adam’s family had been killed. If they lived through this and the war ever ended, he would be branded a war criminal, so where could they go? His grandmother, Luisa, could help them, but she was in New York. After his grandfather died she married a nice American chap, and had learned English and moved there, coming to this house, periodically, and to see her daughter, his mother, outside Koln, where he had been born, and his parents and sister lived. But they were two men, he hoped, no believed, who were deeply in love, with a little boy, they adored, but who did not belong to them, and none of them spoke English. There was Switzerland, so close and neutral, but safe was it? Everything was impossible and they must just get through each day and he must keep their spirits up, and the love strong. He didn’t realize he let out a cry, until suddenly Ephraim was at his feet holding his hands.

“My darling.” He held him as he unleashed a torrent of tears, whispering he loved him, then pulling him up, taking him across the hall to the room Adam had slept in, and sitting them both on the bed. Klaus pulled a handkerchief from the pocket of the dressing gown and angrily blew his nose. “Do you know what I think?” He asked Klaus.

“That you’re in love with a coward?”

Ephraim snickered. “Hardly. That we have four hands, two to help each other get through whatever may come, and we are a we, a pair, lovers, partners, and really parents to that little boy, who is deeply in love with you, just as I am.”

Klaus dropped his head to Ephraim’s shoulder. “You know what else I think?” Ephraim moved his feet, using them to knock off Klaus’s slippers. “You have the fucking sexiest feet and hairy toes, I have ever seen!”

He lifted his head and bored those aquamarine eyes into his. “Really?”

Ephraim knelt and lifted his feet in his hands, causing the dressing gown to become more open. He took his feet and started to lick and rub them, running his tongue between the toes, massaging them, and washing them all over. He heard Klaus purr. Looking up he saw his tower rising, no doubt the only salute Klaus wanted to give.

“Baby, I fucking want you.” He stood, kissed him wildly, tongues intermeshing and pulling at his equally hairy teats. “Come on. We’re going somewhere.”

He took his hand and led him down the hall to the ladder. “Up you go. Careful now.” Klaus followed. “My grandfather built this house. He wrote books about architecture and was an architect. He died when I was ten, but my brother, sister, and I slept and played here. You know what I think,” he leered at Ephraim. “ I am going to fuck you here and make love to you, before our little one wakes up. Ever been fucked?”

Ephraim blushed and shook his head. “There was a guy in Milan, I spent one night with. He taught me about cock sucking.”

“He did one amazing job.” He leaned in, his nose against his gorgeous lover. “Do you have any idea just how perfect you are, no beyond perfect you are?”

He shook his head again. “That’s silly and I was just following the lead of my heart, which is now you. You’ve been with other guys?” He asked a bit jealous.

Klaus held up two fingers and admitted: “I only did fuck a guy once back home, it was just sex, not absolute love, like this, amore assoluto, but it’s amazing. You know how we fingered each other last night, that’s our prostate, we kept hitting, that made us drool. Wait till I keep hitting it with my prick.” He leaned in and this time the kiss was gentle. “You must let me know if I hurt you. I couldn’t live with myself if I do.”

Ephraim drew off his drawers, his rod partly erect, causing Klaus to stroke his tumescent tool. “You could never hurt me. You given me life, hope, meaning, and love.”

Klaus knelt by the bucket; tested the temperature, took the cloth, wet it with soap, and instructed Ephraim to lie on his back. He spread his legs, washed his hole, rinsed and dried it, then astonished Ephraim, by burying his face there, his stubble and tongue moving around and then into his hole. Never had he felt such a sensation, the tongue drilling deeper, coating his pucker with spit. He knew they had to be quiet, so he thrashed about and tried to impale himself on the juicy, sleek tongue, and beautiful face. Klaus broke away, moved to the Vaseline and coated his enormous phallus with it, lining his head up to the hole.

To Ephraim it reminded him of a gigantic sausage hanging in the window of the butcher, a macelleria. He could fit those in a basket on his bike, but this was a whole new chapter and would it fit? The beginning of their complete union.

He gazed up at this Adonis. He hoped his Adonis. He had called him his absolute love and somehow he knew this was what was intended. Some woebegone God had brought them together, the kindness of an unknown karma, that could never be repaid.

He memorized him with absolute rapture. The stunning head, the golden crown, those eyes of royal blue, his immense shoulders, the hair coming up to the tip of his collarbone. The light from a small dormer window, allowed him to paint in his mind, the golden floss, his shelf of a chest, with his pink nipples, round and always pert greeted him from the flaxen hairs, down to his flat abdomen, and belly button, all covered in more fuzz, to his pubic hairs, and long prick, brown, and then purple when the head came out, daring him to swallow it whole. His legs were long, muscular, and covered with that same fur. He big biceps wrapped around him. He thought he would die at such beauty.

Klaus moved slow at first, just rubbing the head, around the keyhole, causing Ephraim’s balls to tighten up and to his wonder, his penis to shoot out a torrent of juice on his hairy belly. Klaus softly whistled, and took this opportunity to insert the head. Adam was a child who spoke of, and knew the stars, and Ephraim saw some at that very moment. “Breathe deep and push out,” Klaus told him. Doing so he gently inserted more and more. It burned but there was an incredible warmth, and as he shifted, he did hit that magic button, telling Ephraim to hold his legs as he bent, running his palms over the sea grass of hair and muscles, loving his beautiful tits, hiding in the hair; twisting his teats. He loved running his hands from his smooth silky soft sides into the tangle of moss, pulling the hairs; kissing him wildly, yanking his balls, stroking his dick sometimes with just his index finger, greased and skimming up its whole length, or griping it in his fist, knowing he would need both hands to encompass the whole thing. He huffed, pushing in and out with greater speed, sweat raining down on them, loving the tightness and scraping his prostate with each back and forth lunge. Ephraim was learning by pushing his ass closer to him, wanting him buried up his spasming tush, till Klaus moaned and fired off a bath of semen inside him, and Ephraim exploded again all over their hairy chests, gluing them together.

“You are mine now, for as long as forever is.” Klaus told him, in a husky tone.

Once they had cleaned and dressed, Ephraim woke Adam and took him in his arms to the bathroom. After he had helped clean him up; have a quick bath, and dress in his only other shirt, drawers, pants, and socks, Klaus had packed in Milan, they could both smell coffee, and something that smelled like beans.

Ephraim knew, from babysitting he done of Adam and Sarah, and naps he had taken when younger, that he was slow to wake up, so hand in hand they walked out to the living room. It was a beautiful house, even in the dim light of day, with a stone fireplace, a nice kitchen, and a big round table, Klaus had set. He instructed Ephraim, to watch the beans and oatmeal he had started, and picked Adam up to shower him with kisses and twirl him around. “There’s my little schnucki!”

“Klaus can you cook?” Adam asked.

That incredible huff again. “Of course I can! Eph, will clean all the fish Kringle catches and I shall cook them!” He grinned at them both. “Although Nonna Luisa had the larder filled with can goods and dry stuff, when she knew I was stationed in Milan, in case I got here, so we are lucky, and still had a bit of milk for the oatmeal, with cinnamon.”

“What a feast and coffee. How are we so blessed?”

They sat at the table and were about to begin when Adam started to cry. “I want mama madre.”

Klaus and Ephraim exchanged sad glances. Klaus picked him, pushed back his chair, put him on his lap and adopted a bear like voice. “Adam you must eat your breakfast to become a big strong bear, like me and Ephraim.” As Adam laughed a little Klaus moved his bowl of oatmeal over, took a spoonful and moved it towards Adam’s mouth. “Here it comes.” Adam did take the spoon and did eat, but still on Klaus’s lap.

When they were done, Ephraim took Adam’s hand and Klaus’s hand. “Let’s say a prayer to madre, padre, and Sarah that their bambini is fine and with two people who love him very much.”

Klaus went to the drape covered window and peeked out at the rain. “We need to wait a bit for the rain to let up before we start up the Great Dolomite Road.” Ephraim cleaned the dishes and scrounged in the pantry for the long drive and Klaus and Adam stretched out on the floor as Klaus declared there was a enough light to read to them from an Italian copy of Dumas ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’, feeling as he did so like the hero Edmond Dantès, falsely imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, stuck in Chateau d’if. Klaus knew if they came out of this, when the war ended, he would be branded a war criminal and it made his heart as low as that of Dantès, except he had the two people he loved most in the world with him.

They had found a canister of petrol in the shed, and Klaus added it to the big car, and they set out around eleven in the same seating arrangement, with canned Italian peaches, still some bread and two delicious treats: mortadella and hard parmigiana, that had been wrapped tightly and preserved, and only a thin rain.

Ephraim sighed. “We are very lucky and I think I love Nonna Luisa very much.”

Klaus told them of his family history. Born outside Koln, father a very rigid lawyer, mother, Luisa’s daughter, a wonderful cook, it was she who was part Italian, an older sister Ingrid, engaged to a scientist, and brother Gunter, married with a small daughter Marta. His other grandparents lived near the Black Forest.”

Adam who loved a great story, interjected to ask if there were bears in the Black Forest.

“Only Kringle when he goes on vacation there. He will also be the first bear in the Dolomites, too. Anyway, My father and Gunter are totally loyal to the Reich and what it means.” His voice broke and Ephraim put his hand on his knee. “My father made us join Hitler’s Youth, to be drilled in Hitler’s principles. Luisa saved me by insisting I go to school at Politiecnico di Milano to study architecture. There I learned Italian, and worked and would break away to ski - I have to teach you two, if you don’t know how to already; I suspect Kringle can already...”

Adam was such a happy, wonderful little boy and Klaus was perfect with him and now he and Kringle were bouncing against Ephraim with laughter. “KLAUS, he cannot ski, he’s a bear!”

“Interesting to know. I’ll have to talk to him about that.” Ephraim rubbed Klaus’s thigh, under the blanket that was over them again. “I went into all of this really as a spy, to stop the Nazis wherever I could. I hated the fact that Hitler felt we lost the First World War because Jews and Communists betrayed the country.” He snickered. “My father felt that way too and all this anti Semitic rhetoric flourished even more. When I was in Hitler’s youth, they used my budding architecture skills for mapping and they actually encouraged my being bi-lingual so I could learn more about Fascism and help with their plans for Italy with Mussolini.”

“What did you do?” Adam asked.

“Well, when I had to go back after four years here, I joined FAUD.”

“What’s that? Adam asked, holding Kringle on his lap.

“Freie Arbeiter Union, or anti Nazi propaganda. I wanted to stop it, this senseless war, and help people but I failed.”

Adam suddenly climbed on Ephraim’s lap and with Ephraim holding him, he leaned into Klaus. “You didn’t fail! You helped us. You didn’t fail.”

Ephraim steadied Adam. “He’s right. You were sent back here, we met you, you saved us, and we both love you more than bears love fish.”

Adam laughed and for a moment they all did.

The sun had come out and Ephraim knew they must grab happiness and love where they could and hold onto it closely. He started to tell them both of his love for the violin which brought him to Milan, the Conservatory, La Scala, and the Stein family and his hope to either be in a great orchestra or teach.

Adam piped in to say that madre and padre were in the orchestra at La Scala and when they found them, Klaus could hear them play.

Klaus started to speak when suddenly they heard a barrage of gun fire. Klaus yelled for them both to get down and just as quickly a young man darted from the trees, staggered and fell. Klaus stood on the brakes and told them again to stay down. He leapt from the car, dragging the boy to the back door, he was opening the door and trying to get him in, when more shots were fired and Klaus yelped, pushing them both in the back and closing the door. “Quick. Can you drive? Adam you must stay down. Darling, I hate to ask you to do this. Stay as low as you can. The Great Dolomite Road is just down and around the bend.”

Ephraim slipped into the driver’s seat, put the car in gear, and tore down the road, all the while calling to Klaus if he was okay. They could hear a voice calling softly: “Sophia and the Fascists.”

They heard a rustling in the back and heard Klaus telling the boy in Italian, that it was okay and he had him. Klaus called out that no one was behind them, they must have been on foot”, and then he called: “there is the road. I’m bleeding,” they heard Adam whimper, “but I am trying to staunch his blood. Keep going up the road and about two miles ahead, you’ll see a pull off. It’s dangerous to stop, but we must.”

Adam was calling: “Klaus, Klaus, Klaus.”

“It’s okay schnucki, I love you both so much.”

Simultaneously they heard a groan and Ephraim knew the boy must be gone.

He stopped the car, trembling all over, picked Adam up and pulled him close. All he had been through and who knew what was still yet to come.

“Eph, I’m sorry, you’ll have to help me.”

Ephraim got out, told Adam to stay in the front. It seemed there was blood everywhere in the back of the car. Klaus was cradling the boy, still holding a shirt to his back, his fallen head on Klaus’s shoulder. He shook his head at Ephraim, who merely nodded.

Together they lifted the boy out of the car; Klaus told Adam to lie down on the seat with Kringle, and then Ephraim saw the blood on Klaus’s coat shoulder. “Steady, cuore mio, my love, we will see wounds as we grow old together, I promise. Let’s carry him over into those trees. Luigi and I will have to come back and bury him. They propped the boy by a tree and Klaus knelt and went through his pockets, pulling out an ID card, “Eli Rabbinowitz.” He sighed and from his other pocket, a second ID card: “Bernardo Amante.”

They stood silently holding hands and Ephraim guided him back to the car and took his coat off. “Is Klaus hurt?” Adam asked.

Klaus laughed. “I need a doctor, please send Kringle back, but I guess he’s only a fish doctor.” He told Ephraim there was some Germolene cream in his valise and a few bandages. “We can’t delay too long.” Ephraim cleaned the wound, which was a graze, with some soap and water on a corner of the rag from the glove compartment, put a band aid on, and kissed Klaus on the mouth, causing Adam to giggle.

They got in the front, Adam insisting on sitting next to Klaus, who kissed his head. “There, nothing worse then when Kringle got speared by a swordfish.”

Adam leaned against him and smiled. They were quiet for a bit. Adam looked up at Ephraim. “He died, right?”

Ephraim took his hand. “Yes, caro amore. Remember when I told you my sister died, and she was very sick, it seemed like she had gone away, and she did, but she went here,” he placed his hand over Adam’s heart; “she is always there.”

Klaus nodded. “It’s the same with my grandfather. I talk to him, and he might be gone, but his love never goes away.”

“Madre, padre, and Sarah’s love for you will never go away and neither will ours. Never, ever!”

He raised those wanting grey eyes to Klaus. “You will always love me?”

Klaus beamed. “Forever and ever.”

They reached the farmhouse in San Vigilio with little drama, although Klaus was very concerned about a plane high overhead, that could have been Luftwaffe, but he was not sure. As they had driven along, they had their cheese and mortadella, Adam providing them with highlights of the Dolomites.

“Did you know they are called the pale mountains? The peaks are made of carbonate minerals and once thousands of years ago they were under water?”

“Under water?” Did Kringle fish there.”

Adam laughed and laughed. It was good to see him a little boy again. War could strip all that away and so long as they could bring him back, then they were good.

As Klaus pulled into farm, Adam had his face glued to the window, as Klaus told him about the cows, chicken, and horse. As he was distracted, Klaus rub Ephraim’s cock and leered, “for later.”

Luigi was thrilled to see him and introduced Bella, who was ten, and Edoardo, who was seven. Adam was shy at first, till they wanted to take them to see the cows.

“The bastards haven’t gotten here yet, but I fear they will. Come see Marisa.”

Ephraim thought the whole family was beautiful and after a bit of the remainder of the bottle of la fete Rothschild, Luigi and Klaus set off in the car, with a spade to bury Eli. Klaus had taken out the second fake Italian ID, clearly intending to use it for their escape, and handed it to Luigi. “We will need this.”

Adam was devastated to see him go, until Edoardo told him about the new kittens in the barn and the three raced off.

Ephraim offered to help Marisa make the casunziei, a succulent ravioli stuffed with spinach, which they would have with barley soup.

“We are lucky so far. You know there was terrible fighting in the Dolomites during the First World War,” she hesitated, “we know it will come, but for now we try to live. Luigi and Klaus, they are fighters, you know that, but good fighters.” She reached over and took his hand. “You love Klaus? It’s okay, we have known for years. Love is love, eh?”

“Yes, I love him more than I can say. It happened so quickly.” He blushed. “For both of us, and Adam, too.”

“Tonight and as long as you’re here, you have a special bedroom, and bath. The little ones can sleep together,” she twinkled, “as you two will do.”

Around nine they were all in bed after their marvelous dinner, and Klaus suggested they take a bath, in the huge old tub.

Climbing in together, Ephraim pulled him close to look at his shoulder, which he redressed and was above water level.

“Are you okay?” He asked Klaus.

Klaus leaned in to kiss him. “If I am with you, I am okay.” Ephraim took the bar of soap and ran it over the forest of fur, grazing his nipples, washing his pits, his arms with the big muscles, his strong legs, and sexy feet. Klaus moaned and said in a throaty tone, “you are forgetting two important areas that need your attention.”

“Oh, I thought we were done?” Klaus took his hand and placed it over his rigid dick, as Ephraim stroked up and down, cupping his balls. They leaned in to kiss, long and as hard as their colliding poles rubbed together in the warm water, and Ephraim skinned back the head, cleaning the glans as he exerted more pressure, pulling down on the soft, heavy balls. Klaus arched up, giving access to his fuzzy cheeks and his tight little orifice. Ephraim lathered his middle finger, moved it around the hot opening and then moved in, sliding back and forth, ramming that little button, till Klaus threw his head back, let out a low groan, and fired a huge load up his chest.

He lunged forward pulling Ephraim on top of him and stuck his tongue in his ear. “I need you inside me, to fill me up, to own me.”

Ephraim drew back. “Are you sure?”

He pulled Ephraim’s wet curls back. “Give me your finger.” He laced their two small fingers together. “We are one. That boy, Eli, was calling for Sophia. My last breath; only thought will be of you! Do it now!”

They stepped from the tub, looking like two sleek gladiators, with their scimitars sticking straight out. Drying each other off, they looked deeply into each other’s eyes: azure and emerald marrying together in greatest love. Hand in hand they walked to the bed and Ephraim pushed Klaus down on his back. “See what you’ve taught me? I want to do it right!”

Klaus pointed to the long string of precum slicking his pubic and belly hair. “Greatest, how can you do anything wrong?”

Ephraim first laid his naked body on top of his, sliding them together, their seepage gluing them down. Lowering himself he took first one foot, then the other, in his mouth, washing his feet and toes, even running his teeth over his feet and causing Klaus to writhe around.

Klaus reached to the table by the bed, picked something up, and held them up for Ephraim to see. “Wooden clothespins. Put them on my nips. I tried this once and it makes me even harder and shoot like a firecracker.” Ephraim moved forward and did, noticing how Klaus’s cock throbbed even more.

“Lift your legs up and put them on my shoulders.” Klaus had them slung over Ephraim’s shoulders. First, he took his balls in his mouth, laving them, sucking them, and pulling them down. Next, he started to lick and sniff down to his beautiful pinkish brown hole. The smell was redolent of the pine soap and the musk of Klaus. Not being able to hold out, he straightened his tongue and buried his head in his hole, his curls tickling Klaus’s testicles. Klaus hissed through his teeth. Ephraim moved his tongue in and out and up and down the crack. His penis was harder than ever.

“Coat it with the Vaseline and crack me open like a Christmas chestnut.” Ephraim waggled his eyebrows and added liberal grease to his tool and lined it up with the dazzling, winking door. “Now push the head it. Go a little slow at first, then don’t hold back.”

Ephraim did as told, and the heat and tightness was incredible. He leaned forward, pulling the clothespins, and swallowing his tongue. “We are one now. I will never let you go.” With that, he began moving and twisting his rod around, hitting his prostate, causing them both to shake. He never knew anything like this. The vice like tightness, the heat, the rhythm they were creating, as Klaus ground his hole back on him, Ephraim spreading his legs further apart, to plow like an old farm hand. He released one leg, to lean in and give his big rod a long lick. Klaus trembled.

“Fuck, you’re big,” Klaus sighed. “Wow,” he purred as Ephraim kept plugging away and his friction on his prostrate was creating a pool on his flat belly. Ephraim reached down, roped his big sword in his hand and after three tight tugs along his beautiful length, Ephraim erupted up his tunnel and Klaus thrashed and shot a gigantic release all over his belly, pulling them together.

Nestled under a blanket, Klaus issued a confession: “I knew the moment I saw you, I could never love anyone else. I was sent to find you and I did.”

He had washed Klaus off and had the blanket over the bottom half of them, his head on his chest, running his fingers through that flaxen hair, and his now tender nipples.

“You mean because of the political group? I went with either Stein, sometimes both when the landlady would watch Sarah and Adam.”

“What were they like?”

“Wonderful. They were my family there. You see my parents are,” he lowered his eyes, “maybe were, at this point, “musicians, and they knew them, and I came here to study and had learned Italian, and they took me in, got me the flat, and I fell in love with the children and Adam, is my heart, till you came in and stole it. I knew I liked men, but never did much about it, till you.” He leaned in and kissed his nose.

“You see, I was assigned to you and I got there too late to save them, but I have to save both of you, too.” He took his hand that was on his chest.

“You have.”

“Have I? You have no family?”

“Only my parents, and they were in Warsaw, and now I have no idea.”

“And Adam?” He propped himself up on his elbow and ran his fingers through Ephraim’s curls.

“I think we are both orphans of the storm.”

“Then somehow we must make it work. Two gay men and a little boy.”

Later Klaus, dressed and went outside, in some of Luigi’s borrowed clothes and big coat, to relieve him, as they had decided to split shifts and keep an eye out for the plane.

It was cold but he wasn’t cold, just alone with his thoughts. Where could they go? Could he and Luigi rescue other Jewish people, and then could they disappear? Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, where would they be safe? A German, a Nazi, Gestapo, he would be called, and it was true, and he hated himself for it, and where could he make them safe? Could they get to New York to Luisa and his step grandfather? They knew no English. She had learned, since her husband was American. “Oh, what to do?” He said aloud and bowed his head to pray for an answer.

Suddenly he heard a noise behind him. His gun was by his side, but he turned to see Adam dragging a blanket and Kringle, running to him.

Klaus threw his arms around him. “Schnucki, what are you doing out here?”

“Well, I had to find you. I looked and looked.”

“You should be asleep. Come you cannot get cold. He wrapped the blanket around him, and took him under the coat. “We don’t have fur like old Kringle. At least you put your shoes on, but you are not to come outside alone again.”

“But what are you doing out here?” He poked him in the chest. “You should be asleep.”

Klaus laughed. “Luigi and I are taking turns watching out in case the plane returns.”

“Are you afraid?”

Klaus sighed. “I have to protect you. I love you more than anything, you see.”

Adam snuggled close and he put his head against Klaus and then he leaned back to look at a sky full of stars. “Klaus, do you know about the stars?”

“Of course I do, they’re in the sky,” he huffed with mock indignation.

“KLAUS, you are very silly.”

He leaned back and lifted boy and bear on his chest. “Do you think so? Silly is very good at this time, I think. He leaned his head back. “So tell me about the stars.”

“Well, there are 88 constellations and there is Ursula Minor, the little bear, and Ursula Major, the great bear.”

Klaus tickled him, causing him to squirm and lifting his head, tickled Kringle, too. “I hope old Kring, is paying attention to this. He must be Ursula Major.”

Ignoring this, Adam went on with his lesson, “did you know that each star is bigger and brighter than the sun?”

They looked up at the sky and Klaus pulled him down beside him. “I need to ask you a question? “Would you be happy if Ephraim and I took you away someplace safe and you were with us?”

“But what about my family?”

“We would be your family now.” He put his arms around Adam. “Schnucki, where your family went,” he paused and took a steadying breath, “they don’t come back from a place like that.” Adam went very still. “Like we said earlier today about the boy dying, if that is true,” he moved his hands up over Adam’s chest, over his heart, “they would be here forever.”

Adam started crying uncontrollably and Klaus kept kissing his hair. He got a handkerchief from his coat, dried what tears he could. “We love you more than anything. We can still hope, but should they not come back, would you stay with us and be ours? For you see we cannot do without you.” Klaus was crying now, “and we need you more than anything.”

He felt the little heading nodding yes, and picked his gun, boy, and bear up and went inside for Luigi to relieve him and carry Adam to be with them for the rest of the night and he knew his prayer, was for always.