It was in the shape of a shoe! I stepped on several branches all at once that made a series of loud cracks. When a white haired crone heard my noisy ...pproach, she admonished me.“Shish, I just got the kids to bed.”“Oh, sorry.”She touched my face awkwardly in order, apparently, to ascertain who I was. She may have been half- blind at her age for all I knew at that juncture. Her kindness promptly became evident when she wiped the sweat off my brow and gave me a drink of water. She explained that. Her eyes were glaring at him as he tried to back away, his face red from his shame and embarrassment. ‘Oh my God!’ A huge smile opened her face to him. ‘He’s coming, isn’t he?’ The utter joy in her voice only served to magnify his dark feelings about the impending visit. ‘When, baby?’ She looked at him expectantly while he swallowed to delay his response. Then it all came together for her and she embraced her husband and looked up into his eyes. ‘What a good boy you are, baby. You remembered. Are you going to invite me into your house, Herr Abraham Schmidt?”“Er, do I have any choice?”“None whatsoever.”“Come in, then, of course.”Schmidt stood to one side, the officer ascended the steps and entered the doorway, easily squeezing his thin frame past the fat jeweller, limping slightly, aiding his progress with the help of a silver-topped cane. Schmidt looked up the street, where families were being hounded from their houses by loud, fully-armed soldiers with bayonets fitted to rifles, or. Thump Thump Thu-thump. Thump Thump -Thu-Thump. And then it stopped. I felt everything within him tense and squeeze as it fought against whatever that second of no heartbeat and then it started again. Thump-Thump-Thump, thump, thump thu-thump. Thump Thump Thu-Thump. I dropped my hand and starred at him, realizing he was a defect. He had a defective heart and the concern in his eyes meant it was more than a small heart murmur. He was worried what I would think. Oh my precious emerald eye.