Chapter 24

"I want to see him," Eva said.

"Who?" Wolfgang asked, standing at the small gas stove and scrambling eggs for their breakfast.

"Our father."

"Why?"

"I want to see him," Eva shrugged. "Don't you?"

"Sometimes," Wolfgang allowed slowly. "I think about it."

"Take me to him."

"He's in prison. It will be difficult and..." he frowned. "They may be looking for me. I don't know."

"The police, you mean," she nodded. "Can you find out?"

"Probably," Wolfgang said. "But you have no papers, no identification. Getting you inside to visit him..."

"You must know someone who can help us," Eva persisted as Wolfgang put a plate on the small table in front of her.

"I was a policeman," Wolfgang chuckled, "not a criminal."

"And so? Now you are, yeah?"

He looked at her for a moment and sat down, reaching for his coffee.

"We need money as well, I think." Eva stabbed at her eggs. "You have to take care of me now. You promised."

"I know."

"You see?" she smiled at him. "This is how it is for me everyday."

"What do you mean?"

"This," she said with a shrug, looking around. "I wake up and I say, this is who I am now. What I've become. Like you, I must decide what I need to live one more day."

"Hmmm..." Wolfgang narrowed his eyes at the girl.

"You didn't expect to find me," Eva continued as she ate. "And now you have no plans, no idea what to do with me. But this is who we are now and this is what we must do to live one more day..."