turned and pushed Paul hard. The boy lost his balance and fell through a gap in the wall to the lower part of the millhouse, to where the old waterwheel still turned with its paddles. Only a few teeth remained in the wheel, but Paul’s shirt got caught in one, and the force of the water started to lift him. “Help me!” he cried.
Not stopping to think, Jacob threw himself into the water and caught Paul by his clothes. But the wheel kept turning and pulling him upward, where he would eventually be trapped within the gearworks.
Marcel watched, helpless, from above. He did not know how to swim, but he rummaged among the remains of the millhouse until he found an old rope. He tied it to one of the standing wooden supports of the building and threw it into the water.
Jacob grabbed the rope and yanked hard on Paul, but his shirt was stuck in the wheel. Paul tried to rip the shirt, but the fabric wouldn’t budge.
Moses tossed them a stick to jam up the wheel. It would not withstand the force of the water for long, but maybe it would give them a few seconds. Jacob jammed the stick in, and the wheel groaned to a halt. It gave Jacob both the time and the leverage to yank Paul free. The younger boy clung to him as Jacob hoisted them both back into the millhouse with the rope.
Despite the heat of the day, Paul trembled with cold and fright. Marcel folded him into his arms. “Thank you,” he said, looking at Jacob. “I owe you.”
Just then they were startled by the sound of footsteps. The four boys withdrew to the darkest recesses of the millhouse. They heard voices, then two blond boys appeared and went up to the window.
“It’s the Germans,” Marcel whispered in Jacob’s ear.
“Germans?” Jacob’s blood froze.
“The sons of the commander and the captain of the garrison. They’ve come for the summer,” Marcel explained.
“Do you know them?”
“Nobody goes near them. We call them the dirty Germans. Normally their nanny or a soldier is with them. I’ve never seen them alone before.”
The German boys said something in their language and then laughed, but they were startled into silence by the sound of a board creaking in the shadowed part of the millhouse. One of them pulled out his slingshot and fired into the dark.
“Ouch!” Moses yelled, when the pebble whacked his neck.
“Who’s there?” one of the German boys asked in a thick accent.
Marcel stepped out into the light with his slingshot raised. He was much bigger than the two German boys. “What are you doing in our hideout, you little Deutsch maggots?”
The boys froze, but before Marcel could fire at them, Jacob grabbed his arm.
“Leave them alone.”
Marcel frowned. He could not understand this rich city boy. The whole world knew the Germans were the enemy.
“They’re kids just like us. The war is between adults,” Jacob said.
The German boys threw down their slingshots in surrender. They looked truly frightened. Their parents had warned them about lurking dangers, but they had run off at a moment when no one was looking in order to explore the old mill.
“We’re not going to hurt you,” Jacob said in German.
Their eyes widened in disbelief.
Marcel’s did too. “You speak German?” He was incredulous.
“Yeah,” was all the explanation Jacob gave.
“We didn’t mean to hurt you,” the older boy said to Jacob.
“You can go, and don’t forget your slingshots.”
“Thanks,” the boys said in unison. But before leaving they turned back and asked, “Do you want to play?”
The four boys looked at one another. It was one thing to not attack the Germans, but it was another thing altogether to play with them. Moses finally stepped forward and said, “Sure, we can play, but we should go outside. It’s kind of dangerous in this millhouse. Paul just fell.”
The Germans nodded. They knew French, so games with their new playmates would come easy.
Sometime later, the church bells rang out loudly, and Paul reminded them to go home for supper.
“Will you be back here tomorrow?” one of the German boys asked.
“I’m not sure. We’ve got some things to do,” Jacob answered.
“How do you know German?” the smaller boy asked.
“I learned it in school.” Jacob found a lie more prudent than the truth.
“You sound German. You don’t have an accent. So we’ll try to come back tomorrow at the same time, and I’ll bring a ball,” said the older boy, before turning and running off toward the commander’s