When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary

by Alice Hoffman

Oma went to bed right after dinner. She was cold all the time now and she wore a sweater and two shawls. On some nights she didn’t speak at all. “Pay no attention to me,” Oma said whenever she was asked if something was wrong. The truth was, everything was so wrong she didn’t know where to begin. She knew she was ill, the signs were all there, her labored breathing, the pain in her side, but she didn’t wish to upset anyone. What good would it do to complain? “Enjoy your games,” she told the family when they asked her if she’d like to join in. “Old ladies go to bed early.” But it was something more, and Anne knew it. She brewed the last of the blue tea and brought Oma a cup. Oma would no longer talk about the future when Anne asked her opinion. “Do you think I know what will come?” Oma said. “Anne, I know nothing, and I can change nothing. If I could, I would have made certain I was born in another time and place. I’d take you with me, into the future. I’d take us all far from here.” If you looked into her eyes, it seemed that Oma knew more than she was letting on, but she would not say another word. She was folded in on herself, rarely leaving her bed. Before Anne put the deck of cards away, she drew two cards for luck. She would tell her own fortune if no one else could. She wanted a queen or an ace, which seemed like lucky cards, but instead she drew a ten and a three. She kept those cards under her pillow. Anne had not been raised as a religious Jew; she came from a mod...