Chapter 20
5:00 PM
December 23, 1940
Genero Farm
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
As the daylight turned to dusk and the sky filled with multi-colored streamers, Marta sat in silence at the breakfast nook’s small rustic table on the west side of the spacious farm kitchen. Stunned, she stared—unseeing—out of the nook’s window, oblivious to a stunning view of the Allegheny Mountain ridgeline and a gorgeous winter sunset settling over Waggoners Gap.
Unable to appreciate the celestial beauty, tears welled up in her doe-like eyes and rolled down her pretty, now red and puffy, cheeks. Propelled by gravity, the tears fell to the surface of the table where they formed a small, salty pool between Marta’s outstretched arms.
Marta muffled a sob and took a jagged breath. Her right hand gripped a large mu
