I thought also about my topic on the forum, realizing that Hans had never said whether he planned to delete it or not. He would probably leave it up to me. Now I worried, though, if maybe it would generate some suspicion. If another user like Teuton Brother joined our forum, maybe for the sole purpose of seeking out classified information, would they guess the true purpose of my topic? The sun had begun to rise over the trees of my backyard when I finally fell asleep. Right before I slept I thought of Hans again, and how magnificent he had looked standing on my balcony, clad entirely in black, sweeping like a fire over the railing when he had left. And I wished for the thousandth time that I could have him somehow.
My father held his summer party that year on the first Friday in July, the
