thinking,” Anna said, trying to reassure her friend,
“and I feel it too. But I’m sure Mr. Kaplansky is okay.
And there’s nothing we could have done for him. I’m
sure of that.”
“You’re right,” Renata replied. “I don’t know what
would have happened if those boys had turned on us.”
“We need to stop being scared. Or at least try to
stop thinking about all of this.” Anna realized that she sounded feeble. Perhaps she was trying to convince herself as much as Renata.
“It’s not just Mr. Kaplansky,” Renata said.
What more is there?
“I-I want to t-tell you something.”
Why was Renata stuttering?
“But I can’t talk too much about it. I want to, but I can’t.”
The Sound of Freedom
27
And what was she hiding? “You know you can
trust me to keep a secret. You can tell me anything.”
Renata was usually so chatty, and bright as a light
bulb. The incident with Mr. Kaplansky had scared
Anna, too, but Renata was walking and talking as if
the light had gone out of her.
“I know. It’s just …”
“Just what?”
They were arriving at school. Up ahead, Anna
could see her classmates gathering in front of the
school building. Stefan was there, waving to both of them.
Renata sighed deeply. “I’ll tell you when I can.
Soon. Just not now. Please don’t say anything to
Stefan.”
Stefan strode across the field and came to a stop
in front of Anna and Renata. “Did you hear me play
yesterday?” he asked, looking directly at Anna. “I’m sounding like a professional musician, don’t you
think?” Stefan always had the kind of impish grin
on his face that made you wonder if he was joking
with you. But this time, Anna knew that he was
dead serious.
In spite of her troubling conversation with Renata,
Anna had to stifle a smile. She was tempted to call
him Stefan the sheep right to his face. But she re-
membered what her father had said about not being
28
K A T H Y K A C E R
unkind. “You’re getting … much better, Stefan,” she
replied, choosing her words carefully. “Practice
makes perfect.”
Stefan nodded. “That’s what your father says
all the time.” Then he turned to Renata. “Good,” he
said. “I’m glad you’re here. I was working on these
math problems most of last night.” He fumbled in his schoolbag to find his homework. “I just need to check a few of these answers with you before we go inside.”
He extended his notebook toward Renata. But she did
not take it. And her head was hanging so low on her
chest that Anna could not even see her eyes.
Stefan looked puzzled. “Are you okay?” he asked,
still holding his notebook out in front of him.
Anna knew that Renata’s gloom had everything
to do with the vandalism of Mr. Kaplansky’s store
along with whatever secret she was hiding. But Anna
also knew that she couldn’t ask about that. She had
promised not to.
“Did you hear about what happened at Mr.
Kaplansky’s store?” Stefan suddenly asked. It was as if he had been reading her mind. “Those boys in the
upper grades are getting worse than ever.”
“It’s not just the boys,” Anna replied.
“What are you talking about?” asked Stefan.
Renata looked up, her eyes dancing nervously from
Stefan to Anna and back again.
The Sound of Freedom
29
But Anna did not have a chance to respond.
approaching from across the schoolyard.
Anna was not close to the police chief’s daughter,
but Sabina came to her house for clarinet lessons, so they usually greeted each other pleasantly enough.
And Renata often helped Sabina with math problems.
But today, following closely on Sabina’s heels, were a couple of the same boys who had painted the star on
Mr. Kaplansky’s store. They flanked her like guards at the president’s palace. Sabina came to a full stop right in front of Anna.
“Hello, Sabina,” said Anna eyeing her two
bodyguards.
Sabina folded her arms across her body and stared
at Anna. “You know, it won’t be long before you’re not going to be allowed to come to this school anymore,
or any school, for that matter.”
“Excuse me?” Anna was stunned by Sabina’s
declaration.
“My father says it can’t come soon enough.” The
boys behind her laughed and nudged one another.
Anna narrowed her eyes and glared at Sabina,
feeling the slow heat begin to rise up from the pit of her stomach. “Looks as if you’re not too picky about the company you’re keeping these days.” The words
were out of Anna’s mouth before she could stop
30
K A T H Y K A C E R
them. The grin disappeared from Stefan’s face. He
looked as if he had shrunk several inches. Renata’s
face went from pale to ghostly. She shot Anna a
terrified glance.
Sabina just snickered and then turned to walk
away. The boys followed like obedient puppies.
“She can’t be right about that, can she?” Stefan
asked when Sabina was out of earshot. “How can they
stop us from going to school?”
“I told you what my parents said,” Renata whis-
pered hoarsely, turning to face Anna. “Things are only going to get worse.” Just then, the bell began to ring, summoning them to class. Renata turned to join the
line entering the school building. Then she stopped.
“He’s a maniac, you know,” she said over her shoul-
der. “Adolf Hitler.”
The name of the German chancellor hung in the
air like a bad smell. Anna realized with a start that that was exactly what her Baba had said.
Chapter
5
The confrontation with Sabina, along with Renata’s
secret, stayed with Anna through the entire day.
She wanted to talk to Renata after school. But her
friend ran off, saying that her parents needed her to get home as quickly as possible. And Anna couldn’t
follow. She had to make her way to the music academy for her clarinet lesson. Her father had been teaching her to play since Anna was a child, almost too small to even hold the instrument that had been a gift from her mother. It was her prized possession. It was still just a bit too big for her small hands. Papa said the more she practiced, the more her fingers would grow
and stretch. Usually, Anna had her music lessons at
home. But sometimes, she would meet her father at
the academy to take her lesson there and walk home
with him.
31
32
K A T H Y K A C E R
Today especially, Anna longed to lose herself in
the music lesson. Music would distract her from
worrying about other things. And after the incident
at Mr. Kaplansky’s store, the disturbing conversation with Renata, and Sabina’s ominous warning, it felt as if there was a lot to worry about!
She entered the academy and made her way
down
the long hallway. On her way to the rehearsal hall,
she passed Mr. Zaleski, the janitor who worked in the building. He was a giant of a man, taller than anyone she knew, and with shoulders that were broad and
hard from years of labor.
“Good afternoon, Miss Hirsch.” Mr. Zaleski tipped
his hat as he walked past. “Here for your lesson?”
He had been seeing Anna come and go from this
building for years.
“Yes,” she replied. “But I’m just going to try to
catch the last few minutes of my father’s rehearsal.”
She hoped that Papa would still be inside the rehearsal hall, practicing with the orchestra. She often tried to arrive early on these lesson days so she could hear
her father and the others play. She opened the door
to the hall and slipped inside, closing it softly behind her. She was lucky. The orchestra members were in
their seats and the rehearsal was still underway. Anna scanned the rows, searching for her father in the
The Sound of Freedom
33
section with the other clarinets. Then she frowned.
Papa was not in his usual seat. Where had he gone?
She was just about to leave the hall and go to her
father’s office when something caught her eye. At the back of the orchestra and off to one side, she noticed a small group of musicians. They had never been
there before—completely separated from the rest of
the players like that. And in the middle of that group sat Anna’s father. That’s so strange, she thought. Why was her papa seated at the back, and why were he
and several other musicians so cut off from the
others? Anna glanced at the people on her father’s
right and left. And then the truth began to dawn on
her. And as she put these pieces together, the now
familiar anxiety began to gnaw at her stomach once
more. The small group of men and women next to her
father were the Jewish musicians. They had all been
segregated from the rest of the orchestra, set apart as if they had a contagious disease.
Anna had seen enough. She pushed her way out
of the rehearsal hall and stumbled down the hallway.
Her mind was reeling from the sight of her father in that penned-off section of the rehearsal hall. She felt truly frightened. She wanted to leave the building and run for the safety of home, even though she knew that she couldn’t leave her father. Finally, she made her
34
K A T H Y K A C E R
way to her father’s office and sank into a chair. Papa found her there a few minutes later.
“Annichka!” he exclaimed when he walked in.
“Yes, of course, your lesson is today.” He seemed distracted and sounded as if he had forgotten. Anna
looked up, seeing for the first time the worry that was creased around Papa’s eyes. “I … um … the rehearsal
went a bit longer than I thought. Have you been here for long? Here in the office, I mean.” Even his voice sounded strained.
Anna opened her mouth to say something. She
was desperate to know why the Jewish musicians
were sitting apart from everyone else. But the look
on her father’s face stopped her. He was such a proud man, always so sure of himself. But suddenly he was
fumbling for words and he couldn’t seem to look her
in the eye. Surely she couldn’t ask about this new turn of events now, as it would embarrass him.
“No,” she replied softly. “I just got here a few minutes ago. I thought I’d wait for you here.”
Papa looked relieved. Anna had read him right.
“Good,” he replied with a deep sigh. “Let’s start your lesson, then.”
Anna reached for her clarinet, which she had
brought with her. She placed her mouth on the
mouthpiece and felt the reed against her bottom lip.
The Sound of Freedom
35
The reed was made of wood and was shaved down so
finely at one end that it was as thin as tissue paper.
When you held it up to the light, you could almost see through it. If there was the slightest crack or split in the reed, it was useless and, as her father always said,
“they don’t grow on trees, Anna.” That always made
her laugh because of course the reed did come from
a tree! But she knew what Papa meant. The reed was
special and needed to be treated carefully. But it also cost money. And even though Anna’s family lived
comfortably, they were careful with what they had
to spend.
Anna applied light pressure to form a seal around
the mouthpiece, just as her father always instructed her to, being careful to press only with her lips and not her teeth. She couldn’t blow too hard or no air
would pass through the wooden tube. Not too soft,
either, or a perfect seal would not be formed. And
then the only thing you’d hear would be air. She
reached her hands around the tube, left hand on the
keys on top and right hand on the bottom. The keys
opened and closed as she applied pressure with her
fingers. That’s what changed the notes and created
the tunes.
The reed vibrated slightly against her lower
lip as she began to play for her father. She wanted
36
K A T H Y K A C E R
to play like the soft wind that blew through Krakow
in the spring. That would help lighten her spirit.
And it would make her father happy. And maybe,
if he loved the way she sounded, he would smile
and she would take the sadness away from his
eyes. But today, try as she might, the sounds that
came from her clarinet were not the beautiful
sounds she had hoped to make. Her mind was still
elsewhere and not on the lesson. And Papa’s face did not brighten.
“Again, Anna,” Papa said. “Do the scale one more
time.”
A loud squawk came from her clarinet as Anna
blew once more and moved her fingers over the
keys. Today she knew that she sounded like a crow,
screeching out a sound that made her father wince.
I’m Anna the crow—one of the barnyard animals, she thought, lowering the clarinet to her side and staring at her father.
Normally, he would have said something about
the way she was playing. He would have said, “I know what you are capable of doing, Annichka. I know
you can play better than this.” And Anna would
have tried harder. But today, Papa looked as if he was barely listening to her. He had a faraway look on his face, and all he said was, “Again, please.”
The Sound of Freedom
37
Anna raised the clarinet to her lips and began
to play once more. She knew that she was still
sounding like a crow squawking from a high wire.
But Papa still did not comment. And that made her
even more uneasy.
Chapter
6
The newspaper reported another attack on a Jewish
store in the center of town. Papa tried to hide the
paper from Anna when she came to the breakfast
table, but she managed to get hold of it after he left for the music academy. The front-page headline in
the paper was also unnerving. In bold black letters, it said, “Jobs and Bread for Poles, not Jews.” Aren’t we Poles as well? Anna wondered. She was perplexed to think how things were changing in her country in
such a short amount of time—a
nd all for the worse.
As always, she felt the need to talk to Renata. Who
else but her best friend would be able to help her
understand all of this? But when she arrived at the
corner, Renata wasn’t there to meet her. It had been a few mornings since Renata had been waiting for her.
38
The Sound of Freedom
39
Renata was still hiding something. It had been two
weeks since she’d mentioned her secret, and while
Anna didn’t dare to press her about it, she could see Renata had grown quieter, walking around as if she
were in a trance.
At school, Anna looked around for her, but it was
Stefan who came walking up to her, grinning and
pulling a face that reminded Anna of a circus clown.
“You seem to be in a good mood,” Anna said.
“And why not? I got the highest mark on yester-
day’s math test that I have ever received. Maybe I
should become a mathematician—instead of a musi-
cian.” Stefan grinned again.
Anna smiled. “The only reason you are doing so
well in math is because Renata has been here to help.
Without her, you’d be at the bottom of the heap!” She glanced around. Where was Renata, anyway? Today, there was no sign of Anna’s friend. But thankfully no sign of Sabina either, or her bodyguards. After her
outburst a couple of weeks earlier, Anna did not want to run into the police chief’s daughter.
Stefan noticed Anna’s eyes darting about the
schoolyard. “My father said it’s not possible to kick us out of school,” he said. “Poland is not Germany. Adolf Hitler is not here. As much as I would love a break
from school, I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
40
K A T H Y K A C E R
“Don’t be so sure, Stefan,” Anna replied with some
hesitation. “There are other things going on here that aren’t good for us, either.”
“Isolated incidents. That’s what my father says as
well. Just don’t do anything to annoy Sabina. It’s her goons I’m worried about—more than Hitler!”
“Don’t worry,” Anna replied. “I’m not looking for
any trouble!”
Stefan sounded so sure of himself, and a part of
Anna really wanted to believe him. It was true that
Germany was not Poland. Perhaps nothing worse
would happen here. But even as she wished this to be true, her mind was telling her something different.