Life is beautiful①: The story of Lukas, a German boy

"... Eighteen, nineteen, TWENTY! Ready or not, here I come!" I shouted and started to look for the others. 

Ever since we came to this place, hide-and-seek has been our favorite game, especially because there were so many places for us to hide in.

"Found you!" I said as soon as I found 4-year-old Hermann hiding under a dirty, striped piece of cloth.

I wondered where the others could possibly be. Maybe someone's in that metal box...

I was about to take a look when our caretaker came and shouted, "HERMANN! What do you think you are doing with those filthy clothes? Go and wash your hands immediately or hands will be stinky like a Jew's!"

"Yes, ma'am." Hermann obeyed her at once. 

Our caretaker wasn't someone you would want to upset, not unless you wanted to get spanked by her bulky, muscular arms. 

"Rest of you, stop fooling around and come out now. It is time for lunch."

Everyone came out of their hiding places, including my best friend Adolf, who was hiding in the metal box I had my eyes on. 

"Why was 'Bulldog' shouting at Hermann? Did he get in trouble again?"

"Bulldog" was the nickname we gave our caretaker because of her terrifying glare.

"Yeah, he was playing around with a dirty piece of cloth. 'Bulldog' was saying something about the Jews being dirty," I replied.

"What? Again?"

All of us kids living here had no idea what a "Jew" was. Whenever we asked the adults, they always answered, "Nothing you need to know about." 

Lately, we've been hearing the word more frequently and the adults have been acting funny as if they had a huge secret. That's why Adolf and I have been trying to find out what was really happening, calling it out "top-secret undercover investigation" (T.U.I. for short). Unfortunately, we've found out nothing... yet.

"I guess we can try to sneak out of our dorm rooms for some T.U.I. tonight. We might be able to get some new info," said Adolf.

"Okay," I answered as we headed to the lunch room.

We were too busy planning our T.U.I. mission to notice a 5-year-old boy, whom we have never seen, follow us as he said goodbye to his father in striped clothing.

(To be continued...)