Chapter Text
Davey followed Jack into the Cafe Bismarck, they greeted the two men standing sentry at the door like they always did. “Hey Jack, David.” The man on his right held his arm up in the Hitler Salute, “Swing Heil.”
“Swing Heil,” They repeated back in unison, but Davey could tell Jack’s attention had already wandered elsewhere. The two of them headed into the crowd of kids, the American swing music already giving him the urge to dance. He glanced behind them, tugging Jack on the arm to halt and wait for Crutchie, Albert, and Race. Jack waited long enough for the five of them to grab a table, and then he was gone, latching himself onto some girl and twirling them around the dance floor. Crutchie looked longingly as Albert and Race left to go dance.
He sighed and glanced over at Davey. “What's the matter Davey? Why aren’t you dancing?”
Davey shrugged, “I don’t know. I don’t really want to leave you alone.”
Crutchie waved him along, “I’ll be fine. Go. Have some fun before the Nazis take over this place too.”
Davey allowed himself to be pushed onto the dance floor, immediately the music took hold of him. It caused him to dance and spin and dance with some faceless girl. He caught sight of Jack a few times that night, dancing with a different girl every time.
Crutchie, too, seemed to be hitting it off with a few people. He was talking to a brunette for almost the entire night, Annie, or something.
They left close to midnight, the echo of the swing music still ringing in their ears and the reflection of the Cafe Bismark sign shining on the wet ground beneath their feet. Jack was hopping along with his arm around Davey’s shoulder, still humming a song. Albert skipped up over to them and punched Crutchie in the arm lightly, “Hey. I think I saw Herr Morris hitting it off with Annie all night, huh?”
Crutchie shoved his hand away playfully. “Hey, I was just being nice.”
Jack too fixed Crutchie with a shit-eating grin. “Oh Annie huh? For myself I was talking to this pretty little lady named Katherine all night.”
“Don’t lie to him, Jack!” Davey chuckled, “I saw you with a different girl every hour.”
Jack winked, “Yeah but I simply couldn’t keep my eyes off of Frau Pulitzer now could I?”
“Hey!” Race spoke up suddenly, “Let’s race down to Mackerton Bridge, shall we?”
Albert rolled his eyes at his antics, “Nah, I’m tired from all that dancing. We should just walk.”
Race jabbed Albert in the side, “You’re just saying that ‘cause you lost last time.”
“Did not!”
“Did too!”
Albert took off running. “Last one is a HJ pansy!” He called over his shoulder. Race cursed and started running too. “You got a head start!”
Crutchie fumbled with his cane as Race nearly knocked him onto the ground. Jack didn’t let that slide, “HEY! Albert! Race!” There was no response. “Goddamn assholes,” He muttered, seizing Crutchie around the elbow, “Leaving a crip by himself with Gestapo around every corner.”
Crutchied jerked his arm out of Jack’s grasp and tapped him on the shin with his cane, “I can take care of myself. And I’m not by myself, am I? I’ve got you and Dave.”
Davey scoffed, “Sure, but the two won't be much help if a crowd of HJs were to jump us, now would we?”
“You’re right,” Jack nodded earnestly, “You would only need me, now would you. We don’t need all of your dead weight.”
Crutchie slapped him in the arm and jerked his chin in front of them, “Look, I can see the two idiots hiding over there.”
Jack withdrew his umbrella from his side like a sword, “Shh, just one second…”
“AHH,” Albert and Race leapt in front of them. Albert declared “We’re gangsters!” at the same time as Race said, “We’re cowboys!” The two of them glanced at each other for a moment before Jack shoved past them.
“Hey guys, you come looking for a fight?” Jack held the umbrella aloft. Crutchie and Davey both rolled their eyes in unison. The three other boys did this at least once a week.
“It’s funny,” Albert curled an eyebrow as he too pulled out an umbrella (Swing kids always carried umbrellas with them in case they encountered an HJ, or rain, of course), “A pansy thinks he can beat me.”
The two of them took swings at each other aimlessly, Race looked like he wanted to jump in, but didn’t “Hey, break it up you guys,” Davey muttered, getting tired of them. “It’s not a good look. And you ran off leaving Crutchie and us all alone. Now what if we hadn’t been here, yeah? You know they’re collecting cripples.”
Albert waved his concern away, “Come on Herr Jacobs! Live a little. The Nazis can’t stop us from having fun.”
“Albert,” Race warned, “I actually agree with David this time,” he seemed to have calmed down from his previous bout of energy, “The Nazis can and will stop us from being our own person. Did you already forget about Dave’s f-” He stopped himself, taking a deep breath and forcing a smile at Davey, “Sorry Davey. I didn’t mean to bring that up.”
“It’s fine,” Davey blinked back the sudden wetness surrounding his eyes. It wasn’t a secret what had happened to his father. “That was six years ago, I really don’t care.”
Race seemed satisfied with that so he turned to Crutchie instead. “Hey, hey, we love you guys,” he murmured, extending his arms over to Crutchie. Surprisingly, Crutchie shrinked away from him.
“I’ve already said, I don’t need you guys looking over me all the time. I won’t get tossed into a work camp.” Crutchie also pushed past the pair of them, hobbling over to Jack.
Jack and Crutchie were standing by a wall, studying it. Davey joined them and fixed his eyes on the poster. “Look at this fine… propaganda.” Jack ran his finger over the photo of the boy that was plastered all over the wall. “Join the Hitler Jungen blah blah blah, it’s all they ever say to us, isn’t it? Cut your hair, Jack. Study harder, Jack. Stop listening to that stupid American Music, Jack. Why don’t you just fit in, Jack!” Davey rested a hand on Jack’s shoulder. It was all too obvious that he wasn’t talking about the poster anymore.
He glanced to the side at Crutchie, who had started singing. To anyone who wasn’t a part of the Swing Kids, it might’ve seemed strange to begin doing according to the situation they were in, but Jack just took a steadying and listened as Davey began to hum along.
Race and Albert joined too. It took almost a full verse before Jack also started singing, but he seemed in a considerably better mood by the time he did. This was something they did often, it was still one of the easiest ways that Davey could feel like he was doing something to oppose the Nazis, and nowadays he was desperate for such. He caught Jack’s gaze out of the corner of his eye, his singing faltered. Jack began to smile, and then…
“Hey get on the ground!” Davey broke Jack’s gaze abruptly. The other four boys were either not in the way, or just were able to move quickly enough, but apparently Davey wasn’t either as he was tackled by a man running full speed past them. He was able to make brief eye contact with the man as he scrambled to stand and continue running. Jack seized Davey’s arm and hoisted him to his feet.
“Are you okay?” He asked. Davey nodded, but was distracted as a group of five or six men in uniforms rushed past too.
“Scheisse,” Race swore, “It’s the Gestapo.”
“Hey, let’s get outta here.” Albert said, “Race, let’s go that way, you guys go over there.” The five of them took off running in opposite directions, Albert and Race ran away from them and Jack, Crutchie, and Davey all chased after the man who was running, and, by extension, after the group of Gestapo that were hurrying past.
“What do you think they’re chasing him for?” Davey whispered to Jack and Crutchie as the trio of them dodged into the shadows to watch the scene.
“Who knows,” Crutchie hissed back, “They’re Gestapo could be anywhere from being a Jew to forgotten to say ‘Heil Hitler’ or whatever.”
Jack hit them both in the arm to shut them up, “Look, they got him cornered now…”
The Gestapo did indeed have the man cornered, backed up to the edge of the bridge. Davey could tell it would only be seconds before he was caught. That was, until the man took one glance behind him into the water dozens of feet below before jumping off. Davey winced at his screams as he fell to the water, wondering if those few precious seconds suspended in air were enough to change his mind. But it was too late, as he saw the Gestapo pull out rifles and start shooting at the water.
Jack grabbed his hand. “We have to go. Now. Now!” Once more the three of them started running.
They made sure Crutchie got home safe, out of him, Davey, and Jack, he was the most likely to be killed. Not that the Nazis could technically do anything if they didn’t have dirt on him.
After he was gone, Jack and Davey walked home much slower, if it were anyone else, Davey would protest to move faster. Nowadays, it was dangerous to be out on the streets at all. And he was still strung up from the attack he had witnessed, but he also knew that Jack would put off going home again for as long as he could.
“Hey, Dave…” The tone of Jack’s voice alarmed him, it was serious.
Davey glanced at the street around them, making sure they were alone. This would likely be one of those conversations that would be bad if the wrong person overheard. “Yeah, Jack?”
Jack fiddled with the ends of his tie. “That man, he just… jumped into the river. Like, he’d rather kill himself than be caught by them.”
“Jack,” He side-eyed his best friend. “You know you shouldn’t be talking like that. If someone were to overhear…” Instead of answering he chose to voice his thoughts from earlier. But, that was probably mostly because he didn’t have an answer for him. “But… I think he’d just rather go out his own way than be captured and put through whatever the Nazis do to people they don’t like. But again. We should not be talking about this on the street.”
Jack dismissed him with a wave of his hand. “Yeah yeah, I know. But I’m not so stupid to get caught by a pansy.” However he did lower his voice and say, “But you can’t believe them in that. That all of those people are bad. Y’know. Jews, Gypsies,” He somehow got quieter. “...Homosexuals.” He leaned in close. Unbearably close.
Davey forced a laugh and stepped away from Jack. “Right, Jack.” They had finally arrived at Davey’s apartment.
“Well,” Jack sighed mournfully, “We’re here.”
Davey opened the door pausing to throw a quick, “Gute Nacht.” Over to Jack.
Jack mock-saluted, “Swing heil, Davey. Swing heil.” The corners of his mouth twitched up as he slowly closed the door until he couldn’t see Jack anymore.