I stay at Gabriel’s house in Nerac, hiding from the Nazis in his shed out back. The first day, I’m bored so I leave the shed and sit under the tree in his yard. I remain outwardly calm as a small platoon of Germans march by. After they are completely gone, Gabriel calls me in. Although he speaks no English and I speak no French, he gets his anger across: “Don’t ever do that again, or me and you…” and he slides his finger across his throat.
I apologize and slink back to the shed. I look at the engine that doesn’t run and start working on it. By the end of the second day, I have it running. Gabriel can’t believe it. He’s grateful.
The next night, Dr. Henri and I ride on bicycles again all night to another house: that of another Maquis battalion leader living in Ambrus, France: Raoul.
(Note from Victoria Yeager: Raoul also became Mayor of his town, Ambrus, after the war. The first time we met, in 2008, in fact every time we met afterwards, he would have tears in his eye – seeing Charlie Yeager alive filled him with such joy and emotion. When we met him in 2008, he told us he kept the peace between the Communists and the Capitalists in the following manner: Whenever the government gave the town money, he’d split it between the two factions.
He also told me that F/O Yeager would bicycle off by himself during the day. Raoul was told the American pilot must stay alive – and on pain of death if something happened to him. So Raoul worried. I told him, that’s Charlie – he wasn’t going to trust anyone so he was looking for egress and hiding places himself.)
c. GCYI