Five Brothers and a War

A van Pelt Night Out

came pouring out. Quite naturally, those streetcar conductors and drivers were also subject to that same curfew and had no interest in being caught beyond it. When the conductors didn’t wait for the end of the concert, the group was in a bind. So they had no choice but to run home. As they went, they would duck into hiding places if they saw anyone, or if they were unsure of who was in the neighborhood. They finally reached the Margrietstraat, out of breath, but quite relieved. Around the corner of their short street, they stopped to have a strategy meeting of sorts. It had taken them 45 minutes to get to home so it was close to 11:30. Having made it home did not mean that they were “home-free” though. They still had one huge problem to overcome—an extremely worried and angry father. But having come this far, they figured that their dad was a solvable problem. The plan was a fairly simple one. Jan’s friend, Hans, would quietly pick up his bike and park it in the little front yard at the van Pelt home, and then head back to his home. He had his own house key, so he would unlock the front door to his house. Everyone would then slink up the two sets of stairs to get to the top level, climb out of the front dormer onto the roof and take the eavestrough (gutter) to the identical upstairs room at #20, where they would climb through the open window and quietly go to bed. Nobody was to be the wiser for it.

van Pelt

Five Brothers and a War

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