An Elephant in the Garden

Lizzie pauses in telling her story and mentions she wishes she had her photograph album, which she left at home. Karl and his mother volunteer to bring it to her. Lizzie shows them a compass she keeps in her bedside table. Holding it lovingly in her hands, she tells them that she first saw the compass “the day we found him lying there in the barn” (97). Lizzie then resumes telling her story.

When Lizzie sees the enemy airman, she hates him and wishes he were dead until he opens his eyes and looks at her: “I knew right away that he was no more of a killer than Papi was” (98). Speaking German, he identifies himself as a Canadian in the RAF that bombed Dresden. Infuriated, Mutti raises the pitchfork as if to kill him, but Lizzie stops her, reminding Mutti that she and Papi always said that killing is never right. The airman says he does not blame Mutti for hating him and sincerely apologizes for the bombing; he did not know the whole city would be destroyed, and he hates what countries at war do to each other. He was the only survivor when his plane was shot down.