“That’s my home—Mannheim.”
“I regret to inform you....”
“Don’t! Don’t!”
Mona reads the rest of the letter to herself. It is from the American Consul, and tells Oskar that in a British air raid in the middle of the night the house in which his mother had lived with his sister had been struck by a bomb, and the wing in which his sister slept had been utterly destroyed.
Mona makes a cry and involuntarily reads aloud again:
“The child is missing and it is believed....”
“Don’t! Don’t!”
There is silence between them for a moment, only broken by Oskar’s low sobs and Mona’s quick breathing.
“Your sister?”