Girl in the Blue Coat: Chapters 26–34

by Monica Hesse
As World War II rages, Hanneke is hired to find a Jewish teenager who disappeared from the house in which she was hiding. In the course of her search, Hanneke is drawn into the Dutch resistance movement secretly fighting the Nazis.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Prologue–Chapter 6, Chapters 7–10, Chapters 11–18, Chapters 19–25, Chapters 26–34
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. corral
    collect or gather
    My eyes grasp at the prisoners corralled behind the soldiers, locking on each row, desperately scanning for sky-colored material.
  2. flinch
    draw back, as with fear or pain
    I squeeze into the back, next to a woman who flinches when I press against her shoulder.
  3. vicinity
    a surrounding or nearby region
    “Mirjam Roodveldt?" A few people shake their heads stiffly, begging me with their eyes to stop drawing attention to their vicinity.
  4. cerulean
    bright blue in color, like a clear sky
    A flash of blue—brilliant cerulean blue.
  5. stoic
    seeming unaffected by pleasure or pain; impassive
    It was before the family with the stoic father carrying the sleepy girl.
  6. exhilaration
    the feeling of lively and cheerful joy
    My heart is pounding so fast, and this time not only in fear but in exhilaration for what I've almost done. I've found her.
  7. wrack
    smash or break forcefully
    Sobs wrack my body, the first tears I've cried since Bas died.
  8. rote
    memorization by repetition
    I lift the cup by rote, but when the liquid slides down my throat, it doesn't even register to me what it is.
  9. dumbfounded
    as if rendered speechless with astonishment and surprise
    The children are awake, still in their pajamas, standing dumbfounded behind their mother, watching Mina and me and obviously trying to figure out what's happening.
  10. shroud
    burial garment in which a corpse is wrapped
    Was I even supposed to bring the other clothes, or is she supposed to wear only burial shrouds?
  11. effects
    property of a personal character that is portable
    Mr. Kreuk has already checked the pockets and laid her personal effects on top of the coat. Her identification papers, shot through and now also rust-colored, and a letter, which must have been in her side pocket because the paper is clean and white.
  12. banal
    repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse
    His tired voice makes strained and banal conversation with my parents.
  13. hearse
    a vehicle for carrying a coffin to a church or a cemetery
    Mr. Kreuk found a plain pine casket for Mirjam and brought it here in the hearse.
  14. drudgery
    hard, monotonous, routine work
    There’s a level of drudgery and unpleasantness involved. It won't be a purely joyful ride. It will be numbing, which seems pleasing.
  15. quaint
    attractively old-fashioned
    Ransdorp is a village on the other side of the river, with farmhouses and a few little shops lining wide gravel streets. The idea of going to a quaint tourist destination now is especially absurd.
  16. brittle
    lacking warmth and generosity of spirit
    I'm pedaling away from these past few days. From the sight of Mirjam on the bridge, and the sound of a gunshot in the still night, and the look on Mrs. Janssen’s face, brittle and resigned, in her doorway.
  17. careen
    move sideways or in an unsteady way
    I can't stop myself and the bicycle goes careening into the ditch as I fly toward the frozen ground.
  18. tentatively
    in a hesitant manner
    Tentatively, I pull up my skirt. My left knee is a bloody mess: one large rock jutting out of the center, with small gravel particles surrounding it.
  19. rivulet
    a small stream
    He runs to the creek, soaking his handkerchief and squeezing it out on top of my knee, rinsing away rivulets of dirt.
  20. astride
    with one leg on each side
    Ollie and Willem stand astride their bicycles, trying to decide whether to follow me.
  21. fluke
    a stroke of luck
    Whatever she's looking at is far in the distance, out of the frame of the shot. It's possible that it's just a fluke, that she'd been looking at the soldiers, and a noise or a movement distracted her.
  22. surreptitiously
    in a secretive manner
    I'm about to say that I'll just wait on her steps when I realize I never tried the doorknob. I surreptitiously twist it now, and the door pops open.
  23. menial
    relating to unskilled work, especially domestic work
    No amount of searching for aspirin powder or performing other menial tasks is going to be enough to distract me.
  24. unnerve
    disturb the composure of
    She looks unnerved that I know this; for all she knows, I'm a spy sent to trap her.
  25. mortar
    a muzzle-loading high-angle gun with a short barrel
    There are so many ways to kill things, it turns out. The Germans killed Bas with mortar. Elsbeth and I killed our friendship with words.
  26. plaintive
    expressing sorrow
    We’re almost out of the room when a squeak emits from the pantry, an un-oiled, plaintive sound.
  27. gangly
    tall, thin, and awkward
    He's an inch or two taller than me, but it's gangly height, the height of a recent growth spurt.
  28. morosely
    in a sullen, moody manner
    He shrugs morosely. "I don't know. She just said she didn't want Mrs. Janssen to know."
  29. keen
    express grief verbally
    His voice is high and keening.
  30. ruse
    a deceptive maneuver, especially to avoid capture
    Because without even meaning to, I'm remembering the way Mina cheerfully handed me a baby's bag filled with firewood and I carried it on my shoulder for more than a kilometer without realizing that I was transporting an important part of their ruse.
  31. interloper
    someone who intrudes on the privacy or property of another
    I know what's behind this door, or I think I do, at least, but I still feel like an interloper.
  32. tangible
    perceptible by the senses, especially the sense of touch
    I'd dealt enough in speculation and fog this week; I wanted proof I could see. The black marketer in me, I guess, seeking reassurance and finding value in the tangible world.
  33. amalgamate
    bring or combine together or with something else
    Everything I heard was an amalgamation of her and Amalia. I knew people's memories of each of them, and I stitched them together to form a person, but it’s a different person than the one standing in front of me.
  34. collaborate
    cooperate as a traitor
    “Thank God,” I say, which I soon realize is taking a chance: If she’s a collaborator, my response should have been neutral or despair.
  35. maul
    injure badly
    I thought he would write Everyone turned out okay, but when he passed the book back, he'd actually written, Everyone was mauled by a bear, it was very sad, let’s go get ice cream.
Created on Fri Jul 12 10:58:40 EDT 2019 (updated Tue Jul 30 13:34:50 EDT 2019)

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