She angled for the chore of emptying the chamber bucket because it was the social event of the day, where prisoners chatted and got to know each other. Some partisans befriended her, and asked her to help them. Nelly got permission to see a dentist. A prison guard had to accompany her, and since Nelly had promised him a mushroom omelette, he looked forward to it. The dentist belonged to the Communist Party. Once in his chair, Nelly took off her shoes and stockings and handed him the letters hidden there: important partisan mail, messages to prisoners’ families, and letters from her parents to family members. Nelly asked to stop down the street at a tiny store where an old lady sold buttons. There she delivered more letters while the guard smoked outside. Nelly returned to prison with correspondence passed along by the dentist and the button lady. Authorities eventually arrested the dentist and sent him to a concentration camp, but he never implicated Nelly or the button lady. Nelly had reached the age when she wondered if boys found her pretty.
