Sunday, February 27, 2005

'that Frau ademek (new neighbour) tramples about like an elephant!'

father commented. ' you wouldnt think people could make that much noise!'

mother didnt look up from her knitting; she just nodded.

so father took up his newspaper once more. ho looked at the clock and said, 'they'll be here in an hour.' the three smallsuitcases with our most importnant things in then stood ready by the door.

everything grew quiet again. all one could hear was the ticking of the clock.

i read my book.

suddenly i heard a tiny noise outside. i listned, but no one seemed to have heard anything.there it was again, a gentle knocking. this time father heard it as well. he looked up from his papers.

'that's fredrich's signal!' i exclaimed, and jumped up.

'quiet!stay where u are!mother will go'

mother went, not making a sound. when she returned, fredrich was with her.

fredrich had turned up the collar of his coat. his coat was stiff with dirt. furtively, he came to the table and shook hands with father and me. his hands wasnt clean either. anxiously, he examined our faces and the room; then whispered: 'i wont stay long.'

it took a long time before fredrich finally began to talk, haltingly. 'it's terrible -- so lonely. i can only think of how it was -- but i've forgotten so much, i can't even remember what father and mother looed loke. there's nothing to rmb them by.

mother put a large thick sandwich in front of him. she stood and waited until he bit greedily into it, then she went back to the kitchen.

mother gave him 2 more sandwiches, which went quickly down as the 1st.

only did fredrich continue. ' i need a picture of father and mother, i only came because i know you have one. you know, the snap shot on the horse. i know u haf it. pls, may i have it?'

skip........

the box contained ,many hundreds of fotos, pics. father n i searched together, bt we had barely sorted through half when the siren began to wail.

'we'll take him to the shelter with us,' mother said

'impossible!'father said. 'resch'll put us in jail.'

'the best thing for him to do is stay right herein the flat,' father decided. 'nth will happen,i'm sure. and he can wait here until the air-raid is over. then we'll look further for the photo.'

fredrich accepted the decision without a word.

'but be sure not to put on any light!' father reminded him. then we took our suitcases and went out to the air-raid shelter.

friedrich looked aft us fearfully.

IN THE SHELER

we walked into the shelter, greeting everyone there with 'Heil Hitler!'

no one answered.

outside the pounding grew louder, and the bark of our anti-aircraft guns sounded strangly hollow.

skip~

again the bomb exploded. this time, it hit so close the cellar walls shook under the impact.

suddenly there came a pounding on the door.

'who can that be so late?'

herr resh unbarred the inner door. now we could hear someone whimper outside.'pls,pls let me in. pls pleeese!'

'friedrich!'mother burst out. her mouth fell open, her eyes grew large. 'open up! open up!' the voice full of horro. 'pls, open up!'

herr resh opened the oor friedrich was kneeling outside, his hands folded in prayer.'i'm afraid. afraid. afraid.'on the fours, he crept into the airlock of the shelter.

'out!' belowed her resch. 'scram! u dn really belong imagine we'd let u into our shelter, do u?' (note herr resch is a bastard. he really sucked)

*one of the sergeant told fredrich to go voluntarily because herr resch wouldnt let him in. and he threatened who vote to let him in will be thrown out of the shelter. everyone kept quiet. SUPER HAM CHEESE MAN!

THE END

dust and heat greeted us outside. the sky glowed red with the light of fires. flames still came from roofs and hollow windows. heaps of rubble smouldered. glasssplinters and fragments of tiles covered the street. in between lay the incendiary bombs that had missed their targets.

suporting mother between us, we searched for the way home. herr and frau resh came with us.

fearfully, mother looked for fredrich.

fredrich sat in the shadow of the porch. his eyes were closed, his face pale.

herr resch noticed him.

herr resch pushed his wife aside and stepped closer.

'away frm here!' he thundered at fredrich.'do u think u no longer have fear being sent away, just because everything's a mess after this raid?'

shrilly, mothersaid: ' cun u see he's fainted!'

a mocking smile on his face, herr resch turned to mother and said: 'fainted indeed!i'll get him out of it quickly enough. but i must say i am suprised at ur sympathy for a jew. you, the wife of the member of the nazi party.'

father pulled her aside. she was still sobbing.

herr resch lifted his foot and kicked.

redrich rolled onto the stone path. a trail of blood went frm his right temple to his collar.

i clutched the thirny rosebush.(note writer and fredrich are great pals)

'his luck that he died this way,' said herr resh.