Chapter Fourteen
Four soldiers were noisily searching the cooking pots and bare cupboards for food, casting empty pots and bowls aside.
The eggs Sam had prepared the previous night were discovered and devoured in a couple of mouthfuls before the pan was tossed aside too.
Their uniforms and bodies told Elsa that they had seen many battles, but their absence of discipline showed they no longer cared how they were perceived.
A soldier who did not care, her father had once told her, could be more dangerous than a soldier who did.
The room fell silent when the soldiers noticed Elsa and her companions had entered the room.
‘Who do we have here?’ asked a fifth soldier sitting with his boots on the table. Cradled in his lap was a bottle of schnapps.
Elsa quickly realized that this man was the leader of the motley squad.
He did not outrank his fellow men, but had earned their respect in some other way.
Now he needlessly leaned his body to one side as if to get a better view of them.
Only an hour ago the house was theirs; now it was they who felt like the interlopers.
‘I found them trying to escape,’ the soldier they’d met in the hallway said. ‘She says they are German refugees fleeing the Russians. They are trying to get to Bremen.’
The leader jerked his head towards Sam. ‘Why isn’t he fighting?’
‘She says he has a war injury that has damaged his brain. He doesn’t understand things any more . . . or talk.’
A slightly bemused expression crossed the squad leader’s face as he studied the mute before him in silence.
He stood up and circled him like a circus animal that was required to perform.
‘He doesn’t talk? Who doesn’t talk? Sounds like an excuse to get out of fighting.
’ He stopped in front of Sam and looked deep into his eyes.
His spirits-filled breath fanned his face.
Sam stared back. Elsa’s joints stiffened. Please, Sam, play along. Please.
‘Where were you injured?’ asked the soldier quietly.
‘The head,’ interjected Elsa.
‘I don’t mean his injury. I mean which battle? Which location?’
‘Yes.’ Another soldier abandoned the cupboard he had been searching and came over. ‘We’ve never met a mute before. How is it possible to not speak?’
‘It is a known medical condition.’
Her answer only ignited a flurry of further questions from all of them.
Their interest was alarming. If they tried to make him talk, to prove the condition did not exist, who knew where it might lead?
The same thoughts must have been in Sam’s head, as she saw his stoic gaze falter from the pressure and he lowered it to the ground.
Questions can turn to demands and Elsa felt the room filling with a darkness that sapped the air.
The more she answered their questions the more it appeared to ignite another.
Klara, who had been largely ignored, suddenly burst into tears and flung herself around Sam’s legs. ‘Leave him alone. He doesn’t understand you! He can’t speak—’
‘At all!’ interjected Elsa loudly. She stepped in front of them both and hugged them. ‘Please! Leave my brother alone. He is half the man he was. Don’t make him suffer any more.’
To her surprise, the soldier’s eyes suddenly creased with laughter lines.
He roughly tousled Klara’s hair. ‘I’m not going to harm him, little one.
There is no need to be upset.’ He returned to the table and in one graceful movement offered Sam a chair.
He indicated for him to sit down as he sat on the other.
‘It doesn’t matter how you got out of fighting,’ he said as he watched Sam sit down.
‘There is not a man in this room who does not wish he could just lay down his gun and go home. All I care about is this squad and living through the next battle.’
‘And having something to eat,’ said another.
‘And having sex again before I die,’ said a third. The soldiers laughed, oblivious to Elsa’s discomfort.
‘We have more eggs!’ she said, a little too brightly. ‘I can cook some for you all.’ The suggestion went down well and she quickly filled a saucepan with water and put some eggs into it. The other soldiers came to sit at the table too and a more relaxed conversation began to flow.
‘This is nice,’ said the leader, setting his bottle aside.
She turned to see that they all appeared to enjoy the novelty of having a woman in their midst doing such an ordinary domestic chore.
Despite their earlier intense questioning, they were now courteous and friendly, one finding cutlery and cups and passing them to each soldier.
The leader poured them each a shot of schnapps as if they were at a beer garden on a summer’s day.
Elsa politely refused and Sam had the forethought to appear vacant.
Whether it had been a test or not, it seemed to solidify the leader’s conclusion that perhaps Sam was mute and injured after all.
As they waited for the eggs to boil the leader left the conversation and table and approached her. He looked at the bubbling water. ‘You have a lot to deal with. A brother who is no better than a child and a little girl that is easily upset.’
‘I’m managing.’ He was standing far too close.
‘Where did you say you were going?’
‘Bremen,’ said Elsa, fishing out the boiled eggs one by one into a bowl. The eggs trembled in the spoon.
He indicated her worn shoes. ‘Bremen is a long way to walk.’ He looked up at her as she passed him the plates to give out.
‘I know. But we have walked all the way from Pomerania and we are determined to meet up with our family again.’
His gaze lingered on her. Our family. It was another confirmation that they were all one family and her tale was true.
‘Family is important. Don’t you all agree?’ he asked his fellow soldiers as he handed out plates.
They all heartily agreed as they reached for the cooked eggs and began to smash the shells against their plates.
The leader broke his and peeled each piece of shell delicately, as if he was expecting to discover a baby bird inside. ‘This war was always about protecting our families and our homeland against foreign aggression.’ His voice quietened as he paused in his shelling.
‘Some people think we are losing,’ said Elsa.
‘They’re right. We’ve been driven out of every country we had under our control.
’ He surveyed the shine of his shelled egg as if it was the Earth turning in space.
‘I’ve never been interested in our leaders’ plans for Europe.
I fought because I wanted to end what the Great War left unfinished.
’ He looked at his friends. ‘Didn’t you? ’
They all agreed. He looked at Sam. ‘Look what damage war has done.’
Sam bit into his boiled egg and did not reply.
The soldier smiled sadly at him and copied, taking a large bite of his own. ‘This is good!’ he said enthusiastically as he chewed. ‘I insist we give you a lift. There is room in our truck.’
‘A lift?’
‘Yes.’
‘I don’t . . . know.’
He frowned and straightened in his chair. ‘Why wouldn’t you want a lift?’
‘It is just . . . I didn’t expect such an offer. It has taken me by surprise.’
‘I would have thought you would jump at the chance.’
‘Wouldn’t you get into trouble for carrying civilians?’
He lifted his bottle and waved to his brothers.
‘Do we look like we give a damn any more?’ He got up.
‘But orders are orders and we have been ordered to fight. We’ve decided to go west. So I insist something good comes out of the journey and not just the end of our lives in a battle we cannot win.
’ He patted Klara’s head. The touch of her soft hair turned his tone to one of whimsy.
‘This little one reminds me of my daughter. She had dark soft hair too. Just like her mother. I would want someone to help my daughter if help was needed. I insist I do this for you.’ Elsa said nothing.
‘I won’t let any harm come to you. My name is Gerhard.
I want to do this for you.’ His smile was like Otto’s.
‘You see, I grew up in Bremen. I want to help you see it again. I don’t know if I ever will. ’
He must have seen acceptance in her eyes. After all, how could she refuse him? He turned to his squad. ‘Come on, everyone. Take your eggs with you. It’s time to leave.’
Suddenly they all stood, pushing back their chairs with battered muddy boots. Sam, suddenly wary, froze as he realized something was happening. He watched them leaving one by one.
Gerhard paused in the door. ‘Hurry. Grab the things you need. I will not take no for an answer.’
Elsa, dazed at the sudden change in activity, felt she could not resist. All her life she had been taught not to question authority, and how quickly she had reverted.
Her fingers fumbled to obey as she hurriedly wrapped the remaining eggs in a towel.
The soldier smiled, pleased at her efforts, and left.
Only Klara, Sam and herself were in the kitchen, which suddenly felt oddly silent.
The soldiers’ conversational voices outside could be heard as they loaded the truck.
Sam watched her put the parcel of eggs in her bag with growing alarm. ‘What are you doing?’ he whispered.
She concentrated on the buckle of the bag. ‘Gerhard is giving us a lift.’
He grabbed her wrist. ‘Gerhard?’ he asked incredulously. ‘You mean they are giving you a lift? You are leaving me?’
She met his gaze. ‘I mean us. I told you . . . we travel together.’
Unable to bear the disbelief in his eyes, she pulled her wrist away from his grip, lifted her bag to her shoulder and attempted to leave.
He blocked her way. ‘Are you mad? It’s too risky. Refuse.’
‘I tried but he won’t hear of it. We have to go with them.’ The truck’s engine roared into life outside. ‘Besides, Klara is exhausted from so much walking.’ She sidestepped him. ‘Come on, Klara.’
The soldiers jovially called to them by their names as if they were great friends leaving for a late-afternoon outing.
Sam grabbed the crook of her arm so she half turned to him. ‘And where do they plan on taking me? A prison?’
She shook her head. ‘They believe me. They think you are my half-brother. Gerhard is okay.’
‘You’ve only just met him! This could be a trap, Elsa.’
‘I believe them. They are heading west to help stem the attack. We can ride a few miles and then I will make an excuse and we can get out.’
The soldier who had discovered them appeared at the door of the kitchen. Had the soldier heard him, a mute German, speaking in English?
Sam held his breath as the soldier stared at them, his gun now held stiffly in his hands across his chest. Time appeared to move slowly, accentuating every breath, every drip of a distant leaking tap, every voice outside.
He suddenly smiled, breaking the tension, and told them to hurry.
Sam threw her an angry look, reached for his bag, slung it over his shoulder and led the way outside.
Whatever their fate was, he was as much part of this decision to go with them as she was now. Yet, as he climbed into the back of the truck, she knew he resented her for not resisting. She could feel it as it ran from his fingers and into hers through the strength of his grip as he helped her up.