Chapter 3 #2
Everyone around her looked like nice, normal people, the kind you saw at the supermarket every day, or a store, or a movie or a shopping mall.
There were women of every size and description, age and profession, and they had all been displaced by the war.
Some of them had friends and relatives in Poland or elsewhere in Europe, and others had no connections to anyone, like her.
One of the Red Cross workers had told her in the mess area that they would help her find a family to stay with, if she wished.
Countless volunteers all over Poland were offering to house the refugees, and in other countries as well.
Given the brutality and suddenness with which the war had begun, with civilians severely affected, they were sure that there would be many more refugees fleeing Ukraine soon.
It was comforting to hear her own language being spoken everywhere around her as she fell asleep.
They had been the longest few days of her life, and she only wished that Yana was with her, and that Vlad could be too, although he wouldn’t have come.
He wanted to stay and defend his homeland.
She was proud of him and what a patriot he was.
Tatyanna felt somewhat guilty for having left, especially since there were women in the army.
She could have stayed to protect their homeland too, but she couldn’t imagine herself wielding a gun, or Vlad either for that matter.
She didn’t know the first thing about guns, and she couldn’t imagine having to kill an enemy soldier with one.
She didn’t know what she was going to do in Poland.
She’d have to find something useful to do, to help others while they were all in the same situation, people who had fled their country in the face of war. Yana was ample proof of why they had.
On his bunk at a small military base for volunteers in Ukraine, Vlad was thinking about her, wishing he could be with her and hoping she was safe.
—
The morning after Yulya and the children had left, Petro and Oxana, Yulya’s parents, got a text from her saying that they had arrived safely in Poland.
They weren’t in Warsaw with Olek and Nina yet, but they hoped to be in a few days, after they got organized and registered as refugees, after which they could go wherever they wanted.
It was a free country, and the Poles were determined to help everyone fleeing the war.
A few of the refugees spoke Polish and had studied there, but not many.
After breakfast, Petro and Oxana went to the nearest police station to their home, where they were handing out weapons to private citizens and instructing them how to use them, so they could defend their country too, and themselves.
Petro smiled as they walked to the police station a few blocks from their house.
There were two military trucks standing by, and a dozen other soldiers from the Reserves, along with police officers to instruct people how to use the AK-47 assault rifles, grenade launchers, and ammunition they were distributing to anyone willing to use them.
There were instructors to train them properly in the handling of the weapons.
Oxana and Petro had both been given the standard-issue AK-47s, and Oxana took a grenade launcher as well.
Petro laughed at her and told her she looked like she was selecting a purse, but it was a very lethal accessory if so.
The officers had asked them several questions to make sure that they were serious and sane.
The instructor asked Petro if he had fired a weapon before, and he said he hadn’t.
He’d never handled a gun in his life, and even the thought of it horrified him, but now their lives depended on it, and the life of their country, and maybe his wife’s, if he ever had to protect her from danger or someone trying to kill her.
It was his only motivation for bearing arms now.
It seemed very primitive having to use a gun to protect one’s homeland, one’s freedom, one’s loved ones, and one’s life.
They listened raptly to what the instructor told them, and Petro was shocked at the power of the assault rifle.
It was an impressive weapon. Oxana was a slight woman, but she seemed to adjust to the idea better than her husband, and applied herself to the lesson.
There were a dozen people in line from the neighborhood and two from their building, and they left with their weapons and the ammunition they needed. Petro looked at Oxana on the way home.
“Do you feel as weird as I do? We could go out and kill someone with these weapons, and one day we may have to, if the war goes on for longer. I hope to hell we never have to use them. I’m not sure I could take another man’s life, unless he was trying to hurt you, then I could,” he said quietly, and she leaned over and kissed him, carrying the assault rifle, and he laughed out loud.
“I’ve just been kissed by a woman carrying a gun.
You look dangerous carrying that thing.”
“We may be happy to have these one day,” she said practically.
She was more realistic than he was about it.
He hoped that day would never come. They could see others on their way home, carrying their weapons.
They were being handed out to civilians in every city.
It felt like a strange time in the world that made no sense.
Their peaceful life had been interrupted by a war.
The city they loved was being senselessly attacked, their country invaded, and people were dying.
Only Petro’s love for Oxana, and wanting to protect her, made him willing to own a gun.
It seemed like a strange way to show love.
—
Symon came to visit them that afternoon when they were having lunch.
Oxana had made potato soup the day before.
Food was already getting scarce, as deliveries were being blocked by soldiers and tanks outside the city.
She had added some meat to the soup to give them some nourishment, and watered it down so they had more.
She worried about Petro’s health, and didn’t want him to get malnourished with the poor food supplies.
She was careful to give him his vitamins every day.
She had no fruit or vegetables to give him, and little meat.
He was still unnerved knowing that they now had weapons in the house.
The guns were lying on the couch when Symon dropped by and he looked surprised.
“Are you two keeping weapons now?” It was so unlike his parents-in-law that he couldn’t help commenting on it. He was wearing a camouflage uniform himself and military boots, and he had a gun hidden in his jacket, which he had learned to use in training.
“They announced on the radio that they were handing out guns in the neighborhoods at the police stations and training people to use them. Petro thought we should do it,” Oxana explained.
“Those are heavy weapons for ordinary citizens,” Symon commented. He was learning a lot about weapons himself. He was still in the early stages of his training, and he had learned many things he would never otherwise want to know.
“The Russian soldiers are armed, so we have to be too,” Petro said simply. “I hope we never have to use them.” The idea of hand-to-hand combat with a Russian soldier was terrifying.
“So do I,” Symon said. “You can still get to Poland. I’ll drive you to the border myself if you want me to,” he offered his parents-in-law.
The line of cars exiting the city and the area was getting longer and slower every day.
And the risk of Russians shelling and bombing civilians was greater, since they already had.
It was dangerous trying to leave and more so to stay.
“We’d never get there. They keep shooting people in the humanitarian corridors.
” They had been established as safe routes for civilian evacuation and humanitarian aid delivery but several had been strafed by low-flying planes and people had been killed.
“I don’t want to take the chance,” Petro said. “They’re not being respected.”
“Yulya would be happy to have you in Poland with her,” he said, “happier than knowing you’re here, with bombs dropping around you day and night,” Symon said. “And Olek and Nina would love to see you too.”
“Petro and I like to be in our own house. We don’t want to be a burden for anyone,” Oxana said quietly. She was a gentle, peaceful woman and adored her husband.
“These are unusual times,” Symon reminded them. “People are walking away from everything they have, afraid that things are going to get worse. Maybe you should get out now while you can. Some people think this could go on for a long time. I hope they’re wrong, but anything is possible.”
“We want to stay here, however long it takes to win the war,” Petro said firmly.
“Everything we have is here. How do you put a whole life in a suitcase and some garbage bags and start a new life somewhere else? With what? How? We can’t just move in with Olek, and besides, it would drive us crazy.
We’re used to being in our own space, doing whatever we want.
” They were still healthy, active, and independent, and wanted to be in their own home, not dependent on their children.
They had discussed it at length and decided to stay.
“Even if it means you may have to shoot someone and kill a man before he kills you?” Symon asked them pointedly, and Petro nodded. He and Oxana agreed and were firm on their decision.