Chapter 13 #4
They had a tent for showers, which Yulya had gone to before breakfast. She had brought her own towel and soap, and was ready to leave after breakfast, to talk to the Red Cross.
She promised to come back that night to have dinner with her parents again.
They were going to talk to the people at the relocation program about a room on a farm.
Yulya was going to start at her old address, to see if anyone had seen Symon leave the area the night their building collapsed after it was bombed.
She found another car, with a driver who was willing to drive her around for the day. She had a long list of hospitals and infirmaries to check, and a stack of photographs to hand out.
She gave the driver her old address. It was a weird feeling.
Four months before, she was living there, working at her job.
And she would take cabs home sometimes if she was late for the kids, or Symon would pick them up if he didn’t have pupils to tutor.
Their life had been so easy then, and so happy.
She didn’t know where her old boss had gone.
She had heard that he was going to stay with relatives in London, but she hadn’t heard from him so she didn’t know.
It was hard to keep track of people now.
It was hard enough surviving and living from day to day.
The driver turned the corner into their street, and Yulya wasn’t prepared for what she saw.
All the houses were gone. The entire street.
Some of the debris had been removed, but in the location of each apartment building was a tall pile of debris, which was all that remained of each building.
The entire street of buildings was gone, including theirs.
She could see at a glance that the basement was full of rubble too, where the garage had been.
If Symon had been in the garage when it collapsed, she could see now how unlikely it was that he was still alive.
Unless he exited before it fell, or was trapped in an air pocket until rescuers found him.
Things like that had happened, although not often.
They were considered miracles when they did.
There were no neighbors to ask if they’d seen Symon since that night.
There were just the mountains of rocks and cement, and a work crew clearing the debris away, house by house, scooping it all into dump trucks, filling them and driving away.
There was one truck to put the bodies on when they found them.
They were using military trucks to do it, and the workers were wearing the typical uniforms of the volunteer army, all camouflage.
Yulya got out of the car and stood staring at the pile of broken cement that had been their home, and she noticed that one of the crew was very slight, a woman.
She was operating the controls of the dump truck.
She was wearing a helmet and there was something familiar about her.
She jumped gracefully down from the truck and turned, and when Yulya saw her face in the morning sun, she gave a shout and waved.
It was Tatyanna, who looked stunned to see her.
Yulya ran across the street, and Tatyanna gave some instruction to the men, who stopped and took a break as Yulya reached her, with a look of amazement, and hugged her.
“What are you doing here, Taty? I thought you were in Paris, dancing,” Yulya said as she held her.
Tatyanna was equally pleased to see her friend, who always felt like a big sister to her since she had stayed with them in Warsaw.
“I was. I stayed for a month, and it didn’t feel right.
I felt like I should be here. So I came back and joined the volunteers.
They put me in a snipers’ anti-tank unit, and it turned out I was a good shot.
But I decided it wasn’t for me, so I asked for a change of assignment, and this is what I got.
It’s easy, but it makes me sad. Sometimes we find bodies in the debris, people who didn’t make it out.
I’m going to stay here for a while, and then I’m going to go back to Warsaw, and hope I get a place with the ballet.
I loved it there, and I can see you and the kids.
Paris wasn’t for me. I was lonely there, and it’s too fancy.
What are you doing here?” she asked Yulya.
“I came to see my parents.”
“Are they okay?”
“They’re amazing. Still standing and in love.
I tried to get them to go back with me, and they don’t want to.
They want to stay here. Other than that,” she looked serious, “I’m looking for Symon.
I was going to talk to the neighbors, I didn’t realize that the whole street was gone.
” She looked sad when she said it, and Tatyanna nodded.
“There are a lot of streets like this. They’ve bombed the hell out of us.
There’s nothing left at all in some places.
It’s going to take a long time to clean it up and rebuild after the war.
So I’m doing everything I can for a while, and then I’ll go back to Warsaw.
I want to dance again, but not yet. Where are you staying? ”
“Nowhere. I stayed with my parents last night on the floor at the American tents.”
“I’m at the volunteer army tents. That’s not far from the field tents.”
“I’ll try to see you before I leave,” Yulya promised, and hugged her again. “Let me know when you come to Warsaw. Take care. I’m so happy I saw you.”
“Me too.” They smiled at each other. “And good luck looking for Symon.” Given what she saw in the debris regularly, Tatyanna wasn’t hopeful but didn’t want to say that to Yulya.
Yulya got back in the car and waved as they drove away, and Tatyanna told the men to turn the dump truck on again. After that, Yulya had a long list of hospitals and infirmaries to check out, to find out if anyone had seen Symon.