Graffiti Knight by Karen Bass
Author:Karen Bass
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pajama Press Inc.
Published: 2020-10-15T00:00:00+00:00
Chapter Twenty-One
âWilm, wake up! What are you still doing at home?â
âGo away,â I croaked, and rolled over. Onto my wasp-stung hand. I flopped onto my back, heard breathing. Someone was leaning over me, so I cracked open one eye.
Mother said, âItâs almost noon, Wilm. Youâve missed your morning classes.â
My eye closed again. I licked dry lips. âGeorg can fill me in on history class in three minutes.â I shifted so my back was to her. âSame with literature. I know more fromââ
The blanket was ripped off me. âHey!â
Mother scowled at me. âYou are going to school. Why are you so tired? You crawled under your covers last night at nine oâclock.â
I opened both eyes then. âFine. Iâll go. What can I take for lunch?â There had been only enough leftovers for one lunch. Fatherâs.
A worried expression claimed Motherâs face. âIâll see.â
âWhy are you home?â My stomach growled as I pulled on my trousers.
âI cut myself on broken glass and the foreman sent me home to clean up. I stopped at the store on the way but the shelves arenât well stocked today. It has been like that all week.â Mother stood at the table and took a few items out of her sack.
I slipped on my shirt. The cuff rubbed over my wasp stings and I winced. I buttoned it up. âHave you heard why?â
âOnly rumors.â
âOf what?â I was awake now. Awake and hungry. My stomach rumbled louder.
Her reply was quiet. âReparation payments.â
A polite phrase for the Soviets taking our food and factory goods to pay for the war, for the pain and suffering we had caused them. âThat stinks like rotten borscht.â
Mother handed me a single leaf of cabbage and a single piece of bread. I almost groaned. She said, âComplaining only makes things worse.â
I thought for a moment. âIâm going to help Otto at the next bridge heâs inspecting, if I donât faint from hunger.â I sniffed the cabbage. It didnât smell very fresh. âDo you want me to take some ration cards and try to get something from a store in Zentrum or Zentrum-West?â
âYou could try.â She gave me a ration card and a handful of coins. âLook for potatoes or cabbage. Turnips maybe.â
The cheap vegetables. The ones I was sick of eating. I agreed anyway.
âStop at the seamstressâs on your way back from the bridge and walk your sister home.â
That cheered me up. âShe went to work?â
âYes. Your father walked her there.â
Maybe our nighttime talk had encouraged her. I put on my boots and left, the heat in the apartment telling me I wouldnât need my coat. Anneliese had been walking to work alone before that run-in with Ernst. Was it too much to hope that he had gotten stung?
I gobbled down my cabbage and bread on the way to school and made it to mathematics class two minutes before it began. Karl crouched beside my desk. âYou scared me. When you didnât show up this morning I kept thinking about that man who diedââ
My jutting finger silenced him before he could mention wasps.
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