Inge's War by Svenja O'Donnell

Author:Svenja O'Donnell [O'Donnell, Svenja]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-04-28T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

Inge almost ran up the stairs to her parents’ apartment, through the front hall and into her father’s study, where they kept the telephone. She picked up the receiver, letting her breath out at the sound of the ringtone; incredibly, despite the chaos, the lines were still working. She dialed the number she’d been given and counted the rings. One, two, three . . . At the fourth, a man answered. He was calm, almost detached, as he listened to her frantic enquiries. He asked for her name when she told him how she had got his number. His tone became more friendly; he told her that he knew her father, and that he’d often bought wine from him. There was an operation underway, with the help of the Kriegsmarine, he said, getting people away by sea. The man told her that she had to get to Pillau, from where a passenger ferry, the Göttingen, would leave the next day. He could secure them tickets, but they’d have to get there by dawn to be on board in time.

She looked at her watch. The time was 5 p.m. It was the end of January and outside the window the sky was dark. She knew they wouldn’t be able to go by car, as all the petrol left in the city had been requisitioned for the use of the army. A horse and cart could perhaps get them there in time, though the roads were frozen and the snow deep, but it would take too long to find one as demand was so high. The man had told her that a prahm—a transport ship for soldiers—was due to leave Königsberg at 9 p.m., taking people up the Pregel River and through the Vistula Lagoon to Pillau. He didn’t know how many they’d allow on board, but she reasoned it was their only option.

Inge found her parents in the sitting room, her daughter asleep in Frieda’s arms. She told them they must go now, at once. She braced herself for a fight, as they’d been reluctant, until now, to admit that life as they had known it was over. But to her surprise, they nodded. She never knew what it was that finally shook them out of their torpor, but it was as if that night was their own moment of reckoning. Perhaps they too had spoken to the neighbor, or maybe it was the thought of Beatrice, quietly sleeping, that finally caused them to act. They had an hour, at most two, to pack up their life. The prahm they needed to get to was in a harbor an hour’s journey away and sure to be crowded.

Without saying a word, Frieda put her granddaughter down and walked into her bedroom, returning a moment later carrying her jewelry box. Calmly and deliberately, she went in and out again, bringing two evening turbans and, on a third trip, her sewing box. When Frieda sat down and handed her daughter a needle, Inge understood that her mother had really taken her words to heart.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.