Sliding on the Snow Stone by Szpuk Andy
Author:Szpuk, Andy [Szpuk, Andy]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: That Right Publishing
Published: 2011-09-21T04:00:00+00:00
Chapter 9
Ukrainian proverb: The earth will cover the doctor's mistakes
I sobbed so much I thought I’d never stop. Leo stayed with me, and tried to comfort me; he lifted me up and held me in his arms. I was still only a boy. He took me to the place where Father was. It was a walk of dread. I didn’t want to believe he was gone. I kept hoping he’d just appear in front of me with his usual expression. He was always so serious. That was the face I wanted to see so badly. Leo led me on, without many words. We arrived at our destination. It could have been anywhere as far as I was concerned, I could barely make sense of where I was, my head was so full of dark clouds, and my heart was beating hard, so hard I was ready to burst.
Father was laid out alongside three other victims. A woman was mopping the faces and hands of the bodies, and tidying them up. I recognised him straight away, just by the shape of his body. I knew it so well. I threw myself onto him. He was cold, but I didn’t care, I was next to him, and didn’t want to leave him. I couldn’t even venture to say how long it was before I felt arms on me. Those arms prised me away from Father. I’d never be near him again.
Leo and one of his men took me back to their camp. It was early evening,
‘Stefan,’ Leo spoke to me in a hush, ‘if you like, we can go to the village nearby and see the priest, and ask him to give your father a Christian burial.’
‘Yes . . . yes, he would have wanted that.’
‘Fine then. Let’s get ourselves cleaned up a little and we’ll take a walk down there.’
Leo got me a bucket of water and I threw some on my face. It stung as it mixed with my dried, salty tears, but it refreshed me. We tidied ourselves up and tried to look a little more respectable and then we made our way to the village. The autumn wind was biting into us as we walked, but it couldn’t take away my numbness. Leaves swirled around our feet, and the crunch of them beneath our feet pierced a sheet of silence that hung between Leo and me.
There was a track leading into the centre where we found the church. It was a small wooden construction, of typical design. Leo found a door at the back of the church which looked like it led to living quarters. He rapped on the door. A sound of shuffling came from the other side. A key turned in the lock, the door opened and a face peered out at us, ‘Yes?’
Leo wasn’t slow in making our case, ‘Father, please. We need your help. I’ve got Stefan here with me; he’s walked many miles. He’s come from the east, from Ukraine; he’s been travelling with his father, Mikola.
Download
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.
Fanny Burney by Claire Harman(26249)
Empire of the Sikhs by Patwant Singh(22774)
Out of India by Michael Foss(16695)
Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson(12810)
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult(6691)
The Six Wives Of Henry VIII (WOMEN IN HISTORY) by Fraser Antonia(5241)
The Wind in My Hair by Masih Alinejad(4850)
The Crown by Robert Lacey(4578)
The Lonely City by Olivia Laing(4572)
A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey(4558)
The Iron Duke by The Iron Duke(4126)
Millionaire: The Philanderer, Gambler, and Duelist Who Invented Modern Finance by Janet Gleeson(4108)
Sticky Fingers by Joe Hagan(3916)
Papillon (English) by Henri Charrière(3914)
Joan of Arc by Mary Gordon(3790)
Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read(3737)
Stalin by Stephen Kotkin(3730)
Aleister Crowley: The Biography by Tobias Churton(3429)
Ants Among Elephants by Sujatha Gidla(3282)
