Tears of Amber by Sofía Segovia

Author:Sofía Segovia [Segovia, Sofía]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amazon Crossing
Published: 2021-05-01T06:00:00+00:00

40. Something worse than loneliness

They had to win the race against the Soviet advance.

“If we don’t manage to arrive before them, we’ll have to head for Marienburg,” Hartwig said to Janusz, breaking the silence.

It was so cold that they only spoke when absolutely necessary, because doing so meant uncovering their mouths. The cod liver oil with zinc that Wanda had smeared on them helped, but still, after ten days with their skin exposed, their faces and lips were raw, even though they’d tried to cover themselves like Berbers, who lived in the desert and who had to cover themselves not against the cold, but against the sun, Hahlbrock told him. Janusz had never heard about these people, and he would’ve liked to ask Herr Hahlbrock more about them, to learn about the desert, to imagine himself there, in a place where the cold didn’t exist, but he knew that he must save his strength and use it only for their objective: to reach somewhere that would offer them shelter during the daylight hours.

Like the horses, the men were alert during the many hours of the night and slept during the few hours of daylight. At first, it had been easy to rest: exhaustion played its part, and so did the fact that the only sound came from the two families’ children. But after the invasion began in earnest, it seemed as if all of Prussia had come out to make the same pilgrimage for life.

Their progress had grown slower—more frustrating—because the roads were increasingly packed with walkers and vehicles of all kinds pulled by animals or humans.

One afternoon and for part of the night, the German Army had forced everyone off the road while they passed. None of the soldiers made eye contact; none responded to Hartwig’s questions.

“Did you see, Janusz? Some of those boys were Irmgard’s age.”

No, Janusz hadn’t seen anything, because he tried never to look at German soldiers. Five years of learning to look only at their boots couldn’t be erased in an instant.

On some nights, they found the road blocked by abandoned carts and bodies.

The first time they encountered such a scene, heralded initially by Kaiser’s growling, they’d stopped to help. They ran as fast as the snow allowed them. Hartwig, Franz, and Janusz were left dumbstruck by what they saw. The passengers in the cart, two children Freddy’s and Edeline’s ages, were dead. Frozen. There was nothing they could do for them. Shocked, saddened, they went around the wheelbarrow that someone had packed with the intention of saving their children’s lives, not knowing it would become their hearse.

They continued their journey. Five hundred paces farther on, they found what they assumed was the mother.

“They say it’s not the worst way to die,” Hartwig said.

“But there’s no worse way to live,” said Janusz.

“What do you mean?”

“Living knowing that you’ll freeze to death.”

They said no more because they had to save their energy. After that, they’d find more carts, more bodies. On two occasions they found entire

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