The Girl with the Red Ribbon by Carly Schabowski

Author:Carly Schabowski [Schabowski, Carly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Published: 2024-11-04T00:00:00+00:00

16

ANIA THE LEADER

9 December 1942

Czerniejów, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland

Ania

My dreams continued into the morning. Merging from one to another, so quickly that I tried to grasp at them, tried to make sense of them even in my sleep, but they slipped through my fingers like water.

When I woke I did not feel rested, and all I could recall from the dreams was red – the colour red – everywhere – people’s faces, the sky – everything was scarlet.

I looked about me, wanting to tell Wanda about this dream, about all the red, and to see if she thought it held any meaning, but the room was empty, the fireplace cold and vacant. For a second I almost thought I must have imagined Wanda and the others – perhaps they had never been with me at all.

Then, I heard heavy footsteps and knew that Benj was close by.

‘Ania,’ he said. I looked up to see him standing in the doorway, his face bright red – just like in my dream. ‘Wanda is making me chop wood – we found an axe outside and I’m chopping it.’ Then he grinned. A wide grin that I had never seen on him before. ‘Wanda says that I am really strong – stronger even than Aleksi.’

‘That’s good, Benj. That’s good that you can chop the wood.’

I eased myself up off the mattress, stood for a moment and stretched my arms above my head.

‘Where’s Gosia?’ I asked.

‘In the kitchen, with Wanda. It’s gone eleven, you know. You slept and slept and Wanda said to leave you. I chopped wood. Aleksi, he went somewhere and came back with a chicken! A chicken, Ania! Wanda and Gosia are cooking it now. They say we will eat a feast tonight. But there is bread and cheese and milk! Aleksi finds it all, that’s what Wanda says, but she told me not to ask how he does it.’

I had never seen Benj so energised, so happy before, that it took me a moment to take it all in.

I went to the kitchen and found Gosia and Wanda talking as they chopped vegetables. The mattress had been propped against the wall. Aleksi sat by the fire in what was once an old rocking chair with a rocker broken, which had been banished into the ever fuller barn. Now though, it was fixed.

Aleksi looked up at me briefly as I entered the room, nodded, then placed a sliver of wood in his mouth and chewed at it.

‘Sit, sit.’ Gosia came to me, fussed at me. Made me sit at the table and placed a hunk of fresh bread in front of me, cheese, a mug of milk.

I ate, marvelling at the scene in front of me. It was as though I were still dreaming.

‘Quiet today,’ Aleksi said. ‘No words from you?’

I wasn’t sure whether he was joking with me, so I just nodded at him.

‘You have to tell her,’ Wanda said, tuning to look at me, smile. Then she went back to chopping whatever vegetable was in front of her.

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