The Summer of 66 by Dan Wheatcroft

Author:Dan Wheatcroft
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dan Wheatcroft
Published: 2022-11-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

Czechoslovakia

Some years previously

The cart trundled and occasionally rocked along the dirt track, its load of manure at times clinging to it precariously. Edvard halted just before the bend beyond which lay the first checkpoint. He pretended to be adjusting something as he spoke. "Keep perfectly quiet, we are nearly at the guard post."

Mounting back into the 'driving' seat alongside his wife, Pavla, he shook the reins and the journey continued. Beneath the stinking mound lay three men in a wooden box, each wearing a filthy old coat, smeared in dung.

At the barbed wire decorated barrier, they were stopped by a stern-looking border patrol Officer who demanded their papers. Edvard nodded to the soldiers manning the barriers as he handed them over and called, "Danek, Konstantin. How are you both keeping?"

"I'm ok but Danek's piles are playing him up again," Konstantin replied.

Danek rounded on him, "I told you that in confidence. Don't be telling everyone."

Pavla dismounted from the cart claiming she had to stretch her legs as a soldier walked around it with a large dog on a leash. The Officer disappeared into the nearby little hut to check the papers.

"Petr, how are you?" she asked the soldier as she bent over and petted his dog. "And how is my little Sverma, today? Yes. Yes, mama has a little something for you." She delved into her skirts and produced a titbit for the animal. "This is a new one, isn't it?" she said, nodding towards the Officer in the hut.

Petr pulled a face. "Yes and he's a bit of a pain in the arse. Insists there's two on the gate at all times."

Pavla smiled. "Well, maybe he'll loosen up when he gets to know us all a bit better."

Edvard was sharing a joke with Danek and Konstantin when the Officer returned with a brisk, "Alright, they're not on the list. Let them pass."

They continued on their way until out of sight when Edvard slapped the reins and increased their speed. Another kilometre, then they stopped and unloaded their contraband. Edvard took them into the edge of the wood.

"I can't spend too long on this. They know pretty much how long it takes us to get from one checkpoint to the other. Go straight through the woods, in about five hundred metres there's a small stream, cross it and keep going until you reach the old wood burners' clearing. There's not much of a hut there now but it's somewhere you can rest up until dark. Then, head out in a straight line from the back of the hut until you get to the second stream. Turn left and walk along it for two hundred metres, count it out, turn right and through the woods to the far edge. You should be able to see the silhouette of a guard tower in the distance to your left. They won't be able to see you. If you can't see the outline of a guard tower to your right then you're in the correct place, the blindspot.

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