Krystyna's Story by Halina Ogonowska-Coates

Author:Halina Ogonowska-Coates [Halina Ogonowska-Coates]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781775531418
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

On the barge Andrzej and I sat close together, crying. No one asked for our tickets or questioned our passage. When we reached Chardzhou we· got off the barge and walked through the streets to the railway station. There were people everywhere and no one noticed us. We stood alongside a family of Russians and boarded a train when they did. The mother looked at us but she did not smile. We sat on a seat near the door and looked out the window.

Soon the train started and a man came around asking for tickets. The Russian family had their tickets to show him but we had nothing. The man asked to see our papers. Andrzej told him that we had no parents and were going to the orphanage at Ashabad. I held Andrzej’s hand and stared out the window.

‘They are Poles,’ the Russian woman said to the man collecting tickets, ‘and they smell.’

The official stared at us, two dirty skinny children dressed in rags, and ordered us to get off at the next stop. Andrzej nodded. We had no money and no food. If we got off the train we would be lost, somewhere in the Soviet Union.

As soon as the official had left the carriage the Russian woman tapped Andrzej on the shoulder. He stiffened with fright, wondering what was going to happen, but the woman smiled and lifted up her skirts, motioning to us to climb underneath the seat she was sitting on. Her children watched as Andrzej and I crammed ourselves under the seat and the woman carefully spread her skirt in order to hide our legs. After a while the train stopped and the official came back to check on us. The woman pointed to our empty seat and thanked God that we had gone.

It was stuffy and crowded lying under the seat but Andrzej and I didn’t mind. We were used to travelling in cramped conditions and after a while the woman handed a hunk of bread down to us. It was more food than we had seen for several days. We ate and lay curled up tightly together, listening to the endless clack-clack of the train on the rails.

After several hours the train stopped and the Russian woman peered down and started poking us, urging us to leave our hiding place. I was still tired. My head ached and my body felt hot and cold all over. I wanted to stay curled up on the floor, but Andrzej grabbed my hand and pulled me off the train. Once again we were on a strange platform. It was time to be quick and clever. People were being stopped on the station and asked for their papers. With an eye out for Russian soldiers, we threaded our way through the inevitable crowds, always trying to look as if we belonged to the people we were standing beside, but always moving on before they noticed us. My head was hurting so much I felt weak and dizzy.

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