AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“There you are, Nacha.I went looking for you earlier.I’ll be out for a few minutes.Babcia and Papa are with Berek and Berkowa at the market fetching our rations.”
“Okay, Tata.”
She watched them leave, then pulled the apron free and wandered into the living room to throw herself onto the couch in the most impolite way possible.She had few freedoms these days and rarely had the apartment to herself or any privacy at all.
She listened for a few moments, but there was no sound to suggest anyone else was home.They were all out, and she was there alone.What should she do?There was no food to eat, as much as her stomach demanded satisfaction.Otherwise, she might’ve raided the pantry or the cool box.She could find one of Tata’s fiction books and read it.He didn’t let her touch his paperbacks usually—tales of war and crime.He didn’t touch them either these days.
“No one needs to read about the very things happening to them,” he’d said when she’d asked him why he no longer sought solace in fiction.
The idea didn’t appeal much to her either, so she pushed it aside.Surely there was something she could do to enjoy the moment.Something that she wouldn’t normally get the chance to do.
She vaguely recalled Babcia storing the cooking wine under a loose floorboard in the pantry.She’d tasted it before and hadn’t liked the flavour.But now she was older—perhaps she would.She jumped to her feet and tiptoed through the apartment and into the kitchen.
Just as she poked her head into the pantry, there was a loud knock on the front door.The sound startled her, and she almost leapt into the air.She pressed a hand to her pounding heart and hurried to answer it.
“What on earth?”she grumbled beneath her breath.
She flung the front door open and found Jan standing there, a bag in his hands.“Hi.”
“Hi.”
He pushed past her into the apartment.“This is heavy.”He dropped the bag on the kitchen table with a huff.“Phew.”
“Thanks,” she said.
“Is your father home?”
“No one is,” she said.
He cocked his head to one side.“Really?You’re here alone?”
She crossed her arms over her chest.“Yes.So?”
His mischievous grin excited and worried her.
“Do you want to do something?”His blue eyes twinkled.
Her eyes narrowed.“That depends.”She had no idea what he intended, but his words sparked a tingle in the pit of her stomach.
“Mama traded at the market for two movie tickets.You wanna go with me?”
Nacha laughed.“I can’t go to the movies with you.Have you lost your mind?”
He reached for her hand and tugged her towards the door.“Come on.It’ll be fun.”
She pulled her hand free of his grasp.“Janek Kostanstki, I’m stuck in this ghetto whether you like it or not.If I’m found outside its walls, I’ll be shot.”
He smiled at her.“Not if you’re with me, you won’t.”
She couldn’t believeshe’d let Jan talk her into leaving the ghetto.Tata would be furious if he found out what they were doing.Adrenaline coursed in her veins as they hurried through the ghetto in the direction of the barbed wire section of the wall at Krochmalna Street.Nacha had seen dozens of children moving freely back and forth through the wall, carrying goods from the outside or escaping in search of freedom.But she’d never considered taking the chance herself.Tata wouldn’t allow it.
“I don’t know if we should do this,” she murmured.“If we’re caught, you’ll be killed as well.”
Jan huffed.“They won’t catch us.Besides, you pass for Aryan.No one will ever guess.”
They stopped behind an apartment building and Jan scanned up and down the wall, looking for signs of anyone who might report them to a guard.There was no one around, so he tugged the white armband from his arm and shoved it into his coat pocket.
“You’ll have to remove yours as well,” he said, waiting.
