AllFreeNovel
Share Us
They’d slept that way for a few hours, but with other boys standing or sitting up against them, they couldn’t find a more comfortable position.So their sleep was interrupted constantly by shoves and knocks, or by their own head dropping from where it’d rested on their knees.
“I’d love a cup of water,” replied Jan.
“Do you think they’ll bring us something?”Peter asked.
“I don’t know.But I’m not sure how long we can go on like this.”
It was cold in the cell, exacerbated by the stonework and the open window.Their collective body heat helped, but unable to move much and without food or water, Jan found that his joints had stiffened.
That evening, when the sunlight peeking through the window into the cell dimmed, the door opened and a pot of soup was shoved inside, along with a pile of bowls and spoons.They boys rushed hungrily for the pot, but Jan stepped forward, hands raised.
“There’s no rush, no rush,” he said in a soothing voice.“Let’s take our time so we don’t spill a drop.”
The boys listened to his words and waited as he and Peter dipped the watery potato soup into bowls and handed it around.They ate hungrily, though by the time Jan finished his bowl, his stomach had begun to grumble for more.It didn’t satisfy, but it was better than nothing, and the broth had quenched the worst of his thirst for now.
During the daylight hours, boys were taken one by one.They were each returned to the cell beaten and bloodied.When Jan questioned them about what’d happened, they didn’t want to talk about it.A few said they hadn’t told the Gestapo a thing.They were adamant about that.None wanted to condemn their families.Some didn’t say a word to him, but cried in the corner until they fell asleep.
On the fifth day, Jan was reading the carvings on the walls again.He’d barely slept in days.His hunger had abated on the fourth day, although his thirst had only grown until it fairly ravaged his waking hours.He could think of little besides finding water.Reading the messages scrawled by other desperate inmates in the Gestapo’s prison was the only thing that distracted him from the cloying thirst.
Jan found himself by the cell door still reading, with boys crowded all around him so that he felt as though he’d never had a moment in his life without someone touching him, when the door was flung open.He staggered away from it into the crowd of prisoners, but the guard caught him by the collar and threw him into the hall like a piece of luggage.
“Come on.Your turn,” he snarled.
The boy they’d taken earlier that morning stood in the hallway.His face was swollen and distorted.Jan barely recognised him but for the floppy brown hair that fell over his forehead.His eyes were swollen almost shut.He was missing teeth.Blood dripped from his chin and stained his torn shirt.
The boy staggered past Jan and fell onto the dirt in the cell.He lay there unmoving.The door closed, and Jan was pushed forward.
“Let’s go.”
There were two guards.One led the way, the other pushing him forcefully from behind.They took him down several corridors to a large room with a table on one side and a chair in the middle.He was told to sit in the chair and then he waited.
They didn’t make him wait long.They tied him upside down to the chair and took turns beating him.One had a thick wooden club.The other carried a horse whip around with him, whacking it against his own thigh gently as he paced back and forth.When it came his turn to beat Jan, he did so with a smile.
Jan watched it all upside down, sweat dripping into his eyes along with the blood.
“Tell us who smuggles food into the ghetto.”They asked their questions over and over.
“Who is the leader of your group?”
“What are you plotting?”
“Why do you conspire against the Reich and your esteemedFührer?”
“Give us a name!”
Jan said nothing in response.His silence only further enraged his torturers.They were puffing hard before too long, but it didn’t slow the frenzy of their assault.
One kick, landed by the guard with the horse crop, knocked Jan’s front teeth out.He lost consciousness then, and didn’t know how long he remained that way.He woke up hours later in the cell again, with Peter watching over him, a worried expression on his pale face in the dull moonlight that sifted through the window above them.
“You’re awake,” Peter said with a sigh.
Jan couldn’t speak.Pain rushed into every part of his body at once.His mouth throbbed, his head ached, his limbs were bruised.He clenched his hands and wriggled his toes.At least he wasn’t paralysed.For that he was grateful.
Peter nursed him back to health, spooning the insipid soup into his bloodied mouth.He wiped Jan’s face clean with his own shirt as best as he could.
“You’ve got to tell them,” he whispered so the others couldn’t hear.“Tell them you’re Catholic.”
There were tears in the corners of his eyes, but they didn’t fall.
