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“As do I.”He cupped her cheek again, caressing it with his thumb.
He leaned down and brushed his lips against hers.She jolted with the sweet pleasure of his surprising kiss.She’d never felt about anyone the way she did Jan, but she didn’t know he felt the same way.She’d kept her thoughts and emotions to herself, secreting them away in a corner of her heart where no one else could see.
Her entire body warmed and she shivered with delight.“Jan…”
He kissed her again, and she thought she might explode with the joy of it all.
“I’ll find you some food so you can get warm and sleep.I’ll be back in a while.Don’t fret—I know these streets well enough now.And I’m accustomed to fading into the shadows.I’ve been doing it since I was fifteen years old.”
She watched him leave, her heart still racing.Then she settled back against the sandbags with a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, her hands clasped to her chest.
The next morning,there were cans of cured ham and stew, as well as a few sprouting potatoes that they sliced up and ate raw.The entire time they ate, Jan couldn’t stop looking at Nacha.They’d kissed the night before, and he could think of nothing else.
Her lips were so warm and soft and he wanted to do it again, although with everyone else now awake, they had no time alone, no time to talk about what’d happened.They could only exchange secretive glances over the top of the feast he’d found in an apartment about a kilometre from where they hid.
He’d almost been discovered by a group of drunken Germans who were reeling down the centre of the street singing at the top of their lungs.But thankfully, their noise had alerted him to their presence long before they had the chance to spot him.Besides that, he always travelled in the darkness and they were lit up like Christmas trees wherever they went, so they had no night vision.
Just then, footsteps on the staircase leading down to their hiding hole caught Jan’s ear.He leapt to his feet and grabbed up his gun.He pointed it towards the staircase even as he crept across the room.
When Jadzia’s thin, beaming face appeared, he laughed with surprise.Then he ran to her and kissed her cheeks.She threw her arms around his neck and squeezed him tight.She was dressed as a boy in a shirt and pants.Her golden hair was cut short, and she wore a cap on her head.
“You’re here,” was all he could manage to say.
She ruffled his hair with one hand.“I came bearing gifts.Merry Christmas.”Her eyes sparkled.“I thought you might all be starving to death, and I managed to find some food in one of the houses we were going through.I decided not to hand it in to the Germans after all.I got some work in Warsaw, so I skipped out to bring this to you while I had a chance.”
Everyone crowded around her, kissing her, hugging her and peppering her with questions.She answered as best she could as they all walked back to the bunker and crowded inside.
“How did you get here?”Nacha asked.
“I have papers.They let me through, I work for them after all.”Jadzia looked different to Jan.The sadness from her time in the extermination camp had faded.She had a spark of life again, the way she used to, but with a confidence that was new.
“Where are you staying?”Jan asked.
“We’re outside of Warsaw, in Jelonka,” she said.“We have a house there.It’s nice enough.And plenty to eat.The Germans let us keep some of the things we find.”
“But if they catch you bringing food to us…” Antoni said, his voice grave.
“They’ll kill me, of course.”Jadzia shrugged.“But I didn’t let them catch me.I can’t stay long, though, or they’ll know something’s up.So, tell me what you’ve been up to and how you’re faring.I want to know everything.Mama will kill me if I don’t bring back stories to tell.”
She stayed only a few minutes, but after she was gone, it was as if she’d breathed life into the group.The melancholy that’d clung to them lifted.And there was a spark of hope that hadn’t been there before.
Jan had begun keeping a diary since they were cloistered in the bunker.He’d found a notebook upstairs in one of the offices, along with several pens, and wrote down his thoughts and remembrances.
He sat off to one side from the rest of the group, who were still going through the supplies Jadzia had brought them, and contemplated her visit.
He chewed on the end of the pen as he watched his friends joking and laughing together, quietly congratulating each other on the food they’d get to eat that evening, and thought through everything that’d happened since that first day the Germans occupied Warsaw.Then he set his pen to paper and began to write.
