Elsa spoke again and he caught Klara’s name amid the sharp German words. Sam lowered Klara, who was immediately swallowed up by a hug, kiss and soothing words from Elsa. The soldier said something and Elsa repeated Klara’s name and surreptitiously ushered the little girl to stand behind her. Elsa swallowed as the soldier’s gaze slid to each of them in turn.
Suddenly he lifted his arm to signal the way to the kitchen and Elsa obeyed and led them into what turned out to be a room full of soldiers. Sam hesitated, then realized he had little choice but to trust her and follow.
Chapter Fourteen
Four soldiers were noisily searching the cooking pots and bare cupboards for food, casting empty pots and bowls aside. The eggs Sam had prepared the previous night were discovered and devoured in a couple of mouthfuls before the pan was tossed aside too. Their uniforms and bodies told Elsa that they had seen many battles, but their absence of discipline showed they no longer cared how they were perceived. A soldier who did not care, her father had once told her, could be more dangerous than a soldier who did.
The room fell silent when the soldiers noticed Elsa and her companions had entered the room.
‘Who do we have here?’ asked a fifth soldier sitting with his boots on the table. Cradled in his lap was a bottle of schnapps.
Elsa quickly realized that this man was the leader of the motley squad. He did not outrank his fellow men, but had earned their respect in some other way. Now he needlessly leaned his body to one side as if to get a better view of them. Only an hour ago the house was theirs; now it was they who felt like the interlopers.
‘I found them trying to escape,’ the soldier they’d met in the hallway said. ‘She says they are German refugees fleeing the Russians. They are trying to get to Bremen.’
The leader jerked his head towards Sam. ‘Why isn’t he fighting?’
‘She says he has a war injury that has damaged his brain. He doesn’t understand things any more... or talk.’
A slightly bemused expression crossed the squad leader’s face as he studied the mute before him in silence. He stood up and circled him like a circus animal that was required to perform. ‘He doesn’t talk? Who doesn’t talk? Sounds like an excuse to get out of fighting.’ He stopped in front of Sam andlooked deep into his eyes. His spirits-filled breath fanned his face. Sam stared back. Elsa’s joints stiffened.Please, Sam, play along. Please.
‘Where were you injured?’ asked the soldier quietly.
‘The head,’ interjected Elsa.
‘I don’t mean his injury. I mean which battle? Which location?’
‘Yes.’ Another soldier abandoned the cupboard he had been searching and came over. ‘We’ve never met a mute before. How is it possible to not speak?’
‘It is a known medical condition.’
Her answer only ignited a flurry of further questions from all of them. Their interest was alarming. If they tried to make him talk, to prove the condition did not exist, who knew where it might lead? The same thoughts must have been in Sam’s head, as she saw his stoic gaze falter from the pressure and he lowered it to the ground. Questions can turn to demands and Elsa felt the room filling with a darkness that sapped the air. The more she answered their questions the more it appeared to ignite another.
Klara, who had been largely ignored, suddenly burst into tears and flung herself around Sam’s legs. ‘Leave him alone. He doesn’t understand you! He can’t speak—’
‘At all!’ interjected Elsa loudly. She stepped in front of them both and hugged them. ‘Please! Leave my brother alone. He is half the man he was. Don’t make him suffer any more.’
To her surprise, the soldier’s eyes suddenly creased with laughter lines. He roughly tousled Klara’s hair. ‘I’m not going to harm him, little one. There is no need to be upset.’ He returned to the table and in one graceful movement offered Sam a chair. He indicated for him to sit down as he sat on the other. ‘It doesn’t matter how you got out of fighting,’ he said as he watched Sam sit down. ‘There is not a man in this room whodoes not wish he could just lay down his gun and go home. All I care about is this squad and living through the next battle.’
‘And having something to eat,’ said another.
‘And having sex again before I die,’ said a third. The soldiers laughed, oblivious to Elsa’s discomfort.
‘We have more eggs!’ she said, a little too brightly. ‘I can cook some for you all.’ The suggestion went down well and she quickly filled a saucepan with water and put some eggs into it. The other soldiers came to sit at the table too and a more relaxed conversation began to flow.
‘This is nice,’ said the leader, setting his bottle aside. She turned to see that they all appeared to enjoy the novelty of having a woman in their midst doing such an ordinary domestic chore. Despite their earlier intense questioning, they were now courteous and friendly, one finding cutlery and cups and passing them to each soldier. The leader poured them each a shot of schnapps as if they were at a beer garden on a summer’s day. Elsa politely refused and Sam had the forethought to appear vacant. Whether it had been a test or not, it seemed to solidify the leader’s conclusion that perhaps Sam was mute and injured after all.
As they waited for the eggs to boil the leader left the conversation and table and approached her. He looked at the bubbling water. ‘You have a lot to deal with. A brother who is no better than a child and a little girl that is easily upset.’
‘I’m managing.’ He was standing far too close.
‘Where did you say you were going?’
‘Bremen,’ said Elsa, fishing out the boiled eggs one by one into a bowl. The eggs trembled in the spoon.
He indicated her worn shoes. ‘Bremen is a long way to walk.’ He looked up at her as she passed him the plates to give out.
‘I know. But we have walked all the way from Pomerania and we are determined to meet up with our family again.’
