Towards evening the group returned. Anton carried two submachine guns on his shoulder; he looked exhausted, the other group members were also tired.
Violette asked nothing. She collected the ingredients they had brought with them to prepare a meal. At her parent's home, she was spoiled excessively as their only child. She had a nanny, and her parents had a German maid who would cook and clean the house. "Polish women cook bland food," her mother would always say when asked why she had a German maid.
Violette did not know what to do with the ingredients; she mixed the canned meat with the contents of the beans in a tomato paste, added some water to the pot and some potatoes, then lit the twigs and occasionally mixed the cauldron that started to bubble.
She stood guarding the pot and occasionally added water and stirred.
"Maybe we'll open a restaurant together when the war is over?" Sasha laughed, "In all of Grodno, you will not find a restaurant that serves such delicious food."
Klara also complimented Violette. "Look, my bowl is clean; I licked it all."
Violette was embarrassed, she was sure no one would touch the food, and everyone praised the dish. "You must have been very hungry," she replied.
After finishing eating, a bottle of vodka passed from one to the other. Victor took a harmonica out of his pocket and began to play a melancholy melody. "Play something happy for the success of the mission," Sasha shouted at him. Then Klara began to sing;
"Apples and pears were blossoming
Mist on the river floating
On the bank, Katyusha stepped out
On the high steep bank
I stepped out, started a song
About one grey steppe eagle
About her loved one
Whose letters she cherished
Oh song, maiden's song
Fly towards the clear sun
And to the warrior on a faraway order
Bring Katyusha's greeting
May he remember this simple maiden?
And hear her singing
May he save our motherland?
And love, Katyusha will save. "
Victor accompanied her with the harmonica, and everyone applauded and took another round with the bottle of vodka. Jaroslaw sat up in his bed and lowered his feet to the ground. "Jaroslaw, are you getting ready to dance with me?" Klara called to him, and everyone burst out laughing.
One by one, they began to show signs of fatigue and retired to sleep. Then, at last, Violette finished washing the dishes in a bucket and dried them with a torn piece of cloth that was once a shirt.
Before she took to her corner to get ready for bed, she went to Jaroslaw and changed the bandages, "The foot looks good, the wound begins to heal, and there are no signs of pus or necrosis."
"You saved my life; if you did not show up, I would be dead," he said.
She looked at the red-haired guy, his face so innocent and pure; the freckles on his cheeks added childishness to his already youthful appearance.
"We'll go to bed. Then, tomorrow, we'll try to get you out into the fresh air to fill your lungs with oxygen; it will help you recover.
He smiled shyly at her "Good night, my angel."
When she got on her bed and tried to fall asleep, the memories suddenly came to her. She recalled sitting in the student's apartment of the Vienna University, how they suddenly knocked on her door and asked her to accompany them to administration, how the dean approached her without looking at her face. "Violette Wolfsohn, tomorrow you can no longer come to the classroom, we are obliged by the new laws to ban the presence of all Jews in the university, and you will also have to vacate your room." She stood stunned in front of the dean, "but I have another year to finish my degree," she pleaded. He got up and left the office.
Offended, she went downstairs, and her eyes teared. The students whispered and looked at her. Some laughed; the others showed compassion on her and stared down.
She collected her belongings from her room and left the University's gates, where she had studied musicology for the past four years. She wanted to be a pianist like her father.
She remembered when she took the tram to her grandmother's house; she saw people wearing yellow badges crammed into the last train wagon, she did not understand what was going on around her.
Violette sank into a deep sleep. The memories flooded her with tiring emotions.
Violette began to get used to life in the forest; she felt safe in the company of the armed Jewish partisans. Food was not lacking, and the atmosphere was cheerful as everyone tried to lift the saddening mood with jokes and pranks. Each of them had a family with whom the connection was interrupted and uncertain about their condition and destiny. Poles betrayed their Jewish neighbors to gain their property and made the work easier for the Germans.
Jaroslaw would go out every morning for a short walk accompanied by Violette, who everyone had got used to and saw as part of the group.
Jaroslaw tried to get close to her and showered her with compliments for her intelligence, beauty, and willingness to help everyone. She saw in his words a kind of expression of gratitude, though that was not his intention.
Anton taught her to shoot a pistol and a submachine gun and even gave her a personal pistol for her protection. However, she did not go into action because Jaroslaw was not yet fit to be left and had to be nursed.
One day the group returned, dragging a piglet tied with a rope. Klara and Sasha infiltrated the outskirts of a small village and stole the piglet from the farmer at gunpoint.
Violette asks not to kill it. "We will create a small animal farm, and besides, he is still small; let him grow a little."
Anton walked over to the piglet and dragged it into the bushes away from their bunker. Wheezing sounds followed a sharp scream, and everything fell silent.
After a few minutes, he returned with the piglet's corps with his stomach open clean of its internal organs. "Take off his skin and make a fire; tonight, we will celebrate; I brought a bottle of vodka and a pack of cigarettes from the good kind."
He did not explain, but everyone understood wherefrom he got the "good kind."
The place instantly changed in turmoil; everyone got to work, there was a debate about whether to cut the pork into pieces and cook or roast it entirely over the coals. Finally, the majority decided on a bonfire and roasting.
When evening fell and the piglet hung over the fire, everyone sat around it, drank, smoked, and laughed at all the nonsense said.
Violette sat next to Jaroslaw, occasionally exchanging smiling glances; he took her hand and clung to it; she looked at him and leaned her head on his shoulder.
After eating and drinking, they began to retire one by one to take a nap. It was not late, but the darkness was very thick, heavy clouds covered the sky, and it seemed that every moment it could rain.
"Let's go in."
"Stay with me a little longer; I have such a pleasant time with you; I have never experienced that."
Violette looked at him, surprised "then I will kiss you so that I will be the first girl you kissed."
She brought her lips to him and dug with her tongue to penetrate his mouth, then the two held each other, with their mouths stuck while he cupped her head in his hands and did not let go.
"Give me a moment to breathe," she laughed as he pushed himself over her.
"You have a lot of experience; you must have had a lot of suitors," he said, sounding jealous.
"No, I had one boyfriend we talked about engagement and marriage, but what happened has happened, and here I am."
"What happened?" He asked.
"I do not want to expand on that; it was what it was; if we had a chance, I would tell you."
Before retiring to sleep, they put out the fire and went down into the shelter. From all corners of the room rose the snoring sounds of her new comrades, the weary warriors.
They moved slowly for a day and a half among the dense trees, stopping from time to time to rest and eat. After a day and a half of tedious climbing up a mountainside, the trees became lower, and the terrain more comfortable, they reached the summit. The sight they saw was pastoral and breathtaking; had it not been for wartime, they would have been considered hikers lost in the wilderness of Poland, but the situation was different. Violette and Jaroslaw were two young people trying to survive, hunted by hateful humans thirsty for Jewish blood.
From their hiding position, they could see anyone trying to climb up the mountain. Jaroslaw began to create a shelter in the natural conditions.
They stretched the blanket and tied its ends between four close trunks, piled up tree trunks that collapsed, and formed a kind of protective wall. They spent the first night in their new hiding place in a deep sleep they needed so desperately.
At dawn, Violette freed herself from Jaroslaw's embrace and moved a little away to do her needs when suddenly she saw white smoke coming from the distance in the valley. She hurried to wake Jaroslaw and excitedly drew him to the point where the smoke was clearly visible.
"Whether it's a Polish or Ukrainian village or a partisan camp, the Germans can't enter a valley full of swamps that vehicles can't cross."
They decided to leave their weapons and food bag in their hiding place and check the site out. Jaroslaw hoped to join a partisan group to continue sabotage operations against the Nazis.
The descent to the valley was steep and rough; they held each other lest they stumble and slide down the slope. Finally, after a few hours, they reached the plain and began a careful walk in the direction from which the smoke rose. As they got closer, the smoke became thicker and the smell unbearable; it was the smell of charred meat. "What the hell are they burning there?" Jaroslaw asked without expecting an answer.
While crawling so as not to be discovered, they began to hear voices in German, there were some orders given in shouts. From time to time, a single shot was heard. "Stay here; I'll crawl alone," he whispered to her.
Violette remained to lie while Jaroslaw continued with a slow crawl towards the voices. When he reached a point where he could watch what was happening, he rose a little, and through the bushes, he saw a spectacle as if taken from another planet: in a deep pit were piled hundreds of naked human corpses, women, men, and children in layers. Several dozen men poured fuel on the corpses and lighted them. Terrifying screams were heard from the human pile, and the soldiers would move from place to place to shoot at them. The victims' clothes were piled up outside the pits that other workers were already sorting and searching for jewelry and hidden money.
Some of the soldiers hold nervous German shepherd dogs on the leash. Luckily the air was so soaked with smoke that the dogs could not smell Jaroslaw's presence.
Slowly he retreated as his heart pounded wildly, and his mind refused to believe what his eyes had seen.
"Let's get out of here quickly," Jaroslaw whispered to Violette as he crawled back rapidly. After a bent walk of a few hundred meters, the two began a quick climb to the top of the mountain, "What did you see there?" She asked him, panting and trying to catch air. "They are burning Jews, piles of thousands, a massacre that is hard to imagine," he replied. Violette suddenly petrified and paled, "What will happen to us? On the one hand, the Nazis are eliminating us, and on the other hand, the Ukrainians and Poles are collaborating with them voluntarily."
Jaroslaw did not answer; he lost all his courage and personal confidence he had.
When they reached the top of the mountain, they collected their belongings and began to move on the mountain crest to cross to the other side. The sparse vegetation made it easier for them, and the sun warmed them both most of the day. Their main problem was running out of water and budgeting it for one sip every few hours. There were swamps in the valley and clean water reservoirs, but the fear of going down was great.
In the evening of the same day, they found an abandoned hunting lodge and decided to spend the night in it. Violette collected thin, dry twigs and broke them into pieces to set fire to keep warm from the chill of the night.
Jaroslaw was still stunned by the sights. It was visible on his face that his desire to fight was running out; now, he wanted only to survive. All his dreams to join a great force that will help defeat the Germans from his homeland began to vanish.
"If we see any village descending the mountain, I must talk to one of the peasants to understand where we are and how far a big city is."
"Do you have any documents?"
"Yes, I have the Polish papers." He took the documents out of his pocket and perused them. "Twenty-three-year-old Tadeusz Baran from the village of Pomarzia Goralna, I am red-haired; who would suspect me of being a Jew?"
"When you see a rural Pole, you must first greet him with the 'Chwala Boga' and not hesitate to look into his eyes, all the opposite signs to the Jewish behavior. "Speak Polish fluently, with grammatical errors, and know your date of birth, the names of your Polish parents, and make up a background story but stick to it until it seems real to you so that you can convince others of your identity."
Jaroslaw hugged her and kissed her all over her face. "Together, we can get through this period if we strengthen each other," he said, embracing her tightly to his chest.
At night as they lay hugging inside the hut on the blanket spread out on the wooden floor, he began to insert his hands into her clothes; she immediately grabbed his palm and pushed it away. She felt his hardened organ pressed against her stomach "this is not the time and place," she whispered in his ear. Jaroslaw clung to her from behind and tried to roll up her pants while holding her waist. "Stop it; I do not want to!" She screamed at him until he let go.
She turned to him and cupped his face in her hands. "I honestly like you, but understand me, this is not the time and place; I'm crazy scared, thinking of my parents at every moment of the day and night, I'm not in the mood for sex."
Jaroslaw lowered his eyes, "I'm ashamed, you saved my life, and I treat you like a beast. But, it seemed to me it was needed to break the tension, and I thought you would like it too."
"Maybe in another situation, I would not reject you, but not now, let's keep it for somewhere else and under human conditions" She kissed him on his mouth and was careful not to get him excited again.