Beyond the Shadow of Night(13)

“Let’s just eat.”

“I’m sorry. Yes. Let’s eat.”

They ate.

“Why not tell us all how you’re doing at work?” Papa asked his daughters.

Before they could answer, there was a knock at the door.

Papa tutted and got up. “At this early hour?” He opened the door, stepped outside, and shut it behind him.

“Let’s just carry on as normal,” Mama said. “How are we all?”

But nobody replied, all the better to hear the voices outside.

“Come on,” Mama said. “It’s rude to listen to other people’s conversations.”

“Is Asher going to start work soon?” Rina asked.

Mama nodded. “Your papa’s trying to get him a job at the bakery. But there’s uncertainty. We don’t know—”

She stopped talking as the door opened, and they all watched Papa come back to the table, shuffling slowly, head bowed, like a man ten years his senior. He sat down, his pale face clear for all to see—until he buried it in the palms of his hands.

“What is it?” Mama asked him.

He spoke in a sluggish, despondent tone. “That was someone I work with. There are rumors.”

“Rumors?”

“More than rumors. A few hours ago, German forces came over the border.”

Mama laid a hand on her husband’s shoulder. She silently tried to usher the children away, but they stayed where they were.

“I’m not moving,” Rina said. “I want to know what’s happening.”

“And I’m almost twenty,” Keren said. “I should know too.”

Asher kept quiet, hoping nobody would argue.

Papa looked at them all in turn. “I’m sorry,” he said, as though dragging the words out. “There isn’t much to know.”

“Surely our forces are fighting them off?” Mama said.

He shook his head. “There are a lot of German soldiers—far too many for the Polish army to cope with. They have tanks and much better ammunition too. I don’t know any more than that.”

“What are we going to do?” Rina asked.

Papa shrugged and shook his head.

“We can wait and see,” Mama said. “It might not be all that bad. You know these politicians. Always full of surprises. Perhaps they could come to some agreement.”

Papa exhaled between tightly clasped teeth. “Now that really would be a surprise.”

“So, what shall we do?” Asher said.

His papa thought for a few seconds. “For now, we carry on as normal. Mama cooks, cleans, and looks after us all, and we go to work as long as we have jobs.” He held his head up. “Other than that, we eat, we talk, and we listen to the radio if we have time. But most of all, we pray.”

Breakfast continued, but coughs, grunts, and the clinking of cutlery on crockery easily outgunned the sound of conversation. Still no words were spoken as Papa, Keren, and Rina went to their rooms to get ready for work. When they left, there were kisses and embraces, but still very few words beyond pleasantries.

Mama cleared the table and washed up in silence, while Asher fetched one of his books to read. Then she sat down next to him with a cup of water. But she said nothing, just stared out of the window. This wasn’t the mama Asher knew.

“How far away is the border?” he said.

There was no answer.

“Mama?”

She shook her thoughts from her head. “I’m sorry, my son. Did you say something?”

“How far away is the border? And how long will it take for the Germans to reach Warsaw?”

She gave him a wistful, almost pitying look before replying. “Oh, we should have a few days of peace at the very least.” Her eyes seemed to be sagging a little. Like Papa, she looked older than she had done just the day before. “I’m so sorry,” she said.

“What for?” Asher said with a puzzled frown. “It’s not your fault.”

“Mmm . . .” She grimaced as she tilted her head from side to side.

“Don’t feel bad, Mama.” Asher placed his arm around her shoulders.

That brought a rare smile to her lips. “Oh, I know there’s always hope.” She reached across for her cup. “Let’s not be too pessimistic, there might—”

She stopped talking and stared at Asher, her face bloodless. As the distant drone got louder she looked up at the ceiling. Asher wanted to look up too, but couldn’t drag his eyes away from his mama’s face.

Then there was a whistle. Then another.

For Asher, it all seemed to happen slowly, and then again all in one panicked moment, as the noise washed over him and left a residue of acute awareness.

Mama gasped and dropped the cup. It shattered, but that didn’t matter. They both felt the floor shake, the whole apartment block jolting as if thumped by the fist of the devil. Asher heard Mama scream and felt her holding on to him, squeezing him tightly in wild desperation.

The door opened, the handle cracking carelessly against the wall behind. Asher heard more screaming. Keren and Rina ran in, followed by Papa.

“They told everyone to go back home,” Papa said. “Told us we should prepare for—”

The building shook again. For a second, all five of them stared open-mouthed out of the window, to where pockets of dust flew into the air from building after building. The few people who remained on the streets scattered like frightened mice, and the scene reminded Asher of when Mama used to bake and she dropped raisins into flour, each one exploding in a white puff. What he was witnessing hardly seemed real. No, it couldn’t be real. How could strong, solid buildings be blown apart so easily?