Run, Boy, Run(38)

One moonlit winter night, after Grzegorz had returned him to the hayloft, Jurek waited a while and crept back to the barn. The moonlight glittered on the snow and all was bright. He hid among the cows. Grzegorz and Marina lay beneath the blankets. Their clothes hung on the ladder rungs. He heard footsteps crunching through the snow. Peering out, he saw Clara. He ran to the hayrack and whispered:

"Marina, don't move. Clara's here."

He crawled under the blanket with the two of them.

"Jurek?" Clara called from the doorway.

"What?"

"Aren't you asleep?"

"You just woke me."

"Have you seen Marina?"

"No."

"Whose horse is tied to the gate?"

Grzegorz had been careless. You could get away with things like that on a dark winter night, but not on a night like this.

Clara came closer to the hayrack.

"What's hanging there?"

"My pants," Jurek said.

"Since when do you sleep without pants?"

She climbed up to look, jumped down, and ran toward the house screaming, "Papa! Marina and Grzegorz are in the barn! Papa!"

The yellow light of a candle appeared in a window. A barefoot Pan Boguta ran outside in his nightshirt, holding a lantern in one hand and an ax in the other. Grzegorz fled. Marina put on her nightdress and shoes and wrapped herself in her sheepskin coat. Her father grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into the house. She didn't cry. There were shouts. Jurek hoped Marina's father wouldn't beat her. He didn't care if Clara never married in her life. He hated her.

In the morning, Pan Boguta threw Jurek out. It was as if he were to blame. Marina came to say goodbye. She kissed him and whispered, "Go to Grzegorz."

Jurek went to the carpentry shop and received a friendly welcome. He was put to work with two young assistants. Although at first they made fun of him, they soon saw that he worked well and seriously. He learned to do things that didn't call for two hands, such as planing, sanding, priming wood, and sawing it in a vise. He was especially good at varnishing furniture. Grzegorz was pleased with him. When he played with the village children after work, he was treated with respect. For the first time in many months he slept in a warm, heated house.

***

That spring, Grzegorz sold his horse and wagon and packed his things in two large trunks. The farmer who bought the wagon brought him and Jurek to the train station.

"Have you ever ridden in a train?" Grzegorz asked him.

"No," Jurek said, his eyes bright with excitement.

When the train pulled in, Grzegorz was excited too. He kept looking at the windows of the cars, as if searching for someone.

"There she is!" Jurek shouted, catching sight of Marina.

They put the trunks in the baggage car and boarded the train. Marina gave Grzegorz an emotional hug. Tears were running down her cheeks. She kissed Jurek.

"Where are you coming from?" he asked her.

"I was hiding at my aunt's in town. My father came looking for me." She laughed. "You should have seen him, Grzegorz."

"But how did you arrange to meet here?"

"We wrote each other letters. Now you see why you should learn to read and write."

At one of the stations, there was a sudden rush to the windows. German soldiers were standing on the platform. They didn't look about to board the train. A commotion broke out. The younger passengers jumped into the field on the train's other side and began to run. But soldiers were waiting for them there, too. Shots were fired.

"They're rounding up work gangs," Grzegorz said in alarm. "Come on!"

Grzegorz and Marina jumped from the car. Jurek ran to the window. He didn't see them among the passengers climbing over the embankment and running into the field. Nor were they in the ditch at the foot of the embankment or next to the two ruined buildings nearby. He looked back at the field. The frantically running people were further away. The soldiers were firing. Someone fell. Then someone else.

Two soldiers with loaded guns came aboard and grabbed a few young men who had remained on the train. The locomotive whistled. Jurek took his knapsack and got off. No one paid him any attention. Over a dozen young men were standing under guard. The Germans marched them to an army truck waiting outside the station. The train whistled again. Jurek stood on the steps of the car. Marina and Grzegorz were nowhere in sight. The stationmaster and the conductor went from car to car, shutting the doors.

"Are you boarding, son?"

"I'm looking for my brother and sister," Jurek said.

"Those bastards need workers for their fortifications," the conductor declared. "The Russians are coming." He shut the door with a bang.

The train whistled one last time and began to move. Jurek trotted alongside it, hoping to spot Marina and Grzegorz at the last moment and hop aboard. The train picked up speed and he stopped at the end of the platform. And just then he saw them, in a little compartment at the back of the baggage car. They saw him at the same moment. The train went faster. Grzegorz opened the window and shouted. Jurek couldn't make out the words.