‘I want to mix up the groups so you don’t work with people that you always sit with.’
I ended up in the fours – the same group as Julius, and we were set the task of researching everyday life in Britain during the war. We were given some primary and secondary sources to read over the coming weeks, and the school trip would help too.
‘Hey,’ said Julius on the way out of the classroom. ‘I’m glad we got that topic – it’ll be ace to research, eh? I’m interested in what life was like back then. I wish I had a time capsule…’
But he didn’t have time to finish, because Gem yanked me away down the corridor. I tried to shoot him an apologetic look, but I’m not sure he saw it.
‘What are you doing talking to that idiot?’ Ruby asked, as we walked to lunch.
‘I wasn’t… he was the one who started talking to me.’
Gem didn’t say anything, but I could sense that she was prickling up. The red spot on her cheek was practically glowing.
At lunch, we sat at our usual table and planned our strategy.
‘Right, so we’re going to go to the form room in about ten minutes. Ruby – you and Dil will stay in the corridor, pretending you’re chatting, and watch to see if he’s coming. If there’s any sign of him, ring my phone. Understand?’
They nodded. Gem never asked anybody whether they would mind doing something. She just gave orders.
‘I’ll go in with Kat. If there’s anyone in the room, I’ll distract them while she puts the letter on his desk. Easy peasy, right? It’ll be over in a few minutes.’
Except I didn’t feel that it would be easy peasy. I wished beyond anything that I could have my own Infiniship to speed me away, so that I wouldn’t have to play a part in Julius’s humiliation. When we got to our classroom ten minutes later, my hands were so sweaty in my pockets that I was making the envelope damp. I was certain that we were going to be discovered.
SIX
I prayed for the room to be empty, but as luck would have it, Arun was there with his mates, Jace and Freddie. They were watching a film on one of their phones, which was playing some pumping music. Arun was laughing and tapping the table with his palm in time to the beat. True to her promise, Gem sprang straight into action.
‘What are you watching?’ she asked in the special voice that she reserved for Arun.
She blocked their view of me with her back and I quickly sneaked over to Julius’s desk. His bag, which only yesterday had been swarming with maggots, was sitting by his chair, almost as if he had left it there in the expectation that it would be filled with something else horrible. Do your worst, it seemed to say.
I put the letter on his desk, tucking it under his pencil tin, and then joined Gem, as if nothing had happened. There was not a teacher in sight. My heart slowed its frantic beat.
Half an hour later, at afternoon registration, I saw Julius pick up the envelope, open it, scan the contents and smile. A look of excitement crossed his face. Luckily, at that moment, Mr Kim started talking about parents’ evening, and then we had to rush off to our final period, so there was no chance for him to ask any questions.
If he didn’t talk to anyone about it throughout double maths, we’d have got away with it. Well – until tomorrow.
*
I walked out of school, relieved that we’d made it. Gem gave me a secret high-five as we said goodbye to each other outside the school gates. I couldn’t believe that it had worked out exactly as planned and I was looking forward to putting it to the back of my mind when I visited Ania. But then I crossed the street and there he was, waiting at my bus stop, swinging his huge, geeky rucksack from side to side.
He smiled when he saw me, and I turned around to see whether the smile was meant for someone else. Surely he wasn’t going to try to talk to me again after I’d ignored him in history. Plus, he had obviously suspected that I’d had something to do with the maggots.
But I was wrong. The smile was for me. How gullible could he be? I felt like giving him a shake and telling him that he couldn’t just think that everyone was his friend.
‘Hey,’ he said. ‘What bus you taking?’
‘The 40.’
‘I’m getting the 73. I live on Jupiter Close, near the swimming pool. We’ve moved into my grandparents’ house. It’s all tall and thin – it looks like a weird rocket, ready for take-off.’
I laughed awkwardly.
‘So, what do you think of school so far?’ I asked, when he didn’t say anything else.
He looked at me hard then, as if he was considering something, but at the last moment he changed his mind.
‘It’s all right. People seem nice. Most of ’em anyway.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Who you goin’ as tomorrow?’ he asked suddenly, catching me off guard.
‘Tomorrow?’
‘For Own Clothes Day. We’re supposed to be coming as our favourite film characters, aren’t we?’
‘Yeah, course. I, erm… I haven’t decided yet. You?’
‘Don’t know. So many great ones to choose from. It’s all a bit last minute ’cause I didn’t know about it ’til today. Maybe E.T., but I don’t know if I’ll have a chance to put a proper costume together. It’s grand that this school does dressing up too. We did it a lot in my school in Yell, but then again, we were such a wee place that we kinda made our own rules. I wonder who Arun will go as?’
By this point, I was certain that my face was betraying me.
My shoulders slumped with relief when I saw the number 40 bus approaching.
‘I’ve got to go,’ I mumbled and almost ran through the opening doors.
‘See you tomorrow,’ said Julius. ‘Can’t wait to see who you come as!’
As the bus set off down the road, my heart did its horrible trick of speeding up so much that I felt dizzy. I fell into the nearest seat and shut my eyes. I fought the urge to press the emergency stop and run after Julius, telling him that it was all a lie – a mean, stupid lie – which wasn’t even my idea. But I didn’t.
And then it occurred to me that because of our conversation, he would know for certain that I had something to do with it. Otherwise, why would I have played along with what he was talking about?
I was so busy worrying about this when I got off the bus to walk the last stretch home that I didn’t notice Ania until she called my name.
She was on the other side of the street, panting under the weight of many shopping bags. One of them looked like it was about to slip off the parrot-head. I hurried over.
‘I went to the art supply store, Katherine. They had all these beautiful brushes on special offer, so I decided to treat myself, as they say. And then I got some oil paints, and charcoal, and coloured chalk. Goodness, I think I just do not know when to stop. It was all a bit heavier than I imagined.’
I took half of the bags from her and helped her to her door.
‘Are you going to start painting again?’ I asked.
‘Well, I have to tell you that you’ve inspired me. There is somebody I want to bring to life. But I need all the right stuff, you see. He wouldn’t appreciate it if I didn’t put in the effort.’
‘Mhm.’
I put the bags down in her hallway and made to leave, but she stopped me with a warm hand on my shoulder.
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked.
‘Nothing.’
She gave me a look as if to say that she could tell it was a whole lot more than nothing.
‘Stay for a while?’
I hesitated. I didn’t feel like talking to anyone, but I realised that with Ania, I maybe wouldn’t have to talk.
‘Only if you tell me more of your story. I want to know what happened on the day.’
‘Ah, of course.’
Within minutes, I had made myself comfortable in what I had already begun to think of as my armchair and Ania had emptied her bags, stretched her poor legs, and closed her eyes, to better visualise what had happened.
‘That day I sa
w Mila on the way to church, so I was reassured. We went to church every Sunday back then, with my mother and little brother and sister. My father was the village mayor, and he was usually so tired from work that he didn’t come with us. That particular Sunday, at the start of September, it was just the four of us that went to Mass, and I ran in after Mila and her mother, leaving the rest of my family to follow. Everything seemed normal. I remember that it was warm for that time of year; people were out in their summer clothes with no coats.
‘I still wonder today whether there was anything that would have given me a clue about what was about to happen. Maybe I could have somehow stopped us from going into the building if I’d been a little more alert; if I’d looked at the people around me, instead of admiring my neighbour’s new red dress. I think I’ll never know.
‘Mass started as it always did, with our old priest standing by the altar and spreading his arms to welcome everyone. But then, all of a sudden, his smile transformed into a look of terror, as there was a shout from behind us. I turned in my seat and saw the soldiers. There were so many of them marching into the building and they surrounded us. The last one slammed the door shut.
‘I could hear straightaway that they were foreigners. Some were as old as my father and others quite young. They could have been in their last year at school. The two things that linked them were their navy uniform and their narrowed eyes.
‘They made the priest carry on with the Mass, although I could tell that it was the last thing he wanted to do. There was desperation in his eyes as he gave a short sermon and shuffled off to the edge of the altar. I think he was hoping to escape through the back door.
‘Then I saw some of the soldiers kneeling and praying, and a small part of me thought that everything would turn out fine. That they were just there to keep an eye on what was going on and that eventually they would let us go. I even tried to catch the eye of one of the younger lads to reassure myself, but he was having none of it. It turned out that I was very wrong about the whole thing.
‘One of the taller soldiers at the front of the church, a man with a huge moustache, shouted for us to stand and walk quickly, pew by pew, out of the back door, which he had opened. I could see Mila’s shoulders shaking as she walked. Our elderly neighbour, Halina – I suppose she was as old then as I am now – had trouble with her leg and it took her a while to shuffle forward. Her slowness seemed to make the men angry, and I saw one of them remove his rifle and poke the end of it into her back.’
‘No! Did he shoot?’
‘He only pushed her, thank goodness. But she fell with a horrible, sickening thud. I could hear the sound over and over in my ears for weeks after. I can still hear it now. But, yes, eventually she managed to get up and she was pushed along with the crowd.
‘When we finally made it out of the church, there were two tables set up and a soldier was standing in between them, as if he was directing traffic. He was trying to separate the Jews from the ‘ordinary folk’. He didn’t understand that all the people there were both – they might have been of Jewish background, but they went to our Catholic church, just like everyone else. If he wanted to separate them, he would have to split them down the middle. It made me think of cut-out paper girls and boys being torn in half.
‘I could sense that Mila was in danger and I pulled her close to me. I decided that there would be no way that I would allow us to be separated.
‘But the soldier had other ideas – he took one look at her and cocked his head, which we soon realised was a sign to another soldier to push both her and her mother into the opposite queue to mine.
‘“You can’t do this!” I remember shouting. “She has to stay with me!” I ran towards her. I thought that if she absolutely had to go into the other queue, then I would too. But then somebody clamped a hand over my mouth and pulled me away. When I turned, I was shocked to see that it was my own mother. There was a look of warning in her eyes, and I could tell immediately that she understood a lot more than I did. She was scared.’
Ania still had her eyes closed, but she swallowed hard, like I sometimes did when I was trying to fight back tears. I wanted to go over and put my arm around her, but she started speaking again.
‘I wanted to scream when I saw Mila being forced into the back of a cart along with lots of our friends and neighbours. It later turned out that these brutal soldiers had got a list of names of local people who had a Jewish connection. They had a destination in mind for them.
‘I tore myself from my mother’s grasp when I saw the cart being pulled away by horses, and I ran after it as fast as I could. It moved so fast, though, that my awkward legs had no chance of keeping up. I shouted Mila’s name over and over, but I wasn’t sure whether she could hear me. And when I realised that there was no way that I was going to reach her, I stopped in the middle of the dusty road and yelled, “Mila! I’ll find you. I promise you I’ll find you!” I shouted over and over until I had no air left in my lungs and I collapsed in the dirt.’
‘Did the soldiers come and get you?’ I asked her. My voice shook.
‘No, they hadn’t even bothered to run after me. They knew that I would have to come back, and I did. I walked to the churchyard sobbing and clutched my mother tight. Although at that stage I had no idea where they were taking Mila, I knew that it was somewhere far and that I probably wouldn’t see her again in a very, very long time.
‘I was sure that the people in my own queue would be allowed to go free, but I was wrong again. When I reached the front desk, the young soldier I’d tried to make eye contact with in the church gave me a scrap of paper and barked in broken Polish, “Train leaves tomorrow at 10.40 a.m. Be at the station.” I remember that I stared at it, not understanding what was happening, until my little brother pulled me away.
‘Nobody else in my family was given a ticket. The soldiers took one look at them and told them to step aside, along with other women and younger children who were apparently not useful to them.
‘Eventually, they let us go home. I know what you’re thinking. I think you will say that I should have thrown that awful scrap of paper in the bin and ignored it. If they were stupid enough to allow me to go home, I was free, wasn’t I? But I soon heard that things did not work that way. You see, there were rumours about what happened to people who did not obey orders. Mr Bem, the butcher, said that he heard of a man in the next village who had run away from the soldiers. Later, they burned down his family home and his children were forced to beg in the streets. My parents argued for hours about what we should do. In the end, I was told that I would have to pack my suitcase. We were going to the station the next day.’
I was listening to Ania so intently that I was startled by the sudden knock on the door.
‘Hello.’ I heard Lena’s voice. ‘I’m sorry to disturb you. Is Kat here?’
I looked at my phone and saw with shock that it was already half-past six. I had no idea where the last hour and a half had gone.
‘Sorry,’ I whispered to Ania. ‘I’ll be back soon.’
As I walked out of the door, I started to think of how petty my situation with Gem and Julius was in comparison to what Ania had been through. I needed to be stronger and, most of all, I needed to stand up for what I believed in.
SEVEN
I wished I could tell Mum that I was sick the following morning, but the trouble with having two parents who are doctors is that they always know when I’m lying, plus they both think I should always carry on unless I’m pretty much dying. So I clambered out of bed and tried to distract myself by thinking of Ania’s story instead of the day ahead.
When I got to school, the situation was worse than I’d imagined. I could hear laughter halfway down the corridor as I walked in and the drum beat in my chest started. I tried not to give myself away when I entered the classroom, but I was too curious and, in the end, I looked up.
Julius was sitting at his desk in a fantastic costume which, in a real competition, would have definitely
won an award for effort. He wore a pair of cut-off dark green trousers and a pale green shirt that looked as though it had been deliberately mud-stained. Over the top was a long, flowing brown cape with a hood made out of a huge woven sack. When I got closer, I glimpsed his glistening gold ring on a chain around his neck, and the best part – a pair of large, hairy hobbit feet made out of papier-mâché attached to a pair of old trainers.
He was Frodo from Lord of the Rings. How had he managed to put it together in one evening? I wondered if he’d spent all night on it.
People had different reactions to his costume. Some were staring at him in disbelief, others laughing, others still were waiting for Mr Kim to come in.
Julius looked puzzled and a tiny bit scared. He reminded me of a fragile bird left out in the cold.
‘But… I… I got a letter about dressing up for charity,’ he was telling Arun.
‘Somebody must have played a prank on you,’ I heard Arun reply. ‘D’you want me to help you find out who? They’re idiots, whoever they are. I would get properly mad if someone did that to me.’
I avoided looking at them and went straight to my seat.
‘Stop acting so suspicious,’ Gem hissed. She hadn’t heard what Arun had said. ‘It’s worked so well. Even better than I imagined!’
Ruby and Dilly were crying with laughter behind their homework diaries.
Moments later, Julius was standing at the front of the class, still wearing his big hairy feet and being questioned by Mr Kim.
‘Why are you wearing a Lord of the Rings costume?’
I put my head in my hands. It was over. I knew that he was going to show Mr Kim the letter and say that I’d made him believe that the whole dressing-up thing was true, which meant that I definitely had something to do with it.
But Julius coughed and looked around uncertainly.
‘Well?’
‘I… I think I got the wrong end of the stick. I thought it was dressing-up day for charity,’ he said eventually.
Girl 38 Page 4