Merely Alive

by Lalae Mozie

  “Why is she here?” asked a disappointed, familiar voice behind me. My mouth closed, hands balled into fists, and jaw tightened. That could only be one person—Gregory, Rose’s older, annoying brother.

  I turned around and said, “Hello, Greg. How’s your girlfriend?” Rose giggled at my remark.

  “Why so polite, May-May? Did your parents send you to etiquette school?” Greg asked as he took a seat at the polished table.

  “That’s enough, Greg!” Mrs. Coffman snapped. Greg sank back into his chair, and we all dug into the food.

  While we were finishing up dessert, I asked Greg again if his girlfriend was doing well. Greg didn’t answer, so I just went to Rose’s room and sat down on the bed. A few minutes later, Rose and her mom came in. Rose was holding an extra toothbrush, and her mom was holding a blanket and pillow. Mrs. Coffman apologized for Greg’s behavior. I told her not to worry, saying he was just surprised I was there. I thanked her, and she left the room, closing the door behind her. I set up my pillow and blanket and lay down. Rose hopped in her bed, and we lay there quietly for a while.

  “What’s it like to be Jewish?” asked Rose in a quiet, hesitant voice.

  “I don’t know, like any other religion,” I replied.

  Rose was quiet for a few minutes. She probably was considering my answer.

  “You know, Greg likes you a lot,” she said.

  “What?” I was shocked; as far as I was concerned, Greg and I hated each other.

  “Yeah, he told me when your mom called and told us you were in the hospital. He said that he was really worried about you and was afraid he wouldn’t see you again.”

  I couldn’t talk. Greg liked me? That was crazy!

  “Maya, are you still awake?” Rose asked.

  I said nothing more and pretended to be asleep. I didn’t want any more details, not yet anyway. I wasn’t sure how I felt about Greg, and I didn’t want to find out.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “Rose! Rose! Wake up!” I screamed.

  “What! What happened? Are you okay?” she asked in a terrified voice. Rose’s hair was so messy it was hard to keep from laughing. Her eyes were deep set, and there was drool on her lips.

  “I can’t find my necklace! You know how important that necklace is! My mother and father gave it to me when I was born!”

  Rose jumped out of bed, got on her hands and knees, and started searching. Then it dawned on me. Only one person could have taken it: Greg. He was the only person that would play such a cruel joke.

  “Greg,” I grumbled through my teeth.

  “Greg! Greg! Greg!” Rose started shouting as she ran out the door. We hurried down to the kitchen and spotted Greg. Rose, who was taller and stronger than I was, grabbed him by his shirt.

  “What? What?” he said in an innocent voice.

  “Greg, you listen to me,” Rose began. “You give Maya back her necklace—now!”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “We’re talking about the necklace I was wearing last night,” I said.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” he answered.

  I ran back up to Rose’s bedroom, sat down on the bed, and played with my hair. Tears came rushing out. Rose came in, sat next to me, and told me we were going to find my necklace. But I wasn’t crying about the necklace. Nor was I crying about Elana. I was crying about Greg and the way he felt about me.

  “Let’s go for a walk.” Rose gestured to the window. “It’s a beautiful day, despite the Nazis.”

  I walked over and rummaged through my suitcase until I found my golden dress with white flowers all over it. While I put on my dress, Rose talked about a huge tree that we could climb.

  Walking out the back door, I caught a glimpse of Greg at the top of the stairs, heading into Rose’s room. I didn’t tell Rose, because I didn’t want to cause any more trouble for him.

  A few minutes into the walk, we spotted the big tree. I was expecting the tree to be smaller, but Rose was absolutely right—it was huge! I ran to the tree and started climbing it. Although Rose was pretty good at a lot of things, I was the best at climbing. I climbed everything. Rose called me “Super Monkey.” After I made it to the top of the tree, Rose started climbing. When she reached the branch I was on, she told me to look at the horizon.

  At first, I didn’t know what she was talking about. What was so special about the horizon? I did as she said and poked my head through the leaves. I gasped. It was beautiful! I could see across the whole city of Copenhagen! I saw Tivoli Gardens and the Nazis on patrol. I saw many different kinds of houses; houses with red roofs, white roofs, brick roofs, and stone roofs. It was the most beautiful sight I had seen in my entire life!

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” asked Rose, her voice filled with awe. I couldn’t answer her. I had a lump in my throat.

  “Maya! Rose! Come down here!” someone yelled.

  I asked Rose who she thought it was. The voice called again, and this time I recognized it. Greg. We started climbing down. About halfway down, I spotted Greg holding something shiny and purple.

  My necklace! I thought to myself. I started climbing down faster. Greg told me to be careful or else I would fall. How could I go slower? It was my necklace he was holding! Speeding up, I slipped on a limb and started to plummet toward the ground.

  Bam! I hit the ground, falling flat on my face. Greg came running over to me, and Rose jumped from the tree. I pushed myself up and shook my head. Standing up, I realized I had fallen in a puddle of water.

  “Are you okay?” Rose asked.

  “Never mind me!” I said. “Greg, what’s in your hand?” He held out my necklace and told us that he found it in the sheets of my bed.

  As I was about to reach for it, I saw Leg Nazi stalking toward us. Alone, he looked less intimidating. I poked Rose on the side. She looked up and stiffened. The she elbowed Greg, and he froze.

  “Hey! What are you doing?” Leg Nazi shouted.

  “We were just climbing the tree to see the view, sir,” Rose said in a frightened voice.

  “Don’t you children know that this tree is a telegraph pole? When you climb on it, you block the signals! I don’t want anymore—” He stopped talking mid-sentence, narrowed his eyes, and spoke again in a slow, careful voice. “Aren’t you the little Jewish girl I shot?” he asked, pointing at me. “Yes, you are! Come, girl, you’re going with me.” He grabbed my arm and started pulling me toward a car.

  Rose screamed, and Greg kicked the Nazi in the back of his leg and grabbed me. Leg Nazi yelled in agony. He turned around and told Greg that he was coming with him too. Rose was still standing there, petrified, probably hoping for some help.

  Instead of grabbing me, Leg Nazi grabbed Rose and flung her over his shoulder. Greg, seeing his younger sister in such a terrible way, ran toward the Nazi and jumped on his back. The Nazi let go of Rose and started jumping around, trying to get Greg off. Rose fell to the ground and was lying unconscious.

  Arms aching, I ran to her and picked her up. She was pretty heavy for me, but I managed to run a few feet before tripping on a twig. “Stupid twig!” I cried out. I looked back at Greg and saw him being carried off toward the car. He was kicking and punching, but the Nazi was too strong for him. I looked to the right of the tree and saw three Nazis approaching Rose and me.

  They came closer and tried to pick me up. I was screaming as loudly as I could, hoping that the Coffman parents could hear me. The Nazis were trying hard to lift me, but I was holding onto a root. As the root pulled free from the ground, the Nazi snatched me up, and I saw Mr. Coffman running toward us. A couple of Nazis ran toward him, pushed him to the ground, and then held him back.

  The three Nazis holding Rose and me were heading toward the same car Greg was in. I stopped struggling, knowing I wasn’t going to break fre
e. Rose, still unconscious, and I were pulled in the back of the car where Greg was. The Nazis shut the car doors and started driving off. Greg and I could process only one thought: where were they taking us?

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Maya?” asked a voice. I looked up and saw Greg and a still sleeping Rose. I walked over to them and sat down next to Greg. The ground was made up of a mixture of gravel, mud, and bullet caps. The air smelled of death, and the air was hazy. Rose was sleeping on his lap and, as always, drooling.

  “How did you sleep?” Greg asked in a whisper.

  “Okay, I guess. Where are we?”

  “I think we’re at Auschwitz.”

  “Auschwitz! The concentration camp?” I shouted.

  “Shhh! Yes, the concentration camp.”

  I looked down and saw that I wasn’t wearing my own clothes. I was in a striped jumpsuit. “What am I wearing?” I asked angrily.

  “They took everything away from us and dressed us in these smelly outfits.”

  Immediately my hand went to my neck, and I clutched my necklace. I was so relieved that the Nazis didn’t take the only thing I had left to remind me of home. But how did it get on my neck?

  “Greg, did you keep the Nazis from getting my necklace?”

  “I held it while they were stripping us, and I put it on you after they took everything away.

  “Thank you so much. You don’t know how much this necklace means to me.”

  “It was nothing, Maya.” He paused and looked down and then back up at me. “Are you afraid?” Greg asked solemnly.

  “I’m not afraid to die as long as I know you and Rose are safe,” I told him.

  “Well, I didn’t mean … Are you afraid of me?” His dark, weary eyes darted back and forth between the ground and my eyes.

  “How could I be afraid of you when I know the truth?”

  He was puzzled by the remark, and I realized he didn’t know that I knew about his feelings.

  “Greg, we’re going to be all right,” I assured him.

  Looking up, he said, “I know we will. I’m not afraid to die either, not with you and Rose by my side.”

  We heard a little snicker. “You guys are too cute! Oh my god!” someone exclaimed. Greg jumped up, waking Rose with his hurried movements, and the two of us hurried to the curtain that served as a door. We looked out and saw desperate people in clothes that matched ours, big buildings, and barbed wire fences.

  “Who are these people?” Greg asked in a terrified voice.

  Rose joined us and looked past the curtain. “I think they’re all Jews,” she answered.

  Nazis were everywhere, yelling orders and beating people. I noticed a group of people led by a Nazi into a domed building. A few minutes later, the Nazi came back, but the group wasn’t with him.

  I walked out of the hut, and Rose followed. I needed to figure a way out of there. We walked around the camp. Many people were dirty and hurt. The ground was very hard and baking hot. It hurt to walk on the gravel. I looked around and spotted a Nazi and a young mother with an infant. The Nazi was pulling the woman’s arm, and the young mother was trying to escape. It looked like the Nazi wanted to take her baby away from her. The Nazi punched the woman in the face, and she crumpled to the ground, she dropped the baby.

  The baby hit the ground, and I ran to her side. I picked the baby up and looked for injuries. There were none I could see. I looked up and saw the Nazi dragging the mother away. I looked back down at the baby. She was a beautiful girl with peach-colored hair and indigo eyes. I guessed she was about seven months old.

  Rose came running over, with Greg following close behind her. She looked at the baby and smiled. The baby opened her eyes again and looked at me the way Elana had looked at me when she was born. We walked off to our hut and sat down on the ground.

  “What’s her name?” asked Greg, who was building a mountain of gravel.

  “I don’t know,” I answered. Looking down at the beautiful girl, I unwrapped her blankets. There was a golden locket with an engraving on the front. Around the engraving were flowers. I read it carefully: Achena.

  “Her name is Achena,” I announced softly. Rose walked over and opened the locket. There were two pictures—one of a woman, and one of a man.

  “They must be her parents,” Rose said. I wrapped Achena back up and got up off the floor.

  “Since the mother is gone, we must care for the baby,” I announced proudly, not knowing where the courage was coming from.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  A few mornings after we arrived at Auschwitz, I was feeding Achena some bread that I had scavenged. I started thinking about my family and how much I missed them. Greg and Rose were sleeping, so I woke them up and told them it was time for us to escape. Rose was excited at first, but then Greg said that we were sentenced to die in one week for assaulting a Nazi soldier. Rose became quiet and moped around the hut.

  “Look, we’re responsible for a baby who’s lived for only seven months, and we have a family back in Copenhagen!”

  Rose and Greg looked at me like I was mad. After a long silence, Greg said, “All right, fine. There’s really nothing else to do.”

  While we planned, Greg kept watch. Rose and I decided I would climb over the fence with Achena, and Rose would go under the fence. Greg would then stop the Nazis from catching us by distracting them, and then he would get help from a new friend that I had charmed named Steen. Next, Steen would lift Greg over the fence, to help him get away faster, and then he would distract the Nazis by threatening to kill himself. We would then catch the train and head toward Copenhagen.

  When we told Greg the plan, he laughed until he cried.

  “That’s not going to work,” he said, still laughing.

  “Why don’t you make a better plan?” I said angrily.

  “Okay, I will. We wait until the day we’re to be executed. The Nazis lead us into the gas chamber. Right when they’re about to push us in, I push them in the gas chamber and turn it on. So we have a few less Nazis to worry about. Then I rescue you and sacrifice myself, and you return to Copenhagen.”

  “Very nice plan, Greg, if you want to get us all killed!” I harshly whispered.

  “Let’s just climb through that hole over there in the fence. I found it yesterday when I was looking for food. It was hidden behind a barrel,” Rose said.

  “That’s a good idea,” I said, sighing in relief. “But let’s do it tonight when everybody is sleeping. We’ll go around midnight, okay? But for now, let’s get some rest.”

  “Maya, wake up,” Rose said in her calmest voice.

  I stood up and rolled my neck around a few times. My back was sore from sleeping on the ground. I peeked out of the hut to see if anyone was around.

  “The coast is clear,” I told Rose.

  “Okay, let’s go,” she whispered. I followed her outside the hut. The campground was deserted. Rose led us to the big hole that apparently the Nazis and other prisoners hadn’t seen. Once we got to the hole, I looked down at my necklace and whispered, “For Elana.”

  “Let’s go!” Rose whispered franticly. I hurried stealthily through the hole and followed Rose to a small building.

  “Where’s Greg?” I asked. He was supposed to be behind me, watching my back.

  “He went ahead with Achena. They’re probably on the road by now.”

  “What road?” I asked while looking left and right.

  “The road we’re going to take; it leads us to the train station.” Rose seemed to know her way around the area. “The gate should be this way,” she said, pointing to right. We walked to the right for some time, the only light being the moonlight, and soon enough we spotted the gate. There were seven Nazis in front of it. I thought to myself, How are we going to get past them? But Rose had a plan in mind, and I trust
ed her; after all, she was the one who had found the hole.

  Rose headed around a nearby building, motioned for me to follow her, and then threw a rock at one of the Nazis. Thankfully, it hit his back, and he fell forwards. One of the Nazis ran over to him, and the others came running in our direction.

  “Oh great! We’re going to get caught,” I whispered.

  Just then, Rose zoomed around the other side of the building and toward the gate. I followed after her. Luckily, the one Nazi was still preoccupied by his comrade on the ground, and the other Nazis were searching the building. Rose and I both grabbed the gate and pulled hard. The gate was heavy, so we lost precious seconds in our escape. After finally opening the gate, Rose ran to the left, out of sight of the Nazis, and then stopped in her tracks.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “What are we going to do?” I asked Rose. “Those are highly trained dogs!”

  “They’re German Shepherds,” she said calmly. Rose was the expert on dogs and other animals because she wanted to be a veterinarian. She knew their weaknesses and strengths. The dogs growled. Rose approached them very slowly and carefully. She put her hands in her pockets and sat down in front of them.

  “Rose, are you mad?” I said.

  She closed her eyes and leaned her head to the ground. The dogs backed off and stopped growling. Rose got up from the ground and slowly but confidently headed toward the road, subtly motioning for me to follow.

  “What the hell was that?” I asked furiously.” You could have been devoured!” She kept on moving and said nothing. I figured she was feeling overwhelmed with relief that we had actually escaped.

  After a few hours walking along the road, we caught up to Greg, who had been waiting for us under a tree and was trying to hush Achena. I grabbed Achena out of his arms and cradled her in my own while rocking back and forth. The sun was just on the verge of rising, and there was nothing in the landscape besides the road and dirt.

  Greg got up and hugged Rose. I could tell that he was glad to see her alive and not hurt. He then came over to me and hugged me tightly, though being careful not to disturb Achena. I could feel my face getting all red and hot. Greg laughed, and Rose joined in with a giggle. We started to walk along the road toward the train station that would lead us back to Copenhagen.