church. But when the war ended, Ivan decided to return to teaching. For a long time Ivan was passed from one official to another each one more senior than the last. Finally, Ivan was seen by the most senior official in the town. From his expression Ivan could tell that no good was going to come of this meeting. The official spent a long time shuffling his papers about and then started talking on his telephone. Finally, he fixed his gaze on Ivan.
“And what do you want?” he asked irritated not even bothering to offer his visitor a seat.
Ivan didn’t even bat an eyelid, concisely explained his request and ended by saying:
“I want to return to my job as a teacher.”
“How can we possibly let a priest teach in our wonderful school!” the party boss replied rudely.
“I graduated from university in the engineering and mathematics faculty. In fact, the same department that your boss graduated from,” Ivan replied with dignity.
This only maddened the official even more because he had only finished secondary school with difficulty. He smashed his fist down on the table and said:
“Well, Mr Former teacher and turncoat priest, you can only change back into a teacher again if you renounce your faith in writing and by official declaration on the radio. Repent by telling the people that everything you were doing in the church was a just a lie to trick them," continued the boss.
It was then that Ivan understood everything. He abruptly turned to the door saying:
“That is something that I will never do. I will never betray the faith of our fathers! It is with great pleasure that I will remain Father John,” and left the room without another word.
The boss went green with anger and decided there and then to ruin Ivan’s work as a priest.
The cousins were very upset when they saw this scene. Ivan needed help urgently. The Wise Old Man pressed the red button. In an instant Michael and Ben found themselves in the self-important official’s office and not a moment too soon because he had already dialled the local bishop’s number. Michael quickly rendered the petty tyrant’s phone useless. When the ring tone went dead the boss became even angrier and began to bang the receiver but all to no avail. Then abruptly he paced out of his office. The boys ran after him, totally unseen. The boss flew into his assistant’s office where an urgent meeting was being held. Having stormed into the main department of the administration and aware of the surprised gazes of his subordinates, the boss understood that it would be quite impossible for him to make his phone call from here. Although atheism was the official doctrine, he knew full well that the vast majority of people in the town baptised their children and observed the major religious festivals.
“Oh well, it can wait. I’ll go and see the Bishop myself a bit later.” He thought to himself.
But as soon as Ivan came home he sat down to write a letter to the highest authorities in the republic, setting out in detail how he had taken holy orders. He included a hand written document from the partisans thanking him for his help during the war and another one from the military authorities for the part he had played in rescuing and hiding some prisoners in the church. The letter ended up being quite long and bulky. Having sealed the letter he set off to post it in the local post box. At that moment Michael and Ben appeared and offered to post Ivan's letter for him.
“Let us post it for you, Father,” but having weighed it in their hands they persuaded him that the letter would be best sent from the main post office.
Ivan was very glad:
“Oh yes please, do send it.”
The next day Ivan had a meeting with the Bishop. The Bishop knew perfectly well the conditions that our priests had to work in in those days. He thoroughly understood Ivan’s position and promised him his support. Sometime later the petty tyrant was removed from his post and Ivan was even sorry that he had sent his letter to the senior authorities. But then one day he opened the door of his desk to find the very same letter torn into small pieces. It was only then that he let out a big sigh of relief: “Thank God I never sent it.”
The cousins had carried out a very important mission on that occasion. They had managed to put right a very serious mistake made by Ivan. The Wise Old Man had shown the boys how Ivan’s letter would have been sent on by the senior authorities to the secret police with the order: “to take the appropriate measures." An investigation would have been made on Ivan and his close relatives. And at the very least they would have been kept on file. Thus, they forgot all about Ivan and he continued to quietly serve his community.
The post war period was particularly hard. The cousins witnessed how their grandmother and her sister were sent to join the bread queue in the middle of the night. One time when they got near the front of the line, the bread ran out.
The boys immediately pressed the red button and found themselves in the bread shop. Looking into the room behind the shop counter the lads could see several sacks of bread. The boys grabbed the sacks and poured the bread out on to the counter. The people in the queue were outraged and the shopkeeper quickly decided to sell the bread after all. The boys’ grandmother and her sister, who were still very small girls at the time, were over the moon – they had managed to get a whole loaf of bread for the family. But when they got home they were even more amazed to see another loaf sitting on the table. But how could it have got there? When Michael and Ben had seen how happy the sisters had been they decided to leave another loaf at their house. Nevertheless, life began to somehow get better especially when the leading positions in the city were taken over by people who had been at the front and therefore knew the value of life. At that time Kamianets-Podilskyi, which was still a fairly modest town, was headed by the former commander of a detachment of partisans. He quickly got the town back on its feet. He had houses rebuilt and replanted the parks, which wound their way around the cliffs surrounding the whole town. But most importantly he restored the old bridge that spanned the huge fifty metre cliffs separating the Old and New parts of the town from each other.
When grandmother was still studying at school her sister, who had graduated with a secondary medical education, began to work as a nurse in the hospital. She was a kind, clever and very energetic girl and all her patients loved her very much. Naturally, she was noticed and invited to join a youth organisation. And she began to invest all her good nature and energy into this organisation as well. However, working in the leading posts of this organisation was a difficult test. These Komsomol organisations had always been full of dark energy. And grandmother’s sister had to take a stand on a number of occasions, while agreeing with certain other things on other occasions. And by acting as this buffer, she was able to protect the whole family, although she suffered a great deal in the process.
Michael and Ben observed how things were in those days and their amazement knew no bounds. Next to grandmother’s house there grew a huge lime tree. Their grandmother would hide with a book in its branches and read and read and read for many a long hour. And she and the other children would play “Germans and partisans” in the adjoining building that had been shelled during the war. All that was left of it were the walls that kept it standing. But the children would jump from the walls through the empty gaping holes that had once been windows and not one of them was hurt in the slightest. Of course there was a secret reason for this.
The cousins looked at the Wise Old Man who smiled enigmatically and pressed another button on the control panel. Immediately, the boys saw how several Angels flew alongside the children and protected them. Having played their fill in the building the children, with the boys’ grandmother amongst them, would happily run down to the river. They would scramble down the sheer faces of the cliffs to bathe in the river.
One day the children set off to bathe a long way from the town. Michael and Ben’s grandmother swam out into the middle of the river, got into difficulties and was beginning to drown. Quickly Ben pressed
the red button and the cousins found themselves standing on the banks of the river. However, at that moment a big wave washed over the feet of a man sitting nearby on the bank causing him to look up and see the young girl in difficulty. He quickly undressed and dived into the water. A minute later and the young girl was sitting on the river bank and even complaining about being fished out of the water. The cousins were very relieved that their grandmother had been rescued.
Soon after that Michael and Ben witnessed a real wonder. It was raining but nevertheless the sun was shining brightly. The sun’s rays played on the large drops of rain lending them all the hues and colours of the rainbow. It looked as if diamonds were being scattered from the sky. The children ran barefoot in the rain, opening out their arms and joyfully taking in each drop. The Wise Old Man explained:
“This sun rain comes from directly from God’s heaven and is extremely good for you.”
Quickly Ben pressed the red button. In an instant he and Michael were also running under these wonderful shining droplets of rain. When the cousins raised their eyes to the sky it seemed to be full of smiling angels.
The Princess’s Ring
Michael and Ben's strange and
The Stolen Star Page 17