Caught Between Heaven And Hell

The Hike - Amelie

I was up early. I was awoken at 4.00 am. I was still tired, but couldn’t sleep. I stayed in bed and thought about things until the sun shone through my window. I pulled out my sketching pad and looked at the drawing I had made the day before. Then thought of something sinister. Nikolas was getting to me with his constant slurs of the people that we had seen. He always referred to them in horrible terms.
I hated how he said it all the time and had the others believing they was bad. I drew him with his hair shaved and his big ears sticking out the sides. I made his face look dirty by smudging the sides of his face and then drew a collar with the pattern of blue and white stripes. He looked sad as he frowned back at me. Then I begun to think. I wondered what it would be like to be in that place. I wonder how it would be for me, let alone Nikolas.
Then I took that ugly thought from my mind and ripped the page from the book, scrunched it up and put it in my backpack. I held the book and concentrated on what I had seen, what was happening. All in front of all the countries noses. Their blank faces, their tried, thin bodies, their exhausted efforts. Why were they like this? What made them so bad to Germany?
I sat in the room for a few hours and then decided not to have breakfast. I walked back up stairs while the others finished off their porridge and again put things in my back pack incase we go to the bush or somewhere. Nikolas and the others trampled up the stairs just after I put the sketching pad in the bag.
‘Dad is bringing filth into our house.’ He said in a sort of sulking tone. He was talking just outside my room. I didn’t go out. I didn’t want to hear the conversation.
‘Why?’ Rafael asked.
‘For labor, off course, silly.’ Pius answered.
‘Oh, well can we talk to them?’ Abigail asked. I felt like giving her a light stare for even asking.          
‘No.’ Nikolas quickly snarled at the question. ‘We don’t associate with those things!’ I felt like lashing out and telling him off, but I knew that was a one-way ticket home. Where I didn’t want to be. ‘Come on then, lets go.’ He ran down the stairs and I come out and we followed him a lot slower down the stairs. I could see the Jews at the bottom. They looked around our age and were being horribly threatened. I couldn’t help showing a sign of sadness on my face as I brushed by. Then I noticed one of them looking at me. It was a girl, her hair was shaved off and then something strange occurred to me. She looked the same as me. In the face at least. We looked so similar. Same features and same colors. But I didn’t stare. I kept on walking. I come to the conclusion that she must not have looked that much like me, she was Jewish. She was bald too, so I just couldn’t really tell. But I looked at her for a moment and she looked at me, just the same. Then she quickly turned when she was being yelled at. I hoped I didn’t get her in trouble so I ran off with the others.

We went for a walk like I predicted. There was nothing to do here. But as the others ran, I begun to feel hungry and tired. So I told them to run on. I went back to the house. In the kitchen I sat while nobody was home. There was a guard in the house for the Jews but they had locked the reasonably tall gates. So they were let to do their work without a guard watching. But I figured there was no way that they could steal. They would be caught on return back to their camp.
I yawned and then noticed that one of them entered the kitchen. It was the girl, the one who had my features.
She locked her eyes on me and hunched up her back in a fit of fear. Her eyes were as wide as light globes and she was frightened by my presence. She quickly turned and went to leave.
‘Wait!’ I heard myself call. ‘Don’t be scared.’
‘I-I-I can’t talk to you or look at you.’ She trembled.
‘Its okay. I am the only one here.’ I said kindly. ‘I am not like them. You don’t have to be scared. I am friendly. I promise.’ I didn’t know what to say to calm her. I am not good at that sort of thing.
‘Y-Y-You won’t hurt me?’ She spoke with the same tone as me.
‘No, I won’t.’ I reassured. Pausing for a moment .‘Are you from that place?’
‘Yes...’ Her hands shook as she finally turned to face me.
‘I’m so sorry. Do you get treated badly, and think that I am going to hurt you?’ I asked with intense sympathy in my voice, as I stared at her scared face.
‘You seem…’ She stayed still, still with fear. ‘I mean, err…’
‘It is okay.’ I waited for her to speak and then made a new line of conversation. ‘Where did you come from?’
‘G-Germany.’ She stuttered.
‘I am too.’ I stood up and walked closer. She smelt of a horrible smell. Not that I cared. We looked at each other so close that I could see my own reflection in her scared, rich eyes. ‘What is your name?’
‘Maria.’
‘Amelie.’ I stuck out my palm and she raised a weak hand. I could feel the dirt and dryness as she frailly shook my hand. Then we let go. She looked at the fresh bread on the dining table. ‘Want some bread?’
‘I ca-‘ I took it off the table and gave it to her. She shoveled it down her throat and licked her lips in delight. ‘Thank you.’ She whimpered and turned her head, about to go back to work.
‘What is your birthday?’ I asked. Hoping for an answer to my lingering questions.
‘It was three days ago.’ It was the same day as mine. I knew right there and then. ‘I haven’t had any food since and I was stupid and threw stale bread away.’ She shook more as she spoke. Then regretted speaking.
‘Take some more,’ I offered, reaching for more food.
‘I can’t, if I am found with it…’ She shook. ‘Who knows…’
‘Oh.’ I realized the intensity of what was happening to this girl. Then I saw the guard opening the gates. ‘Quick, get back to work. Guard coming! They will see you.’ I cried feeling scared for her safety. She picked up a box and I ran upstairs to my room. I felt a strange feeling that made me wonder…had I just met my twin?
I quickly lashed out paper and a pen and begun writing to my parents.
I kept that in my bag and thought that I would send it tomorrow. We’re heading to town for the first time. I was excited, but still, the question lingers in my mind about this girl. Maria.


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