The Key of Living

I remember going outside to my garden, lying down on the grass, playing with my dog, without a care in the world. That was a month ago, now everything has changed.

We all knew that we were having some problems with Germany, and that conflict would come up, but we didn’t know it would be this bad.

It all started about four weeks ago. My older brother, Aleksander, and me, had only just come back from Warsaw centre, where we had gone to buy materials for my mother’s dress shop. They didn’t produce the fabrics we needed in our town, Zbytki. It’s a very small town, not many people have heard of it, but it will always be my home. When we got home, my mother came to see the materials that we had brought. My father, Jakub, had gone to work and he had taken my younger brother Filip with him. My dad was a railway worker; he didn’t really enjoy what he did, but it paid him enough money to maintain his family. After all, we were an extensive family. Filip really liked trains, so father had taken Filip with him to see them.

“Lena, you forgot to buy the fabric I especially told you to buy!” This was my mom talking; she was very mad, and I knew how special those fabrics were to her, so I decided to go back to Warsaw City and get more. But it was very late, so I decided to wait until tomorrow to go, the shops would be closed anyway.

I woke up the next day, determined to go back to the city to fix the mistake I had made and make my mother happy. It was a cloudy day; it drizzled a bit sometimes, but not too much so that I couldn’t go to get the materials I needed. I hadn’t even told mother I was going, it was going to be a surprise, when I would come back with the material she terribly wanted, she would be really happy and forgive me for forgetting yesterday. I got dressed and ready to go. I was going to go by bicycle, because I wasn’t allowed to go with any other transport, you had to be 14 and I was still two years too young. I started feeling ill, my stomach started hurting and I had a pounding headache. No, I thought, I must get this for mother, I’ll lie down when I get back. I was heading to fetch my bicycle, from the shed behind my house, and suddenly I fell.

When I had woken up, I didn’t know where I was. My vision was still blurred, but when It cleared up, I saw my mother fetching a hot towel and putting it on my forehead. And then she started talking to me, I was terrified she was going to be angry, but it turns out she was just worried.

- “You’ve caught a fever; it was probably yesterday while you were out. I’m glad Aleksander hasn’t caught it.”

I couldn’t believe my luck. Now I had to stay in a few more days until I got better, and I wasn’t going to be able to get the fabric. I’m definitely a disappointment to my mother, I thought, I’m sure.

I spent a few days in bed, and three days later I was ready to go again. So, I left on my bicycle and set off to Warsaw. I got there, I bought the fabric, I even bought mother a present so that she would forgive me. But then, I suddenly heard an alarm. It was like a siren, and didn't stop, it was pounding in my ears. There must be something bad going on, I thought, for there to be alarms. And indeed, something bad was occurring. I looked up and saw four or five airplanes flying over the city, and then things started coming out of the airplanes. There was something coming down, towards where I was, but I didn’t recognize what it was.

As soon as I saw it clearer, I dropped everything and ran. I ran as fast as I could, away from the city, and into the forest. I just kept running and running, for half an hour, until I had to stop. A bomb! I couldn’t believe they were releasing bombs. My heart was about to jump out of my chest; I hadn’t been more tired in my life. But I kept going. I ran until I finally arrived back to my house. I took a minute to catch my breath and then started informing my family about it. Luckily, our house was very far away from Warsaw City and hidden in the forest, with only two houses next to ours. My father and Filip had arrived, so we were all safe. Thank god.

The days continued, we could hear the alarms and people screaming. Whenever we heard an airplane, we all tensed up, hoping it would just fly by and not see us. When we were more informed about what had happened, we realised that it was the German Luftwaffe, which had bombarded Warsaw, declaring a war. Everyone was thoroughly shocked, and we were all down, we could scarcely put a smile on our face.

And then it arrived.

About a week later, a letter arrived, asking Aleksander to join the air force, to be able to fight back the Germans. We all begged him not to go, but he had no choice. So, the next day, he went off to the air force.

And then another one arrived.

Another letter arrived, but this time it was for father. My parents were talking in their room. But I was too nervous to wait until they told us what the letter was, so I decided to listen to their conversation. It turns out, that since the war had started, they no longer needed railway workers, they needed soldiers. So, they had asked him to become a soldier to go to Germany and fight. Again, he had no choice. So, he waved us goodbye with tears in his eyes, and left through the front door.

I couldn’t believe this was all happening so fast, half of my family was off in war, and to top it all off, my mother had gotten sick from the fever I had had. I had to take care of my mother and look out for Filip. We were all in a state of dreadful misery, and things couldn’t be worse.

A few days later, it seemed like fighting had stopped. Everything was suddenly silent and peaceful, and I breathed a sigh of relief. My mother was getting better, and for now we couldn’t hear sirens or any screaming.

But that didn’t last very long.

One day, I was in my room, reading a book from my favourite author, Jane Austen. When I started hearing alarms again, it all suddenly became loud, and I heard a plane. At first it was far away, but then it started getting closer and closer. Until I looked through the window, and I saw that it was right above us.

Then something started to fall.

I screamed to my mother and to Filip, running as fast as I could to get them out of the house. My mother and I got out fine and started running. But while Filip was going down the stairs, he tripped. And suddenly it landed and blew up. It blew up the entire house and Filip. My mother started screaming, as if she had been shot, and I started crying hysterically. I couldn’t believe it, little Filip. He was only seven and had so much life left to live.

We sat in silence for a moment, wondering whether this was just a dream or a horrible reality. But then we heard more planes and decided we had to leave before they got to us. We ran through the forest and past a small river, we ran so much our whole bodies started to hurt. Until we saw a house in the distance, it was very concealed with the forest and impossible for anyone to see it. From what we could see, it also had a bunker. So, we decided to go to see if anyone was there. After all, we were destitute. We knocked on the door and a man and a woman opened it, they were very nice people. We told them our situation, and they let us hide in their bunker, until things cleared out.

Sometime later, I sat in the bunker, thinking about my past life. How it was all so altered now. I never knew, that so much could change in so little time. But then again, life is unpredictable. Anything could happen and will happen. So, I sat there, with my mother next to me, both of us praying that Jakub and Aleksander were safe, and that they would come back soon. I felt like I knew a lot more things than I did a month ago, I had lived many more experiences.

But what I didn’t know, is that there was worse to come. But I wasn’t going to worry about that yet. When I was little, and I would fall or would find myself in a bad situation, that hope was the key to living. That if you had hope, you would manage through whatever your problem was. So, I have found a new way of embracing all situations; even if things are the worst, they could possibly be, even if more dreadful things come along, hope, will guide me through this. I will see my father again; my brother will come back from the air force, and may Filip rest in peace, he will be in a better place.