Page 20 - LEIBY

20 Leiby – Border Smuggler

limousine moving slowly, evidently on the lookout for someone
or something. The Soviets had taken over the city and their first
move was a wave of arrests of anyone who they suspected of
being disloyal to them.

Leiby felt a tremor run down his back. He stared at the car
apprehensively, watching as it approached his home – or rather,
the home that had been his until yesterday. Two men stepped
out of the car and marched up to the front door and stopped
there. They were dressed in civilian clothing, but their proud
stride and severe expressions clearly labeled them as policemen.
Had they come to arrest him? But why on earth? He had been
at the draft office and received a legal exemption. Could they
have come for Mama, or Chava? But what trumped-up charge
could the Soviets possibly have against them? They spent all
their time looking for surviving relatives. Had someone decided
that they were spies?

Suddenly he saw the two men who had entered the house just
a few minutes before. They now came out of the door, dragging
a third person with them. Leiby strained to see. It was Stefan!
They had arrested Stefan! They had not come for him after all!
Leiby felt weak with relief. With Stefan out of the way, he had
one enemy less, and was at less risk of having all his dreams of
freedom shattered.

The car drove off and disappeared around the corner. Leiby
hurried to the house. A large sign had been hung on the door
– “Lida Police Force”. He tried opening the door, but it was
locked. Left with no choice, he returned to the house that he
had found the day before.

Mama and Chava arrived on the first train the next morning.
They had come back fatigued and sorely disappointed from their
search for relatives, a search that had proved utterly fruitless.
Brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, nephews and nieces –
their extended family had numbered about a hundred people,
but not one had survived apart from them.

Leiby waited for his mother and sister next to the house, and