Page 209 - LEIBY

Chapter 27 209

A bloodcurdling scream was heard from the distance and
Leiby’s heart clenched in fear. After a second all was utterly
silent again.

For a full day Leiby waited impatiently for the group, but in
vain. He sat with the guards, drank their last drops of vodka
together with them, smoked a vile Russian mechurka,30 and
waited.

But the hours dragged on and the group failed to arrive. Late
at night, several somber looking policemen came. Something
terrible had happened, Leiby was sure of it.

They clustered together with the border guards and an urgent
whispered conversation ensued.

“What happened?” Leiby, tense as a coiled spring, repeatedly
asked the Tatar who had become his friend during the long
hours of waiting.

“There’s been some trouble. The Fascists have struck again!”

The bitter picture slowly took shape and became clear to Leiby.
He pieced together bits of information that he overheard
until he had the whole story in his mind. The group had been
ambushed, either by the N.S.Z. or by the A.K., and they had all
been murdered.

“But it can’t be true! Mirushka, Yosef ’s little sister was with
them! He’s waiting to meet up with her!”Leiby cried desperately.

“That’s life, boy, it’s the price of war,” the Tatar told him.

“But the war’s long over,” Leiby protested.

“Yes, you’re right, but for you Jews nothing is ever simple.” The
soldier nodded in genuine unfeigned sympathy.

There was something bizarre about the sight of a Tatar soldier,
descendant of Cossacks who had carried out vicious pogroms

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