Page 210 - LEIBY

210 Leiby – Border Smuggler

against the Jews years before, now lamenting the fate of Jews.
Just as strange was the infuriating apathy and lack of any real
action on the part of the Soviet Polish government against the
armed mobs that ran wild in the area.

The border guards feared for their lives. They were a
comparatively small group in a hostile zone, with a murderous
resistance mob threatening revenge. That very day, a new troop
of soldiers arrived as reinforcement and the nearby villages were
thoroughly searched. The Russian investigators left no stone
unturned in an effort to track down the gang who roamed the
area, but the endless green shrubbery that covered the Polish
fields covered some dark, ominous secrets too.

Leiby returned to the farm. He harbored a fervent hope that
Alexander and little Miriam had survived after all, and he
would find them waiting patiently at the farm. In his mind’s
eye, he could see Alexander’s quiet but energetic figure, his
slightly abashed smile, and his sky-blue eyes. Was it possible
that he had he survived the attack?

He ran as fast as he could and found the farm as quiet and still
as night.The tall pine trees in the courtyard prevented him from
seeing anything through the windows, but the fence that had
been crudely ripped open in his absence stopped him sharply
in his tracks. Leiby’s heart began beating wildly; he would not
dare enter the building until he had ascertained that there was
no intruder still there. He picked up a handful of pebbles, threw
them at one of the windows and waited, holding his breath.

A small gray figure shot out of the window, emitting a thin
plaintive cry.

“Yaktarina,” Leiby called to the pet cat that ran across the
courtyard in a terrified frenzy. “Is the farm empty?”

The cat just licked his shoes with her long tongue, leaving milk
stains behind.

Leiby tiptoed silently into the farm. The first room he turned to