Page 226 - LEIBY

226 Leiby – Border Smuggler

A sudden gunshot shattered the window, and a bullet whistled
its way inside.

“Lie down on the floor, hands on your head,” Leiby shouted,
and ran for cover behind a heavy wall closet. Max and the
professor dropped down to the floor and lay there unmoving,
covering their heads with their trembling hands. Bullets
continued to fly, landing in the precise spot where they had
been sitting just a moment before. If they hadn’t obeyed Leiby’s
instructions immediately, they’d both have become pieces of
history themselves.

Max looked in horror at the bullet holes in the wall, just above
the chair that he had sat on.

“The Poles want to kill the few Jews that are still alive,” Leiby
observed. “They don’t know the difference between a proud Jew
like me and an assimilated one like you.”

“They’re Fascists… enemies of the people and the regime.”
Max hissed. “Once we purge Poland of them, we will be able
to live in peace in our glorious, prosperous country.” During all
the commotion, Max’s knapsack had opened up and a folded
picture fell out of it. Leiby grabbed the picture and stared at in
disbelief. It was the picture that he had found at the bottom of
the sugar jar, the picture of the last group of refugees to have
stayed on the farm, with little Miriam among them. Hastily
he counted the people on the photograph. There were thirty-
one in all. In the memorial ceremony, they had mentioned only
twenty-nine people. Was it possible that two had remained
alive?