Annexation, continued

It was twelve hours ago that we had entered dreaded No-Mans Land that separated the Communist East from our goal, Democratic West Germany. After that rainy night the air was murky, but in the first light of dawn we could notice a road ahead. Was it the West? We hurried forward to look for a road marker. There was one! It was the very same we had passed twelve hours earlier.

Stunned beyond words we stood rooted to the ground, when out of the mist a bicyclist emerged. We should have run. But we could not stir. We stood as if turned to stone.

The man bicycled closer. We could see his gun, probably a border guard. I was sure he'd shoot us, but I was too tired to care. He kept coming closer. Then stopped. Father reached into his pocket and handed him something while explaining our predicament.

“Go this way and that … ” we heard him say. “You’ll come to a large meadow with a creek. You’ll have to cross both. On the far side begins the American sector. The soldiers guarding the area have orders to shoot. So run fast. Good luck.”

It was full daylight when we reached that meadow, a vast, forbidding place. We stared at its vastness. There, at the other side, we saw our goal, the Western sector of Germany, the free world. We could see it clearly, but we were too exhausted to feel its promise; it had been a long night. We stared at the meadow, then at Father, and for an instance I perceived a hopeful, encouraging flicker of a smile and a tiny nod. It signaled go.

We ran with pounding hearts. We ran for our lives. We dared all to reach freedom.

Until next time,

Rosi

Adapted from The Madman & His Mistress