A Different World Read Online Free PDF Page B

when her husband arrived.
    ‘Jan!’ She dropped her bag and flung herself into his arms, making him rock back on his heels.
    He kissed her hungrily and then held her at arm’s length to look at her face. ‘You look worn out, sweetheart.’
    ‘Aren’t we all? You aren’t looking so good yourself. When did you last have a night’s sleep?’ She had never seen Jan looking so down. His face was pale and his blue eyes had lost their customary sparkle. Even his fair hair looked dull.
    ‘I forget.’
    ‘How long have you got now?’
    ‘Just as long as it takes to say goodbye.’
    ‘Goodbye,’ she echoed in dismay. ‘Jan, what’s happened?’
    ‘We have been ordered to fly to Romania and continue the fight from there.’
    ‘You can’t mean you are abandoning Poland?’
    ‘No, of course not, but we can’t risk losing the aircraft. The Allies were supposed to send us more, but it was considered too risky to land them on Polish soil and there’s been some problem about them landing in Romania. It’s probably only a mix-up, but we can’t count on them.’
    ‘What you mean is the war is lost.’ She was fighting back tears of disappointment and anger: disappointment that no practical help had arrived from Britain and France in spite of their promises, and anger that no one seemed able to do anything against the onslaught. And worst of all, Jan was leaving the country. It wasn’t his fault, he had to obey orders, but she railed against those who had issued the orders.
    ‘We have to concede that the battle is lost for the moment,but it is not the end. Poland will fight on.’ He spoke with enough fervour to convince her he meant it. ‘All the same, I want you to leave, get out while you can.’
    ‘I can’t do that, Jan, I’m needed here. There’s my work at the hospital. They can’t spare me. And Mama and
Tata
refuse to go and I can’t leave them.’ Unlike Jan who came from Białystok, she was a true Varsovian and no one had given her any orders to leave.
    ‘But I can’t bear to think of you here in the middle of all this bombing. And when the
shkopy
come …’
    ‘If they come. Perhaps they will be stopped before they get this far.’
    ‘Perhaps,’ he said, but he didn’t sound very convincing. ‘But if they get close, promise me you’ll leave. Make for Romania. If you can get to France, so much the better.’
    ‘I’ll think about it if I have to. You never know, the situation might improve.’
    ‘If it doesn’t?’
    ‘Then I’ll leave.’
    He pulled her into his arms again. ‘I wish I didn’t have to go. I should be here, protecting you, not running away …’
    ‘You aren’t running away, Jan. You’d never run away from anything. I never knew anyone so fearless.’
    ‘You’re pretty fearless yourself, my love.’
    ‘I’m doing my job, just as you are doing yours. When do you think we’ll be together again?’
    ‘God knows. I’ll try and get word to you where I am. Perhaps later you’ll be able to join me.’
    ‘Or the war will end and you will come back.’
    ‘Or the war will end and I will come back,’ he said.
    He stopped only long enough to share a last meal with her and then he hugged and kissed her one last time and was gone. Shemanaged to remain dry-eyed until the door closed on him, then she sank onto a chair at the table, still scattered with the remains of their meal, put her arms on the table and her head on her arms and sobbed her heart out.
    But wars were not won with tears. She mopped them up, rinsed her face in cold water and went back to work. Nursing the sick and injured would stop her dwelling on her own misery. There were plenty of people far worse off than she was.
     
    Riding a motorcycle borrowed from a colleague Jan made his way over the bridge and turned south, avoiding the debris of bombed buildings which spilt out onto the streets and the hoses of the men fighting the fires. He hoped and prayed Rulka would see sense and leave. As soon as he arrived in