Jacob's Oath Read Online Free PDF Page A

shadow flickered
     up the wall and across the ceiling. He looked a monster. He slid out his leather belt
     with its metal buckle, let it hang from one hand, and snapped it like a gunshot. With
     his other hand he drank from the bottle. He flicked the belt again and pointed at
     Sarah. Up, he said, with the bottle at his lips.
    Off, he gestured, pointing at her shirt. Off, pointing at her dress. Off, he panted,
     pointing at her knickers.
    He pointed at her knickers again.
    Off, he said.
    Off, you bitch.
    Off!
    Sarah couldn’t, her strength deserted her. She sank to her knees, covering her bare
     breasts with her crossed arms. She cried, she begged, tears ran into her mouth. She
     screamed and screamed again as the leather bit into her bare back. She looked up to
     beg for mercy and she saw him drinking from the bottle. As the belt came down again
     she stopped it with her arm. It curled around her wrist and its speed burned her and
     the buckle caught her in the eye, which went black and starry. With a yelp she stood
     up and fell against him and bit his hand as hard as she could and scratched his face.
    He roared. And then he roared again, this time in laughter. Another swig, and he hurled
     the bottle against the wall and it smashed to pieces. The motion made him stumble.
     He grabbed Sarah by the hair and pulled her around so hard she felt her scalp would
     be pulled from her head. He twisted her arm until she felt it wrenching from her shoulder.
     With one tug he tore her knickers from her body. I’m going to die here, her head screamed,
     I don’t want to die, don’t let me die. She sobbed and whispered, “Don’t hurt me.”
    Sarah sank to the ground. Her jerking limbs were all around her, spreadeagled across
     the bricks and debris. She had lost control of her body. The soldier kicked her in
     the stomach and then kicked away the mess to clear a space.
    Her sobbing and shaking ended when an icy hand gripped Sarah from inside and clutched
     her heart. It froze her senses. She felt nothing, saw nothing, heard nothing. It was
     all happening without her. She wanted to live. She would do anything to live.

 
    FOUR
    Near Bergen-Belsen,
April 30, 1945
    Jacob stretched in a field of white blossoms at the foot of a giant birch tree on
     the Lüneburg Heath. His head rested on moss that softened the tangle of knotted roots.
     A stray nightingale, its ocher tail glinting in the sun, trilled as it perched on
     a branch over purple lavender. He inhaled the fragrant herbs, sweet and full, and
     gazed through shimmering leaves at puffs of clouds drifting in from the east across
     the sharp blue sky.
    And felt free as a bird.
    I’ll take my clothes off and lie in the clear water, he thought. Surely there’s a
     babbling brook nearby, it’s so perfect here. I’ll lie on the pebbles and let the water
     run over me. I’ll dip my head and shake my hair like a happy dog. I’ll sit in the
     water and wash my sorry body.
    He shivered. How often had he gazed at the sky and dreamed of this? They all had.
     The Nazis had taken everything in the camp, especially their lives. But two things
     they couldn’t take: their dreams and the sky. He closed his eyes and there, urging
     themselves across his inner vision, was all he could remember of the faces of Willi,
     Mordka, Mendel, Zelman, Abela, as much as he could remember of them, and Maxie, poor
     little Maxie.
    He stroked the earth that held their bones.
    Shading his eyes from the sun, following a little bird that was swooping and plunging
     after its mate, seeing them come to rest side by side on a branch, Jacob became aware
     of a dull ache in his head. He closed his eyes and saw Maxie again, clear as a photo,
     with a slowly spreading smile. Jacob smiled back. It was baby Maxie, not dying Maxie.
     Little Maxie shrugged his shoulders and his face became old and lined. Jacob’s smile
     became a frown as Maxie raised the palms of his hands, as if to say, My brother, I’d
     like to