Stolen Child Read Online Free PDF

plywood that another man held in place. Three walls of the bedroom were already covered.
    Before the walls went up, the house had seemed open and airy and free. I wish it could have stayed like that. But I breathed in deeply the scent of fresh sawdust and pasted a smile onto my face for Ivan.
    He looked up when he heard us step in. “Here are my girls,” he said, grinning.
    “You are such a fast builder!” said Marusia.
    “I wanted to have the walls up before you got to Brantford,” said Ivan. “But I’ve been working overtime the past few weeks and the days got away from me.” He gestured towards the other men. “What would I do without my good friends?”
    “You all must be hungry,” said Marusia. “We shall make you something to eat.”
    The sound of nails echoed through the kitchen as I helped Marusia put something quick together. Once the men had eaten and finished up their work, they left, promising to be back the next day.
    Ivan and Marusia sat on the cinder-block step, sipping mugs of tea after everyone had left. I sat on my swing and listened to their conversation.
    “When do you sleep, Ivashko?” Marusia asked, brushing his forehead with her fingertips. “You barely closed your eyes last night before it was time for you to get up.”
    “I will sleep once the house is finished,” said Ivan.
    “Can you take a rest now?” asked Marusia. “Why don’t you lie down on the mattress?”
    “It’s still light out,” he protested. “I can get some more work done on the house.”
    “Come.” Marusia took his hand. “We’ll lie down for a few minutes together. Just to rest our eyes.”
    I wanted to give them some time on their own. After all, they hadn’t been married for very long, and they had been apart for a year. I got up from the swing and headed towards the front yard.
    “Where are you going?” called Marusia.
    “Exploring,” I called back, trying hard to look happy.
    “Stay in the neighbourhood,” she said. “And come home before it gets dark.”
    I smiled to myself at that. Did Marusia really think I would go very far? I sat on the front steps for a while and looked up and down the street. Maybe I would just sit here for an hour. I could hear children playing in the distance and a car or two passed. Once, a man wearing a suit and carrying a lunch box walked by. He tipped his hat to me and smiled, so I smiled back. That small gesture made me feel safer, I don’t know why. Maybe this new life we had invented would be all right.
    Mychailo had said that Central School was down the street from me. It couldn’t be very far. I took a deep breath and stood up. I am a Canadian girl now, I told myself. And Canadian girls walk down the street by themselves without fear.
    I forced myself to walk away from the house and down the street. I felt a little bit scared to be doing this, but I was proud of myself too. And the soft breeze on my face feltgood. I walked past Miss MacIntosh’s house until I got to George Street and then I saw what had to be the school: a huge old yellow brick building two and a half storeys high, with a circular driveway in the front and a huge lawn.
    There weren’t many buildings this big left standing in Germany. It felt eerily safe to be walking in this unfamiliar area all by myself. There were no bombs, no men in uniform, no burnt-out buildings, no barbed wire.
    I walked up to one of the windows and peered in. It was a classroom with rows of desks and various posters pinned to the wall. This one had a portrait of King George above the chalkboard — I recognized it from some of the coins I’d seen.
    Which rulers had been on the walls of my other classrooms? I drew a blank. I sat down in the grass and leaned against the wall of the school. It wasn’t time to go home yet. Perhaps I could walk just a bit farther? Three blocks away was a beautiful park, a church, and some rich looking buildings across the road.
    The building beside the church caught my eye. It had four