The Second Winter Read Online Free PDF Page A

his comrades’ approval, and they gave itto him. One of them shouted a word Polina couldn’t decipher. Another whistled.
    “Mama,” Polina whispered again. Her voice was barely more than a hiss. Somehow, though, her mother heard it, and across the distance that separated them, their eyes met. Polina took a step forward. The soldier was fingering her mother’s chin. Smoke from his cigarette was mixing with the mist, like a tincture of blood dropped into a glass of water. There was hair on his knuckles — black hair that Polina could see through the snow. His fingernails were as yellow as wax. She took another step, but her mother shook her head —
no!
— and Polina stopped. Ania wouldn’t let go of her daughter’s eyes. She was determined not to let Polina approach.
    And then, from behind her mother, Polina heard her sister crying. She tracked the sound. Her sister’s small body, writhing helplessly, was clasped in the arms of one of the soldiers. “Adelajda,” Polina whispered.
    Julian drew a sharp breath and held it. His fingers found Polina’s shoulder. He wanted to shout, but he had no voice. Why wasn’t Polina doing something? This was her mother. This was her sister. These soldiers were taking them.
    The wind gusted, and in front of the two children the snow and mist began to clear. A transport truck parked against the row of houses lifted itself from the shadows, and in the same moment Polina became aware of voices. It struck her that she had been hearing them for some time now. Women crying, children sobbing, a man chanting prayers. The truck’s engine turned over, and the large machine vibrated. In the cage behind the cab, through gaps in the wagon’s sides, Polina glimpsed fingers and hands. A child’s face was pressed into a crack — she could see a nose and a mouth and a wisp of hair.The soldier twisted Ania around, then shoved her toward the rear of the truck. Adelajda screamed, and the other soldier extended his arms and carried her, kicking and struggling, behind the truck as well.
    Julian, his mind made up, let go of Polina’s shoulder, then — without any thought for the consequences — started running down the street toward the soldiers.
    Polina watched him slide, catch himself, then trip through the snow, picking up speed as he ran. She shouted for him to stop. But he kept running. One of the soldiers turned at the sound of the approaching footsteps. His hand flew quickly to his gun, and he whipped it from the holster. “No!” Polina shouted. And then she began to run, too. “Julian — please —
Julian
— no!”
    Julian reached the soldier before the man was able to aim his weapon. Clutching the pistol in his fist, clenching his jaw shut with a grimace, the soldier swung the steel butt across Julian’s face like a club. Julian collapsed at his feet, unconscious. The snow beside his face turned as red as his lips.
    Mama, Julian, Adelajda. Mama, Julian, Adelajda
. As Polina ran, the three names resounded in her head like a heartbeat. The soldier’s knuckles were splattered with Julian’s blood. Everything else was out of focus. In the confusion of the moment, she didn’t see the shadows shift in the doorway next to her, and before she could reach the soldier — before she could go any farther to help Julian or to rescue her mother and her sister — she was caught in someone’s arms, yanked backward off the street. She fought blindly, but the man holding her was too strong, and he kept her pinned. When she realized that it was her father, she wanted to shout.
Papa!
He stopped her, though, with a hand over her mouth.
    “Shhh,” he said. “Shhh.”
    With her eyes, she pleaded with him to let her go. His hand, clamped over her nose and mouth, choked her, and she couldn’t breathe. She grabbed his wrists and tried to free herself.
    “Shhh,” he said. “Polina — shhh.” He held her even tighter. His eyes narrowed, and she read his fear. “There’s nothing you can do, do