Читать книгу The Flight - Bryan Malessa - Страница 17

Chapter 6

After their trip to Ellerhaus the boys avoided the forest and instead hiked to their grandfather’s house at Sorgenau, going along the main road through wide pastures and tunnels of neatly planted lindens lining the road. Before, Karl and Peter had paid little attention to them, but now they wondered if spirits lived in those trees as well, even though they weren’t in the forest and didn’t form a natural grove. They avoided the lone oak in a field a little way from Sorgenau, which Karl and Peter had often climbed.

One day after lunch with their grandfather and his wife, they went to the beach to collect amber. Occasionally someone found a large nugget, but since almost everyone from the villages collected it, they usually found only a few shards, which they took home to Ida. She would take a piece of hardboard, paint a background, then carefully stick the amber to a thin layer of glue to make a sun or breakers crashing on to the beach – made of real sand – with tiny amber people standing on the shore.

On the way back to their grandfather’s house Karl had an idea. He would be the Kameradschaftsführer, the sergeant, of their miniature Hitler Youth unit, and told Peter and Otto to stand to attention. Near Sorgenau the cliff was similar to the one he had jumped off, but not so high. When he had persuaded them to play his game, he led them to the cliff. ‘You’ll probably be the only ones in your group who’ll have trained for the test of courage,’ he said. ‘You’ll thank me then.’

He called Otto forward first. His cousin raised his right arm and shouted ‘Heil Hitler’, as Karl had instructed.

‘You see that area over there? I want you to run as fast as you can and jump off without looking down.’

‘Can I look first?’

‘If you do, what’s the point in jumping?’

‘But what if I land on the rocks?’

Karl called his brother forward.

‘Heil Hitler,’ Peter shouted, arm in the air.

‘I’ll let you keep my knife for the rest of the day if you run across the field and jump without looking.’

‘That’s not fair!’ Otto complained. ‘You didn’t say that to me.’

‘I was going to, but you wouldn’t jump. You lost your chance.’

‘What if I go after Peter?’

‘Here’s a better idea. You run together. The first to jump off the cliff keeps it for the rest of today and the other can have it tomorrow.’

Peter and Otto took off.

‘Hey! You didn’t wait for my order!’

They didn’t look back, just continued to race across the field. Peter disappeared over the cliff, then Otto.

Karl stood alone in the field, absorbed in the view across the grass to the sea. His eyes were trained on a ship near the horizon – was it real or a mirage? Then he saw something move near the lip of the cliff. It was Peter, climbing into the field. Then Otto appeared and a moment later they were running towards him. When he realised they were coming for his knife, he turned and raced for the road to their grandfather’s house.

‘You cheat!’ he heard Otto yell. ‘We’re going to tell Grandpa.’