Arbeit!!! Schneller!!! Tomeczek began to dig faster. He was already losing strength, but he moved the shovel with incredible speed. They had to dig a full 10 meters of trench by dusk; if they didn't... he preferred not to think about it. Three days ago, one of the SS men had shot Marcin. Tomeczek remembered perfectly the moment the speeding bullet pierced his friend's body. He didn't die instantly. Lying on the ground, he whispered the words of the Holy Rosary until the German shot a second time. The murderer simply turned and shouted in broken Polish: "And what do you want to end up like this too? Go, dig! Polnische schweine!!!"
Tomeczek never smiled. He was only 10 years old, and he knew more about human cruelty than many adults... Three years ago, when he was transported to Auschwitz with his mother and siblings, he had no idea that this would be his fate. They had bought the paperwork for the shop. They were supposed to open in September. That's what his mother explained. However, she couldn't explain to the child why the freight train they were on took them to Auschwitz and not to Gdańsk. Nor did she explain why they took his twin sisters to an experimental facility immediately after their arrival.
They told him he was very lucky, the only survivor of his family. Usually, children were killed immediately. However, Tomeczek was different. One of the SS men noticed a resemblance between the boy and his own son, who had remained in Hanover. He decided to keep him. Tomeczek hated this man. That he had to live, endure suffering every day, and miss his mother endlessly every night and mourn his siblings, was the German's fault. He wanted to die, but at the same time, he was afraid of death. He knew God would not forgive him if he took his own life, so he persisted in his sad existence, enduring the cruelty of each successive spring.
The boy raised his head. They still had about two meters to dig, and if they continued at this pace, they'd finish ahead of schedule. For about two hours, Tomeczek had been thinking only about dinner. That portion of black, clay-like bread was to him what ice cream with whipped cream was to a German child.
He remembered that before his arrival, he'd been a chubby child. His friends in the yard often called him "little ball." Now, even "stick" wouldn't be enough. It was amazing that those thin, bony hands were even capable of holding the heavy steel shovel.
They were finished.
Tomeczek noticed a flicker of relief on his friends' faces. They were of varying ages. The oldest, Bartek, was 17. The boy enjoyed listening to his older friend's stories. Bartek had once lived by a real sea. He said he often bathed in the warm waters of the Baltic Sea, searched for shells in the depths, and chased white seagulls on the beach. And when he got tired, he would lie down on the hot, golden sand and watch the clouds lazily roll across the sky. Tomeczek had no idea what the sea looked like. He imagined it as a huge bathtub filled to the brim with saltwater. He had always dreamed of immersing himself, even for a moment, in the foaming waves and surrendering to the current... The walk to their block took less than fifteen minutes. They walked in two columns, marching as steadily as possible.
"Singen!" shouted one of the SS men guarding the boys. "Come on!" "Sing, or one of you will never sing again," added the other.
The Germans were very amused by their friend's joke, but the boys were not amused at all. They knew that the SS men killed prisoners for the slightest offense, and often for no reason at all. With trembling voices, they began to sing the words of a German song.
"Lauter!" the same German shouted. The boys began to sing louder. Although their throats were sore, none of them dared to stop.
"Schneller! March to the rhythm of the music!"
The SS men kept hitting the boy with their rifle butts, who kept breaking the rhythm, insulting him furiously. Tomeczek felt he couldn't stand it any longer. The hunger and exhaustion that were tearing him apart were slowly reaching their climax. His skinny legs kept tripping over a stone or a protruding branch. He felt he wouldn't make it to the camp gates. The moment the ominous black gate of the camp, with the mocking inscription "Arbeit macht frei" (Working freely), came into view, Tomeczek fell over. He only remembered seeing a navy blue sky with twinkling stars and a round moon. It was a full moon. For some reason, at such a moment, he thought of his dog, Dżejki. Dżejki always howled at the moon and was the boy's best friend. Unfortunately, he had stayed in Sosnowo, their home village. His mother had given him to a neighbor because they weren't allowed to keep animals on the train. I wonder what had become of him...
Tomeczek didn't even have time to turn around. He heard a loud bang. And then all he felt was pain.
****************
When he opened his eyes, it was already very dark. At first, he didn't realize where he was. After a moment, he felt a piercing pain spreading down his back. Slowly, he began to recall the events of the last few hours. He turned his head. He was lying on a bunk in his block. Irek was dozing next to him, and Bartek was sleeping on his left. He had no idea what time it was. He only felt
Terrifying hunger, he hadn't eaten "dinner" after all. A tear rolled down his emaciated, lined face. And then he saw a slice of bread. It lay on the ground, right under the boy's bed. The moonlight illuminated it so that it looked like a glowing gold bar. Tomeczek didn't wait. With his last remaining strength, he rose from the bunk and crawled to the edge of the "bed." With a trembling hand, he reached for the coveted prize. He caught it! He pulled himself back onto the blanket. For a few seconds, he stared at the loaf of bread as if it were precious diamonds. But then he began to greedily devour his dinner. The bread tasted strange, but the boy didn't mind. The most important thing was that his stomach was satisfied; he was no longer hungry. Soon after, he fell into a blissful sleep...
***
"Is there a chance?"
No, that was too much poison; even if he woke up, he would have less than an hour to live.
"If death doesn't come soon, finish it yourself; other patients are waiting too.
" "Yes, sir."
Tomek heard the words spoken as if through a fog. A moment ago, he had been drifting in the oceans of unconsciousness, and now, he was slowly returning to the cruel reality... He knew it, even in his sleep.
He slowly opened his large blue eyes. He had to shield them with his hand, because the daylight, like an arrow, pierced his sensitive pupils. But he felt... he couldn't raise his arm. It felt as if he didn't have one at all, and what protruded from his arm was just a poor imitation. A mere plastic toy. He saw strange machines above him. He had never seen such machines—long tubes connected to a large square box. He realized he was in a hospital. He felt nothing. As if his body had become disconnected from his soul. No pain, no hunger, no suffering. Just for a moment. Immediately,
he found himself back in his own skin. He felt a dull pain radiating from the center of his body.
"What happened?" he asked in a half-conscious voice.
"Doctor! Is he awake? Should I give him something?
" "No... there's no point in wasting the medicine, Dorota. It's too late for him anyway.
" "Why am I here? What's going on?" the boy kept asking.
The nurse approached the steel bed. She stroked the boy's blond hair.
"You ate the bread with rat poison. Don't worry, you should feel better soon."
She bit her lip. She hoped what she said sounded natural. She hoped Tomeczek wouldn't detect the lie.
"And... will I have to go back to the block?
" "Don't worry, you'll never go back there. You'll go away, far away. You'll forget all your worries and anxieties. I promise you that." Tomeczek slowly closed his eyes. For the first time in his life, he smiled
. **********
And then there was only joy.
First, he heard a dog barking. This didn't surprise him, as there were many stray dogs roaming the grounds outside the camp gates. The animal's sounds, however, became increasingly distinct. At one point, he felt as if they were surrounding him on all sides. And then he saw HIM. Brown fur, gleaming in the sunlight. A fluffy tail, waving this way and that, like a flag in a gusty wind.
And a muzzle... eyes like glowing embers staring at Tomek.
"Dżejk..." the boy whispered.
He understood everything. Dżejk, the good-natured mutt, had followed him all this way because he knew something bad was happening. He had come to save him, to take him away, forever. Tomek threw himself into his arms. The dog began licking his face. The boy no longer felt pain, or even tiredness. The thought of being with his dog, his beloved Dżejk, was so strong that it overcame all evil. Hugging the mutt and barely holding back his tears, he suddenly heard the dog speaking to him! Although it was a dog bark, the boy understood it as human speech! Dżejk was saying: turn around... they're waiting for you.
**************
Dorota looked at the boy with apprehension. For half an hour, he'd been delirious and writhing on the bed. The strangest thing was that the little one was smiling, even overjoyed! Every now and then he'd say something about some Dżejk and be talking to someone who
didn't really exist. She didn't know what to think of all this. Her
patients hadn't had such realistic hallucinations before. Suddenly, something completely unexpected happened. Suddenly, Tomek got up and ran towards the door.
The nurse stopped dead in her tracks. She didn't even have time to react.
*************
Mommy!!!! Mommy!!!! Tomeczek screamed through his tears... As soon as he turned around, as Dżejk had instructed, he saw her beautiful face. She stood there, leaning against the doorframe. She smiled gently. But she wasn't alone. His twin sisters crouched to her right. He felt a tremendous wave of heat wash over him. After three years of suffering, tears, and long prayers, his life's greatest dream had finally come true. He saw his family again...
For a few moments, he stared at them in disbelief
. "Go..." Dżejk said.
Tomeczek jumped up like a madman. He ran to his mother and clung to her arms. Tears of happiness flowed down his cheeks like silver streams from the mountain slopes. He wished this moment would last forever. At one point, his mother released the boy. With a smile on her face, she pointed to the area beyond the door to his classroom. The boy couldn't believe it. What he saw before him was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. The turquoise, almost greenish color of the water. Foamy waves dancing in the wind. And the sand. Golden, like the sun's rays.
"So this is what the sea looks like..." the boy mused.
"Come on, let's go swimming," his mother said. She took Tomek and his daughters by the hand.
Dżej ran after them. Everything seemed perfectly logical to him. He wasn't surprised that he saw the sea beyond the hospital doors. The presence of Dżej and his deceased family also felt completely natural to him.
Walking toward the gates leading to the beach, the boy thought about how many wonderful things had happened to him in his last moments.
Euphoria. That was the best word to describe the state he was in.
As he walked through the gates, he whispered the last words of his life.
******************
The nurse ran to Tomek as quickly as possible. She caught his unconscious body. She knew it was too late. The child's heart was barely beating. His breathing was becoming weaker. But the smile on his face remained unchanged, and his lips continued to utter various words Dorota couldn't quite make out. She held the boy like that for several minutes, praying that God would spare him. Suddenly, Tomek's hands began to tremble. His body shivered, and he couldn't catch his breath. With a final surge of strength, he opened his mouth.
"Life is beautiful," he whispered. At
that moment, his heart skipped a beat. Dorota couldn't recover for the next few days. For the first time in her life, she felt such a strong, emotional bond between herself and her patient. But what astonished her most were the boy's last words. How could he, a child who had known only suffering and pain, speak of his life in this way? She pondered this for a long time. After some time, she realized that the truth lay deep, beneath the surface of time. She would learn it when she herself crossed the gates of death. Only then would everything become simple and logical. After death.
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