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There is gru around her She is hardly surprised Her country is a place of great fear these days, and no one knohich is more likely to kill you—the Germans or the secret police

She tightens her hold on her children’s hands and begins to h the crowd Even the children ease sideways to let her pass The eyes that meet hers are distrustful and afraid

“I will coray hair hidden beneath a dirty kerchief Four children stand clustered around her, dressed for winter, their pale faces streaked with ash

They are the only ones

Vera and the woman and their six children make their way out of the barn, past all the silent children Outside, the countryside is gray with smoke

“We ,” the woman says

“How far are we froht thing She feels exposed now, vulnerable to the airplanes flying overhead To her left, a bo explodes

“About ninety kiloood to talk ”

Vera hefts Leo into her arms and holds on to Anya She knows that she will not be able to carry her son for long, but she wants to start out that way Just in case She can feel his strong, steady heartbeat against her own

In the years to coet the hardships of that journey, how her children’s feet blistered until they bled, how their food ran out, how they slept in hay barns like cri bo they’d been shot, feeling blindly for wounds that were not there Instead, she will remember the lorry drivers who picked theive them bread and ask them what they’d seen down south She will remember how she told them what she hadn’t known before: that war is about fire and fear and bodies lying in ditches by the side of the road

By the ti arms, she is battered and tired and bloody; her shoes have worn through in places and the pain in her feet will not ease, even in a pail of hot water But none of this matters Not now

What rad, her wonderful white city The Ger toward her home Hitler has vowed to wipe this city off the map

Vera knohat she must do

Toet out of her narrow bed and dress in layers She will pack all the sausage and dried fruit she can carry, and like thousands of other woain to protect all that she loves It is every citizen’s job

“We have to stop thea,” she says to her“They need workers there ”