“Yeah. But… How are you goi-”
“Do not worry about it.” She says and I wake up.
It’s in the middle of the night, and it’s oddly quiet for a battlefield. It’s… Peaceful. I can hear somebody snoring, and I laugh to myself. I grab out my diary and light the candle. I flip the pages until I find a fresh one. Then I write about my dreams and about the surprise package that I had gotten. My pen is starting to run out of ink, so, luckily, I bought a full pack of 12. I stay up until the sun is rising and I decide not to sleep until tonight.
What’s another sleepless night to add to the list?
When the sun was fully up and the soldiers were finally starting to move around, I got up. It wasn’t easy, my back has been sore and aching from the lack of sleep. I get up and grab myself a biscuit. Then I walk over to the hospital tent.
I know Clara said to meet around lunchtime but I might as well come early to visit my friend, Donald. I walk into the tent because this time there is no nurse to greet me. There are so many people here, it’s crowded and smelly. I walk through the people and find Donald’s bed. He gives me a large smile and waves. His leg seems to have healed, as there is no bandage anymore.
We talk for a couple of hours until I get too anxious to stay. I don’t know what I’m going to do if Clara actually comes. I wait at the front and watch person after person walkthrough. A man gets rushed in on a stretcher, a bullet seems to have hit his right arm. He’s unconscious and has his mouth wide open.
But that’s not what caught my eye.
Following behind them is a person. They have short blonde hair and blue eyes. Their eyelashes are dark and thick and they are slightly taller than me. When we make eye contact I know.
“Clara?” I ask
She gives me a nod and gestures outside. We stand behind the tent and she smiles.
“Hello,” she says happily.
“Hello,” I replied.
I can't believe Clara’s here, and I can't believe she's actually real.
“Weird war,” she says. Mispronouncing the word ‘war’. Her English is obviously not great but it's not like I know any German.
“Yeah, it’s… horrible,” I sigh.
We both look at each other awkwardly.
“I will learn German, and you can help teach me if you like,” I whisper.
She nods her head in delight.
For the next half an hour, Clara teaches me some simple German phrases. ‘Guten Morgen’ means good morning, whilst ‘Guten Tag’ means good day. ‘Guten’ itself means good. For friends, you can just say ‘Hallo’. She also teaches me how to say goodbye to friends, ‘TschÜss’ and to formal people ‘Auf Wiedersehen’. Then I learnt how to introduce myself, ‘Ich bin…’
"Hallo, ich bin Lara. TschÜss!" I practice.
“Guten, guten, guten!” Clara smiles. “Teach me English?"
I smile and teach Clara words like ‘Telephone’ and ‘Sad’ using facial expressions and hand gestures. Soon she catches on. I know that Clara already knows phrases like, ‘Thank you’, ‘Want to meet tomorrow?’, ‘My name is’, ‘Nursing tent’ and ‘Do not worry’. I teach her how to say hello and goodbye. Then after I say bye in German.
“We will meet in one week, do you want to be here or yours?”
“Mine, go around the back, noon,” She runs back to her side.
After that encounter, I don’t know what to do. I’m going to practise my German and write down the words I know in my diary. I walk over to Pete who’s reading a book that Matt lent him.
“Hello, what have you been doing today?”
“Nothing much,” I lie, but what would he say if I told him I was talking with the enemy? “Hey, do you have a German dictionary by any chance?”
Pete looks at me strangely, “No, why do you need one?”
I look at my toes, “It might come in handy one day,”
Pete looks at me suspiciously once more before saying, “I don’t have one but the boys might, they’re over on the west side of the trenches, but be careful they’re on the front line and shooting,”
A smile escaped my lips and I started walking in that direction.
I’m lucky because I’ve hardly been on the front lines, only twice, but I do have a shift tomorrow.
When I finally find Matt, Will and Tom, I walk behind them and they notice me immediately.
“Hey Laro! What brings you here?” Will is by far my favourite of the three.
“Hello! I was just wondering if any of you have a German dictionary?”
They all think for a moment before Tom says,
“Yeah, I have one in my bag actually, a gift from my wife just in case I ran into trouble, ”
Will smiles,
“I can get it for him,”
Tom and Matt smile.
“Of course you can, I’ve got some very important work to do,” Tom jokes around.
Will gently drops his gun on the ground and walks next to me.
Comments (0)
See all