Soldier

Adelina Edelhoff

by Adelina Edelhoff

Story

Past

She woke up with the sun shining through the window. Sigrid decided to get ready as good as she can to go outside and maybe get a few vegetables and maybe even find a job that would pay enough to let her survive.

The soldier that followed her home the day before was making rounds this morning and walked up and down the street. When she walked outside again he tried to talk to her but this time he only spoke Russian. Probably because there were other soldiers around. She did not understand him, so she kept walking towards the centre of the town. It seemed like he understood that she would not spare him any attention, regarding as he silently followed her now. The December air was cold, and the snow crunched under her broken shoes, but she did not have anything else.

On the market were only one or two stands left that sold food. She took the few coins she had from the small jobs on the farms and bought as much as she could. When she turned around she saw the soldier there again with a bag full of the more expensive food which she could not pay for. He gave her the bag and said, “Here. You need to eat. What you have there is not enough.” Sigrid could not believe that a stranger would buy her food. A Soviet soldier nonetheless. The whole situation was eerie. The only people who bought the good food were soldiers or their wives. Here this soldier was who just bought her food as if there was an endless supply. Which simply was not true. Already in the children’s home, she saw that in the last week of the month, the food was not nearly enough and the markets were empty.

She decided not to argue with him and took the food.

The soldier stayed close to her for the following weeks and at some point, they even started talking. He did not say a lot about his life, but she was still intrigued. She never had contact with anyone on the other side of the war. Sigrid only knew about how the Germans pictured the Russians.

After a while, he told her that he would marry her. She did not understand where that came from. Her mother always told her that one should marry the person that one loves and not just anyone. Even though her mother’s opinion was important to her, Sigrid knew that she could not keep providing for herself. The jobs did not pay nearly enough and the house was in no state she could live in.

Later she realised that he never asked her to marry him. He told her. This maybe should have been a hint for what was to come.

© Adelina Edelhoff 2023-06-29

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