The Golden Watch

The Forest

Next morning after a can of C rations, Borje realized that he couldn’t live on C rations all his soon-to-be short life, so he decided to forage for food. He was crawling through a bush, when he bumped into something. Upon standing up he was face to face with a soldier.

“Guys, I found him!” he yelled. “You’re coming to camp with us.”

Borje didn’t know what to do besides turn and run. The soldier ran after him yelling, “You lily-livered coward, you! GET BACK HERE!”

Borje was weaving through the trees, looking back when all of a sudden the ground beneath him disappeared, and he fell, rolling down a steep hill. By the time he got to the bottom he was covered in so much mud and snow that the soldiers passed right by him. He waited several minutes before standing up and dusting himself off. He turned around only to find the barrel of a 22 caliber one shot rifle pointing at his forehead.

“Who are you?” the girl with the rifle asked in a thick German accent.

“A better ques--”

“I said, who are you?!” she said more firmly, pushing him in the chest with the barrel of her gun.

Now scared, he responded, “My name is…um…Jack…Jack Wilson.”

“No, your real name.”

“Um. What do you me--?”

“You’re lying. Now tell me your real name.”

“Borje. What’s yours?”

“Nadine. Now what are you doing here?" she asked, lowering her rifle, but still stiff.

“Whose side are you on?”

“I’m on my own side,” Nadine replied, flipping her hair out of her face.

“I’m running from the army.”

“Where are you going?” Nadine asked, finally lightening up.

“I’m going…um…I don’t know where I’m going, actually.”

“Me neither.”

“Then what are you doing in a forest?” he questioned.

“I ran from my abusive uncle who I moved in with after my parents disappeared,” she answered blandly.

“Ummm…were you planning on going somewhere?”

“Well, I had this weird idea of going to Sweden, but I don’t know.”

“Why Sweden?” he asked. “Do you have family there?”

“No, it’s just because Sweden isn’t participating in the war.”

“Then going there is a great idea. But how will we get across the water?”

“I have relatives in Denmark right next to the border to Sweden. They have a boat shop. Maybe we could head over there and borrow a boat to get across the water.”

“Are you serious? I mean, that would be great!” Borje said excitedly. And then they heard a scream.

After quickly running through the forest, they came up to an American soldier caught in a makeshift trap. When he looked up, he looked at Borje like Captain America had just trotted through the trees.

“Hey, you…you have to save me,” he said. “Wait…you’re Borje!”

As Borje turned to run, the soldier corrected himself. “Wait, don’t leave! If you get me out of this…this thing, I’ll promise not to tell.”

“It’s not a ‘thing,’ it’s a snare, and it was designed for rabbits, not your leg,” Nadine said sharply.

“Well, whatever it is, we need to get him out before the wire starts cutting his leg,” Borje replied. As he bent down with his combat knife to cut the wire, Nadine pulled him back up.

“Wait. We could use this to our advantage.”

“What?!” Borje exclaimed, looking at her like she was crazy.

Nadine simply crouched down, took the soldier’s handgun, handed it to Borje, and then questioned the soldier. “What are you doing in my forest?”

“I …I was looking for him.” He pointed at Borje as he was putting the gun in his belt.

“OK,” she said pulling out her own knife, “but if I find out that you snitched, well, let me just say, it won’t be pretty.” Then she cut the wire, sending the man scrambling to get away. Borje looked at her with disbelief. “Well, let’s go to my camp, so I can get packed and then we’ll be on our way, she said as if the event hadn’t even happened.