It had been a normal day like any other on the day of December 17, 1940 in a small town in Czechoslovakia. Well, as normal as you could get during the Holocaust. Mother was baking a goose she had stolen from the local market. We didn't have any money because, father had been taken away by the Nazis when they had invaded his workplace. I was out fetching water from the local well when I heard my mother call my name. “Hayalah! They're here! Get in the house, now!”
I ran as fast as my stumpy little legs could carry me. Until, I felt someone pick me up. I didn't react. I couldn't. All I did was freeze and try to turn around and see who had picked me up and was carrying me the opposite direction of my home. I finally managed to twist my body around to see a man in a suit with white gloves on. He had a red band around his arm with a swastika placed in the center of a white circle of the band. This man was a Nazi. Once I saw who he really was, I looked back at my mother and my home. She was staring back at me. At tear trickled down my mothers face.
Be strong. Be strong. Be strong for mother. Someday we can be together again. I just have to be strong. Be strong and I will be okay. I don't have to cry.
I couldn't handle it anymore. I screamed and kicked as he threw me into a car. There were three other people car. There was a girl who looked about my age maybe older. So, maybe 16 or so. There was another girl who looked liked she had just hit her mid thirties. She was weeping a bit while saying something I couldn't quite make out. I suspect it was a name, probably her children or maybe even a husband. Lastly, there was a boy who looked no older than five. Poor kid. He probably doesn't understand who Hitler is.
Sadly, I know all too well who Hitler is. He's my uncle. No one knows that my family is related to him. If anyone knew, they would hate us, maybe even kill us. He won't help us, though. Never. He hated the fact that mother had converted to being Jewish for my father. That's why he left the family and never came back. He promised he would never reveal the fact that we were related to him but, that meant he wouldn't help us either.
The car moved along the sleek icy roads of Czechoslovakia. I am heartbroken. I have no one. I know what comes next though; I'm going to be taken to a Concentration Camp. They throw us into the cheapest clothing they can find. Striped pajamas. I've heard about what the Nazis have done to the Jews they capture. They gas them if they seem suspicious or they believe they are forming an alliance against them.
We drove and drove for days, maybe even weeks before we stopped at the camp. I don't know who I'm going to meet. Maybe, I could be stuck in a room with someone friendly. I wonder if the Nazis will kill me, gas me maybe. I'm scared too death and I can't handle it anymore but, I'm too strong to cry. I wouldn't cry.
As soon as we got out of the car we were treated like criminals and prisoners. I was carried over the shoulder by a Nazi and was thrown into a small room only containing one other person. A boy who looked about my age. Strangely, we had almost the same hair color; blonde. Sort of dirty blonde with natural blonde highlights. He had brown eyes that gazed upon me with fear. The fear hiding behind those beautiful brown eyes made me freeze. I just stared at him. And he stared right back at me. The nazis threw me into the room and slammed the door. "Hi" said the boy "my name is Dekel"
"Hayalah" I replied to him "my name is Hayalah"
"Wow, thats a great name. My name isn't much to talk about. But, your name... It's beautiful. And your eyes, they glow with the depth of universal love, casting off stardust as a diamond casts fire and they smoulder like embers of a fire in a desert night: glancing upwards they reflect the heavens above. You have such goregous posture and your hair must sparkle in the moonlight and gleam from the suns exuberant rays."
He's cute. I thought to myself. He's cute in his own weird way. And poetic too. He's reminds me of someone from back home. Asher. God, I miss him. All of the sudden I got the worst flashback that existed in my mind. It was of Asher, my boyfriend, being hung by a lamp post. That moment as I watched the boy I knew I loved struggle for his life and then grew from struggle to lifelessness. He was 16 and I was 14. I was 14 and I watched my boyfriend die. Stop it. Asher's gone... It was a month ago. I guess I need to forget. I finally stopped the tears and gathered up the courage to speak.
" Wow... How poetic...Your sweet? I guess since were gonna be stuck in here for a while, we might as well get to know each other. So, tell me about yourself."
"Well," he looked back at me with a huge grin, it looked exactly like Asher's... "I'm 16" So was Asher. "My dad left our family because he was a drunk" Asher. "I never thought anything of it but, my brother meant the world to me. They hung him from a lamp post." Oh, my God. "He had a girlfriend but, I never met her. I think she was there too... when they hung him. I dont really remember though. The very last thing he said to me was, if I can't have her. You should."
I just stared at him for a while. Tears pouring down from my face.He mentioned he had a brother a little younger than he was. They were practically twins. He always begged me to meet them. He said I would love his brother because, he was exactly like him. And he was. Weird, cute, cunning, smart, I could go on for hours just talking about him. I held back all the tears as I mumbled four words that are were going to kill me if the answer was yes.
"Was... was his name... Asher..?"
He stared back at me gaping mouthed in awe. In that moment I knew the answer before he even spoke. This was Asher's brother. The one he said that if I hadn't met him first, I would've ended up with him. "How did you know?"
"I was... I was his girlfriend."
We just pretty much stared at each other for a while. Me; with tears spilling down my face worse than the rainiest day in August and Dekel; not cyring but, just slightly. As if he was pushing back the tears the best he could so that he wouldn't be crying in front of me. Yes, exactly like Asher. After a long awkward silence, Dekel broke it. "I promised Asher that I would watch after you and that is exactly what I intend to do for the rest of my life. We're going to be stuck in this cell into this war ends... or longer. As long as we share a cell together I will never let those people hurt you in any way, shape, or form. I will risk my own life as long as it will keep you safe. I will never dissappoint Asher."
I couldn't help but laugh. He was exactly like Asher. Asher would do anything for Dekel and Dekel would do anything for Asher. And I couldn't help but love Dekel the same way I loved Asher.
