All the Unburied Ones

Chapter ten

Since my arrival, I had seen many other trains come by with Jews to drop off. I had come to realize how much of a dump this place was when I watched some of the other people in the camp. But one day, when a train came by with more people, for some unknown reason this train caught my eye. I noticed that this was the first train I had seen Ferthuie control since my arrival. Dareth had done it a few times, but this time he was nowhere to be found. I saw a little boy who had nobody with him. I felt bad for him, even though I probably had it worse than he did. I saw Officer Ferthuie talking to him through the crowd of women, and noticed he was talking to him longer than anyone else he talked to.

Ferthuie shouted something to someone, but I couldn't see who. I sat back in my hidden place and looked at all of the places I had buried people.

Suddenly I heard footsteps. Two people's footsteps. Dareth and that strange boy appeared in front of me. I could see them, but they couldn't see me. I stayed where I was and tried to be as quiet as possible.

Dareth began talking to the strange boy, and I listened, "Stay right here. That other officer will come back and tell you what to do," Dareth said. The strange boy nodded, and stood where he was. The same place Ferthuie had told me to stand on my first day here.

I sat and watched, not wanting him to know I was here. A few hours later Ferthuie began walking toward us. He called my name and I slowly came out of hiding. The boy looked creeped out when I showed myself, as he didn't notice me before.

"Boy, this is your partner. You're gonna do what she says and follow her instructions. You're not gonna disobey, and she's gonna tell you what you have to do. She'll tell you the 'do's and don'ts', and I come around every so often to check on the both of you," Ferthuie explained and walked away.

The boy looked at me and I watched Ferthuie as he continued back, then met glances with the boy.

"Hi," I said. He waved a hand at me and looked down. His face held sadness, but I could see in his brown eyes that he was lost and confused. Exactly how I felt on my first day.

"Follow me," I told him. He looked at me and I began to walk. He followed. I brought him to the door, and pointed to it. I felt like I was being bossy, even though this kid looked my own age.

"This door, leads to a bad place," I began. "You and I are super lucky we weren't thrown in there for being so young."

"What's in there?" he asked, speaking for the first time that I've heard. I looked down at my feet, afraid to tell him. Afraid that he was going to get scared and run away, or not do what he was supposed to.

"You'll find out," I said. I walked back to the hideout and he followed. I told him about it, and I told him about the brick building. That it was a crematorium, and that we have to dig holes out there in the large field in front of us, and we were to bury what was inside it. He nodded in reply, and we sat until we heard screaming, and the familiar black smoke, and the horrible smell.

When the boy heard it, he got scared. He stood up to run, but I pulled him back down.

"What are you doing!? We have to stay hidden!" I whisper-shouted at him. He had only been here for about half an hour and I had already bossed him for the second time.

He looked at me, the fear obvious on his face, and sat back down. Once again, the screaming became lesser and lesser, until it finally stopped. "Now we wait for the officer," I said to the boy. He nodded and sat still.

When Ferthuie came around, I stood so he could see me. He nodded and mouthed the word 'now' to me, and I motioned my hand for the boy to follow me.

We all three went to the small door, and Ferthuie took out the key and unlocked it. The puff of black smoke came out in a cloud. I started to go in, and waved a hand for the boy to come in also. A few years ago I wouldn't have cared whether he came in or not, but I've changed being here.

He came in, and just like I was the first time I did this, he was horrified. I could see tears in his eyes as he saw all of these people. I wanted to tell him to suck it up so Ferthuie wouldn't think less of him, but I didn't. I couldn't. I didn't want to preach to him, and Ferthuie would hear if I talked to the boy.
I lifted some bodies, and went out, giving the boy a look that told him to get working, that there was nothing we could do about it.

He said with his eyes that he understood, picked up a body and followed me out of the crematorium. We walked to a space where I had not yet dug a grave. I set the body down, and the boy set down the other body next to it. Ferthuie handed me and the boy each our own shovel and we began to dig, then he walked away.

Me and the boy were silent. We didn't want to talk, there wasn't anything to talk about and after what he had just seen, I didn't think he was in the mood to talk just then.

Since I had some help today, it didn't take as long as usual. We finished in two and a half hours.

In the middle of the day, Ferthuie came back with two bowls of soup. He gave one to me and the other to the boy. It was a while before I realized that I didn't know his name yet. I had finished half of my soup, while he had barely taken three bites of his own.

Finally, I gathered all the strength that I could, and asked, "What is your name?" he looked up at me as if he had forgotten that I was there for a moment.

"Haskel," he said after a while.

"Why aren't you eating, Haskel?" I asked him. My voice sounded like my mother's had before she left.

"I don't feel like it," Haskel began. "I've lost my appetite."

"That's how I felt my first day here," I said.

"I don't understand," said Haskel. "After seeing all of that... how can you be eating? And that smell?"

"I've wondered the same things," I said. "Sadly... I've gotten used to it..." I looked down at my lap.

I wanted to know more about Haskel, I wanted to know why he was here helping me. I knew he was told by officer Ferthuie to come here, but what I wanted to know was why?
Why had I been told to work over here?

Thinking I may have offended him, I decided not to ask any more questions. I quickly finished my soup and went back to the hideout. But before I left I told Haskel to go there when he was finished. He got up and followed me immediately. We brought our bowls so no one would see them.

We sat there until Ferthuie came back, and took our bowls. He let Haskel keep his to finish later. That night we got no dinner. I couldn't wait for morning. For breakfast Ferthuie comes and gives me a piece of bread. But tomorrow he'll bring two. One for me and one for Haskel. I drifted to sleep as these thoughts flew through my mind.