Between Two Oceans - Book 2

Chapter 10

- Blaine -

I spent most of the night awake holding Johannna's hair while she poured her guts into the toilet of the youth hostel where the others were to join us.

"I'm so ashamed." she gasped, lifting her head from the basin.

"Don't worry, the toilets were already so dirty they won't know the difference." I tried to joke.

She laughed for a second before grimacing and starting to vomit again. I couldn't wait for the others to arrive and for one of her friends to take my place. I was starting to feel my own stomach dancing in my stomach and even though I hadn't had much to drink, I wasn't sure I wouldn't soon join her on all fours on the dodgy toilet floor above which a huge spider looked at me as if it was going to call their sons and daughters to come and eat us soon.

"This one is not dangerous." Johannna told me, following my gaze. "Here, the bigger they are, the less dangerous they are. Instead, you should be wary of the Funnel Web that hangs on the ceiling of your dorm room at the ranch."

I didn't know what a Funnel Web was, but I had noticed several large, very hairy, black spiders making strange webs that looked like tunnels.

"How scared ?" I asked her, hoping to distract her a little.

"They are deadly."

When she finished to throw up, I helped her lie down on one of the beds. I rummaged through my backpack for the biscuits I had bought in town when I arrived.

"Here, eat this. It should do some good to your stomach."

She took a small bite as I wiped the sweat from her forehead.

"I'll go get you some fresh water. I'll also try to see if anyone has anything for nausea."

She nodded to let me know she heard me before closing her eyes to see if it was her or the room that was swaying.

January 5th, 1942

Ilona hadn't lied. Many trains arrived, including one on January 1st. Happy New Year to you dear Polish Jews. There were also many French women arriving from Lille, Romanians, Dutch women, a few gypsies, a handful of Italians and Spanish women and one English woman.

I haven't had the opportunity to speak with her, but I would really like to be able to chat with a compatriot in my native language.

We were starting to run out of space in our dormitory, but during the quarantine of those arriving by the first trains, mysterious disappearances took place. The oldest, the weakest, the sickest disappeared in a few days.

What did they do to them ? A ball in the head ? A puncture ? A fake suicide ?

And where are the bodies ?

So many questions that haunt me. Maybe I'll be next soon. I can't stop coughing and yesterday I coughed up some blood. Luckily, the Arbeitsdienstführer assigned me a new position. The earthworks are finished, I am once again assigned to sorting the luggage.

When I say luck, it's mainly because the work is less difficult. No more huge stones too heavy for me to carry, no more carts to pull, no more spreading and above all the luck of not having been assigned to the steamroller. It is a huge roll of cement which must be a meter in diameter or more and three meters long. This roller weighs tons and is used to compact the foundations of the camp's roads. Women must be between seven and nine to pull it.

So yes, sorting the deportees' suitcases is an opportunity. I was surprised to find several men's suitcases but Ilona told me that it was normal, that a branch camp had been receiving them since April.