World War Rudy

Frau Rech's Orphanage for Girls

Have you ever stared at someone's eyes so long they don't look like eyes anymore? They start looking more like pearls, lodged deep inside someone's head. That's what I think when I'm looking into Anna's eyes. Her hazel and green eyes twinkled like stars, and her long blond lashes caressed them. 

She had our mother's eyes, Anna. Those eyes could be seen from anywhere. That's really all we remembered of our mother, her eyes. They were almost haunting, it almost seemed like they could see right through you. I couldn't get enough of them.

I waited for the ringing of Frau Rech's voice to sound throughout the building. I pulled the thin, scratchy wool blanket up to my chin, and laid on my side facing the cot next to me, which was Anna's. Her body rested so peacefully, legs sprawled off the edge of her cot, arms tucked underneath her head, with her wild curls framing her pale face. I watched her body raise and lower with each breath, and I watched that one leg of hers that twitched every minute or two. 

I rolled on my back and stared at the old ceiling which seemed to bow at the middle. I followed my eyes down each of the cracks that  made their home above me, until I made it to the biggest, which leaked. I followed each drop into the old rusty bucket below. Plop, Plip... Plop. I scratched at my neck which became hot and irritated from the wool blanket. Then from the corner of my eye, I saw the light from the hallway turn on, followed by Frau Rech's heavy footsteps on the wooden floor. My eyes left the water dropping from the bucket, and wondered to the hallway of stairs. Some of the older girls began to sit up in their beds, the younger ones, tossing in their beds.

"Aufstehen Mädchen!" 'Get up', the Frau yelled. Her voice was shrill enough to wake up even those tough german soldiers in a panic. "Aufstehen jetzt!"  'Now!' She demanded.

I sat up in bed and pushed the covers to the end of my cot. I rubbed my eyes, and pulled my nightgown sleeves up to my elbows, and loosened the pale blue ribbon from my wrist. I pulled my hair behind my head and sectioned my hair into three pieces, wrapping them around each other until my hair resembled a braid. I then walked over to Anna's cot, and shook her shoulder. She groans. 

"Anna," I pushed her hair behind her ears, "Anna, time to get up." She turns on her other side, then yawns. "Did you not hear Frau?" I leaned in close and whispered "Aufstehen Mädchen, jetzt!"  I said in the nastiest voice I could figure. Anna giggled and turned over to face me with a wide smile and tired eyes. 

"That sounds just like Frau!" she sat up on her knees and leaned on her hands. "Do it again, do it again!" she smiled.

"Not right now, Anna. We have to get ready, okay?" I grabbed her hands and kissed her on the forehead.

"Okay," she rubbed her eyes and hugged my waist, "But Anya, will you put my hair in braids again like you did the other day? With ribbons? Please? Everybody liked them very much." 

"Of course, but you have to get brushed and dressed before I can do that." I pinched her nose and pulled at one of her curls. She smiled, and clumsily managed to dangle both of her bruised legs out of bed and to the washroom. I followed her and then went to the washroom for the older girls. 

There were three sinks in the older girls' washroom. The one in the middle and the one on the far left don't have warm water. So all the girls try to get the one on the far right because no one wants to wash with freezing water in the morning. We each got our own face cloths and two pairs of work garments. Our work clothes are a dress that cuts off at the elbows and just a few inches below the knees, and apron, and old leather shoes. The dress buttons from the waist up and has two ties on either side that tie behind our backs. The dress is a pale blue, much like my hair tie, that has small flowers stitched in everywhere. But if I hadn't worn the dress most of my life, I wouldn't be able to tell there ever were flowers because it was so faded and used. The apron used to white at one point, I'm sure, but now it resembles a grey color that has stains in unforeseen places. It's wrapped around our waists and drapes down our dresses, and stops just before our dress does. Our shoes are a thin leather, that go up to our ankles and are ties with black laces, that are just as worn as our other clothes.