Dear Edlin

The Day Before:

Tad POV 

 I am walking into a den of skunks. I don't smell the spray and think that I am lucky because the mother skunk isn't here.

 But as I turn around I see that I am not lucky. 

My cold clearly messing up my senses, I get sprayed with a devil's curse. I walk out of the den to see Edlin, that had waited at the beginning of the den, doubled over laughing and pinching his nose. 

I start to go back to Edlin's backyard, like I always do when we are out of both of our houses but the way people look at me as I am walking, makes me turn around and head straight for my own home.

 In my house, Ada is making dinner, which will taste like cardboard because everything that Ada cooks tastes like cardboard. 

Ada cocks her head toward the door, and sees me, her face scrunching into disgusted look. 

After several cold baths, the smell has not gone away, and I am in my box of a house trying to eat cardboard soup. A knock comes at the door and then there are men. 

Big men. 

With guns. 

Being the 14 year old she is, Ada licks her lips and starts to talk to them in German, highlighting her Hebrewish accent. 

 I know from the slight gasp one of the men makes, that Ada has made a mistake showing them that she (we) are Jewish. 

With a firm hand on her shoulder, one of the guards pushed her aside and stepped into the house and spoke out one word: Come. I could not see Ada from the angle that I was hiding in, but I heard her question the man "why". 

I hear the man slap her face, and I almost come to the door to show the man who's boss around here, but stop myself. I was fuming though. How dare these men come into our house and assault the keeper of the home? 

Never was the way to treat a lady to slap her in the face within saying one word. But Ada knows the discrimination, and puts it aside, she instead comes the the small table that is hardly a table, and tells me to finish my soup, and go pack some things and put them into a bag. 

I am confused. Ada walks back to the men who have not moved from the entrance of the door. She talks to them in rapid German, and the man who shoved her holds up all his fingers. 

Then points to his wrist as if resembling a watch. 10 minutes! As quietly as she could Ada comes to me and tells me that they are relocating us and we have 10 minutes to pack all that we need. I

n the end, Ada does most of the packing, with the exception of me packing my drawing paper, but there being no room for more than 1 normal pencil. Ada ties a scarf over her head, and she tells me to start walking out of the front door. 

She follows me holding our bag of belongings. Ada struggles with pulling the bag, and the guards don't even bother to help her.

 Jaakob, a neighbor helps her put the bag between her legs and climb in the car. Out of the corner of my eye, I think I see Edlin, but dismiss the thought immediately knowing that school has already started for the Non-Jews. 

Instead, I write to him,

thinking that in the new place we are going, there will be time to send it across. Then it the distance I see a train, with 5 dirty metal cattle cars in tow.