Maria, Pull the Trigger and Kill (a World War II adventure)

Hiding

The windshield of the Kübelwagen was broken and thus I pushed it forward onto the hood and put the goggles on. The gravel road went on for about 2 more miles and ended in a bigger road with tarmac. Should I go left or right? East or west? Mexico is to the west, so I decided to go west. On my way, I passed two horse carts then the road passed through a village. Following that road for about another hour, made me pass two more villages and it started to get dark. About a mile away from the last village, in a meadow, I spotted a shed surrounded by trees and I decided to check it out. Again that meadow was surrounded by a barbed wire fence and a similar crude gate with 3 beams. The German farmers obviously had it with barbed wire fences and 3 beam gates. After I had removed the beams from their hooks I approached the shed and parked the car behind it, so that it was not visible from the road. Opening the door to the shed I found it half way filled with hay and wooden poles. The hay had to suffice for the night and I brought a backpack and the MP40 inside. Ideally, I wanted to bring all gear inside, but my leg just felt too bad. I drank and ate in my upper class hotel room, with hay bed and outside toilet and then came the hardship of removing my trousers. My legs were bruised and the skin was scratched, but my right lower leg was all blue. This was my bad luck. While on the run from the Nazis, my leg had to get injured like that. Pinche.

Nothing I could do about it. I was bloody tired and sleeping was probably the best I could do.

I did not sleep well, my leg did hurt and I dreamt about those boys that I killed and their crying mothers. The hay was not the most comfortable bedding either, it pocked into my skin and I had to sneeze every so often. However, in the morning, when it got warmer, I fell into a deep sleep.

Suddenly something hurt my side, then I heard someone saying: "Hey, aufwachen. Was machst' da?"

I was right awake that very moment. A hayfork was right at my chest, my weapons about a yard away from me. A bit of light came in from the open door, but the shed was otherwise pretty dark. I recognized a woman holding the hayfork at me.

"Ihr Napolas sollt nicht in anderer Leute Schuppen mit anderer Leute Töchter schlafen. Verschwinde, sonst sag ich der Schule Bescheid."

I had no idea what she was talking about, but she removed the hayfork and pointed to the door. I grabbed my belongings including the MP40 and hobbled to the door. When I stepped into the light, she saw my face and she cried out: "Oh mein Gott. Scheiße, der kleine Indianer."

I turned to face her and I knew, that she now knew who I was. Namely the crashed US pilot, the American. Should I leave or should I kill her? What did I feel around my heart? Well it did not feel extremely heavy. Maybe I did not have to kill her? While I was trying to figure out what I should do, I heard a kid: "Mami, wer ist das?"

I turned around and in front of me was a child, maybe 7 or 8 years old. A girl with bright blond hair and the brightest blue eyes I had ever seen. Well, that settled it, I could not kill a mother, much more so right in front of her kid. I moved around the child trying to get to the car, but the girl followed me: "Können Sie uns bitte heimfahren? Ich will nicht mehr so weit laufen."

Out of the shed the mother yelled: "Mathilde!"

With every step that I made, I realized, that my right leg wanted to quit on me. I barely reached the car to drop the backpack and the MP40 onto the backseat. The girl was right behind me and before I could pay much attention to her, she had opened the passenger's door and made herself comfortable on the passenger's seat. It would have probably bothered me, but my leg was so painful that I did not care, what she did in the car.

The mother was with us in no time and adamantly commanded: "Mathilde komm da raus. Sofort!"

The girl had different plans however: "Mami, Mami, schau ich fahr Auto." With that, she climbed on the passenger's seat and danced on it.