The Numbers That Brought Our Fates Together 92 The Summer Solstice Day.

Sunbeams were playing on the rosy cheeks of the girl sleeping under a big green tree. The summer breeze went through her hair. And the birds twittering was like a lullaby for her. It was a quiet and peaceful day.

Pffff!!!

The girl jumped from an unexpected cold. The boy standing nearby laughed out loud and ran away. She wiped the cold water which this little brat poured on her face.

"Well, just you wait!" The girl smirked and ran after the boy, chasing him.

In less than five minutes, the boy was already lying on the ground and laughing out loud.

"Ahahaha, Lena, stop it! I can't hold it anymore! All right, all right, I am sorry! I won't do this again!"

The girl stopped tickling the boy and got up with a feeling of complete victory, "It serves you right! Next time you won't get off with just a tickle, you got it?"

"Yes, I got it, I got it. Mom called us for lunch. Let's go already."

The girl smiled and held out a hand to the boy. He accepted her help, got up from the ground and they went to the house together.

"Oh my G.o.d, Lena, what's wrong with your dress?" The woman cried out when she saw the girl's dirty outfit. She cast a stern look on the boy, "Ivan, did you bother your sister again? I thought I asked you to behave like a person of your age! You are already 12 years old!"

"Aunt, do not scold Vanya, we just started playing, and I did not notice how I fell on the ground by myself," the girl smiled and winked at her brother.

The woman just had to sigh, "Okay. I will pretend that I believed you. Sit down already, or else the borsch will get cold."

"Mom, mom, can you ask aunt to allow Lena to stay with us a bit longer?" Ivan asked, eating lunch for both cheeks.

"No, this is out of the question. Lena needs to pa.s.s exams next month."

"Do not worry, I will definitely go to the Academy. Next summer you will come to visit us in Leningrad, and we will walk for as long as you like!" Lena tried to cheer up her cousin. She knew that the boy loved her very much. Every time she came to visit, he did not want to let her go back.

"Ivan, listen to your sister. She is five years older than you and already speaks English and German fluently. If you are going to visit her in Leningrad, then you better seriously get better at your studies, otherwise, you will be disgraced!"

The boy pursed his mouth but did not say anything. His studies really demanded more attention. Lena and the woman laughed, and the whole family finished the dinner in a cheerful mood.

The sun was setting towards the sunset, and the day smoothly pa.s.sed into the night. The summer solstice was approaching.

The girl was sleeping until someone began to push her shoulder insistently.

"Lena, Lena, wake up," Ivan went up to his sister and whispered, "Come with me, I'll show you something interesting." In the moonlight, a sly smile was clearly visible on the boy's face.

"Are you kidding or what? It's the night out there. What time is it now?" the girl asked, rubbing her sleepy eyes.

"Three in the morning. Get up faster, the sun will rise soon. We may not be on time!" The boy took her hand and dragged her out of bed.

"Okay. Let me change first," Lena decided to give in to her brother's perseverance. After all, it was the last day of her stay here. In the evening she will have a train to Leningrad. They quietly left the house so as not to wake up mom, and the boy led his sister toward the forest.

"And what could be so unusual in the forest at three o'clock in the morning?" Lena asked him. She would prefer to stay in a warm bed, but Vanya was her favorite, and the girl could not resist his tricks.

They pa.s.sed through a dense thicket and found themselves in a small meadow surrounded by trees. Lena looked around but did not notice anything unusual. Only she wanted to express her indignation at the hopelessly interrupted sleep, as the boy took a pipe from his pocket and began to play.

Following the tune, nightingales began to respond one after another, and soon the forest meadow was surrounded by beautiful sounds of bird voices. They were twitting in unison with the tunes and singing along.

The boy looked at his sister with a triumphant look, "It's cool, isn't it?"

Lena smiled and nodded her head in response.

"Look what's going to happen next!" Ivan gave the pipe to Elena, stepped inside the meadow overgrown with the waist-high gra.s.s, and began to run from side to side.

At this moment, the fireflies, sleeping peacefully on the tips of the gra.s.s blades, awakened from their sleep and began to rise into the sky, one after another, lighting up the meadow with hundreds of small lights.

This whole picture, along with the singing of the nightingales, looked like a scene from some fantastic book. Lena froze in amazement from what she saw. So it was fascinating for its beauty.

"Well, tell me, how cool is that?!" Vanya shouted to his sister joyfully.

"You're right! I have never seen anything like that!" Lena replied.

She and her brother sat on the edge of the glade and watched as little fireflies were doing their lively dance until the first rays of the rising sun appeared on the horizon.

"I think it's time for us to come back, or else the aunt will be worried if she finds out that we are not at home," the girl suggested, and they went back. Coming out of the forest, they decided to trim off the distance to the house through the field.

Vanya looked to the west and pointed to the sky, "Lena, what is it?"

"Where?" The girl turned her gaze in the direction that her brother was pointing to. Several black dots were approaching them smoothly at high speed. "Hmmm, does this look like... planes?"

No sooner had the girl figured out what was happening, the loud sounds of exploding guns broke the silence of the early morning. The earth trembled; they almost lost hearing from the belch of the guns. One of the planes flew up to the brother and sister and opened fire.

Lena grabbed her brother by the hand and rushed towards the forest. But they were too far from cover. Being in the center of the field, they were a dainty target for a strike.

The plane made a U-turn, and the machine-gun burst fell in the direction of the children. Lena ran as fast as she could. The boy screamed in horror, trying to keep pace with his sister. "Lena, what's going on? Why do they shoot at us? I'm scared!"

The girl squeezed her brother's hand and ran faster. Suddenly, something pulled her back, and she fell. Lena turned around and saw the boy lying on the ground. He grabbed his leg and started screaming.

She rushed to him. Vanya's entire leg was covered in blood.

The plane made a U-turn again and was about to start the third attack run. There were no more than five meters to the trees.

Lena grabbed her brother in her arms and dragged him towards the forest. Though Ivan was five years younger than her, he was a strong child, and for the girl's fragile body he was way too heavy.

"Just a little more...," she was praying to have time to hide from the new gunfire.

Reaching the midwood, Lena hid herself and the boy under the crown of a large tree. The plane made another circle over the field and flew away.

The girl looked at her brother, his face became pale, and his breathing was heavy. She looked at his wound, 'Too much blood...'

Lena tore off the edge of her dress and began to apply a bandage to his leg.

"Agghh," the boy screamed from the wild pain, "Lena, I'm scared. I'm cold. Will I die?"

"Stupid, you won't die. People don't die of such wounds," his sister began to cheer him up, but the wound was very serious.

"Oh, that's ok, if it so. Then I'll lie down for a while, okay," the boy exhaled and began to close his eyes.

"Vania! Vanya, do not sleep!" The girl began to shake him, but Ivan had already closed his eyes and did not react to her words.

The girl's hands trembled. It was far from the village, it was impossible for her to carry him on. It would be long and could harm his condition even more. The only solution was to call someone for help.

"My dear little brother, I will run to the village now as fast as I can and bring in the elders. They will help you. Everything will be fine. Just wait for me, promise?" Lena kissed the boy on the forehead and left him under the tree.

She ran as fast as never before in her life.

Tears were running down her cheeks, but most of all she was afraid that she might be late.

When Lena approached the village, she saw the picture as if from a different reality. An hour ago, there were houses here, and now there were pits from exploded bombs and fragments of the smoldering walls of blown-up houses lying everywhere.

The girl stopped running and began to look around. She walked along the street she knew before and froze. Instead of the house in which she was deep asleep literally a couple of hours ago, there was nothing now.

"Aunt!" Lena rushed to the wreckage of the house and began to look for traces of her beloved aunt. But besides blood and glowing logs she could see nothing.

"*Oh, one more! Wow, what a beauty!*" The girl heard a cheerful hooting over her back. She turned around and saw a man in military uniform; his machine gun was aimed at her.

Lena straightened up and looked into his eyes with hate. The man, expecting a different reaction, was taken aback, but he pulled the trigger immediately and waved the machine gun, ordering the girl to raise her hands.

She executed the order and followed him. Pa.s.sing along several destroyed buildings, they turned round the corner. Opposite the church building, the military gathered together all the people who managed to survive - children, women, old people. This village was not far from the Brest Fortress, and all the adult men were currently in the garrison.

Lena glanced at the crowd, but could not see Ivan's mother among them.

"*Major General Schlieper, I found another one*," the soldier who brought Lena said in German.

"*Let all the residents go now! The German Reich and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact between each other! You broke the boundaries!*" Lena said in pure German.

The Major General raised an eyebrow in surprise, and then laughed out loud, "*Wow, what a funny little girl. Do you speak German? Hmm, you're obviously not local. Where are you from?*"

The girl said nothing in reply. The commander nodded to his soldier, and he immediately hit Lena on the back with the b.u.t.t of the machine gun, causing the girl to fall to the ground. Then the soldier grabbed her arm and forced her to get up on her feet.

"*Answer when an officer of the Reich is speaking to you!*"

"*Leningrad. I am from Leningrad*," she answered.

"*Oh, Leningrad. They say it's a beautiful city. It is even called the "northern Venice." What a shame, it was already bombed out like an hour ago*," Schlieper laughed, and his smile was like a grin of a wild beast.

Lena trembled. Images of her mother, the younger sister, and a three-year-old younger brother, immediately appeared before her eyes.

The man, seeing the shocked face of the girl, smiled even wider.

"*The non-aggression pact, you are saying? Huh, our great Fuhrer had planned what he would do with your country even a year ago. So our task is to clean all this territory from such dirt like you. You're lucky you speak German. Your body can serve the prosperity of the Third Reich.*"

Hearing the words of a man, Lena realized that this was not a mistake. The war has begun. And these people attacked her house without any warning.

"*Send the girl to Auschwitz. If she misbehaves along the way, you can do whatever you want with her*," The commander ordered his subordinate, and the eyes of the latter flashed with l.u.s.t.

"*What do we do with the other residents? Do we shoot them?*"

Lena was listening to their dialogue and did not believe her ears.

The Major General thought for a while and then replied, "*No, they are not worth spending our ammunition on them. Drive them somewhere and burn them alive*."

"*Yes sir!*"

The girl glanced at the crowd of children and women who, at gunpoint, were driven into the church building. She was terrified by the awareness of what would happen next.

A German soldier, standing nearby, grinned and replied, "*Do not look there. Believe me, they are more fortunate than you are, hahaha.*"

Lena did not answer. Tears were flowing silently down her cheeks.

'Sorry, Vanya, I won't be able to keep my promise.'