فصل 59

joana

After several hours, we reached the other side of the lagoon. No one celebrated. Instead, we trudged quietly and slowly onto the bank. Finally, Eva spoke.

“I was sure we’d all drown, like cats in a bag.”

The wandering boy looked up at Eva. Tears, like slender icicles, were frozen to his cheeks.

“Sorry,” she said.

Anger suddenly consumed me. I yanked the German by the arm, pulling him aside. “I could have saved her.”

“No, you couldn’t. They not only fired through the ice, they shot her.”

“You can revive someone who drowns! It’s possible. You kept me away.”

“Yes, I did. The temperature of the water alone was enough to kill her. It would have killed you too.”

“You don’t know that!” I yelled.

“Now, now,” interrupted the shoe poet. “Let’s not soil the memory of Ingrid with arguing.” Poet gestured to the German. “He quite possibly saved both you and Emilia. Emilia also scrambled to Ingrid. I saw it. He stopped her too.”

Emilia had also tried to save Ingrid? “Emilia, are you okay?” I called up to her in the cart.

“Yes, okay.” She nodded.

“We could have lost all of you girls,” continued Poet.

“Not her,” said the German of Eva. “Her big feet grew roots. She didn’t move to save anyone.”

“Feet with roots, that’s called a fungal infection,” Poet told the wandering boy.

A soldier approached our group. “Papers!” he demanded.

I pulled the German toward me. “You owe us,” I whispered.