Sunlit oak tree

Day and night had long been erased into one large cloudy canvas that blocked out the sun, and the dust that clogged all the pores on the skin was layered with a thick crust that could not be washed off due to interruptions in the water supply. Agnes looked out of the window. People were clearing away the rubble. As soon as the fire subsided, they came out of their shelters to clear away the rubble and look for something edible. Agnes was waiting for Yume — He was about to arrive and bring lists of survivors. Maybe she shouldn’t have gone to Switzerland, maybe she shouldn’t have listened to Alex? They are unlikely to move from here, from a city dilapidated by war. The water supply is cut off and there is no electricity. Her gaze dropped to the dusty road. Someone shouted something, people were in a hurry to leave for the villages. The corpses of soldiers lay in the streets in whole crowds, and no one paid any attention to them. Agnes rubbed her eyes. She stood up and left the kitchen, closing the door behind her. Yum ran into his sister’s apartment, hugged her and brought her some water. He’s wearing an old, shabby uniform. Now he is no longer an elite, now the main thing for him is to blend in with the crowd. Agnes asks about Yunna. “I don’t know where she is, but I think she should come soon too.” It seems like she wants to hang out with you too. “He looked around excitedly. “Yum, please be careful…” Agnes put her arm around his shoulders. How worried she was about her brother’s well-being. Yes, of course, she sees him in front of her now, alive and well, but how long will luck smile on him? — Yes, I remember not to go far. — He drove. — By the way, no letters came from Augustine. — Agnes became sad. She hugged her brother, and he ran out of the apartment like a bullet and shouted that he would be in two blocks. On days like these, it was much more difficult to maintain any sanity. She wanted to forget herself and, like others, plunge into the world of illusions and colors. Agnes quietly walked into the bedroom where Irene was sleeping. The girls became friends, and Irene, due to the hardships of the war, had to move in with Agnes. She sold the house, and the state apartment in which she lived was destroyed during the first raid. Irene had nightmares. She slept poorly, often woke up from nightmares and from the sounds of bombs, which she sometimes imagined for no reason. Only after looking around and making sure that everyone was sleeping, she went back to bed. She found her salvation in sleeping pills, but because of their abuse, Irene increasingly felt overwhelmed. Agnes sat down on the edge of the bed, and Irene immediately woke up with a start. — It’s morning already? “Irene stood up, rubbing her sore head. The bright light irritated my eyes. — Yes, it’s already morning. Another morning. — Agnes stirred up Irene. She really wanted to sleep. It was necessary to feed her. “Agnes, let me sleep,” the woman protested, wrapping herself in a cold blanket. — No I will not give. You need to eat and go to the post office to see if there is anything there. Yum can’t do it today, so come on. I’ll go and see if I can buy anything else with this. — Agnes pointed to a stack of cards lying on the nightstand. — Yesterday, at least when they gave them to me, it was possible. — Well, it was yesterday. Do you know how much has changed? — Irene rolled her eyes. The day was just beginning, and she was already unable to do anything: she had practically no strength left to live. If it weren’t for Agnes, she would probably have disappeared under the rubble of some house. She was very afraid that such a death would overtake her. Many people died under the rubble. There was no time to identify people; they were simply burned to the ground in mass graves — without honors or forgiveness from relatives. Irene kept wondering, maybe Augustine also came to Germany and is just sitting somewhere — he can’t stay in Austria, it’s very dangerous there now. *** Agnes still managed to exchange all the remaining cards for some potatoes and bread; Yunna walked next to her and said something about the lists of the wounded and dead, adding that she did not see the names of Alex and Augustine on the lists. — Well, that’s just for now. They can appear there at any moment. I’m so scared… — Agnes felt bad just from the thought that her family might be dead. “Sister, you don’t have to worry so much, everything will definitely come to its senses.” They won’t be lost. “Yunna’s optimism reminded Agnes how their mother also once tirelessly talked about happiness, convincing others that everything would definitely end well. But it’s unlikely that life really worked that way. — Yunna, you should know that not everything in life is so simple, and besides, your optimism will not always be in your favor. They reached a small hospital. — I know. I’ll come by as soon as I’m done. I have to help. Agnes followed Yunna with her gaze as she disappeared into the crowd of nurses and doctors who were helping to save the wounded. Agnes went home. She did not know where their mother and father were. There was no return letter from Wilhelm and Anna either. At the beginning of the war, they still kept in touch with her, and then suddenly disappeared. Agnes never knew what their fate was. I just hoped that they did not die from the bombing, but moved somewhere safe and forgot to write the address. *** Yum and Yunna came running late at night, disheveled and with wide smiles on their faces. — It’s over! — It’s over! Irene and Agnes looked at each other, puzzled. — What’s over? — War is over! — Yum and Yunna exclaimed in unison. Agnes and Irene couldn’t believe their ears. At some point, it began to seem to them that the war would never end. This news shocked them greatly, and they questioned Yum and Yunna for a long time about the details of such good news. Very quickly, Agnes’s joy again gave way to anxiety. After thinking a little, she went into another room. A few minutes later she returned back, holding two sets of clothes in her hands. “Yum, Yunna,” she sternly called them to her. — You need to change clothes. Here, put this on. — Agnes threw them clothes that she found today on one of the abandoned carts in the middle of the city. Brother and sister obeyed. — Do you think they will look for them? — Irene was stuffing Yum and Yunna’s old clothes into a potato sack. — These are precautionary measures. We don’t know what will happen next. Anyone can come to us: Americans, British, and maybe even Russians. There is no need for us to make ourselves suspicious. Irene burned the uniform in an old iron basin. Agnes hastily threw her brother and sister’s documents into the fire. They carefully poured the ashes into the toilet. Yum and Yunna, dressed and yawning, went to bed, and Irene and Agnes, who were sitting in the kitchen, sat there until the morning, quietly talking about worries about the future. Light rays of the sun rolled over the fallen city. Clouds of dust and dirt were still in the air, but the fire of the guns had long since died down. The streets have finally ceased to be bloody battlefields. Silence covered the whole of Berlin — from the center to the outskirts. Agnes was sitting on a dilapidated balcony, the railings of which had long fallen off, and drinking strong black tea. Irene was sitting on the floor; both looked at the sky, at the clear, transparent sky, turning blue for the first time in a long time. It was a warm May morning, the rays of which pierced the sky and air. Finally, everything calmed down — you could hear your own heartbeat and be sure that you were alive. They quietly rejoiced that they could survive and breathe deeply on the first day of peace. Agnes thought about Yum and Yunna, who were now sleeping side by side on their beds. Yesterday they came running with their eyes bulging, and all night Agnes and Irene helped them both get rid of the form and documents. From everything that could somehow connect them with the past. — Agnes, do you think it will be difficult for them? — The woman slowly turned to her friend. — You mean Yunna and Yum? “Irene shook her head. — Maybe yes. They practically did not know life, now it will be difficult for them to understand and accept that there is something else in the world other than war and the party. And we will have to, without harming them, show them the delights of a peaceful life. — Yes, they will start asking questions from us. Maybe they will blame us for not being able to bring them to reason earlier. Or maybe they will resist adapting to new realities…” Irene added. She missed Augustine, Alex, and their fun evenings. She missed ordinary human emotions. — Do you think maybe we should go to the Red Cross and find out about Augustine and Alex? — Yes, but let’s do it later. Now we just need to sit and relax. We deserve this rest, breathe out. — You’re right. In fact, we still have a lot to go through. — Agnes put out her cigarette. “Now we will see devastation day after day, experience the deaths of those whom we once considered gods, and then it will finally dawn on us that we chose them out of desperation, and not out of choice.” “We are exactly the same victims as the British, and the same as the Poles, but no one will hear this, because it will always be impossible for them to admit that we are ordinary people.” *** A little time later, Irene nevertheless went to find out about Augustine’s fate, but they did not answer her, adding that he was not in Vienna. He was neither among the dead nor among the living. Alex is lost somewhere in the Czech Republic, his fate is also unknown. Agnes, hearing this, immediately understood what needed to be done. She picked up Yum and Yunna and told them to get ready. — What are you planning? Do you want to leave the city? — No. Augustine, when he was leaving, wrote me a letter in which he said that if there was no news from him, then we should gather in our family home. Irene was surprised. — Is this the house of Anna and Wilhelm? Agnes shook her head. — Well, of course, you don’t remember him at all. So you have to show everything. Before we lived with Anna and Wilhelm, we lived with our parents in a house not far from the city. That’s where we’ll go. — But we don’t have a car, Agnes, do you really want to walk? — Irene protested. — No. We will leave the city and catch someone — the same peasant — and get there. It would probably be best for us to sit out in the suburbs; there’s nothing to do anyway. Or do you propose to stay here? — Certainly. But what if someone already lives there? Agnes thought about it — yes, indeed, she did not take this into account. — So we will say that this is our house. Besides, I don’t think anyone has settled there. A big abandoned house is not your apartment. There’s not even running water there. Get ready. The girl had to agree. It was much better than doing nothing and waiting for help. Irene began to get dressed and pack a small suitcase of things. Agnes was worried whether she had started this in vain. She didn’t even remember the exact road to that house and wasn’t sure that it had not been damaged by the bombing. She only hoped that Augustine knew what he was talking about and they would definitely meet. Life again became part of something tangible and visible. Now everything should finally fall into place. They trudged along the outskirts of Berlin, Agnes stopped each convoy and asked if they would be taken to the right street. Irene was embarrassed — it was too much for her, but in the end they found an old man who took them to that same suburb.