second chance.
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We were among the first to cross. The expanse of ice looked enormous. âFifty meters between each group,â instructed the soldiers. âWe must not stress the ice all at once. Hurry.â
How could we hurry? The walk was kilometers long and the ice was slippery.
âLet me go first,â said Ingrid, her eyes still bandaged. âAlone.â
âAbsolutely not,â I told her. âWeâll go together.â
âIâll go with Ingrid,â said the shoe poet. âMy walking stick can test more than soles.â
âNo,â insisted Ingrid. âIf Iâm alone, Iâll truly feel the ice. Iâll let you know if itâs sound. Then you can bring the cart along with the others.â
Ingrid walked several meters out onto the ice, eyes bandaged, hands in front of her. She took a step and stopped, listening.
She took another step.
The sun made its first appearance, throwing light ontothe lagoon. The ice in front of Ingrid was red, frozen with blood. She advanced, then snapped her foot back, as if sensing the stain. She stood perfectly still and breathed, alone on the frozen water. She took a careful step forward, over the icy blood. She took a few more steps, leaving at least twenty meters between us. I could not bear to see her, bandaged and by herself. I walked out to join her.
âIâm coming, Ingrid.â
âYes, the ice is strong,â she called. âCome along.â
I stepped toward her. The rest of our group advanced slowly, carefully, yet desperate to move quickly across the jaws of ice.
Ingridâs body suddenly stiffened. Her back arched. â
No!
â she screamed. âGo back!â
Our group retreated. I was too far out to return quickly. And then I heard them: Russian planes strafing overhead. Desperate refugees on the bank erupted in terror. Soldiers dove into snowbanks. I dropped facedown onto the frozen surface. The sun brightened, shining through the ice to reveal the horror below. A dead horse and a childâs mitten glared at me from beneath the frozen glaze. I closed my eyes, choking on the gruesome images.
High-pitched whizzings flew by my head, cracking and popping. Bullets tore through the ice. Frozen shards peppered my coat as screams filled my ears.
The firing ceased. I opened my eyes. Streaks of blood surrounded a solitary hole in the center of the ice.
âIngrid!â I screamed.
Ingrid was gone.
Her gloved hand suddenly appeared, reaching out of the black water.
I crawled toward her.
Her hand bobbed and grasped frantically at the edge of the ice.
âIngrid!â I wailed.
The ice broke.
The hole in the ice spread farther, sending a deep crack running directly toward me. Ingridâs hand flapped desperately.
A pair of hands tightened around my ankles. I began sliding backward along my belly to the frozen bank.
âLet me go!â
The gap in the ice widened. Water rolled toward me. Panicked screams roared from behind. âItâs all cracking!â
Someone pulled me away. I tried to free myself, to fight my way back across to Ingrid.
â
No!
â I pleaded. âIngrid!â
I looked out toward the dark watery hole. Ingridâs frantic hand suddenly went slack. Her fingers softened, slowly curled, and disappeared beneath the ice.
florian
I followed secretly behind.
When the planes appeared, the Polish girl dropped from the cart and tried to scramble to the women on the ice. I pushed her away, then ran to the nurse, pulling her back toward me. The little boy grabbed my leg, trying to yank me to safety. He had the weight of a dry twig yet heaved with the ferocity of a bull. I dragged the nurse onto the bank, restraining her, fighting her.
âLet me go!â She kicked and screamed, desperate to save her blind friend. We fell in a heap. I pulled her onto my lap. She reached out to the ice.
âIngrid,â she whispered,
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