The Children’s Train

The prisoner turned as if calculating the distance to the ditch. Eva saw the prisoner’s face. It wasn’t a man. It was a woman, dressed like a man. She wore a piece of cloth tied tightly around her head. She crouched down and, under the cover of darkness, sprinted toward the ditch. When she reached it, she jumped, her long legs stretching to reach the other side. Unbelievably, she made it.

Eva wrapped her arms around her father and whispered, “She’s going to make it. She’s going to escape!”

Like a cat, the woman climbed the wall, somehow finding crevices to cling to. She was almost to the top, and Eva held her breath. A shot ran out from the guard tower, but it missed. The woman threw her leg over the top of the wall, but the shot had notified the other guard towers.

A barrage of bullets rained down on the woman who had the audacity to try to escape. Her body jerked as it was riddled with shots, and she fell off the wall and into the ditch. The guards returned to their posts as if nothing had happened.

Eva, horrified at the woman’s murder, looked sadly at her father. “She didn’t make it.”