Dear Clara

Escape

Dear Clara,

I have experinced it all life, death and the in between. I have given up on ever seeing Marie again since when I left she was at death's door wanting to leave her horrible life. Here we are fed moldy stale bread and coffee, one cup and two slices a day. But there are still the hungry soles that lurk around me where ever I look we are all starving but there are still the ones who beg for food and there are still the selfless who will give the children their own food. I have been plotting my escape though I will not die or at least not die the way Hitler wants me to. There is a guard who has taken pity on me he was part of a Nazi rebellion but was forced to join the army. He is willing to sneak Madison and I out of this place to a nearby town where we will be safe. He will provide us with identification sating that we are Catholic and not Jewish. We are to live a fake life and stay away from any attention. I want to go with all my heart but now I can just pray and hope that at least one person in my family. I will find you Clara and I will deliver my messages to you.

Violet

I looked around waiting for him to come. Madison was beside me but neither of us said a word listening for the footsteps of the man who will rescue us. Hans Fletcher was his name he was a Nazi guard but would take us away from here. I was hoping that Anna was safe and that Marie and Papa were going to live because I needed at least one of them. The sound of swift feet running on the hard dirt ground ws heard making Madison and I jump.

"Zer you are. I vill help you two." the guard didn't know Dutch and we didn't know much German so we spoke in English.

"Thank you, Sir. My family I vant to see zem again." I said Madison nodded in agrement. My English wasn't good but wasn't bad I was just happy he understood me. He nodded and opened a sack marked gravel on the front. He pointed his fingers towards the inside and nodded furiously to get in.

"But vill that fit me und my friend." I asked as I started to put one foot in the sack. Sure the sack itself was very large but I didn't think it could fit Madison and I in there.

"Ja just become ball sized." he shook the sack in frustration urging me to get in.

"Before I get in vhy are you doing this?" I asked standing there with one leg in the sack.

"There are three types of men, zee good, zee great und zee evil. Hitler vell he is in zee evil and I vill never listen to someone as evil as him." that was all I needed to hear I nodded at Madison signaling that we could trust him. I put both legs in and then positioned myself so my face was to the side and my knees were placed under my ribs which poked out more then anything. After I yelled that Madison could come in I felt her step on me I let her though because I knew that when this was over freedom would begin.

"Okay I vill load the sack onto zee truck. Zee truck is going to Sweden you vill be safe there." Hans picked the sack up and carried us, mind you we only weight about fifty pounds each. It felt like forever when then with a thud we were on solid ground again. I could see the outside world from a small rip in the sack. The truck was a large pick up truck that had a wooden fence around so none of the actual gravel sacks would fall. I heard the engine start and hoped that Hans was right.

As the truck started the long journey to Sweden I reviewed the plan. I was to wait until I heard the boarder guards to let the truck in then wait a little bit more until the truck stopped for a break. After the truck stops I am supposed to get out of the sack with Madison and just run.

"Vio I'm scared." Madison said I could hear tears in her voice.

"Don't be scared we're free." I reassured her and shifted my hand so she could hold it.

"No we're not. We'll go into Sweden looking like this and everyone will know what we are and our papers are lies. They'll kill us!" Madison started to cry quietly as she took my hand.

"Mads I'm scared too but we have to be brave. Hans told me that Sweden was nurteral. They have no guards and I'm sure someone will help us." I wanted her to stop crying because my eyes started to tear. All the sadness I had pushed away that I had kept hidden started to show now that I was relaxed. Dead they could be dead. I could be killed, who says Hans wasn't lying. What if Madison is sicker then I think she is what if she dies? I cried harder then I had ever cried before because I could. The roar of the engine covered my sobs from the outside world so only Madison and I could hear each other.

"Mads how sick are you?" I asked between sobs.

"I don't know I think it's just a cold why?" Madison replied surprisingly she was much more put together then I was.

"I just don't want to loose you." I said my cries were starting to settle down. For a long time Madison and I rode in silence reflecting on what our lives had become. I thought of Hannah, of Marie and of Madison's mother which we left all behind. I knew Hannah was probably dead. When I had saw her last she looked like a walking skeleton and felt miserable. I told her multiple times that she should have eaten more but she always insisted my mother or Marie should have her food or at least a piece of it. Marie was so ill when I left her but maybe Auschwitz was liberated or her boyfriend took her away to Anna. I missed my whole family so much I missed Papa and how he used to whistle his old dutch tunes. I missed Mama and when she told me stories and tucked me in at night when I was little. I missed the way Marie would joke and dance with me. The way Anna would smile at me or how she used to hold my hand when I was sad.

"What did you see when you died?" Madison asked sleepily still holding my numb hand.

"I saw my life as I wanted it to turn out. I had a daughter in that life her name was Anne Marie she was adorable. I was married to Shane and lived in a nice apartment with them both." I smiled at the thought of my future life.

"I still don't believe that you kissed Shane."

"Well you were sitting right beside him and woke up to us after your little nap so start believing it." I said teasingly I myself still couldn't believe that Shane was my boyfriend.

"Was he a good kisser?" Madison asked I laughed but stoped when I realized she was being serious.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well he is my twin so if he can kiss I can kiss and I'd like to know if I will be a terrible kisser or a amazing kisser." Madison spoke in her normal tone I giggled a bit but she didn't care.

"He was a great kisser Mads you have nothing to worry about." I reassured my best friend and we both started to laugh. Switzerland was a long way away and I was just glad that I was going to be able to spend this journey with Madison. Madison squeezed my hand I squeezed hers back. For the short moments that we sat there my heart pounded and I grew more and more nervous. The sound of the engine couldn't come sooner enough and when it did I was more then just relived.