It took some time to maneuver his sick body back through the tiny hole into which he had crawled. As he stood to his feet for the first time in ten hours, his head spun and he stumbled into the wooden boxes beside him, making them crash noisily to the ground. This sent a wave of fear through his mind.
Three minutes later, he stood in the darkness beside the back window of his house. The curtains were drawn but he could hear male German voices coming from the living room. There was a tiny gap in the curtain, but he was fearful to lean across to look in, in case he was seen. Were his mother and his sister okay? Did his father and Joseph escape? Whose voices could he hear?
His concern for his family partially overcame his fears and he slowly leaned across and peered into the home. To his relief, two soldiers stood with their backs to the window. From what he could see through the small window, they were officers of the Third Reich. His mother and sister were huddled together in a corner. Thank God they were alive. The officers laughed as they drank their foaming mugs of beer; then one reached into his pocket and pulled out a coin and tossed it into the air. Jerry's heart sank with pity as he saw the fear in the eyes of both his mother and sister. One of the officers then walked across to his sister and lifted her from the floor. A word flashed across the boy's mind, Rape! He mouthed,
"Dear God no! Please don’t let this happen."
Jerry felt a wave of an emotion that he had never felt before. It was anger that these animals would rape his beloved mother and sister. Rage seemed to overcome his fears and clear his mind.
It was then that he remembered a gun his father had smuggled from the U.S. It was a loaded handgun hidden under a loose floorboard in the bathroom. Quickly he made his way to the bathroom window and pried it open.
For the first time in ten hours he wasn't aware of pain in his arm as a reserve of adrenaline pumped through his body. He quietly slid down onto the floor, dropped to his knees in the darkness, lifted the loose floorboard and felt for the gun. For a second he thought it was gone, but then his hand touched something very cold. He took hold of the cold steel and held it firmly in his hand. Only once before had his father let him touch it, and that was to show him how to move the safety clip, if the time ever came that he needed to.
In the semi-darkness, he carefully moved the clip with his left hand and held the gun tightly in his right. He then quietly opened the bathroom door, entered the dark hallway and deliberately stopped for a moment and calmed his thoughts.
As he stood in the hallway, he could hear the pathetic crying‑sound of his sister coming from one of the bedrooms. It made him grit his teeth in outrage. He gently turned the familiar handle and pushed open the door to see the dark figure of a man pressing his terrified sister against the wall. He had hold of both of her wrists and was forcing himself upon her. The officer looked for a moment at the change of expression on Lilian's face as she saw Jerry. He then turned his head and mumbled something in German, thinking that it was the other officer. But when he saw Jerry's figure standing with a gun, terror filled his eyes He dropped Lilian and scrambled for his revolver.
Jerry fired two shots into his chest, then ran to his sister and pulled her up from the floor where she had been dropped. As he did so, he heard the hallway door open and a voice say in German, "Uncooperative huh?", as he entered the bedroom. Jerry took careful aim at the silhouette and fired! One pierced the man's upper chest, and as he crumpled to the ground, he put another bullet into his back.
It was then that Jerry collapsed in exhaustion.
To be continued.
