Life And Fate (Orange Inheritance)
57
Krymov heard a quiet voice saying: ‘It’s just been announced that we’ve routed the German forces at Stalingrad. I think Paulus has been captured, but I couldn’t quite make it out.’
He let out a scream. He was struggling, kicking at the floor. He wanted to talk to that crowd of people in padded jackets and felt boots . . . The sound of their voices was drowning the quiet conversation that was going on beside him. He was in Stalingrad . . . Grekov was making his way towards him over piles of rubble . . .
The doctor was holding him by the hand and saying: ‘You must break off for a while . . . repeated injections of camphor . . .’
Krymov swallowed down a ball of salty saliva. ‘No, I’m quite all right, thanks to the medicine. You can carry on. But you won’t get me to sign anything.’
‘You will sign, in the end,’ said the investigator, with the good-natured assurance of a factory foreman. ‘We’ve had people more difficult than you.’
This second interrogation session lasted three days. At the end of it Krymov returned to his cell.
The soldier on duty placed a parcel wrapped in white cloth beside him.
‘You must sign for this parcel, citizen prisoner.’
Krymov read through the list of contents: onion, garlic, sugar, white rusks. The handwriting was familiar. At the end of the list was written: ‘Your Zhenya’.
‘Oh God, oh God.’ He began to cry.