It was a hot September afternoon, though the boys hardly noticed the sweat stains under their arms or the beads of sweat on their foreheads. As far as they were concerned, normal stuff like noting the weather was for another time, another place.
Vlad felt like he was in a completely different country, far, far away from anything he had ever known. He also felt a little bit ashamed of just how glad he was that Leo, Misha, and yes, even Anton, were standing next to him.
The sergeant issued their orders, ‘I want you boys to walk about twenty minutes in that direction. You’re digging trenches against enemy attack from the air. Meet me back here in two hours. Got that?’
All four boys nodded quickly and replied in unison, ‘Yes, sir!’ Then they jumped as the train sounded out that it was on its way back again, for more soldiers, with a loud blast of steam.
Their sergeant rolled his eyes, and said, ‘You chicks will have to toughen up because it’s going to be very noisy from here on in. Okay? If nothing happens over the next two hours, you’ve had an easy start.’ As he turned away, he snorted one more time, ‘And I sure hope you can all swim because God only knows what tonight is going to be like, for the crossing.’
Misha couldn’t help himself; he had to know more, ‘The c-crossing, sir?’ Immediately, his cheeks glowed red and he panicked over opening his mouth.
However, the sergeant had run out of time and smiles, snapping, ‘Go and dig trenches. That’s all you need to know, for now.’
Anton, rather stupidly, saluted the sergeant’s back, while his comrades began to walk in the direction they had been told to. They had barely gone a few steps before Anton passed them by, purposely taking long strides so that he could lead them, or they could follow him. Vlad heard Leo mumble something awful but chose to ignore it. Instead, he pointed to a sign post that read, ‘Lenisk’. ‘Well’, he said, ‘At least we know where we are now.’
‘In relation to what?’ smirked Leo.
Vlad shrugged his shoulders and laughed. ‘I have absolutely no idea!’
There were posters everywhere, on lamp-posts and trees, urging people to join in the fight for Stalingrad, making them feel they were part of something important, that they were needed just as much as anyone else. This newfound confidence, however, was no match for their corporal, who appeared to take a violent dislike to the boys as soon as he laid eyes on them. ‘OH NO! As if I hadn’t enough problems to deal with, now I have to babysit kids!’
His greeting confused the boys because he didn’t look that much older than them. Still, he did have his followers, who laughed with him, or for him. It was hard to tell.
Anton hoped to clear up any misunderstanding, ‘Sir, Sergeant Batyuk sent us to…’
‘Yes, dearie, I know. I know everything, don’t I! That’s my job! Now, the four of you drop your gear over there and grab a shovel over here. Then I want you to dig a great big bloody hole beside your things, as fast as possible.’
It was fortunate that none of them had any questions since the corporal stalked off almost as soon as he finished talking. Anton shrugged off the rudeness, able to accept that this was what being a soldier involved. Misha, however, looked like he was going to cry, while Leo silently removed his coat and bag, dropping them to the ground, where they had been instructed, before going over to a sad pile of ancient, mucky shovels. He grabbed four and brought them back, handing them out without saying a word. Anton pouted, as if annoyed that he hadn’t been able to fetch his own shovel. He was painfully aware that the other soldiers, who were taking a quick break, were passing around cigarettes while lazily watching the new recruits.
Vlad felt exhausted, although he knew it wasn’t because he was actually tired; it was because he did not want to be here at all. Glancing at his watch, he saw it was half past four: half past four in the middle of nowhere, on a day that seemed to have no end in sight. He detested not knowing the little details, like when was dinner time, where would they be sleeping tonight and what time they would have to get up tomorrow morning. These questions buzzed around his head, like warring planes, as he dug and dug, alongside the others, into the soft, cool earth.
‘Cheer up, comrades. Things could be a lot worse, you know. You could be dead!’
These cheerful words did not actually bring a smile to the boys’ faces but at least the young man who said them did not look at them with scorn in his eyes. Vlad and Leo nodded over at him, while Anton smiled knowingly. Misha was the only one who pretended not to have heard them. No doubt he was determined not to have the mean corporal shout at them again. He kept digging as if his life depended on it, which, one would suppose, it did.
The German airplanes continued to bombard the Russian army as often and as hard as possible. Jumping into a trench, or any kind of deep hole, was about the only thing a fellow could do to save himself from being blown into a million little pieces, like shattered glass.
The man scanned the sky overhead. ‘No sign of Gerry yet. Maybe he’ll leave us alone today.’
Anton practically jumped into the air, so excited was he to be able to contribute to the conversation, ‘We already had a run in with… er, a Gerry. Our train was attacked a while back.’ To his credit, he paused before saying ‘a’ before ‘Gerry’. It must not have sounded right in his head either, and he blushed slightly, not looking the least bit surprised when some of the men repeated it and shook their heads in disbelief.
The first man laughed pleasantly and discreetly gave Anton a lesson, ‘Ah, Gerry couldn’t possibly stay away from us; they would miss us too much. If you ask me, they’re waiting for tonight, when we’re sitting pretty in the middle of the Volga River.’
Leo asked, ‘Is that “the crossing”?’
Vlad expected the man to crow over their innocence and was relieved when he, instead, introduced himself as Leyosha and nodded, ‘Yes. Once we’re finished here, we’ve a bit of a walk to the banks of the Volga.’ He paused to wipe the sweat from his forehead before continuing, ‘Stalingrad is on the other side. The truth of it is, my friends, from that point on we will be taking our lives in our hands.’
His friend groaned, ‘Ah, best not to think too far ahead, comrades.’ He opened up his box of precious cigarettes and generously offered them to the boys. All but Anton politely refused.
Leyosha asked, ‘You seem to know one another well?’
Vlad, eager for normal conversation, answered, ‘We were all in school together.’ And then he stopped, hoping that Leyosha wouldn’t question him further about this, believing that it was probably best not to talk about Mr Belov and the walk to the registrar’s office. Still schoolboys at heart, neither he nor his friends realised that school would be the last thing their army mates would want to know anything about. How would school hold any interest for a soldier?
Leyosha exhaled a smoky circle and said, ‘It’s good to have your friends around you in times like this.’
His mates nodded in agreement. Because they appeared to know what they were talking about, Vlad was prompted to ask, ‘Have you been in the army long?’
Sending his cigarette butt into the mud beside him, Leyosha prepared to start digging again, gesturing to the boys that they’d better make a start, that the break was over. ‘Long enough. We were in Moscow for the last while.’