Danylo nodded in acknowledgement. "That's good," he said. "They should talk to people who were there, and would understand what it was like back then."
Mr. Vincent gave Danylo a puzzled look, and then flipped through a few more layers of paper. "Well, Mr. Feschuk, it seems that the RCMP were able to find two people who will testify that you collaborated with the Nazis."
"What?" exclaimed Danylo with surprise. "Who? And what did they say I was supposed to have done?"
"One will testify that you threatened local Jews. Another will testily that you collaborated with the imprisonment of Soviet prisoners of war."
"Those are lies," said Danylo.
"And that's what we have to demonstrate," said Mr. Vincent.
Orysia asked, "Has the hearing date been set?"
"Yes," said Mr. Vincent. "It will begin on January 11th."
"How many villagers did they contact altogether?" asked Orysia.
"I'm not exactly sure," said Mr. Vincent. "But they would have attempted to interview every single resident who is still alive and who lived there during the war."
"Do they also have a list of residents who will testify in my father's defence?" she asked.
"That wasn't their mandate," Mr. Vincent replied. "They were only interested in the people who would testify against him."
"I would have thought they'd be interested in finding the truth," said Orysia.
Mr. Vincent closed the file in front of him and folded his arms on the desk. "It's not fair," he said. "But we can make it more fair."
"How?" asked Orysia.
"The defence can also interview all of those surviving villagers."
"How do we do that?" asked Orysia.
"We would have to fly to Ukraine with an interpreter to interview them. Then we would have to fly the defence witnesses to Canada."
"Wouldn't that cost a fortune?" asked Danylo.
"It will be expensive," said Mr. Vincent. "But probably worth it."
"How much would this cost?" asked Danylo.
"The defence would have to pay air fare, accommodation, food and incidental expenses for the witnesses who come here to testify," explained Mr. Vincent. "You're looking at about $40,000 if you get six or seven good witnesses."
"Then we've lost before we've begun," said Danylo. "I don't have that kind of money." Indeed, $40,000 was more than Danylo had ever made in a year.
Orysia looked at her father. She knew what he was thinking. She also knew that by mortgaging both their own house and her father's house, they could borrow about $150,000, meaning there would still be $110,000 left for the trial. How would they ever pay it back? Orysia couldn't let herself think of that. Her father was innocent.
"Do you have any idea how much this whole proceeding might cost?" asked Orysia.
"The government spends several million dollars on each one of these cases," said Mr. Vincent. "To forge an adequate defence, you could easily spend one million." Mr. Vincent then looked into Danylo's eyes. "This is not a proceeding to step into lightly."
"But what other choice do I have?" asked Danylo.
"You could leave voluntarily," replied Mr. Vincent.
"But then it will be assumed that I am guilty," said Danylo angrily. "This is crazy."
Even so, Danylo thought to himself, how could he ask his family to take on such a huge burden? How could one man fight the whole government? Yet if he didn't fight, he would be branded a war criminal. Worse yet, his family and community would be reviled. He had no idea what he should do. He looked over at Orysia and was surprised to see a look of cool determination on her face.
Orysia met her father's eyes and nodded slightly. Then she turned to Mr. Vincent and said, "Please make arrangements for an approved translator, yourself, and whomever else should travel to Ukraine. And of course, I will accompany you."
CHAPTER 17
IT WAS A snowy Monday in early December by the time Lisa, Kat and Ian could get together after school to test out different ways to hang the parachute onto the maroon velvet curtains. Preparing for the winter concert was a welcome respite for Kat. Her grandfather's hearing had been set for January 11th, and the winter concert was set for January 25th.
"I love this stuff," said Lisa, crushing the parachute material to her face and breathing in deeply. "After the concert, can I have this? Maybe I can make a dress."
"I don't mind," said Ian. "Unless Kat wants it."
Kat shook her head and smiled. "Not my style."
The parachute was large enough that they could drape it in three huge loose scallops and still have some material to spare. Kat and Lisa practised pinning it up and pulling it down while Ian timed them. Once they got the knack, it took less than a minute each way.
As Kat and Ian and Lisa waited for the late bus, Kat remembered that she had brought something for Lisa. She reached into her knapsack and pulled out a zip-lock bag of what looked like dried animal droppings.
Ian wrinkled his nose in disgust. "What is that?"
But Lisa knew right away. "Are these some of the mushrooms that you dried by yourself?" she asked excitedly.
Kat nodded.
Lisa took the bag and opened it a tiny bit, then breathed in deeply. "Oh, they smell wonderful. My grandmother will be in heaven." She sealed it back up, then gave Kat a big hug. "Thanks."
"If you're interested," said Kat, "come over to my house some time and I'll show you the contraption my father rigged up to dry them in."
"Sounds good," said Lisa.
Kat finished writing her last mid-term exam at noon on the Friday before Christmas. She clicked shut her school locker with a sigh after dumping her books in and grabbing her winter coat out. She had a feeling that she had bombed most of her exams. She had tried to study, truly she had, but the words just swam in front of her. The same thing happened while she was trying to write them. She would read through the questions and her mind would go blank. The worst was today's math exam. If she broke 50%, she'd be lucky.
Kat pulled on her coat and shoved her hands into the pockets. In her rush to catch the bus this morning, she hadn't brought gloves, and it was bitterly cold outside.
Just as she walked out, she saw her bus pull up. There were only two kids boarding, so it left quickly. No time to flag it down. And there wouldn't be another bus for fifteen minutes.
She shoved her hands further into her pockets with a shiver, and walked to the bus shelter.
She thought of all that had happened in the last few months. Her father had been transferred out of the country. Mayfair Industrial had been afraid of the notoriety of Danylo's upcoming hearing, and so they gave her father a choice: He could either work a desk on the inside and receive no commission until the attention died down, or he could break new sales territory for their new office in Oregon. He would get full pay, travel expenses and commission. Kat understood his decision to temporarily relocate. After all, they desperately needed the money. However, she missed her father very much.
Her mother was back from Ukraine, and her father had come back from Oregon for four days over American Thanksgiving. Kat had been looking forward to some normal family time, but instead spent that weekend listening to her parents argue as they took out their frustrations on each other.
Her mother had triumphantly come home from Ukraine with the news that most people in the village would testify favourably towards Dido. The two who refused wouldn't even look her in the eyes; they just walked away in angered silence. Orysia had felt the trip was well worth it. Had she not gone over, the only eyewitness testimony would have come from those two who were the ones who were already testifying for the prosecution.