Word Count: 108,037
Summary of Events:
Keeleigh's grandparents stopped over to drop off some dishes from Thanksgiving and Keeleigh invited them inside to visit that turned into a heated conversation between her and Grandpa. Olga had decided to give her siblings some schooling because they weren't going to school, and was unnerved when Papa came and gave them a show of affection like he'd never done before. Keeleigh was talked to by her dad about the conversation she'd had with her grandparents, in which he somewhat forced her to reveal more than she'd planned on. Emil saw Ladislav leave after another visit and went down to talk to Papa, only to find his office unlocked and him not there, so Emil set out to find the papers that Ladislav had brought that day . . .
Excerpt of the Day:
"Having hardly opened the drawer more than a few inches, Emil stopped. There was a small box, about the size of a ring-box, but not a ring-box, that had Poland's coat of arms embossed onto its leather cover.
Possessed with curiosity, Emil drew it out and opened it. Laying on the white satin-clad cushion inside was a medal. A war medal. Emil didn't know what kind it was, but he knew for a fact it had to be his father's.
He checked the red satin-lined top of the box and saw no writing on it, but he noted that with the red upper part and the white lower it looked like the Polish flag.
Lightly he fingered the medal, it was cool and hard, its details still crisp, their textures easily felt by his fingertips.
He then carefully lifted at the cushion and found that it came out. Underneath it was a folded piece of paper that looked rather official.
Lifting it out carefully, Emil unfolded it with reverence and found that it was a commemorative certificate declaring that his father had received the medal for valorous service with the Polish Army during the Great War. He'd received the medal in 1917, just a year before the war had come to an end, and the very same year Emil himself had been born.
With equal care, Emil folded the paper back up and put the cushion back in before returning it to the drawer.
Before he could open the drawer any further, Emil noticed that there was an envelope with Papa's familiar hand having spread ink across it brusque and straight, spelling out that there was five thousand złoty in the envelope.
What was Papa doing with that much money? Emil's stomach twisted as he recalled what he'd eavesdropped on just a couple days before. Was that money for them to leave Poland? He certainly hoped not.
Carefully he drew the drawer open until he saw the stack of papers he'd been seeking. The heading at the top of the sheet was an official letterhead that contained the garish Nazi swastika slapped across it.
Most of the sheet was typed, although there were some blanks that were filled in by a hand that wasn't Papa's, but even still, Emil couldn't read it because it was all in German. He shuddered at the thought that German writing was before him.
Carefully he lifted the top page off the stack and found that the next page was also German, and all of the blanks were filled out too. Emil wondered what it all meant. Were those papers to get them out of Poland?"
Pronunciation:
Złoty: zwohteh
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