Word Count: 18,045
Summary of Events:
Olga and the rest of the family were ordered downstairs by Emil as a bombing raid struck them; once the bombing was over they went to start cleaning up and rescuing people. Keeleigh opened one of the boxes and discovered it contained cards and letters from over sixty years — including many that had been unopened — and identified the woman she'd seen at the funeral as one of the senders. Emil worked hard helping the men sift through the debris for dead and living in between bombing raids . . .
Excerpt of the Day:
"All the boyish imaginings Emil had possessed of what it would be like to beat back the Germans were shattered, but even still, part of him hoped that they would be able to repay the Germans as they'd been served yet, and make the Germans realise how inglorious and unglamorous war was.
Pulling back a piece of concrete too heavy to lift, Emil though he heard something and scanned the sky quickly.
No aircraft were in the sky, no one was next to him; he looked down toward where he'd been pulling debris from. He hauled at the wood, cracked and broken like even a child could break a twig or a piece of kindling.
After digging for a bit he listened; there was whimpering coming from inside the wreckage.
"Life!" he shouted.
Instantly several nearby diggers hurried over to help him pry away wood, brick, concrete, and all manner of other debris until they finally found the source of the whimpering.
It was a dog, whose one leg was trapped under what looked to be the remains of a window or door frame. Laying on it was a small child, who looked unharmed.
Quickly a man reached in to check the child's signs of life.
"Alive," he whispered, before gently collecting the child into his arms.
The dog barked and struggled against the timber, obviously upset that his charge was being taken from him.
Another man bent over with a hatchet and chopped at the wood pinning the dog's leg in place. Emil reached for the dog, who turned and snapped at him.
He managed to catch the dog's muzzle in one hand and felt for a collar with the other. Once it was found, he seized hold of it.
As soon as the dog was freed it lunged to its feet, barking, and tried to surge over the wreckage to the man carrying the child it'd been guarding, but Emil restrained it, managed to collect it into his arms, and carried it after the man.
They headed for the church, the strongest building in the area — even if it was just as windowless as the rest — where the living were being tended to in the sanctuary-turned-hospital while the dead were identified and prepared for burial in the basement-turned-morgue.
By the time they reached the church the child had roused and was screaming at the top of his lungs. Women who were helping treat the wounded quickly relieved the man of the child and sought to soothe him.
As Emil stepped inside the church he saw the women carrying the child over to one of the wounded. They talked to the woman, who then cried out with a measure of joy and relief before taking the child up in her arms."
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