1944

January thirtieth

Berlin Staaken airfield.

Leo

 

Not a word was exchanged with Armand that morning. Sasha left to help fix one of the wings of an Me-164 with Max.

 

I stared at the large Jet fighter who towered before me.

I remembered Sasha rambling on and on about the dimensions of the " monster" as she gave us a tour.

It was a tightly packed plane, with an astounding mass of wiring, cable and ducting on a section of the port side fuselage wall. There was wording on metal junction boxes reading: " Schutzkappe erst beim einsetzen des Gerätes entfernen!"

There were also crew entrances and exit hatches on the bottom left of the plane.

" Can contain a crew of six to eight, wingspan of forty three metres, twenty point nine metres long, to be exact. A height of four point three metres.  The Power plant right here," She said, grinning,whilst pointing to an engine " is a BMW 801 D, powers up this thing to its full potential of four times one thousand seven hundred horse power."

she smiled at me " you'll love it."

 

We both loaded our things onto the plane in utter silence.

" Guten tag," I mumbled, trying not to meet his gaze.

" Good morning, Leo."

silence.

 

" Excited to meet Renada and Matteo?"

" Ja."

The way I had answered seemed rude.

Why was I treating him like he had done something extremely wrong?

But in truth, he had.

But I didn't know if I indeed had the heart to forgive him.

  Once we had ourselves strapped in at the back, Sasha came in her full uniform, her hands in her pockets with an air of dignity and respect.

  " Alright, I have news. Since we have a few additional tanks I've concluded that we'll reach Strasbourg in about forty-two hours."

  " That's only the ballpark scale, non?" Asked Armand.

  " It is the ballpark scale,tępy," Replied Sasha, taking her seat at the box's nosewheel." And I've emptied the Bomb bay to lighten our weight."

 

Within a few minutes we heard the engine roar to life, and as I looked out of the window I saw green plains and hills.

We were flying.

Soaring high in the skies as free as birds.

 

The first two hours weren't bad.

I had connected to a radio airing from Dresden, in which we heard a furious Hermann Göring deliver his " pep-talk" to the citizens that day. He delivered the first half of it in such a monotonous regularity that was uninterrupted by any applause throughout, bearing out the German insistence that Hitler would not make today the occasion for "peace feelers". His words were cut off by the signals.

" peace with Russia without victory was impossible--"

The static waves became louder.

" Damn the frequencies," Muttered Armand, rolling his eyes.

" --But because Germany could deal only with 'gentlemen--"

 Sasha cursed.

 "--not with Bolsheviks."

 

Another hour went by.

" Thirsty?" Asked Armand as he offered a thermal bottle.

I shook my head, looking out of the observation window, gazing up at the blue skies and ethereal clouds.

Armand shrugged, sat down and proceeded to tip out the contents of the bottle, a dark brown substance with a familiar scent. My eyes lit up in excitement like a child.

" Is that...coffee?"

" Yep. Real coffee," said Armand, a grin forming on his face." Are you sure you don't want it?"

I thought for a moment.

" I've changed my mind."

He laughed, handing the cup over to me.

I brought the cup to my lips and took a long sip.

It was the first time I drank real  coffee in years.

" What time is it?"

" almost a quarter to eight," Armand glanced d