Chapter 5 Section five

Mom didn't have time to dry the clothes, so she went to the living room to prepare a simple dinner.Only after Nicholas and I had eaten and gone to bed did she go about her business. I also endured the discomfort in my body, refused to change clothes first, and only took off the thin and useless coat. I lit a small fire in the fireplace by the dim oil lamp.When the firewood was burning and the room was getting brighter, I extinguished the oil lamp.Lamp oil is a precious commodity, and we don't know when we'll get new supplies. When the meal was ready, we gently woke Nikolai and sat cross-legged around the fire, enjoying the warmth.We took comfort in the shadows cast by the flickering firelight in the humble house.

For a while, everyone was busy filling their stomachs, and no one cared about talking. The only sound in the room was the monotonous sound of wooden spoons hitting clay bowls.What we ate was bland porridge, mainly made of corn, with some minced mutton in it, I don’t know where my mother got it, and it finally improved a little bit.In other words, a few months ago, we would have dismissed such food at all, but now we can eat these, but we are thankful. In the past, it was my father who provided for us thriftly. After he was arrested, all our basic daily necessities and belongings were taken away by the Nazi soldiers, and when he was executed, we became destitute overnight. Lost any source of income and allowances.

But Mom still managed to get the little money for our meals, although whenever I asked about it, she became very anxious and immediately changed the conversation to other things. Nikolay was too tired to talk, the fire warmed him up, and he fell asleep again, not even finishing his little supper. Despite my symbolic refusal, my mother poured the rest of the porridge into my bowl, and I ate it all in one go. After dinner, my mother carried Nicholas to bed, and I helped to clean up the empty bowls. There was pre-stored rainwater in the bucket, which was specially used for washing dishes.Today, clean water is as precious a commodity as food and fuel, and we can only save it.

When it was finally bedtime, I gratefully took off my wet clothes and handed them to Mom, who hung them as best she could in front of the fading fire, hoping to dry them in the morning. After a particularly long day and a warm meal to replenish my body, this night, I finally stopped tossing and turning until midnight, and fell asleep like Nikolai.