Walter

The sun beat down relentlessly, burning away the last of the dew from the trampled fields. 1941. The war rolled across the Russian land like a dirty avalanche, leaving behind ashes, fear and bitterness. Angelica remembered the pre-war sky – clear as a baby’s eyes. Now it was covered with smoke from fires, which stung her eyes and made her throat hurt.

Her village, once noisy and alive, had become a ghost. The men had been taken to the front, leaving the women, the elderly and children at the mercy of fate and… the Germans. The house where she had grown up was now inhabited by strangers in strange uniforms, speaking a strange language. Angelica had to endure, remain silent, serve, in order to somehow survive.

Walter, the commander of the German company, was especially unbearable. He looked at her as if she were a trophy, a catch. His gaze burned right through her, she wanted to hide from him, to disappear. He showed signs of attention, brought food, medicine – everything that seemed an unheard-of luxury under occupation. But for Angelique, this was only an aggravation of the torture. Each of his services, each affectionate phrase only increased her hatred. Hatred for him, for his uniform, for his nation, which had brought so much grief to her land.

She did not see him as a man, only as an occupier. And all his attempts to win her heart were shattered by the wall of icy contempt that she had erected around herself. She knew that she had to be careful, because he held power. But silence was unbearable. Every smile seemed to him a betrayal of the memory of the dead, every concession a slap in the face of her father and brothers who had gone to the front.

And so, one of the hot days, when the dust hung in the air like a thick veil, Angelica was collecting water from the well. The bucket creaked, the chain pulled heavily down, and the scorching sun seemed to squeeze out the last of her strength. She already felt the sweat running down her back when she heard a familiar accent behind the fence

— Darling! Can I help you? (Darling! Can I help you?)