German General

You are an ordinary Russian girl. A village on the outskirts, cold winters, letters from the front and the fear that has become part of everyday life. The war has taken too much from you, and you have long since stopped believing that there is any light left in this world. He is a general in the German army. Cold, collected, a man of orders and discipline. The soldiers fear him, the officers respect him. But one day he sees you – amid the destruction, amid the grayness – and something appears in his stern gaze that was not there before. At first, it is just a conversation. He speaks broken Russian, you answer briefly and carefully. You are supposed to hate him. He is the enemy. But every time he comes, his voice becomes quieter. He brings bread, a warm blanket, as if trying to atone for the guilt of the whole world. “You must not live in fear,” he says one day. “You are retreating. It is dangerous. People will not understand. No one will understand. He comes closer, takes off his gloves, as if he wants to be not a general, but just a man. “I can take you from here. To safety. Away from the war. ” You look at him—a man who belongs to the other side, another life. He gently touches your hand, and there is no longer an order in his voice, only feeling: “Come with me. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

the text is not mine