Posted by BDMHistoria

Chapter 12
Eva from the Settlement

When the Jungmaedel passed the housing settlement, Irm sometimes remembered that Jungmaedel Eva wasn't good for anything. How strange that something like this could even be said about any Jungmaedel. Irm gave this some thought. There really were some girls who weren't really good for anything. Fiedler's Renate, who sat next to her at school, was one of those. If you made any suggestions, she made a bored face and said, "Och, that's no fun," or, "Och, I don't want to do that." But there were no such girls among the Jungmaedel. They usually had a weak heart or were otherwise underdeveloped and therefore couldn't join the service and it was best if you just left them to their own devices.

But Eva from the settlement wasn't one of those. Definitely not. Irm had sat across from her when Hanne had read the letter from Norway. Eve had looked as if she could imagine everything real well and was no longer in Heidersdorf but really up there in the North. Christel seemed to have noticed as well. She later told Irm: "It's a shame we don't know Eva very much." But that's where it had ended. There was so much going on in Heidersdorf to be occupied with.

Irm trotted happily across the open field that lay between the housing settlement and the village. It was a big honor that she was allowed to go buy the colored paper needed for the village festival next week. She had to go all the way to the next village, which was a long walk. "Be careful so you don't wrinkle up the paper," Liese had called after her. Irm carried the roll of paper so carefully as if she had something very valuable with her.

Suddenly she saw that many people were standing in front of the first house of the village, who were talking animatedly. She could hear one woman from a long way off. She had an ugly, shrew like voice and seemed extremely angry.

Irm wanted to pass quickly. She didn't like it when people were screaming at each other, even though Shorty had said the other day, "A bit of argument in the street is fun, too." But then she suddenly heard a clear, upset voice: "No and no, and I'm not showing it. I don't have to!"

Anxious, she stopped. If that wasn't Eva from the settlement! What did all those people want with her? "The brat stole -- she climbed across my fence, just look what she's got in her pockets!" yelled the shrew like voice. "That's what you get when you let the scum from the city settle out here! First they dig themselves in and then they steal you blind!" That was the young woman who'd been hanging up her laundry when Irm had talked to her on the first day.

She was one to talk! Especially since she was so excited about the city and the people there, and found life in the country to be so horrible. But she had no time to think more about it. "Show me what you've stolen, or I'll beat it out of you!" the woman attacked Eva again. But the girl looked at her defiantly. "I'm not showing anything and I didn't steal anything! -- But I did climb the fence," she added after a pause.

"You see!? And what was it you did in our garden? You're lying," the woman started in again and the whole circle of people closed in on Eva.

"How cowardly, so many against just one," shot through Irm's head, and then: "Someone has to help!" With two steps she stood in the middle of the circle and right in front of the yelling woman. "Jungmaedel don't steal or like," she said and stood next to Eva. "Nobody can say that about us!"

"Just look at that brat! These brats are getting more and more rude. No child would've talked like that when I was young!" A fat woman carrying a woven basket on her arm interjected.

It was horrible. Irm just now realized how hard it was to stand up to a circle full of grown ups as a Jungmaedel. But bravely, she started again: "Just tell them what happened, Eva, you didn't do anything bad." Eva looked at her and seemed to be thinking. But then she shook her head and pursed her lips.

Maybe the whole affair would have ended badly, had not the old man whom Irm had helped to peel the poppy seeds, come down the road. "What is going on here?" he asked angrily, "All the womenfolk are standing around here, stealing the day from our good lord God."

"Other things were stolen here," the woman with the shrew like voice started again, and the young woman who wanted to go to the city told him the whole story.

"Lookie there," said the old man. "You're all quite quick to accuse someone. But you neither saw her do anything, nor are you missing anything. But you have to stand here and talk. -- You should be ashamed. Come here, little girl," with this, he took Eva by the hand and looked at Irm. "And you can come, too. You're the one who was running after her dog like a wild woman the other day. You don't look like one who'd steal or anything like that, either. We'll go our way and let the women stand and talk."

He took Irm on one hand and Eva on the other, and walked out of the circle which opened reluctantly. But nobody was yelling anymore. Because the old man was the oldest farmer in the village, and what he said was done.

"So," he then said when they were out of earshot, "and now you'll tell me why you were in that garden." -- "She's not saying anything!" Irm was all worked up. But to her big surprise, Eva opened her hand, in which lay gleaming black corns. "Seeds," the old man said surprised. "What about them...?" He waited.

"They were on the compost heap." Eva hesitated a bit. "The woman threw them out, she said the stuff grows like weeds. You couldn't get away from it. But we don't have any flowers at home. Not a single one. Only vegetables. Mother says that we don't have enough money to afford flowers. But I would like to have flowers. Lots of them, like in our Jungmaedel garden. For three days I've passed by the house. The plants were still on the compost heap. Nobody wanted them and they were turning all yellow. Then I climbed across the fence and took the seeds."

"Hm," the old man said and Irm thought, he wasn't quite happy with what Eva had done. "Why didn't you go to the house and ask for the seeds? That would've been the best thing to do," he then said. But Eva shook her head. "No," she said, "that woman always says we're beggars and poor folk because we only have a housing settlement and not farms. I couldn't have asked."

"So, is that what she says?" You couldn't tell from his words how he felt about that, but it didn't sound like he was angry with Eva.

"Come to my house tomorrow," he said when they were standing in front of the wide gate next to the school that led to his farm. "You can have as many seeds as you want. Your garden should bloom, too, little girl. But you need to come through the gate, not across the fence. " -- "May I? Oh, thank you," Eva stammered and had turned all red from surprise and happiness. The old man just mumbled something to himself, then nodded to her in a friendly way and went through his gate.

Smiling, the two Jungmaedel looked at each other. "He's alright!" Irm said. Eva took a deep breath, as if a heavy burden had been taken from her, and trotted so happily and relieves down the road that Irm had to think, "And the girls say that Eva isn't good for anything!"

At the edge of the village, where the path to the youth hostel branched off from the main road, Eva suddenly stopped. "Listen, Irm," she said, "You have to promise me something. You can't tell the girls in the village about this. Or they'll laugh about me. I don't want that!"

Irm promised, but with a bit of uncertainty. Things had to change between Eva and the Heidersdorf Jungmaedel. But by herself, she couldn't be any help. She would have to talk to Kathrin about this. But after all, Kathrin was not a girl from the village.

Kathrin didn't say much but when Irm went back to the others later, she was convinced that things would be put right.

And they did, when Irm saw the village girls walk to their social evening a few days later, Eva was in the middle of them, her arms hooked to the girls next to her, and laughing across her whole face. It wasn't quite proper walking to their service hooked together by the elbows; in Berlin, the girls would have laughed at them for it. But in Heidersdorf they might not know this, and after all, it was the most important thing that Eva was now a real part of them!