Words on Fire

Lukas sighed. “You don’t understand, Audra. I’m the only one going back. You’re staying here.”

“What?” Pressure began building inside me. “You tricked me into crossing the border?”

“I had to! If I’d told you that I was getting you out of Lithuania for good, what would you have done?”

“The same thing I’ll do now—refuse to listen! I’ll make my own decisions. I don’t need your help, or Ben’s—”

“Do you know what Ben risked, what Ben paid in bribes to get that shoulder bag to you in the prison? And now you’ll thank him by ignoring his orders?”

“I’ll thank him by helping with the cause he still risks his life for!”

“I don’t mean to interrupt,” the printer said, wheeling out a cart piled high with what had to be thirty or forty books. “But Ben actually has more books waiting here than he might have remembered. I can’t continue to store them. Our police tend to look the other way when we print illegal books, but if things are getting so dangerous over there that a young girl’s life is in danger, then I don’t want that trouble following me here. You’ll take these books or I’ll have to dispose of them.”

Lukas had been eyeing the books, his jaw falling open as the printer spoke. Finally, he mumbled, “I can’t carry all of these.”

“No,” I said, smugger than I ought to have been. “You can’t. Not if you’re crossing alone.”

Lukas sighed. “Just this once, Audra. And when Ben yells at you for returning with me, I’m going to tell him that I tried to stop you.”

“I’m going to tell him a few things as well.”

We loaded the books into four canvas sacks the printer gave to us, carrying one over each shoulder as we left the shop. But we hadn’t gone far before I knew I was going to have trouble hauling them all the way back into Lithuania.

Testing the weight again, I told Lukas, “I’m worried that I’ll fall into the river and ruin these books.”

“And drown,” Lukas said with a wink.

I didn’t see why he would wink. I could swim well enough, but not if I had to keep hold of a pile of wet books.

“We’re not going back on the rope,” Lukas continued. “The books would make our shoulder packs hang too low and we would easily be seen.”

“Then how?” My eyes widened. “Ben wasn’t serious about the barrels?”

Lukas pressed his brow low. “Ben is serious about everything, Audra. You know that.”

By then, we had arrived at a barn that Lukas said was owned by an elderly Lithuanian couple. “They’ve devoted their lives to helping with book carrying on this side of the border,” he explained. “Good folks.”

From inside an empty stall, Lukas rolled out two wooden barrels, each the size of a small traveling trunk. Either end had a rope handle attached. I shook my head.

“We’ll still drown.”

“Not if you hold on.” He opened the lid and began setting his books inside. “The lid will keep the water out, and the barrels will float, so don’t let go of the handle. We’ll enter the river in a quiet place and you must be sure to exit in a quiet place, the sooner the better so that we can find each other again. But even if it means we exit a kilometer or two apart, stay in the river tonight until the area feels safe.”

“Tonight? When it’s dark … of course when it’s dark.” I arched an eyebrow. “What should we do until then?”

He pointed to the upper loft. “We sleep. And if we’re lucky, when we wake up, there’ll be a raging rainstorm. That’ll triple our chances of a safe crossing!”

“And get us soaked!”

Lukas chuckled. “Trust me, we’re going to get soaked tonight. I’d rather be soaked than be seen.”

With a frown, I asked, “Tell me the truth. Do we really have any chance of getting back safely?”

Lukas leaned against the barn wall and considered his answer for a moment, then finally said, “In the story of Rue, who is it that is constantly giving her trouble?”

I’d have preferred that he gave me a direct answer, but since that clearly wasn’t going to happen, with a sigh, I said, “The snake gives her trouble.”

“Yes, and I’ll grant you, it’s a dangerous thing to have a snake for one’s enemy. Snakes are fast and they strike hard, often killing their prey. You may not see or hear the snake coming until it’s too late, and if you are not careful when you fight back, with a single turn of its body, in an instant, you might be its victim.”