Isaiah's War

Final 

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READ WITH Track Suggestion- "Road to Perdition"
By: Thomas Newman
"Road to Perdition" Theme Link 

It was dark in Opole, and Isaiah could still hear the sound of gun fire and screams echoing not too far from where he relocated his mother.  With eyes strained and hands covering his ears, he imagined that the fighting must have swept through the alleyway behind Jedynka where he previously stayed.  Isaiah cursed under his breath at the fighting, the death of his friend Irwin, and most of all, the Germans.  As he cursed incessantly, at times slurring his words and manufacturing nee curse words, he checked his mother’s expression to see if she would frown at his cursing.  When he noticed her eyes close, he would curse once more and rub his burns.  Minutes passed as the thunderous booming deescalated into one earth shattering explosion every ten minutes.  Isaiah thought to himself that he was desperate, now more than ever to meet with the man named Sparrow.  He surveyed the atmosphere; a dark and cold ceiling, no sign of clouds, a familiar sight.  The lights on the buildings were turned off and the silent streets exhibited a ravaged and desolate place.  To Isaiah, that meant it was time to search for Sparrow.  After stretching and then slowly rising to his feet, timing himself to move quickly after another boom in the distance, he carried his mother to the Cove, a separate tavern not too far from Jedynka but away from the remnants of the explosion.  It was not hard for Isaiah to find the man he searched for because as soon as he staggered to the Cove with his mother on his shoulders, he was surrounded by several anxious men who relaxed with long rods and bricks holstered to their sides.  Sparrow quickly presented himself as Isaiah neared the guarded group.  It was easy to see why Sparrow, among the others, was the man to talk to.  Not only was his presentation forceful and aggressive, but his dirtied appearance and blood stained khakis gave him away as someone eager to fight.  And the men surrounding him, some almost as young as Isaiah, seemed to cling to their fearless leader as they hurdled by the entrance to the tavern.

“Who are you and what do you want?”  Sparrow asked grudgingly with his long face and whiskers inches away from Isaiah. 

“You wearin’ a vest?”  One of the men asked Isaiah and proceeded to handle him abrasively by his neck, peering down his shirt.

“Back off, Gabe.  Can’t ya see he is a Jew… and he ain’t fighting back is he?”  As soon as he was confronted by Sparrow, Gabe released Isaiah who had not resisted Gabe’s hold as he stood, still holding his mother up by an arm.  Isaiah thought that sadly, none of them had offered to help his mother.

“I’ll ask once more, what do you want boy?”

“Caroline sent me, sir.  She says you can help me and my mother.”

“Caroline?  How do you know that whore?”  The other men snickered but Isaiah was unsure what Sparrow had just asked him so he continued his plea for help.

“Caroline said you can take me and my mother to Warsaw.”

“You and your mother?”

“Yes,” Isaiah replied setting him mother down by the foot of the stairs so she may hold herself up.  He also sheepishly stepped back so the men could get a better view and see her, hoping her sick expression received Sparrow’s sympathy.

“Where is your mother?” Sparrow questioned abrasively.  Isaiah once more heaved his mother to a standing position and then this time, sat her on the bottom step. 

“Pardon?”  Sparrow remained fixed on Isaiah then relaxed his bent over posture to look at the men beside him with a dumbfounded expression.  Soon after, he followed with a chuckle.

“The Germans have turned this boy mad,” he expressed loudly to his men causing Isaiah to be heckled at while they crowded him and played with their bats.  “Son you say you want to go to Warsaw with your mother?”  Sparrow, hunched over once again, asked nodding towards Isaiah’s shoulder, though Isaiah had put his mother on the step beside Sparrow.

“Yes please, Caroline says you can help me get some medicine for ma mum.”  Sparrow sighed while staring intently at Isaiah.

“You know what lad, you see my friends, well they and ma-self were just about to hit up the Germans who caused the explosion earlier today.  You say you want to go to Warsaw, eh?  Well, you would have to do something for me, fair?”  Before answering, Isaiah glanced at the men holding the rods and bricks.

“I do not want to fight sir.  I just want some medicine for my ma.”

“And you will get it,” Sparrow snapped and lifted himself with eyes glaring and body towering over Isaiah.  “But you know who is stopping us from getting your medicine and going out of these walls?  Those bastard Germans.”  Sparrow answered back tersely as he grabbed his knees and inched his face closer to Isaiah, spitting as he spoke.  “You want to help your mother?  You want to get her medicine?  Then join us and fight the enemy!”  His coarse breath and alcohol stench hung in the air between him and Isaiah, as both man and boy glared at each other.  Then, with a slight grin, Sparrow relaxed his shoulders once more and heaved his cracked rod over his shoulders.  He and the rest of the men in his entourage then began walking in the direction of the explosion that took place earlier that day. 

“You are either in or out, boy!  This is your war too… you are a Jew and the Germans are your enemy… choose to fight and get medicine for your mum!” 

As Sparrow marched off, flailing his wooden rod in the air, he turned and screamed to Isaiah.  It seemed to Isaiah, as he stayed back and watched the other men walk further into Opole and into the fight that Sparrow’s echoing last words were not just meant for him but for all the Jews in Opole.  So thunderous, so fearless, Sparrow was ready to die that night.  As the men walked farther away, Isaiah stood still imploding with animosity and rage for the fighting, for the German soldiers, for the explosion that killed Irwin.  Determined to avenge his friend, Isaiah turned to his mother, he wanted so badly to fight.  He was going to fight.

 As he stared blankly at the cracked brick wall of the Cove, where his mother was sitting, tears began to fall from his eyes.  He hoped this would be the time his mother would tell him what he should do.   He did not want to leave her, though he knew Sparrow would increase their fortune and finally help them leave Opole so they can go to Warsaw.  Isaiah then dropped his head and clasped his hands on them.  He could not see his mother anymore.

As he stood alone in the dim lit alleyway by the Cove, sobbing, he tightened his eyes so he could see her again.  With eyes shut, he remembered sleeping on asphalt while his mother slept on mattresses…

He remembered searching through the dumpster earlier that day for clothing to cover his mother…

 He remembered five years ago and his father’s brave attempt to protect him which cost him his life…

 He remembered his father’s glare. 

 Most of all, as Isaiah stood with his eyes closed, he remembered his mother’s beaming smile to him as she cowered over his two sisters while her long blond hair brushed over his face, before being crushed by the ceiling that had collapsed. 

Her body as well as his father’s body withstood the weight of the collapsing ceiling.  Both his parents saved his life five years ago while taking theirs.  His mother had protected him, but all he could remember was his father’s glare. 

He opened his eyes, now stinging with dried tears as he looked upon the beaming smile of his mother, as he envisioned it would have been. 

“It’s okay mama.  I want to but I won’t go with them.”

Isaiah thought to himself that he could not loose his life now because he still had a promise to keep and give his mother the most special Christmas present ever.  Isaiah sighed, reached for his mother’s hand and walked with her away from the direction Sparrow took his men, away from the fighting.  The tired, lonely, and hungry Isaiah turned away from Opole.