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Thank You, Erika

 

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Dear Diary,
There's less food every day. The girls have become hostile, stealing from each other. At least Tamra knows harmony. She and the two little ones, Dayna and Joli, share everything. They make little dolls together during our meal period. Aaron, though we only see each other during labor hours, is kind to me. Sometimes he saves rations of bread for me. He helps me ignore the hunger a little. Oh, Diary! He's so perfect! It's like I'm addicted to him or something. He is the high point of my every day. Tonight, when it got dark and we were heading back for the barracks, he drew me suddenly into his arms in a hug. I looked into his eyes, hugging back, and he kissed me. Ah! I'm floating! It's magical, Diary! Simply magical! He kissed me! Can you even believe it? (Well, Erika, what would be magic is if you ever sleep tonight.) That's true.

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Dear Diary,
It has been almost two months since I last wrote. I don't believe I could write. I'm still grieving. I don't believe any would be able to stop. When I returned to the barracks, that day, it seems, years and years ago, Tamra was missing. I couldn't find her anywhere. I screamed out her name, she didn't answer. Then I heard her voice. She wailed my name, then a curse I didn't know she had in her vocabulary. I ran after her screams of protest, and then saw her. She was kicking and screaming in the arms of a soldier who was carrying her to a building with skull and crossbones on it. I shouted at them, raced after them. He threw the little girl through the door, slamming it shut and latching it, then locking it by the time I got to the door. I could hear her screaming inside, throwing her small frame against the rough metal door. Tamra!! I knew she had a fever!! I knew!! She was just too weak to work that day! They were killing her!! I kept banging on the door, madly. My mind was slipping. My sister!! She can't die!! My fists were bleeding, one of my fingers had dislocated. Still I wailed against the door. My sister's screams had gone; the soft beat of her tiny fists had stopped completely.