ShadowShot : L'enfant Guerrier Page 11

  “All she said to me at first was, ‘My Johno you saved me.’ Then she realized what had actually happened. She said, “Now listen carefully. We must hide the body. If the Germans find the soldier they will hang us or shoot us like you’ve seen before. Do you understand?” I nodded yes. We dragged the body to the door of the small cellar and threw it down the steps.

  Speaking my first words I said, “What about the other soldier?”

  “What other soldier”

  “The one smoking a cigarette down on the road by the bridge.”

  “Marie Claude went to the window and sure enough there was a German soldier sitting on the bridge smoking a cigarette. She put her hand to her forehead and said, ‘Oh my God!’

  “She stopped for a second to think, going down on her knees again to hold me close. She whispered, ‘Listen little one. We must do the same thing to this soldier. Otherwise we will surely be hung or shot. Do you understand? I know this is an awful lot to ask, but we must do this. There is no other way. I will tell you what we must do. Take this knife and go behind the curtain in the closet. I will invite the soldier to come up here. Leave it to me to put him in a position that will allow us to kill him.’ She hesitated over the word kill. But hastened to repeat it. At this point there was no going back.

  “She thought for a second and said, ‘The signal will be - give me the ocean.’ You must come from behind the curtain and do the same thing with the knife. I will make sure that he does not hear. You must be very quiet until that time. Do not say a word. Do not even let your breathing be heard. Do you understand?’ I nodded my head.”

  “Say it. Tell me yes Marie Claude.”

  I said, “Yes I understand.”

  “Alright go behind the curtain.”

  “She went to the door and yelled down to the German soldier, “Come on it’s your turn now.”

  The soldier put out his cigarette and walked up the path. When he got in the door he said, “Where’s my friend?”

  She said, “He went for a walk to give you a little privacy, I hope you’ll be generous with your cigarettes now and perhaps bring more next time you come.”

  “The soldier was a young man. Marie Claude was not to be denied. She hopped up on the table, pulled up her dress and beckoned him to come close. When he did she started kissing and touching him. Soon she had undone his belt buckle. He started to fondle her breasts. Next his pants were down. She took him in her hand and let him enter her. After a few moments she gave the word. In a loud and playful way she said, ‘Give me the ocean.’

  “I slipped from behind the curtain and did exactly as I had done before. This time Marie Claude was more prepared. She had stuck a knife in the crack underneath the lip of the table. When the German bolted upright, she was quick with the knife. We now had two dead Germans.”

  She hugged me and said, “You’re so brave. I love you so much. Now we must go.” “We threw the German soldier down into the basement. We covered both as best we could and took off.”

  “Are you okay she asked?”

  “Yes I am.”

  “We must try not to be seen by anyone or talk to anyone. We must find Peppy.”

  We went to where Peppy was staying. It was just luck that he happened to be there. An old woman stayed with Peppy to clean and cook for him. Marie Claude told the old woman to take me and make something to eat. She told Peppy what had happened.

  “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. It was the only thing we could do. It would’ve gone much worse if Johno had not.” She could not finish the sentence.

  Peppy took her in his arms and said, “My love, I understand. You don’t need to say more. When it gets dark I will take two men to the cottage and we will know what to do. If there’s anything you want from the house tell me. You must never come back to this place again. It’s too dangerous. We will all go into the mountains now. It’s time. We have to leave the village.”

  Marie Claude pleaded, “We must send Johno back to Paris to his mother. It is too dangerous for him here.”

  Peppy took her by the shoulders and answered, “That’s not possible. I have just come back from Paris where I found out his mother was taken by the Gestapo as a potential spy. The grandmother has gone into hiding. As far as I know, Madam Duval is being treated well enough. She is under house arrest. They’re not sure exactly what to do with her because she is an American. She would not want us to bring her son back home.”

  “God,” Marie Claude said, “What are we to do?”

  “We will take him with us. It’s all we can do. His mother has left him in our care and we shall continue to care for him. I need to know. Were the soldiers carrying rifles and were they on patrol, or did they look as if they were on leave?”

  “I did not see any rifles and they did not seem to be on patrol.”

  “That’s good. It will be longer before they’re missed. All right is there anything that you want us to bring back from the cottage? Only something small, we cannot carry much.”

  “Yes there are a few things that we will need.”

  “It is certain Marie Claude. We must go to the mountains. We must really start to get into this war.”

  Marie Claude asked, “Will the men follow you?”

  “Yes, I’m sure they’re all more than ready. I think it would be safer for you and Johno to make your way to Spain instead.”

  Marie Claude put Peppy’s face in both of her hands and said, “My love, I go where you go.”

  “Then so be it.”

  Peppy had lived all his life in the South of France. He knew those mountains as well as any man. Up until now he and his men had been mostly spying and reporting on German activity. They had started to build camps in the deepest mountains where they could move strategically from one to the next. Also they had been collecting a substantial supply of weapons.

  “Marie Claude I know that you are concerned about taking him with us. You must remember by killing those soldiers you have broken German law and they will not stop until they find out who did it. You know the penalty. You both will be safer with us in the mountains until we think of a better plan. Please let us not speak of this anymore. There is to too much to do.”

  I do not think they intended me to hear all of their conversation. However, I was only in the next room and my hearing was very good. My life had just changed drastically. In a matter of minutes, I had gone from being a small ordinary boy, to a small boy in the resistance.

  Camp life wasn’t so bad. I was well liked by the men. I was something of a little mini hero. I loved being with Marie Claude and Peppy. Often Peppy would be gone with the men on raids in the North of France. Marie Claude told me they were off fighting the Germans. Everyone at camp was always anxious till they got back. Often some of the men didn’t get back. Some returned, and were badly wounded, and did not live long. There was usually never enough to eat but that didn’t worry me. Eating for me was a waste of time when I could be doing other things. Marie Claude almost always had to catch me to make sure that I got what I needed to eat.

  I was learning many things in the mountains. To hunt and fish, clean animals, prepare food, walk in the woods without making noise, and track. Mostly I learned to be aware, cautious, and quiet. Knowledge of weapons was vital. My biggest lesson however, was about life and death.

  Peppy was a born leader. He would ask nothing of his men that he would not do first himself. All the men loved him for that and trusted him. He now had about 20 men under him. They weren’t always together but worked in separate units. His second-in-command was a large friendly, but deadly black man named Peter. He had been in the military, which was always helpful. There was one other woman with us besides Marie Claude, a jolly middle-aged woman named Suzette.

  Peppy had many skills. One such skill was an uncanny sense of always knowing when the Germans were coming or where they’d be. It was this sixth sense that was the key to our survival. We had stepped up our attacks on the Germans and sometimes would suffer unfortunate casua
lties. Peppy’s skill in planning the raids kept our casualties low. Peppy was born in the mountains. He knew many of the trails like the back of his hand. Most importantly he knew how to survive in the mountains when there was nothing or no one to help you. He always put the safety of his men first, and was never reckless on a raid. He once said by the campfire that every one of his men was worth the lives of a thousand Germans. No one doubted that he meant it.

  Camp life was pretty exciting. I understood the dangers, but still it was kind of an adventure for me. I was always helpful and many of the men took an interest in showing me whatever special skills they possessed. One of the many things that Peppy started to show me was how to throw a knife. Marie Claude raised her eyebrows at this, but Peppy only said the knife was my chosen weapon.

  There was one young man in the camp that didn’t seem to like me. He wasn’t mean to me, but on the other hand, he never seemed very friendly. He was a Jewish boy about 10 years older than myself, who had seen his whole family murdered in front of him and was barely able to escape with his life. Peppy found him and tried to get him out of the country but he wouldn’t leave. He wanted to stay and fight. Because of his youth, Peppy would not hear of it. The young man’s name was Gerard.

  Forcefully Gerard replied, “If you don’t let me come with you, I’ll go into the barracks with a knife and kill as many Germans as I can until they kill me. But I’m not leaving. This is my country. I have no family left. All I want to do is fight.”

  When Peppy looked into his eyes, he knew there was no choice but to take him. So we did.

  Gerard turned out to be a good comrade and well liked by the rest of the group. Peter, Peppy’s second-in-command, took him under his wing. For some reason Gerard did not take to me. One day I asked Marie Claude why Gerard did not like me. She just shook her head and said, “No it’s not that he doesn’t like you. He is a good boy who has seen his whole family murdered. He knows that you’re my favorite. You’re the favorite of all of us and he’s jealous. He’s jealous too, that you’ve bloodied your hands, and he has not yet had his revenge. Don’t worry. He’ll come around.”

  Later she told Peppy about her conversation with me. At this point they had had no more news of my mother and grandmother. It was bad enough that I had already lost my father to the war.

  One day while in camp I came over to where Marie Claude and Peppy’s sleeping area was. She was binding her breasts close to her chest. I asked why she was doing that.

  She looked at me, put both of her hands on both of her breasts and said, “These are like magnets to men. I do not need any more attention than I already have. Now be a good boy and go find Peppy. Find some Germans to kill too.”

  She came over and hugged me. We both laughed. I was still a very young boy, but as I walked away, I thought to myself, I think I know what she means by magnets. It may have well been the first day in my life when I understood that beautiful breasts on a beautiful woman are something to behold.

  Though Peppy had not been in the military he had a precise military way of doing things. He had a code of honor. If German prisoners were taken, he would get any information from them that he might need, but they were never tortured. They were always dispatched in an execution style, usually with a bullet to the back of the head. That was Peppy’s way. Then again a traitor or a turncoat was an entirely different matter. If one was found or captured, he would make an example of them, a terrible example. I had overheard some of the men muttering about this, but never really understood what they were saying. One day a man was captured that had been part of our organization. Two good men in the resistance had been killed because of this man.

  An incident such as this occurred at an abandoned farm in the mountains. I heard the men talking. They were in the back of an old barn. I went to see what was happening. Peppy, Gerard and some of the other men were standing around another man. I couldn’t see so I went a little closer. I could see a man was tied up. It looked to me as if the man was dead and that he had been tortured. I was going to get closer for a better look when I was literally jerked off my feet by Marie Claude, and dragged out of the barn. Marie Claude attempted to explain to me what had happened. She said all of our lives were in the hands of each other. If one of us betrays the others we all perish. We must all trust each other completely. Later on, I heard Marie Claude giving Peppy a scolding even though it had not been his intention, for me see.

  Peppy’s wrath was terrible when someone betrayed him. It didn’t happen often. When it did Peppy always made a point of placing the bodies in a public area where they would be found with no eyes, no tongue and no ears. This was Peppy’s price for a Frenchman who betrayed the French resistance.

  Another time a German soldier had raped a teenage French girl. His punishment when caught was to have his penis cut off and stuffed in his mouth before they killed him. I remember thinking if the soldier had hurt the girl with his penis, it seemed right that he should lose it.

  By now the men were well known to the Germans, not necessarily by name but by their deeds. We had adopted the Latin motto Acta Non-Verber (deeds not words). The Germans were making every attempt to catch us. We always had a large price on our heads. They promised to pay heavily to anyone who would betray us. Sometimes for reprisals innocent people would be hurt or worse. It could not be helped. The resistance had to fight on.

  Finally Peppy was able to get word of my mother and grandmother. My mother was under house arrest. Because they actually had no proof she was spying, they had chosen house arrest. As a well-known American socialite she had become friends with some high-ranking German dignitaries before the war. They came to her rescue. One in particular, who was, and had always been in love with her, had arranged for her house arrest. This arrangement actually worked out well for her. She was in a position to pass vital information to the resistance, who then passed it on to the allies. My grandmother was said to have left France before the war. Actually this was not true. She was undercover and working with the resistance as well. Marie Claude was very relieved to get this news and be able to tell me that they were okay. She always made a point of telling me that I was very much loved by my mother and grandmother. It was only because of the war that we were separated.

  Marie Claude also tutored me in English and German whenever possible. In one of our more relaxed days, we were in a place that we felt was safe. There was a village girl who was more concerned with having a few extra French francs than protecting her virtue. To be fair, perhaps maybe in her way she was helping the resistance by servicing some of the men. At one point several men came over to where I was and asked me if I would like to try being with her. I was shy and somewhat bashful. I had no intention of even thinking about what that would be like. Getting a hug from Marie Claude, especially when she didn’t have her breasts bound, was more than enough for me. I heard that Marie Claude had given some of the men a scolding for trying to influence her boy. She was always very protective of me. I heard some of the men saying the L’enfant Guerrier was old enough to slay Germans, but not old enough to know the touch of a woman. The remark was followed by much laughter.

  I was often used as a spy and lookout to report on German activities. Twice I was responsible for taking the lives of two German officers, once by poisoning food and once by poisoning wine. There was a very old man who sold apples. He would place his cart on the side of the road between two small villages, in the hope that someone would stop to buy some of his apples. His best customer was a German officer who had taken over someone’s home in one of the villages. He traveled most days about 30 km in his limousine to go to his headquarters. Peppy became aware that the old man had passed away one day from natural causes. He came up with a plan for us to poison the apples and thus rid ourselves of one more German officer. There was no danger of personal reprises since the old man had no relatives. I was chosen to be the apple seller. The old man had been dead for more than a week. When the German officer drove by, he stopped and got out of his
limousine to ask where the old man was. I was pretty nervous but knew that Peppy and Peter were up in the woods covering me. If anything went wrong they would be there. I told him the old man had passed away. The officer wondered who I was, and why there was only one small basket of apples, I told him that I was a neighbor who sometimes helped the old man. He had always been kind to me, and wanted to sell the few apples he had left in order to pay someone to carve a simple gravestone.

  It was planned that when the German drove up, I would be eating an apple. The basket had six remaining apples. All of them had been poisoned. The officer took the basket and started to walk away. I knew that he had never paid the old man, but always just took what he wanted.

  I asked, “But aren’t you going to pay me for those?”

  The officer turned around and curtly said, “The old man is dead. He does not care if he has a gravestone or not. You have eaten your profit. So the answer is no.”

  He walked back to his car. As he got behind the wheel, I saw that he took the top apple and started to eat. He drove away. I smiled.

  Of course we had to poison all of the apples to be sure that he would a poisoned one. We hoped that he was generous with them only to Germans. Later we heard that only the officer died, of a heart attack. So it was assumed that he must have had a large taste for apples.

  The poisoning of the wine went quite differently. In the beginning of the occupation Peppy had helped some Jewish friends of his get to Spain. He would help again on several other occasions. For the most part though, he was too occupied with other matters. Peppy discovered who had sold out Gerard’s family to the Germans. As it turned out it was a neighbor and even a friend of Gerard’s family. Gerard asked that Peppy let him go and take his revenge. Other than helping Jews to escape the Germans when possible, Peppy did not retaliate against the Frenchman who had turned against Jews, even though he did not approve.