Chapter 2

Ruth had seven long days almost to herself. She was moved from the sterile cell to a small one room cottage which she was to share with another girl, Elizabeth, as long as she was to remain in Vienna. Her torn flesh and bruised spirits healed miraculously within three days. She was made to attend classes of hygiene and race evaluations taught contempt for herself and for all of Jewish blood but failed completely to learn the lesson thoroughly) which was given by the nurse Hilde Schmidt.

Ruth was learning not to talk, except to her room mate, Elizabeth, a girl whose circumstances were closely parallel to her own. She, too, had been attending a school outside of the Fatherland, in England, and had received the same mysterious telegram that Ruth had received. They both agreed that their parents had not sent the message and that probably both of their parents had been arrested before the wire was sent. They cried a great deal in each others arms and told foolish and girlish things about their respective schools. Even though their bodies had grown into bloom within a short time, their thinking was still on the girlish level.

Ruth and Elizabeth had agreed on a number of things. They dimly foresaw the danger that would be coming their way when they would be old women at the age of sixteen or seventeen, so they promised to help each other in any way that they could. They still had a romantic view of life and each of them had given up their virginity to the handsome (now that he no longer was a threat to them or rather a source of pain) Kurt. They glimpsed him occasionally as he exercised in the compound. The giggled and talked of him, not as the cruel German, but surprisingly as the boy of their dreams. Ruth was the first to see the irony of this, but she did not share her knowledge with Elizabeth because she could not safely put her thoughts into words. And since she was not completely out of the world of fantasy, she almost convinced herself that she and Kurt were in love and that her sexual experience with him had been only a temporary straying from the normal path of romantic love.

Elizabeth was almost the opposite from Ruth. She had soft brown hair, light green eyes, and a darker complexion than did Ruth. She was also taller and better built, her young breasts jutting smartly from her body and soaring up at the end with large sensuous nipples. Her legs were long and good and well shaped, but she was heavier in the thighs than Ruth was. She had a good engaging smile, which she could flash quickly and genuinely and she was never to betray Ruth's trust in her.

Strangely enough, the girls first wavering of friendship came about over Kurt. Even though it did not last long, it threw them more closely together and made them truer friends. It came about because of Ruth.

Since she was allowed to use the compound for exercise - indeed since the girls were forced to use it for that purpose - Ruth came to like it, even though it was cold every morning at six o'clock. She began to take walks around it, always going in the same way, that is counterclockwise to the way the men ran or walked. She began to time her walks so that she would see Kurt. She knew that he saw her, that he was aware of her walking in the compound, but he gave no sign of it.

What Ruth didn't know and what Kurt could have told her had he had the chance was that he could have cared less the first week that she was in the compound whether she was there or not. He was called upon five times a day to perform the ritual task of breaking in a young virgin girl and at the end of the day his sexual powers were pretty well used up. Her saw her, of course, but he had been cautioned not to go near the girls who were there in the compound or to enter their cottages. He need not have been discouraged. His first three weeks there were taking their toll of his flesh and each day he felt that he was losing whatever the magic was that he had arrived there with.

At first it had been fun to Kurt, something like a small boy being given the run of a candy store. But performing like a stud bull every day seemed to be taking the edge off the whole show. And, the fear that ached in the back of his mind concerned the fighting in Russia. That, he did not care for. Other boys there might dream of the soft little cunts they were allowed to enter, of the velvet folds of them tightly around their lust-hardened rods, but not Kurt. His dreams were more like nightmares. He dreamt often of himself in the frozen north, his rifle slick to the touch from ice, with hordes of wild Russians attacking and killing him in every imaginable way. No, Kurt did not dream of girls. He was determined to outlive the war and, by any means at his disposal, to survive. He had landed into a cushiony job and he meant to hold onto it. But, strangely, he did like the girl Ruth and he knew that she was watching him, that she was wanting him. It never occurred to him that the horrible sadistic nurse Hilde would be the instrument that thrust them together.

Kurt well knew that nurse Hilde was after his young, well conditioned body. He had often noticed her looking at his hardened penis in the gleaming white operation room. He also knew the rules for the nurses: they were never to encourage any of the young boys to any task other than what the Direktor chose for them. She had purposely brushed against him in the corridors, had gone so far as to playfully grab for his hardened prick once in the operation room when the Direktor was not looking. He felt that she, too, watched him when he exercised in the compound even though the nurses' quarters were on the far side from his own. He had no idea that she was busy talking, trying to get him taken off the list of performers for a week or so. Hilde did want him and she wanted him at full steam when she managed to corner him.

Hilde had let a few careful hints drop about her observation of Kurt's lagging or sagging ability. She let it be known generally that he did not seem to be as eager as he had once been, that his work was no longer a joy to watch. She was always quick to add that a week away from his work would restore him beautifully to the tasks ahead of him; and that a week free would build up his energy to the glory of the Fatherland.

It worked. The carefully placed hints came back to the Direktor and he began noticing Kurt, encouraging him to more violent movements and more exercise until the boy was getting a mental block about his own powers. Then, as though the idea had just occurred to the Direktor, he ordered that Kurt was to be free of all duties for a period of five days, beginning the following day, in preparation for a new shipment of one hundred girls that would be arriving in less than two weeks.

Except for the worry that Kurt went through until he traced the source of the talk back to Hilde, he did rest. He worked and exercised in the compound every day, for hours, and went to bed early and ate well. On the third day he felt as if he could detect his own energy building because he did not fall asleep as suddenly as he hit the bed, which had previously been his custom.

He decided to take a walk in the compound and tire himself a bit. He had just stepped out the door when he saw the white uniform of a nurse approaching at a rapid pace. He guessed rightly that it was the nurse Hilde. He ducked around the corner of his own cottage and stood stock still and listened to her knocking gently on the door. Since there was no one inside to answer her knock, she called his name softly. Kurt was furious. Not only was the stupid bitch breaking all the rules after having doubt thrown upon his general abilities, but she was running the grave risk of having him shipped East. He could have killed her. He decided that it would be best that if she were caught that he be no where in sight. He took off, jogging easily, in the direction of the detention cottages. It did not occur to him until he was there that those, too, were off limits. He threw himself to the ground as soon as he remembered. He was shaking with fear.

Ruth had heard the fast running footfalls of Kurt without knowing that he made them. She was restless and was unable to sleep and did not care to listen to Elizabeth any longer. She had politely excused herself and stepped outside the door just to get a breath of fresh air and it was there that the soft sound was carried to her ears. She looked expectantly about and saw the blond head of hair just at the comer of the building. She stepped off the small porch and went to the comer. She was more than surprised to see Kurt. She was also a little frightened.

"What are you doing here?" She demanded, forgetting herself and speaking to a German as though she were his equal, something she had been warned about in class.

"Help me, please. I've got to hide," Kurt said, his breath coming in short gasps.

"From what?" Ruth demanded, her mind confused and her thoughts self-protective and fearful.

"Nurse Hilde. She came to my quarters. Please, I can't get caught. Go back and open your door and I'll sneak inside. Hurry" He whispered, trying to look up at her from his prone position.

Ruth liked intrigue and she liked the thought that he had come to see her, no matter what excuse he had used. She padded softly back to the cottage and opened the door and stepped through, then touched her fingers to her lips to warn Beth to be quiet. She held the door ajar and a moment later Kurt slipped through. Elizabeth covered her own mouth with her soft hand to keep from crying out.

Ruth closed the door and leaned her back against it. She was trembling all over. In the last ten minutes, she had broken every rule that had been laid down to her and now she was more frightened than she had ever been in her life. She gripped the door handle to keep from shivering and tried to speak in a steady voice: "You can't stay here - we might be caught."

"Just for a couple of minutes, then I'll be on my way. Please," he said, smiling through his chattering teeth.

Neither of the girls could resist. Elizabeth was already in bed. She clutched the covers about her, tightly, and said, "Of course he has to stay here, Ruth," and smiled at the trembling boy. Ruth made a helpless gesture with her hand and crossed the room to the bed. She sat down on the edge of it and looked closely at Kurt. She thought he must be the most handsome boy she had ever seen. He was well muscled, his brow was wide and smooth, his eyes blue, and his sex she already knew about. She knew that Elizabeth was thinking the same thing.