––––––––
Mama forewent the pleasure of dry clothing and made immediately for the parlour to prepare a simple repast. Only once Nicolae and I were fed and in our beds would Mama tend her own needs.
With some effort I braved the discomfort and declined to change my own clothes, beyond removing my thin, inadequate coat.
An oil-burning lamp held the darkness at bay while I fostered a small wood fire in the grate. As the flames gained confidence the room slowly brightened and I turned out the lamp, conscious that fuel was precious and we knew not when more might be available.
When the meal was ready Nicolae was gently awoken and we sat cross-legged around the fire, enjoying the warmth, drawing comfort from lambent flames that cast flickering shadows around the sparsely furnished room.
For a while the dull clatter of wooden spoons against clay provided the only accompaniment as cutlery chased food to hungry mouths. It was a meagre offering of a bland maize-based gruel, enhanced by a few welcome slivers of mutton which Mama had somehow acquired. But we were grateful now for what we would have viewed with contempt just months before.
Papa had been provident to our needs, but upon his arrest all but our most basic goods and chattels were seized by the Nazis, and after Papa’s execution we were overnight reduced to a state of indigence, without an income or pension of any sort.
Somehow, Mama obtained the odd bani to keep us fed, though whenever I tried to enquire how she would become agitated and instigate a discussion of some other matter.
Nicolae, too tired to talk, and warmed by the fire, fell asleep again even before he had consumed what little food had been made available for him.
Despite my token objections, Mama poured the remainder into my bowl, from where it quickly disappeared.
While Mama carried Nicolae to bed I took the empty bowls and rinsed the earthenware in a pail of rain water reserved for the purpose. Clean water was as precious a commodity as food and fuel now, and we used it sparingly.
At last it was time to sleep and I gratefully relinquished my wet clothes to Mama, who draped them as best she could before the dwindling fire in the hope they might be dry by morning.
It had been a long day and for once, my constitution fortified by the warm meal, I was able to join Nicolae in slumber with fewer than usual of the hours of tossing and turning that had marked my recent bedtimes.