Inside she led me to a small lounge area with a small two seat couch, she sat down and motioned for me to sit down beside her which I quickly did. In front of us was a small fireplace which gave a slight crackling sound. There were no windows, and my attention was quickly drawn to the fire. I was reminded of my time in the Boy Scouts. I used to stare mesmerized by the flame for hours. I became very relaxed until Lilith broke the silence.
"It's not a bad place to stay is it?"
I looked back at her seeing that she too was staring at the fire. "No, it will be very difficult to go back to my unit after this." I said somewhat depressed.
"Where exactly are you from Charlie?"
"Pearl City in Hawaii." I remembered back home the warm tropical climate and the cool breeze. I had paradise there and didn't even realize it. In Japan it was difficult adjusting to the winters and the cold in Korea was even more severe.
"So, you're not even from the States. I bet you wish you could go home."
Well duh. "Yea and now the end of the war seems so far off. At this point I don't even know if I'll survive to see it ever again."
"Well, I'm prepared to do anything to help you get back."
I felt pressure on my right and realized she had learned her head on my shoulder. I found this turn of events bizarre but made no effort to resist and stared back at the fire.
"What did you do for fun back home?" She whispered.
Her voice was very soothing, and my eyes drooped. "I often did surfing in my spare time, I always liked being in the ocean."
"Oh, maybe you'll become the next Tom Blake when you get home."
"You know Tom Blake?" I said failing to contain my surprise.
"Sure, Tom Blake and Duke Kahanamoku are famous surfers from Hawaii are they not?" She said that as if it was common knowledge.
"Well yes but I didn't think…" I was cut off.
"Have you ever wanted to go to the Azores?"
The Azores had some of the largest waves in the world. It was one of my dream places to surf. How did this girl who lived so high in the mountains have such knowledge about surfing? "You know your stuff. Yes, I hope to go there one day. Maybe after I settle down and find a good job."
She yawned. "Well, I suppose I better get some dinner." She sat up and jumped off the couch.
"Why don't I help you?" I hated to seem like a loafer and wanted to prove my usefulness.
She turned back to me. "No, no you're the guest it's no trouble at all." With that she exited out the door and slid it closed behind her.
I was too tired to protest and turned back to the fire. This girl seemed really nice but something about her was making me uneasy. She was getting a little too close for comfort. I would have expected her to be a little more cautious, even if I was on the side she was rooting for.
She was quick to return with two bowls and handed one to me before sitting back down. It was a bowl of noodles with chop sticks. I sipped the broth and began to eat the noodles. I had used chop sticks before a couple times but still struggled. After a couple tries, I ended up using a chop stick in each hand and finally brought a large wad of noodles to my mouth. I turned to Lilith but luckily, she paid no attention to me.
She seemed so interested in me and I was just as curious about her. "Lilith how did you come to be here?" I asked.
She sighed. "You promise you won't think less of me if I tell you?"
"Of course, I just want to understand how an English woman came to be out here."
"Well for starters I'm not English." She said with slight annoyance. "I'm German and in my teenage years I was part of the League of German Girls."
Oh, dang now I did it! "I'm sorry I didn't…"
"I was chosen to join a branch organization known as the Expeditionaries and was sent to Japan where we contributed to community works like those in Germany. I ended up in Korea where we helped repair rail lines. After the major lines were fixed, we were sent to help clean up this shrine as a token of good faith. The Kannushi of the shrine soon took a liking to me and asked me to stay. I agreed as I found the work much more enjoyable than the labor I had endured in the city. My supervisor was reluctant but ultimately agreed to allow me to stay a couple weeks as we had no other projects set up at the time."
It was a strange story. I had never heard of groups of Germans being sent to help with the Japanese war effort, but I was not surprised. Still the Shinto priest offering to let her stay should have put up a red flag for her. "So, the Kannushi took a liking to you?"
"He was a kind man. A couple boys from our group also stayed with me to make sure nothing happened. By 1943 we could no longer move freely and found ourselves stranded in Korea. The boys were recalled to form a militia but I was left at the shrine as it was seen as one of the safest places I could be. By 1945 the Kannushi decided to evacuate his staff on word of the Russian incursion into Manchuria. I went with him at first and we passed through a couple villages, but soon I became separated in the chaos of others trying to escape. Lost and confused I made my way back to the shrine and have been here ever since."
That was a lengthy story, it was a lot to take in. "Why didn't you just continue on your own? Why go back to the shrine?" I asked.
Her face turned pale and she closed her eyes. It was clear that this was a traumatic event for her. "You'd think that everyone would be going in one direction. I tried to follow others, but they ended up going this way and that and I grew tired of wandering down dead ends. My other major concern was that because of my beauty someone would take advantage of my precarious situation."
That was a valid concern and being a European she would stick out even more. "So, what of the villages you go to nearby? They don't question you at all?"
"I just say I'm Russian. I know a few phrases to sound convincing. They were curious of where I came from, but they are very trusting and don't question my story."
I then remembered what she said earlier about my arrival being important. "How do you feel about me coming here?"
There was a pause a moment. I watched Lilith sip down the last of her broth and place the bowl on the floor to the side of the couch. "Before you arrived, I was trapped here but now you can provide me an escape."
So that was her motive, it all made sense now. "You wish for me to take you with me?"
"I do hope to eventually leave but for the moment you are trapped here as much as I am. Now that the Chinese are swarming the area it is no longer safe to go back to the villages even when things warm up. I hope that you can help me subsist out here in my time of need and provide me company as I've been all so lonely." Her head once again fell on my shoulder.
"When I get back to my unit, I'll see that you are helped but it's too dangerous for you to leave this place."
"No reason to concern yourself with that now. You won't be able to leave anytime soon."
Her voice seemed to pierce my mind and I felt disoriented. I regained my composure but was unaware of how much time had gone by. "How long until you recommend, I leave?"
"April." She said with a yawn.
April!? April was four months away. I expected to be out of here in weeks not months. "It will take that long! Are you sure that there's nothing else I can do?"
She turned to me with a stark look. "April at earliest, in the next couple weeks we're only going to get more and more snowed in."
"I can't wait that long. It sounds like it would be better to leave sooner rather than later." My mind scrambled on trying to find a way out of this.
She sighed. "Not with the Chinese running around. Why are you so tense? You're trapped here. Just wait for your friends to turn the tide of the war and come back."
"I… um…" She was right. Between the enemy and the foul weather leaving this sanctuary was a fool hearty venture. "Do you have a map? Maybe there is a way to the coast."
She shook her head. "It's impossible because of the mountains."
Perhaps it was too dangerous to leave now but four months, what was I going to do all day? More importantly did we have enough food, water, firewood?
Suddenly I noticed a flash of light on my right and I turned toward Lilith but saw nothing. My anxiety seemingly melted away and I nearly collapsed. I put my arm on the arm rest of the couch to steady myself. It would be ok. She would take care of me, but now I needed some rest. Lilith was quick to agree and I went back to my room and quickly fell asleep on my bed.