Chapter Five: A part of Home
I spent the night in Derek's hut, he let me have the cot and he slept on the ground on the other side of the hut. I will admit I was a little nervous at first because I had never been alone in a room with someone before to sleep and I didn't know what to expect, he simply took a pillow of the cot and an extra blanket he had at the end, and said "You can sleep on the cot, Sleep well" then walked to the end of the hut and set up there. I drifted off into a somewhat comforting thought that I had a new friend, and with that I fell asleep.
"Abegayle…Sorry to wake you, but I think you need to see this" Derek said with a certain urgency in his tone, I shot up and said "What?" Derek grabbed my hand and lead me out of the hut pacing fast down the dirt paths, turning left and right and walking towards the sign-in post, he then stopped next to the man there, "Can I have the roster please?" "Yes, Sir You may" He handed Derek the board, Derek started flipping through the pages and then he stared at me and said." This morning I was assigned to do sign in-and I met a cart fill of 6 people from Bulgaria, the same place you were hiding, 2 adults and 4 children, I was shocked when I found out there last name, Tomas, I asked them if they knew you, and the woman began to cry, I assured her that you were alive and that I would bring you too them, I assigned them to a hut I just don't remember the letter, A! Here it is, follow me" He handed the man back his board "That will be all" the man saluted Derek, he then took my hand and lead me again to a small dingy hut, he then opened the door and we went inside.
Inside was extremely crowded, there were mothers holding there sick defenseless babies and men having conversations with their children, and others playing poker, gambling smokes, food and possessions that they had. "Help me look for your family", I nodded and began to search the hut, I found Noah in the corner asleep, I woke him, he slowly opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times in disbelief,"Abegayle your alive" " Yes, and thank god you are too" I grabbed Noah and squeezed him tightly. A man turned around "Abegayle?" he took a step towards me and then hugged me, "Aliza, Aliza its Abegayle she's here and well" a tall, beautiful woman turned around with tears in her eyes she stood still for a second and slowly moved forward, and began to hold me. " My angel, I thought you were… I can't even bare to say it, I'm so, happy your alive" By this time I was crying" You too mother, I couldn't ever imagined what I would do with out you" My sister and my three brother's were behind my parents they all came forward and began to hug each other, and we began to thank and pray for our safety.
Derek was standing behind as looking as if he didn't belong, I could tell in the way he felt uncomfortable, like they wouldn't accept him. My mother turned walked towards him, and looked at him for a second "Thank you, son" She then through her arms around him, he then placed one hand on he back and was speechless, my father also approached him and took his hand and shook it, "You don't know what good you have done, you have kept a family alive, that's real honorable, my boy"
"We must go now, we will be back to see you tomorrow, take care for now, and sir?" "Yes, Son" "Keep a close eye on your kids" "I will". I hugged my parents one more time and said goodbye to my siblings and Derek and I walked back to his hut, I was extremely happy and I couldn't wait to see them again. Derek opened the door of his hut and said "After you" I walked in and then turned around, he shut the door. He stepped forward and looked up, I wrapped my arms around him, "Thank You, that was a very extra ordinary thing you did" At first he seemed a little nervous but then he hugged me back, "It was nothing he said" I dropped my arms and stared at him in disbelief "Are you kidding, that was everything"