Chapter 8: The Truth about Anna
Basta awoke the next morning with the chills. His shirt smelled like sweat, and his hair was dirty. He climbed out of bed, and saw that his socks were black on the souls. He didn't have to sit around for long, though, because a man in white clothes came down the hallway and stopped before Basta's cell.
"Laundry" he said, looking bored and un-amused.
"Oh" Basta peeled off his socks as the laundry man entered the cell. The man put a pile of clean clothes identical to the ones that Basta was wearing on the bed, and turned around as Basta stripped out of his clothes. He quickly pulled on the black undershorts before putting the dirty laundry in the man's arms.
"I'm also here to inform you that an escort will be here shortly to show you to the showers.
"Thanks" muttered Basta. He decided to not pull on his clean clothes just yet. He sat on the edge of the bed, skin prickled and cold, despite the warmness of the room. It took only a few minutes for a guard in a Nazi uniform (Basta came to recognize them by the red band with a white symbol that they wore around the bicep). He came and handcuffed Basta before helping him carry his clothes. They turned left down the hallway (to the right was the lobby), and walked past two more cells identical to Basta's before coming into a different room. The floor and walls were made of the same, greenish tiles the color of toothpaste. There was a wooden bench resting against the far wall, and a coat hanger above it.
"Showers behind that door, ja." Said the soldier, pointing at a door ahead of them. "No funny business." He placed Basta's clothes on the bench, before taking off the handcuffs. "Soap in shower. I'll be waiting." He passed Basta towel from the bench. Basta took it, and disappeared into the next room. The showers were unlike anything Basta had ever seen. There were no tubs, just faucets placed about six feet above circular drains. Basta nervously stepped out of his shorts, and walked over to a shower. There was a gauge on the wall. The letter F was written on the right side in blue, and C on the left, in red. Not knowing what to do, Basta turned the handle to the left, all the way. Water spurt from the faucet above his head, covering him in comfortable water. But soon, the stream quickly emitted steam and the water became scalding. He cried out and jumped away.
"HEAVENS!" He cried, his voice echoing in the tiled room. Basta watched as steam clouded from the faucet. He carefully inched around the stream of water, and cranked the handle to the other side, all the way to F. The steam soon disappeared, so he stepped underneath, only to cry out once more and jump away from the icy cold stream. He slipped in a puddle on the slick tiles, and fell naked to the floor. Cursing to himself, he rose to his feet, shivering, and re-approached the handle. He put it halfway between C and F and cautiously stepped under the water. Just right! He smiled to himself as he stood under the warm flow. He looked around the room and saw two bottles and a bar of soap on a stool near the door. He quickly darted to the store, took a bottle and the soap, and retreated back to his heavenly cocoon of warm water. Once he got comfortable, he turned the handle to the hot direction, C, ever so slightly. The water ran warmer, much to Basta's content. He took the bar of soap, which smelled amazing and rubbed it all over his chest. It bubbled and foamed, and covered his chest with sudsy lather. Basta moved the bar down to the faint lines of his subtle six pack abs, then all over his arms, legs and shoulders. He even lathered it in his hands, and used the bubbles to wash his face. He lathered up a second time, just for fun. Basta enjoyed being clean. When he was done with the soap, he put it on the floor and picked up the bottle. On the front the rectangular shaped bottle, the words Shampooing Pour Hommes/Schamponieren Fur Man was written in curly font. Basta didn't understand the words anyways, so he squirted some of the thick, gel like liquid into his palm. He figured this substance was for his hair. He lathered it into his dark brown, almost black hair. He liked the smell, it was rather similar to Colonel Landa's scent. The new product was much sudsier than the soap. After he was washed and clean, Basta turned off the water, and wrapped his lower half in the towel. He shook the excess water from his hair, making it stick up crazily. He exited the warm, steamy shower room, and cleared his throat. The guard had a magazine on his lap, and from what Basta could see, the magazine was featuring a scandalously dressed woman on the cover.
"Uhhmm... my clothes" he shook his head and reached for the pile of clothes.
"I'll be back in forty seconds" said the guard with a sigh. He left the room, magazine in hand. Basta quickly dried off his legs before pulling on the black undershorts. Then he pulled on his clean socks, fatigues, and just as he was pulling the tee shirt over his head, the guard came back in. "Alright, let's go" said the German. He cuffed Basta's arms again, and prodded him down the hallway, back to his cell. After he was un cuffed, Basta sat on his bed, bored and alone.
Basta awoke a few hours later to the sound of Landa's voice outside his cell. He opened his eyes, groaned and turned to look at the man. Landa was holding a box the size of a large book under his arm.
"What?" growled Basta, feeling jealous of the soldier.
"I wanted to know how your reading was coming along." Said Landa, smiling that big smile of his... Basta frowned.
"I'm uh, I'm a very slow reader" he lied, and rubbed the back of his neck.
"At least you're reading!" Landa smiled, then unlocked the cell. "I have brought something for you, as I can imagine you must be very bored in this room all by yourself." Landa had a nice voice, it was light and he chuckled as he spoke. But Basta felt his face twitch as he accepted to box from Landa.
"Thank you" Basta forced the words from his lips with great effort. Landa just smiled. "I'll be back tomorrow to check on you again. Is that alright?"
"That's fine." Basta set the box down on the floor before him, and made steady eye contact with Landa. The man seemed to gaze into Basta's soul for a short moment before he smiled innocently.
"The cigarettes are German" he said, then walked away. Basta waited until the Colonel's footsteps were inaudible before he opened the box. Inside he found a number of magazines similar to the one the guard was reading. Each cover featured a beautiful young lady in sexy undergarments or skimpy clothing. Basta's jaw twitched. Though he was extremely interested in the magazines, he wanted to see what else was in there. He found a red package that smelled like mint. Basta opened it, and found a bunch of white circles. He placed one in his mouth. It tasted like peppermint! He smiled in delight and sucked on the hard mint candy. Then he saw that the box contained a package of cigarettes and a matchbook.
He took the top magazine out of the box, and flicked it open. He was happy to see that there weren't many words in the magazine, just plenty of wonderfully graphic images! After flicking a tongue over his lips, Basta grinned and flipped through the magazine, admiring the amount of detail that went into the drawings on the page.
"Basta! ... BASTA!" Basta's eyes slowly opened when he heard someone hissing his name.
"Huh?" he rubbed his eyes, and rolled over. Something slid off his body and landed to the floor. Basta realised that it was his pinup magazine... he looked over to the bars and saw Anna standing there, looking stressed. "Oh!" he leapt to his feet. "Come in." He felt terribly stupid at that moment. He glanced at the clock. It didn't say 11. Anna let herself into the cell, and closed the sliding gate behind her.
"Sleepy?" She asked, looking a bit annoyed.
"Yes, sorry. What time is it?"
"It's one in the morning. Sorry I kept you waiting. I uh... had some things to do."
"Don't worry, that's fine." Basta rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the floor. Anna stepped over towards his bed. She blushed when she saw the magazines lying on the floor. "Oh!" Basta blushed scarlet and kicked the magazines under the cot. "Sorry"
"Don't" she murmured shyly, standing uncomfortably before him. "Ok, so shall we begin?"
"Err... begin?" He blushed some more, and his cheeks heated up to the point where he wanted a glass of water. The magazines had put him in a peculiar mood, and having Anna sitting on his bed made him twitch and stir and want to jump on her. He looked at her, sitting quietly on the bed, smoothing out the fabric of her red dress. She had her hair down, and smiled sweetly at him. He shivered before nodding. "Yeah, let's get started.:
"Ok, pass me that atlas, please." Basta picked up the book with a picture of the world on the front. He sat next to Anna on the bed, so close that their legs touched. He shivered in content. Anna took the atlas and spread it open over her lap. "This" she said, "is planet Earth." She passed her hand over the map. Basta watched her glossy, manicured nails with great interest. They were oval shaped, and cut after they'd left her fingers by not even a millimetre. "This is where you are" she said softly, pointing to the country Basta recognized as France.
"The world is so big" he murmured.
"Is yours very small?"
"I don't know. I've never left my country, which is rather small."
"Wow..." Anna studied his profile for a long while. "Alright, this" she said, tapping a country North East from France, "Is Germany."
"I see..." Basta studied the way Germany was spelled.
"So, Germany is currently allies with: Italy" she pointed to a boot shaped country East of France. "And Spain, but the Spaniards aren't fighting." She pointed to the country south of France. Basta followed her finger with his eyes. "Japan" this country was in the far, far east. "Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Bulgaria, and Albania." She pointed out a number of countries on the map.
"What about the rest?" asked Basta, staring curiously at all the countries.
"Most of them are fighting Germany's allies." Anna's voice was serious. Basta pointed to a large country on the left of the page.
"What about this one?"
"That's Canada" she said. "They're the good guys, along with the United States" she tapped the country below. "And the UK." She pointed at England on the map. "That's what accent you have" she said with a smile. "British." Basta cocked his head.
"I see..."
"Ok, so now that you can see what's going on here, I want you to hear to know about the war, and why the world is fighting." Basta moved his knee into Anna's. She didn't part from the pressure, and Basta's stomach swam with butterflies.
Anna told Basta about Adolf Hitler, and his plan to exterminate all Jews, and rule the world. She quoted his speeches, and explained to Basta that thousands of young men had lost their lives in this war.
"That's awful" he murmured, thinking back to all the wars fought back at his home. How many battles he had seen, how many lives he'd claimed with the blade of his sword.
"So you can see why Hitler must be stopped." Said Anna, closing the atlas. Basta gulped. Their noses were very close together.
"Are you working for the allies?" He asked in a whisper. Anna stared at him. At first Basta thought she would slap him again, or yell at him. But instead she made one tiny little nod. She leaned in towards him, her lips touching his ear as she whispered: "You can't tell anyone. Understand? No one can know." Basta nodded hastily.
"I understand" he whispered huskily. A long moment passed between them, when finally Anna broke the silence.
"So uh... enjoy those magazines?" she asked shyly.
"Oohh!" Basta blushed and bowed his head, but a smile pulled at his mouth. With his head still bowed, he answered: "Landa gave them to me" his voice was low and shy.
"Did he now?" asked Anna, genuinely surprised.
"Yeah" Basta picked up the box. "Mint?" He asked, offering her one. Anna giggled and nodded. Before she could take one from the package, Basta plucked one out, and held it in front of her plump lips. Anna smiled, and allowed Basta to carefully place the mint in her mouth. Anna puckered his lips as she sucked the mint.
"Mmm" she smiled. "Thank you." Basta pulled the collar away from his throat. He felt sweat bead on his forehead.
"A-A-Anna?" Basta stammered the Fräulein's name, and found himself turning his body towards her. She raised an eyebrow at him.
"Yes?"
"May I call you Anna?"
"Of course." She smiled and lowered her eyes.
"How old are you?" Not very smooth, he realised.
"Don't you know it's rude to ask a lady her age?" she said teasingly.
"Uhh..."
"I'm twenty" she said, winking. "How old are you?"
"Twenty one." They looked into each other's eyes for quite some time. Anna batted her long black eyelashes. Just when Basta puckered up the courage to lean in, Anna sat up.
"Basta, I should go back now." She rubbed her forehead. "I'll visit you again tomorrow night." She smiled shyly, then left the cell. Basta collapsed on his bed, and sighed. After Anna was gone and he felt lonely, he reached under the bed and picked up a magazine.
A/N:
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