What did Greta see?  Read on to find out!  You can see the previous chapters here.

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It was a huge wall. Not just a wall, but a fierce concrete wall bristling with barbed wire. There were soldiers all along the wall, with faces like cold stone. It was frightening. It looked almost like, like… like we were trapped behind the wall!

I ran blindly into the house, this time not caring whether I made noise or not. I rushed up the stairs and burst into Maria’s room. I stood there, gasping for breath. I was scared.  More scared, I thought, than I should be. “After all,” I reasoned, “it’s just a wall. A wall can’t hurt you.” The more I thought about it, the more I was disgusted with myself for acting like such a baby.

Just then, Maria woke up.

“What are you doing?” she asked groggily.

“Oh, nothing,” I said, trying to look nonchalant. “I just took a little walk outside.” That was true of course, and I didn’t know if I wanted to tell her what I had seen just yet.

“OK…,” Maria yawned. “Let’s go get breakfast. I’m hungry.”

“Alright,” I agreed.

Breakfast was probably really good, but I couldn’t taste anything. I kept thinking about the wall, and the stony faces of the soldiers. After breakfast I cautiously suggested that Maria and I go take a walk. I wanted to see what she thought of the wall.

As we turned the alley corner, I watched Maria’s reaction. “Oh!” she gasped. “Where did that come from? It wasn’t there yesterday. And what…” her voice faltered, “what are those soldiers doing?” Maria began to looked frightened. I was secretly relieved. I wasn’t the only one who was scared of this strange wall.

“It feels like we’re trapped!” Maria whispered.

“I know,” I said. We were both silent for a moment, then I said, “Oh, we’re just being silly! Let’s go explore it!” I tried to sound cheerful, but it wasn’t easy with that forbidding wall staring down at us.

“Well… alright,” Maria said doubtfully. We approached a soldier timidly.

“Ex-excuse me,” I stammered. “May we go to the other side of the wall and look around?”

He looked down at us as if we were insects he wanted to squash. “No one is allowed to cross the wall,” he said, looking annoyed. “That is the whole reason the wall was built, after all – to keep you sneaking vermin from escaping to West Germany.” He said these last words with a sneer on his face. “From now on you must be content to live under the rule and reign of the great Stalin – hail his name! You will never escape – the wall surrounds all of West Germany and all of West Berlin!” The soldier grinned down at us, as if he thought it was just what we deserved.

“But, but sir!” A horrible new thought had just entered my mind. “But sir, please, my family lives on the other side of the wall! Can’t I go…”

The soldier cut me off, “You certainly may not go visit your family. You will stay on this side of the wall, forever!” He laughed a cruel laugh.

I just stood there, stunned. This couldn’t be true – was I never to see my family again?

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Here is a picture of what the wall was like.  The wall enclosed all of West Berlin, which was in the middle of Germany.  Greta is now in East Berlin, looking at the wall that separates her from her family living in West Berlin.  Oh, the suspense!

(I got this picture from this website: http://trainphilos.squarespace.com/home/tag/berlin

***Allison***