Project: Diary entry
Book: A Night Divided
Diary of Gerta,
I was talking with Papa, Mama, Dominic, and Fritz tonight. We were discussing how we should move to the west soon. Mama wasn’t really fond of the idea, so we decided that Papa and Dominic would go and look for work. I really wish that I could be the one going with Papa instead of Dominic, but I wasn’t allowed. They’re leaving tomorrow afternoon, they say they’ll be back in two days. I’m so excited for us to move to the west.
It’s been a day since Papa and Dominic left. They’re supposed to be coming home tomorrow. I can’t wait, I miss them both so much.
I just woke up. When I looked out my window there was a huge wall. It’s what everyone has been talking about. It’s happening, they’re splitting the east and the west. Papa and Dominic are trapped in the west and now Fritz, mama, and I are stuck in the east. Will we ever be able to be together as a family again? This is all mama’s fault. If she would have just let us go with us we would all still be together, but instead she split us up.
It’s been two years, still separated from papa. The grenzers made it illegal to even look at the wall.
I was walking to school today with my friend Anna, I was staring at the wall thinking of when my family can be together again. When I looked up, I saw a man from the west staring back down at me. He saw me looking at him, and he waved down at me. He started dancing, and I finally realized who the man was, it was my papa. It’s the dance that he would show me every night with our special song. As I realized who it was, someone else walked up, it was Dominic. An officer noticed me looking at the wall, so I had to leave.
On my way to school today, I couldn’t help myself from looking up at the platform I had seen my papa on yesterday, just hoping I would see them again. All of a sudden, there he was. But this time he was trying to tell me something. Dig? He wants us to dig a tunnel under the wall to the west. It’s dangerous, but if papa wants us to do this, then we have to. He sent us a letter too, it just had a drawing of a building on it. The welcome building, that’s where he wants us to dig.
Mama left this morning to go visit my oma because she’s been very sick. Fritz and I took this as our chance to start digging.
2 weeks in, we’re pretty far, and doing well. Mama came home today, and we finally told her about the tunnel. She’s not happy with us, but she knows we need to leave the east. She agreed that she will help us finish digging.
Today, when we were digging we heard noises ahead of us. Someone else was digging. It could be other people from the east trying to escape, or officers. But I’m hoping it’s papa.
We’re going back to keep digging today.
While digging, we finally hit the other tunnel in front of us. It was papa. We’re finally going to be a family again. Today is the day that we’re finally going to be leaving the west. We’re going to see papa and Dominic for the first time in 4 years.
Officers found us when we were crossing the tunnel. They started shooting, a bullet hit Fritz in the leg, but he said that he will be fine. No one else was hit, and we all made it to the west, safe, and as a family once again.