Summer in Small Village

Summer in Small Village

It was a hot summer afternoon. The air was still and filled with humidity at the same
time. It felt like being in the steam room, where breathing gives you a burning sensation.
The heat was unbearable. But it couldn’t stop local villagers from harvesting on the field. They
were a group of people that seemed would never get tired. An old woman and three young men
were working hard since morning and refused to notice the hottest day of the summer. They had
to finish harvesting the field by the end of the day and store the hay at the barn to feed the
animals during wintertime. It seemed like a routine day of a small village far away from the city.
On the other side of the field was a forest. A young girl went to get some logs for the old
furnace. She was alone and enjoyed the silence. All morning she was helping her mother around
the house with some chores: sweeping floors, doing laundry by the river and feeding chickens in
the barn next to their house. But playing with her little brother in the yard was her favorite thing
to do. It was a big family with six kids: two girls and four boys. Anna was the oldest. She left
home around noon and planned to come back within couple hours. While picking raspberries and
some logs along the way, she and fell asleep. Anna didn’t notice that time had passed quickly.
When she woke up, it was already late in the afternoon. Nothing had foretell a big trouble that
came unexpected. The fire smoke was visible above the tallest trees. Anna began to run
with the desperate desire to get back home as quickly as possible. She was afraid that her house
could be on fire and her youngest brother was home alone. Anna ran so fast, losing her
shoes and basket filled with berries. Out of breath, she fell down on the field. With her heart
pounding very hard, she got up and called for her mother and brothers that were working in the
field earlier that day. Anna didn’t hear any...