Crime story

It was night, and the fields near the village were white with snow. The village was quiet, but not everybody was sleeping. Eyes were watching the roads and the fields near the village, because this is Czechoslovakia and the year was 1957. Across the fields, only half a kilometer away, was the Austrian border, but the people of Czechoslovakia were not free to go to Austria. The guards watchedit all day and night.
In a hause in the village a man and woman were talking. The woman holded a baby boy in her arms. She was excited, but she was afraid, too.
“Tell me again”, she said. “Did he get to Austria all right last night?”
“Yes, he did”, the man said. “Nobody saw him, nobody heard him. But last night was easy because the sky was dark. Tonight it’s more difficult – look on this moon!”
“But it’s Christmas night”, the woman said, “and the guards are drinking in the guardhause, aren’t they?”
“That’s true”, said the man, “but sometimes they come out and drive up and down the road. So you must be careful, and you must run fast, very fast”. He looked at his watch. “It’s time to go.”The woman put on a white caot and white hat. The baby was dressed in white coat too.
“Good”, the man said. “White is the best when there’s snow. Nobody can see you. Are you ready? Let’s go!”
They leaved the house and walked quickly out of the village. After a time they stopped and the man said, very quickly:
“Ok. Do you see those trees? Turn right there and go fifty metres. When you come to the road, go across it quickly and run down the hill though the trees. Then you come to the river. Turn left and do 500 metres. The trees finish there and you can walk though the river easily. Across two more fields, and you’re in Austria. Our friends are waiting for you in the second field. Go now. Goodbye and good luck”.
The woman began to run. The baby on her back was sleeping, but now he opened his eyes and began to cry. The woman was afraid more and run more slowly, but the baby’s crying was loud in the night. At the trees the woman turned right and soon she was at the road. She did not see the black car under the trees, but the men in the car saw her.Suddenly there was a noise in the night – the noise of guns. Then it was a quiet again.
The woman’s body laid in the snow on the road. Now the only sound was the crying of the baby.