The rainbow never sets

"Yes, please, Opa, we all want to go," we urged again. Then Opa, Oma and Klärchen withdrew into the lounge, and we waited anxiously for the verdict.

After what seemed an eternity, the door opened and Klärchen called us in.

"You can go on that bus," announced Opa, "but Oma and I won't be going with you. We will stay here till it is safer. Maybe Vater or Mutter can come and pick us up."

We were jubilant and nearly strangled Klärchen in the process. Next day the tickets were bought and all our things packed. Early on Sunday morning we were standing outside the post office, waiting for the bus to pick us up. Oma and Opa did not get up so early, we had said our good-byes the night before. We had promised to tell our parents that they would be waiting for them in Steegen after things were back to normal again. No one knew how long that would be.

"There is the bus," Klärchen declared, as a large 44-seater bus turned into the street where we were waiting. There were already some people seated, but we dashed for the closest seats to the front.

"I don't like sitting too far back, as I always get car-sick," I said in a matter-of-fact way.

"Come, sit next to me," said Klärchen, "Günter and Bernd can sit behind us." I had the sneaking suspicion that Klärchen was also afraid of being car sick, but she would never admit it.

Our bus picked up many more passengers, some young children like us, some families, and only two or three elderly people. The bus was almost full, when the driver announced: "We now have all the passengers who are coming with us to Posen on board. The trip will not be an easy one, as we will come past some places which were badly damaged during the fighting early this months. Some bridges are still down, and we will have to ford the small streams. There is a pontoon bridge over the Brahe, near Bromberg, and of course, there are some bomb craters which we have to go around. But cheer up, you are all going to be home tonight."

"Hooray!" came the reply from everyone, together with a general applause. I noticed, for the first time our provincial capital was called Posen, instead of Poznan, the Polish name. What a change in such a short time!

The feeling on the bus was one of great joy, mixed with anxiety. How would we find our home? We had not heard from our parents at all Ñ were they still alive? How did they fare during the fighting? Had our home been destroyed, like some of the places our bus took us through? or would we find everything as we had left it, oh so long ago!

Slowly but steadily our bus took us towards Posen. The pontoon bridge was very exciting for us, as some water was lapping over the boards, as the heavy bus was crossing it. But we made it without any trouble. The fording of some of the streams seemed more difficult, as the banks were

22