Between Shades of Gray

In the commander’s office, Lina is warming her hands at the fire when the commander arrives wearing a “spotless” uniform. He sits close to her, so they are almost touching, and tells her to take off her coat. She refuses, saying she is cold, and he asks how old she is in a leering way. She sees snakes slithering out of his collar then, and thinks of Munch’s advice to “[p]aint it as you see it” (213), but knows that she cannot. She has to finish the portrait in an hour and the commander takes many breaks. Towards the end of the session, he goes outside and returns with Kretzsky. He gives him a command, and Kretzsky leaves, returning with a file that the commander studies. He asks Lina if she has been drawing since she was a child and who her favorite artist is. She tells him, but he doesn’t know Munch. She finishes the portrait and gives it to the commander who is pleased. She sees the file lying open on the desk and thinks there must be something in it about her father. The commander tells Kretzsky to give her bread and leaves. She protests, saying that she has earned more than bread. Kretzsky just tells her to hurry up and leaves. Jonas is waiting outside for her, and he tells her that Kretzsky said for them to go to the kitchen door and wait. Lina is angry, and after Kretzsky is gone, she grabs the file from the commander’s desk, along with her drawing paper, and hides it in her coat.

Lina and Jonas wait at the back door to kitchen, and suddenly a loaf of bread comes sailing out of the door, then potatoes, and then a tin can hits Lina in the forehead and she feels blood dripping down her face. More food and garbage comes flying out, one sack hitting Jonas and knocking him over. Lina wants to leave, but Jonas realizes that it is food and tries to gather as much as he can. Then Kretzsky comes out and threatens to report them for stealing food, calling them “fascist pigs” before slamming the door. They are gathering as much as then can, even empty cans and rotten potato peels, when Andrius arrives to help them carry it all back to their shack.

Jonas runs ahead at Lina’s request, and Lina tells Andrius about the file. He tells her that he cannot steal it for her, but she tells him that she already has it. She just needs his help reading the Russian and for him to put it back when she’s seen what’s in it. He is shocked that she took such a risk and reluctant to get involved, but he reads enough to learn that her father is in Krasyonarsk prison. He is unable to translate the word that tells them what he has been charged with, though, and he is angry that Lina has put them both at risk. He takes the file from her to return it, and she thanks him several times, but he leaves with only a nod.

Back at their shack, Lina and her family eat most of the food, including the tin of sardines she was hit in the head with. Lina cannot understand why her mother shares the food with Ulyushka, who “ate egg after egg in front of” (222) them and “never shared her food” (222).  Lina worries about Andrius and wonders what her father was charged with. She wants to tell her mother where her father is, but can’t do so without telling her what she did to put them all in such danger. Later that night, she takes one of her last pieces of paper and begins to draw the commander with the snakes coming out of his collar, but then she scratches it out. The next afternoon she sees Andrius, who signals to her that he was able to return the file. That night, she decorates a “thin, flat piece of birch” (223) with “Lithuanian embroidery patterns” (223) and “a picture of their house in Kaunas” (223), and writes on it “Deliver to Krasyonarsk Prison. With love from Miss Altai” (223). She passes it on to the grouchy woman to deliver to the village.