{"id":1889,"date":"2013-02-21T03:22:07","date_gmt":"2013-02-21T03:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/?p=1889"},"modified":"2013-03-15T04:02:14","modified_gmt":"2013-03-15T04:02:14","slug":"the-fridge-by-marijke-hillmann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/the-fridge-by-marijke-hillmann\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fridge by Marijke Hillmann"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/sky.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-1537\" alt=\"sky\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/sky.jpg?resize=369%2C220\" width=\"369\" height=\"220\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/sky.jpg?w=615&amp;ssl=1 615w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/sky.jpg?resize=300%2C179&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 369px) 100vw, 369px\" \/><\/a><\/h1>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">The Fridge<\/h1>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">by Marijke Hillmann<\/p>\n<p>The camper ambles its way through the Tete Province, Mozambique on a sweltering, humid late afternoon in 1975.? Our 13 months? old son is dozing off in his seat ? I sit next to him and hold the bottle he has just finished drinking.<\/p>\n<p>Screeching brakes:? the sliding door is opened and I stare at the barrel of an AK47. Five armed child soldiers aged between 10 and 14 clamber onto the bus; number five keeps his gun pointed at the baby. Frozen in time ? I just stare.? Then my hands cover the baby ? he stirs and sleeps on.<\/p>\n<p>Disjointed images? I watch rivulets of sweat moving slowly towards a protruding belly button under a torn camouflage shirt, two buttons are missing. ?Does this boy have a mother?? I wonder.?<\/p>\n<p>Some excitement amongst the other four ? they point their rifles at my husband and indicate that he must open the little fridge; in awe they touch the cold cans and milk bottles stored there.? Chattering amongst themselves, they open the glove compartment and pick up the little portable fan on the dashboard.<\/p>\n<p>After a few minutes my husband calls them to order: ?listen you guys ? he points at his watch ? the border closes at 6 pm ? off you go now ? no more nonsense?.? With a movement of his head he directs them outside.? I catch my breath???????..<\/p>\n<p>The five recruits disembark and glance backwards once more at the little white miracle. Their minute of excitement for the day, a defining moment in my life.<\/p>\n<p>We drive on and reach the border in time.<\/p>\n<p>###<br \/>\nSee more of Marijke&#8217;s work on her <a href=\"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/africa-in-short-by-marijke-hillmann\/2013\/\">featured page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The camper ambles its way through the Tete Province, Mozambique on a sweltering, humid late afternoon in 1975.  Our 13 months? old son is dozing off in his seat ? I sit next to him and hold the bottle he has just finished drinking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1889"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1930,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1889\/revisions\/1930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}