With each passing day, I was more determined to leave Auschwitz. How it would happen, I didn’t know. As I passed the barbed-wire fence, I considered electrocution, but slipping by the guard towers would be difficult, and if the guards noticed me getting too close to the fence they’d shoot. If my end were to come by bullet, there were easier ways that didn’t include the risk of electrocution if the guards didn’t care to stop me. Despite my determination to leave this place, I wasn’t certain I possessed enough courage to touch the fence when such a death seemed terrifying. Why chance it when I could just as easily prompt a guard to shoot me during roll call or labor? Maybe I’d stop eating, but, if I did, Father Kolbe would notice and insist I maintain my strength. With him sharing additional morsels, malnutrition wasn’t as likely. I kept walking and tugged at the loose skin on my ripped palms. Maybe the wounds would get infected, or maybe I’d succumb to exhaustion or disease.

There was always Fritzsch. As soon as he lost interest in our games, he’d get rid of me.

All I knew was that I was tired, and I missed my family. I would leave Auschwitz, and there was only one way to leave—through the crematorium chimneys.

Finish the game, Maria.

I would plan my attacks and coax my opponent into the endgame I wanted, but my patience was as thin and worn as the uniform on my back.

When I returned to Block 18, I sat on a pallet, relishing the brief respite. Most inmates lingered outside the block during free time, so I took advantage of the extra indoor space while I could. In silence, I counted the bug bites covering me and discovered seven more since yesterday.

Before long, Father Kolbe entered the block and gave his usual smiles, blessings, and encouragement to the inmates. At last he placed his pallet across from mine and set something beside him, out of my sight. He drew a large square in the dirt on the floor, then added a series of lines, forming smaller squares within the large square. Once finished, he had eight rows of eight small squares. Next he picked up the items he’d placed next to him: a handful of gravel. He put the largest rock in the back row, on a middle square. The second largest went next to it. Two more were stationed on either side of the first two, and he continued in such fashion until the two smallest rocks were in the outside corners. In front of the row, he lined up eight pebbles.