Personal Narrative: The Mud Colored Cattle Car

As I stepped into the mud colored cattle car, just the sight of it had made me wince. As I entered, it was like the other passengers were staring at me with shame, since if you were in the cattle car you had to of done something bad. I quickly put my head down. I could just feel the sticky wretched smell of feces and body odor in the car. My mother and I put our suitcases on the shelves, heaving them with all our strength to the very top shelf. We waited hours for in the dark, crammed, and smelly car before we started moving.
I sat in the corner, occasionally glancing up at the other faces. There was this one lady who looked like she was about to cry most likely because she was frightened, and there was this man who was shaking in fear. Seeing these faces just made the situation worse for me. I tightly squeezed my mom’s arm, hoping it would make me feel better
They got louder and louder. Suddenly, we all heard a gunshot in the air and then the cattle car door opened. Everyone quieted down their conversations. An NKVD officer allowed one person to get out of the cattle car and gather some of the rainwater that began to fall. They handed a young women a bucket. Her child wanted to go with her, but the NKVD officer thrust him back in. She came back with about half of the bucket full. We took turns sipping the water from the bucket, although, some of the people were rather greedy when it came to sharing it. When it was my turn with the bucket I was relieved. It had been 2 days without any water or food. I could taste the lingering smell of personal odors as I drank the water. I drank it anyway, since I had been longing for just a sip. Throughout the rest of the day we all sat quietly in the cattle car. It had only been the second day, but all of us complained about being starving. “I might have as well got used to this if I was going to have to live with it,” I thought to