Chapter 22Pripeta, 1940
I started the engine of the ancient ambulance. It turned over in the cold air but failed to catch. I stepped out, lifted the hood and, removing a screwdriver from my coat pocket, adjusted the carburetor. I closed the hood carefully, then slid back in behind the wheel. I turned the key and the cranky engine sputtered, then caught, roaring to life. I drove forward slowly, then stopped and put the ambulance in neutral while I closed the barn doors. The hospital had forty-five beds and just the two ambulances, one of which had broken down. It was all I could do to keep the other running given the lack of spare parts. I had become a cunning scavenger, however. Whenever I saw a derelict vehicle or a tractor, I'd strip down the engine then re-tool the parts in the small w
