Page 181 - LEIBY

Chapter 24 181

Chapter 24

The hotel bustled with feverish activity in preparation for the
group that was shortly to arrive.Leiby appreciated the manager’s
efforts to make the place as pleasant as possible for the refugees
– other temporary hotels that he had visited had been filthy
and squalid and had added no end of hardship to the already
difficult journey that the refugees were experiencing.

Empty food cans and various articles of clothing that had
been left lying around were swept into a large pile and sorted.
Suddenly, Yosef, who had been passively observing all the
goings-on, jumped frantically onto the pile and pulled out a
light-colored woolen hat from the very bottom of the heap.

“This hat belongs to Mirushka!” he hugged the hat close to his
heart as his eyes welled with tears.

“How did Miriam disappear?” Leiby asked.

“There was a whole hullaballoo here, someone discovered an
SS man and lynched him… I was fast asleep, and when I woke
up, I couldn’t see Mirushka anywhere. I looked for her all over,
but she had simply vanished as if the ground had swallowed
her up.”