Page 31 - LEIBY

Chapter 4 31

Mirushka. You keep on postponing it and putting me off, you’re
not helping me! You just say all the time that you’re taking care
of the matter, but I don’t see that anything is happening. I’ve
been waiting for you for two weeks already and Mirushka is
waiting for me. The war is over, we have to be together. Before
Papa was caught, he told me that as soon as the war would end,
the first thing I must do is to bring Mirushka back. That’s what
Papa instructed me to do, and I have to obey.”

“Yosef, you’re acting recklessly and putting yourself in danger,”
Leiby scolded. “If anything happens to you, there’ll be no one
in the world who will bring Mirushka back.”

“No, it’s not true, I’m not acting recklessly at all,” Yosef stamped
his foot in frustration, suddenly looking like the child he really
was, instead of the adult that his life experiences had forced
him to become. “I’ve got enough food here for both of us, and
I also have some money to pay farmers to let us ride with them
in their carts. I’ll go to the farmer woman who has been hiding
Mirushka and I’ll demand that she let her go. I know my way
around the forest, and I can go by myself. A good brother
wouldn’t sit at home twiddling his thumbs telling himself that
other people would sort out his issues…”

“By yourself, without help, you’ll never reach Mirushka’s farm,”
Leiby interrupted. “You look so Jewish, no farmer will ever
agree to let you ride in his cart. And besides, the Benderovic
gangsters that are running wild in the area, as well as their
Polish enemies, all hate the Jews and will let no opportunity to
kill a Jew slip through their fingers. And say, miraculously, you
do somehow manage to reach Mirushka – do you really imagine
that her adoptive family will just let you take her? They’re sure
to insist that you make a payoff deal, and then what will you
give them? The moldy slices of bread that you have hidden in
your pockets?”

Yosef ’s lips curled up in offense but Leiby paid him no heed.
He continued to lash out at him relentlessly.

“Let me tell you about some incidents that took place just this