Page 53 - LEIBY

Chapter 6 53

“Yes,” Yosef nodded. “This was the first farm that we arrived
at when we ran away from the ghetto last year. I remember it,
Mirushka was still with us, hidden inside a large knapsack. We
hid here behind the trees, Papa and Mama and me, and we had
no idea what to do about Mirushka, because the sleeping pills
that Mama gave her before we left the ghetto were about to
wear off.”Yosef ’s eyes clouded over, his crushing pain at the loss
of his family engulfing him anew.

“Your parents are watching over us now from Heaven, and they
are pleading to Hashem that He help us save their daughter,”
Leiby stroked the boy’s damp cheek.

The cart passed the village and continued on its way. Yosef
looked around, trying to remember the place from the year
before when he and his parents had fled here from the ghetto.
His memories were vague; the last time he was here it had been
nighttime and they had hidden under cover of darkness, and
now the villages were bathed in sunlight. He found it hard to
ascertain in which of the villages they had left Mirushka.

“I think the best thing to do is to go to the town square where
all the village children play, and try to see if you can spot
Mirushka,” Leiby suggested. “You do remember what she looks
like, yes?”

Yosef almost choked. Of course he remembered her! Every
night he dreamed of Mirushka and during the day she occupied
most of his thoughts too. Could he ever forget her? It was true,
he hadn’t seen her for a full year already, and she had certainly
grown and become even more adorable, but he was her only
brother, the brother who had tried his best to protect her in
the ghetto and had been like both a mother and father to her
during the long days when their parents were out at work from
dawn to nightfall. It was he who had broken into the municipal
kitchen and sneaked out some potato peels for her, putting
himself at risk of receiving a thorough beating. At home, he
had cleaned and soaked the peels, added a little flour and water,
baked them in the coal oven in the courtyard,and then presented
the scrumptious pancakes to little Mirushka. How she had