Page 103 - Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

THEY SAT ON THE BENCHES NAKED AND COLD FOR A LONG
time while the barber worked on each in turn. Hannah
glanced around cautiously. With their hair gone, they
all looked like little old men. She wondered what she
looked like herself, resisting the urge to put her hand
up to her head again. She would not think about it.
Thinking was dangerous. In this place she would not
think, only do.
After a while, time seemed to lose its reality. Only
the snick-snack of the scissors and the occasional cry of
the barber's victims marked the minutes. There was a
dreamlike feeling in the room as if, Hannah thought,
anything might happen next.
The woman in the blue dress entered the far door
and stood for a long moment examining them all with
a.sour face. Hannah happened to be facing the door
when she entered and, without meaning to, locked eyes
with her. It was the woman who looked away first,

96