Page 117 - Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

question. You will not try to escape. You will do this
for the Fatherland. You will do it—or you will die."
The officer turned smartly on his heel and left.
Then the three-fingered woman came forward to tell
them about the work thatfay ahead and what they were
to expect each day.
Above them, a quartet of swallows dipped and cir-
cled, twittering madly as they, plunged after insects.
There was a drone of machinery somewhere off to the
right. In the distance, beyond another long row of bar-
racks, Hannah could see a single strand of smoke rising
against the bright spring sky, curling endlessly out of a
tall chimney stack.
Once again it occurred to her that there was some-
thing she was not remembering, something terribly im-
portant to her, to all of them. She wondered if Gitl
would know what it was, and resolved to ask her. But
the raucous swallows, the woman's droning commands,
the ground bass of the machinery mesmerized her. She
could feel her eyelids starting to close. To stop herself
from falling asleep on her feet, she threw her head back
suddenly and took a deep breath.
Out of the corner of her eye she glimpsed Gitl. Then,
without moving her head farther, only her eyes, she
managed to find Fayge. She was standing halfway down
the line, her face paper white and her eyes fully closed.
She swayed where she stood. Behind her was Esther
and beside Esther was Shifre, her lashless eyes even
stranger-looking under the shaved head. Hannah re-
membered them, remembered each and every thing
they had said to her in the forest. She remembered the

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