Page 119 - Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

THAT EVENING, AFTER ANOTHER MEAL OF WATERY SOUP AND
a small piece of bread, the girl Rivka found Hannah.
She already had Esther and Shifre in tow. The other
two girls looked as uneasy as Hannah felt, out in the
open, with the watchtowers spaced every hundred feet
along the barbed wire fences staring down at them.
"Do not be afraid," Rivka said quickly. "We have
little to fear in the night. Any 'Choosing' is done during
the day. They do not run the gas at night. They let us
out for an hour each evening for enforced recreation.
If you are alive now, this minute, it is enough."
"What do you mean it is enough?" Esther said, her
voice rising in pitch. "My father is missing. My grand-
mother died on that train. I cannot find any of my aunts.
Yente and Rachel are gone."
Rivka shook her head sadly. "I have been here a
year, and in that time my mother and my sisters, my

112