Page 13 - Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

. "Like Mrs. Grahame had to do when you forgot. . ."
"Just like that."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
She gave him a funny look and then pounced on him,
tickling him under the arms and over his belly. When
he tried to escape by turning his back on her, she got
him again from behind. His laughter rose higher and
higher until he almost did throw up.
"Hannah!" her father said again and her mother stared
at them so fiercely over the seat that they drew them-
selves into opposite corners, staring out their windows
with expressions of injured innocence.
A few miles farther on, Aaron begged, "Tell me a
story, Hannah, please. Please. Please."
"For God's sake, tell him a story," her father said,
pounding his right hand against the steering wheel.
Driving in city traffic always made him cranky.
Glad to be doing something she knew she was good
at, Hannah began a gruesome tale about the walking
dead, borrowing most of the characters, plot, and sound
effects from a movie she'd seen on television the night
before. Aaron was fascinated by it. The zombies had
just marched into the hero's house and eaten his mother
when they arrived at the apartment house complex.
While their father parked the car, Hannah and Aaron
raced into the building. Because he was the youngest,
Aaron got to press the elevator button.
"That's not fair . . . ," Hannah began. But then she
remembered how scared she'd been the first time she'd
had to ask the Four Questions at the Seder and she

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