Page 144 - Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

"You can remember eggs," Shifre said.
"No, I can't. Not pizza, not eggs either. Only potato
soup and hard brown bread. That's all I can remember."
She popped a piece of the burned potato scraping into
her mouth.
"Well, do not cry over this pizza. Tell me about it."
"I can't," Hannah said. "And I'm not crying over
the thing, whatever it is. I'm crying because I can't
remember what it is. I can't remember anything."
"You can remember the shtetl," Shifre said. "And
Lublin."
"That's the trouble," said Hannah. "I can't."
Just then Rivka came out of the kitchen and shook
her finger at Hannah. "No tears," she said. "If the
blokova sees you crying . . ."
b
"That three-fingered i. . ."Hannah stopped herself
in time. It was a dangerous habit to fall into, calling
the blokova names. One might be Chosen for doing
such a thing.
"If she loses control of her zugangi, she will be a
two-fingered whatever-you-call-her," said Rivka, smil-
ing.
"What do you mean?" Hannah and Shifre asked to-
gether.
"How do you think she lost those other fingers?"
Hannah mused. "I thought maybe she'd been born
that way."
Holding up her own hand and wriggling the fingers,
Rivka pointed to one. "She lost control and a whole
group of zugangi rioted. That was right before I got
here. They were sent through Lilith's Cave and she lost

137