Page 146 - Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

The first two in were a brother and a sister, seven
and eight years old. They left green and blue shorts and
shirts at the edge of the dump. Next came a nine-year-
old girl carrying a baby. She shucked off her shoes as
she ran and, holding the baby under one arm, tore off
its shirt. When she set tlje naked baby down by the side
of the pile in order to get out of her own dress, the
child immediately began crawling toward the midden
on its own.
Like spawning fish, the children came from every-
where to dive into the pile. They waded or crept in one
after another while the horrible clucking continued and
overhead the swallows, alerted to a feast of insects,
dipped and soared.
Hannah finally heard the commandant's car, then saw
it as it barreled toward them, down the long bare avenue
between the barracks. It moved relentlessly toward the
hospital, which squatted at the compound's end.
The car had just passed the zugangi barracks when
the hospital door opened and a small thin boy limped
down the steps, his right knee bloody and his blue eyes
ringed with dirt. He was wiping his hands on his shirt.
When he looked up and saw the car bearing down on
him, despite the desperate clucking from all around, he
froze, Staring.
"Reuven!" Hannah cried out. "Run! Run to the mid-
den!" But the boy didn't move and she felt a sudden
coldness strike through her as if an ice dagger had been
plunged into her belly.
"Gottenyu!" Rivka whispered.
Shifre, who had been looking at the midden With its

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