Page 148 - Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

car door. Then, without another word, Breuer went up
the stairs to the hospital and closed the door so quietly
they could not tell when it was finally shut.

That evening, the sky was red and black with the fire
and smoke. The latest arrivals in the cattle cars had not
been placed in barracks. The camp was full. The new-
comers had been shipped directly to processing, a change
in routine that frightened even the long-termers.
Rumors swept the camp. "A shipment from Hol-
land," some said. "A shipment from Silesia." No one
knew for sure.
But Reuven did not come back. Not that evening.
Not that night.
"Not ever," Hannah muttered to herself as she watched
the smoke curling up, writing its long numbers against
the stone-colored sky. "Arid it's my fault."
"Why is it your fault?" Rivka asked.
"I should have said he was my brother."
"Then you would not be here either. It would not
have helped Reuven."
"He is dead." Hannah said the word aloud curiously,
as if understanding it for the first time. "Dead."
"Do not say that word."
"Monsters!" Hannah said suddenly. "Gitl is right.
We are all monsters."
"We are the victims," Rivka said. "They are the mon-
sters."
"We are all monsters," Hannah said, "because we
are letting it happen." She said it not as if she believed
it but as if she were repeating something she had heard.

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