Page 170 - Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

Hannah touched the number on her aunt's arm with
surprising gentleness, whispering, "No, no, please, let
me explain it to you." For a moment she was silent.
Then she said: "J is for Jew. And 1 because you were
alone, alone of the 8 who had been in your family,
though 2 was the actual number of them alive. Your
brother was a Kommando, one of the Jews forced to
tend the ovens, to handle the dead, so he thought he
was a O." She looked up at Eva, who was staring at
her. "Oh! Your brother. Grandpa Will. That must have
.
been him carrying Fayge. So that's why . . "
Aunt Eva closed her eyes for a moment, as if thinking
or remembering. Then she whispered back, "His name
was Wolfe. Wolfe! And the irony of it was that he was
as gentle as a lamb. He changed his name when we
came to America. We all changed our names. To forget.
Remembering was too painful. But to forget was im-
possible." Her coffee brown eyes opened again. "Go
on, child."
Hannah took her hand from her aunt's arm and
dropped it into the safety of her own lap. She couldn't
look at her aunt any more, that familiar, unfamiliar,
.
plain, beautiful face. "You said . . ," she whispered,
". . . you said that when things were over, you would
be two again forever. J18202."
They sat for a long moment in silence while the talk
and laughter at the table dipped and soared about them
like swallows.
At last Hannah looked up. Her aunt was staring at
her, as if really seeing her for the first time. "Aunt
Eva . . ," Hannah began and Eva's hand touched her
.

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