Page 33 - Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

shook loose from her hair. Making a wry mouth, she
removed her kerchief and drew out the other two pins.
Her thick black hair cascaded down to the small of her
back. "I adore any of my brothers the day before they
get married," she said. Then with a swift movement,
she wrapped the hair around her hand into a bun, which
she pinned on top of her head again. She put the ker-
chief back over the hair and knotted it securely.
Hannah watched silently, trying to take it all in. How
could she be both Hannah and this Chaya whose parents
had died of a mysterious disease? She knew she was
Hannah. She knew because she remembered. She re-
membered her mother and her father and her brother
Aaron with his big blue eyes and great smile. She re-
membered her house with the junglegym in the back-
yard and the seventeen stuffed dogs on her bed. She
remembered her best friend Rosemary, who'd had braces
the year before she did and had showed her how to eat
jelly beans with them on, even though you weren't sup-
posed to. She remembered her school in New Rochelle.
As she remembered, she forgot to be a good sport and
her eyes began to fill with tears.
But the man Shmuel and the woman Gitl didn't seem
to notice, They were too involved in their own con-
versation.
"If you would accept Yitzchak the butcher's offer,
you could be married, and living in a fine new house
in the center of the shtetl," Shmuel said. "Then you
would not have to share your kitchen with Fayge or
anyone else." He turned and winked at Hannah.

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