[...]... Mark_9780307984739_7p_all_r1.indd 26 3/22/12 10:49 AM i am forbidden 27 you lost your ticket No, say your parents are in the next car Say it in Hungarian and don’t speak the Jew language You’ll know when to get off when the conductor calls, ‘Sibiu!’ ” The boy brushed the dirt off her coat He tied the ribbon in her hair “Mila,” she said, pointing to her chest “Anghel,” he said, pointing to his chest “Where is your mother?” Mila... thighs were entirely different from his baby sister’s cuddly limbs, but those nailed palms surely knew of Pearela with the prong in her cheek He swaddled the thin ankles and rusty nails with one end of the eiderdown and wrapped himself in the other end “Hie lee lu lee la,” he hummed softly The first warm rays grazed the ridge when Florina lifted eiderdown and sleeping boy She carried them into the kitchen... Stern in Nagyszeben The train will say Sibiu but it’s the same as Nagyszeben If I can’t get on the train I must run from the border Tatta said I must run right away.” I ll help you get on Don’t be afraid, all the trains go slow around the bend I ll jump on over there You’ll wait here When I come by, grab my hand Don’t be afraid I ll pull you up fast Just look at my hand If the conductor comes by, say... words: “With my own, see to it, see that Gershon Heller is buried with his own.” I will,” the boy whispered and his hand pressed the girl’s Mark_9780307984739_7p_all_r1.indd 25 3/22/12 10:49 AM 26 anouk markovits mouth to his chest, to his shirt of coarse linen, so her whimper would not be heard The tavern door opened Anghel pulled the girl past the bullwhip and the wound He led her to his hollow in the... to feel their warm hides, that they talked in hollow moans But he never shared his midday meal with the field hands Instead, he went to his hideout in the bluff where he sat and watched the leaves falling together, and landing apart * Mark_9780307984739_7p_all_r1.indd 21 3/22/12 10:49 AM 22 anouk markovits T hen it was spring again and maybe they were butterflies, the white flickerings along the sealed... smiled as her broad hand rubbed hot tuica on Anghel’s chest, but the boy was careful not to smile back, fully smile If his dimple showed, Florina might think he was trying to bewitch her, she might tap his forehead to gauge whether he had grown his Jew horns, she might wonder whether he was, in fact, stealing what she was giving him Summer, a fence was erected behind the shrine, along the tracks skirting... boxcars, maybe they were not fingers begging for water, and his name was ­Anghel whose father died in Odessa, whose mother was Florina who pressed her medallion every morning to his forehead and coached: “You will not be first in class If you understand, don’t show it Don’t answer the teacher’s questions.” * Mark_9780307984739_7p_all_r1.indd 22 3/22/12 10:49 AM i am forbidden 23 T he dogs barked before... behind the shed, to the ground, as he told her not to move, that her mother wanted her to live The train pulled away After nightfall, Anghel and the little girl crossed the trampled fence Peasants from nearby villages were dismantling market Mark_9780307984739_7p_all_r1.indd 24 3/22/12 10:49 AM i am forbidden 25 stalls and loading the parts onto carts One peasant told, over and over, how the militiamen... his chest “Tatta . . .” the girl stammered as water dripped through her fingers After the last militiaman had disappeared inside the tavern, the two children crossed the square The girl brought her cupped hands to her father’s lips “Tatta . . .” The folded figure moaned, licked water from her fingers Blood came out of the man’s mouth, and words: “Mi-la, your name now is Mila Go to Zalman Stern. . . .”... a chink between two logs A man, a woman, a little girl The man was fastening a black cube to his forehead His lips moved as he swayed back and forth The woman was sitting on the floor, her back against the wall She was tying a blue ribbon in the girl’s hair The woman raised her head at the sound of an approaching train The train slowed around the bend, hissed, gathered speed The woman’s hands came . swelled with light, the icons’ eyes were furry bees, In this joy- ous Eucharistic liturgy, in resurrectional felicity, in this bread, in this wine . Published in the United States by Hogarth, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. www.crownpublishing.com Hogarth