When they woke up, toward evening, Thomas said, “I dreamed a strange dream. A white dream. Everything looked white: the trees, the streets, and the people.”
“Were the people in a panic?” Adam asked.
“No, everyone was standing there, bewildered.”
“And were you white, too?”
“I was apparently whiter than everyone. They all looked at me, and they were sure I was the one who had brought about that whitening.”
“What did you say to them?”
“I didn’t know what to say.”
“You had that white dream because we drank that good, fresh milk. Grandma says, ‘A white dream is a good dream,’” said Adam.
“Thanks for interpreting the dream,” said Thomas.
Crouching and with caution, they went back to visit the cow and her calf. When they were close they saw that the grass was still there, but the cow and the calf were gone.
Adam didn’t look worried. “The forest has a lot more presents for us.”
“I see that you trust the forest,” said Thomas.
“The forest is sometimes better than people,” said Adam.
Thomas commented, “The forest always appears to us as a place where wild animals live.”
“Don’t forget. Wild animals only attack when they’re hungry.”
“That shows that people are worse than them,” said Thomas, speaking in his father’s words.
Chapter 15
The next day, when they went to see the cow and her calf, they found a little girl, dressed in peasant clothes, milking the cow. They clung to one of the trees and stared at her tensely.
“She’s very short, but she’s sweet,” said Thomas.
Adam, who had concentrated on her face and hands as she milked, discovered she was Mina, a girl from their class.
Adam didn’t restrain himself but called out in a whisper, “Mina.”
The girl didn’t respond to his call.
“Are you sure it’s Mina?” Thomas asked fearfully. “I have no doubt.”
“Mina. It’s Adam and Thomas. We live in the forest and we’re eating berries. If you could bring us some bread, we’d be very grateful,” Adam said to her.
She didn’t respond to that call either. She kept milking. When the bucket was full, she quickly took it and the stool she had been sitting on and disappeared between the trees.
“It’s Mina, without doubt,” Adam murmured. “She has changed a bit, but her expression hasn’t changed.”
“How did you recognize her?”
“I sat next to her in second grade. I remember the way she sat and the expression of her face.”
“Strange. In the spring we were still in school, and now we’re all on our own,” Thomas said to himself.
Indeed Mina was short and skinny, and she didn’t stand out in the class. She did all her homework seriously and diligently, but she didn’t attract attention or affection. They didn’t assign her tasks. She didn’t play in the school yard, and she didn’t have friends. At the time of the ghetto, she worked in the hospital with her mother. She helped wash and feed the patients. The patients were fond of her and called her the little angel. Mina floated from room to room. She brought medicine to this one and a bowl of soup to that one. After a while people heard that her mother had found a pair of peasants who were willing to hide her for money.
“That’s Mina. I’m sure,” Adam muttered again.
They were sitting near the brook, looking at the shimmering water in silence.
“The brook is a living thing,” said Adam. “Do you mean that the brook gives us life?”
“Not exactly. It’s good to observe its shining motion. Your eyes love to look at water, and it gives the heart joy.”
“Strange,” said Thomas. “What’s so strange?”
“We have to learn from everything, my father says. What can be learned from water?”
“It’s hard for me to explain. If it makes you happy to look at the flowing water, it will make you happy to look at a sleeping dog,” said Adam, and they both laughed.
Chapter 16
After that Adam began to steal in and milk the cow. The fresh milk nourished them. Every day they practiced running in a crouch, finding hiding places, and climbing trees. Thomas was glad to be running with Adam. If they hadn’t been weak, they would have exercised more. The raspberries and blueberries and the bit of milk did nourish them, but not enough. “Bread, bread,” Thomas called out from time to time, and they both laughed.
They saw Mina milking the cow again. Adam called to her in a whisper, “Mina, Adam and Thomas are here. If you bring us some bread, we’ll be very grateful.”
Mina didn’t respond.
Mina’s father died when she was five, and her mother worked as a housekeeper. They were poor, but her mother made sure that poverty didn’t shame them. She dressed Mina in nice clothes and bought her notebooks and textbooks.
“Are you certain it’s Mina?” Thomas asked repeatedly.
“I’m 100 percent sure.”
Still wondering how they could get solid food, they returned to the meadow and hid behind a tree near the edge to get as close as they could to Mina. Then they looked down and found half a loaf of bread and a piece of cheese wrapped in an old newspaper.
“I wasn’t wrong,” Adam called out.
They sat down by the brook. Adam cut a slice of bread and a piece of cheese for each of them with his jackknife, and they could barely believe their eyes.
They wanted to rejoice, but they were afraid. The long days of hunger had weakened them. The fresh bread they gobbled down stuck between their throats and their stomachs and hurt them.
“In the future we’ll eat more slowly,” said Thomas.
They drank water from the brook. The water washed down the bread, and the pain passed.
“Someone is watching over us,” said Adam. “Do you mean that God is watching over us?” Adam was silent. Tears filled his eyes.
The next evening, when Mina came to milk the cow, Adam approached the tree closest to her and called out in a whisper, “Thank you, Mina. We hadn’t eaten bread for many days.”
This time, too, Mina didn’t respond. After she finished milking, she took the stool and the pail and disappeared.
Adam and Thomas watched her in amazement. She had changed in a short time. She hadn’t grown taller, but her face and her body were fuller. When she milked, she looked like a peasant girl.
“Those changes didn’t come easily to her,” said Adam.
“How do you know?”
“Changing isn’t a simple matter. It takes determination. You have to alter all the movements your body is used to. You have to block your thoughts and speak in a language that isn’t yours. Lucky for us we’re in the forest and not with Diana, where we were supposed to hide, or who knows where. At Diana’s we would have been different creatures, swineherds, or who knows what. We’re suffering from hunger, but we’re still who we were. We have the forest and the brook, and we’re speaking the language we’re used to.” Adam spoke at length and with emotion.
“Mina has changed, but apparently not in her soul. She took the risk of bringing us bread. You have to admire her courage,” said Thomas.
“That’s true. If it sounded like I was looking down on her for changing, I apologize,” said Adam.
Every few days she left them a hunk of bread or a piece of corn pie. Once she left them a big red tomato.
“God sent Mina to us to rescue us from hunger,” said Adam.
“Does the messenger know she’s a messenger, or does she do it without knowing?” Thomas spoke in his father’s words.