‘What is it?’ Magda asks disoriented, drowsy.
‘It’s your sister. She’s crying and calling out – I think she needs you.’
Now Magda hears the muttering, the sobbing from her sister’s bed. She’s out of bed in moments, crossing the room.
‘Cibi? Cibi, where are you?’ Livi is repeating over and over as she twists and turns under her covers.
‘Livi, it’s all right, I’m here.’ Magda sits down on Livi’s bed and takes her shoulders. ‘You’re OK, Livi.’
‘I need Cibi. I need Cibi,’ moans Livi.
‘It’s Cibi, Livi. Right here.’
The other girls in the room are all awake now, sitting up in their beds, watching the exchange between the sisters.
Magda wraps Livi in her arms.
Livi seems to hear Magda’s words, as her body relaxes and she falls back to sleep and Magda climbs into bed with her.
The next morning, Livi is perplexed to find her sister asleep beside her. She shakes her awake. ‘Why are you in my bed?’
Magda, once again, wakes up disoriented. For a moment, she too has no idea why she’s there, and then she remembers. ‘You had a bad dream, that’s all,’ she tells Livi. ‘And I thought a cuddle would help.’
Livi gets out of bed and heads for bathrooms in the hut next door to theirs.
‘I had a sister who used to sleep-talk, and cry out.’ The roommate who had woken Magda is moving around the room, picking up the clothes she dropped the night before. ‘My mother said it was best if we never told her about it.’
‘Maybe you’re right,’ sighs Magda.
‘Who’s Cibi?’
‘She’s our older sister. She and her family will be here soon.’
‘And Livi is close to her?’
‘Very. They were in Auschwitz together for nearly three years.’
‘What about you? I’ve seen the number on your arm.’
‘I came later, much later. I didn’t go through half what they did.’
The girl lays her dirty clothes on her bed and crosses the room to give Magda a hug. ‘Livi will be fine, we’re all one family now.’
‘And you? Do you have anyone here?’
‘I don’t.’ The girl frowns and turns away to look out of the windows at the glorious sunshine. ‘They’re all dead and I don’t know how or even why I survived, but I did.’ The frown is gone as quickly as it had appeared and now she’s smiling. ‘We owe it to those who died to live our best lives, become our best selves, and here we can.’
Livi bursts into the hut, her arms flung around the shoulders of two girls. ‘Magda! Look who I found!’ she squeals.
Magda looks at the girls, who are holding on to Livi as if they will never let her go. ‘Who have you found, Livi?’
‘It’s Shari and Neli! They’re sisters too. We were in Auschwitz together, they worked in the Kanada.’
Shari and Neli extend their hands to Magda.
‘We heard so much about you,’ Shari says. ‘Livi and Cibi talked about their family all the time. I am so happy they found you.’
‘And Cibi will be here soon,’ Magda tells them. ‘Any day now.’
The four girls head for the kitchen, for their first breakfast, on their first day in their new land.
*
Magda and Livi settle into the routine of life on a kibbutz and begin to learn Hebrew, the language of their new country. They attend talks given by officials from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where they learn of the plans to turn Israel into a home for Jews across the world. They will fill the country with businesses and babies, they will remember the dead and celebrate the living. They will never forget, but they must also live their best lives. Much of this feels inspiring to the sisters, but often, at the end of one of these talks, Livi feels very small, too small to be charged with the monumental task of creating a new homeland on behalf of all those who were murdered. But Magda is more hopeful.
‘You’re just missing Cibi,’ she reassures her. ‘She’s coming, Livi, and when she gets here, we can stop worrying about her.’
The task they are most devoted to is their Sunday evening ritual when they sit down to write to Cibi. Livi’s letters beseech Cibi to come soon, that there is so much there for her to love, but she must hurry, while Magda’s are more practical, containing lists of things that would be useful in this new climate.
Cibi writes back to tell them she, Mischka and Karol will be arriving in May.
*