When Menachem Meller died on the operating table, the bullet finally removed but the blood loss too great to survive, Chaya was left a widow and the girls fatherless. Yitzchak, Chaya’s father and the sisters’ grandfather, moved into the small cottage to offer help where he could, while Chaya’s brother, Ivan, lives in the house across from theirs.
Chaya is not alone, despite how she feels.
The heavy drapes are drawn in the bedroom, denying Magda, shivering, feverish, the brilliant spring sunshine which now peeks above the curtain rail.
‘Can we talk in the other room?’ Dr Kisely takes Chaya’s arm.
Livi, cross-legged on the other bed, watches Chaya place another wet towel on Magda’s forehead.
‘Stay with your sister?’ her mother asks, and Livi nods.
When the adults leave the room Livi crosses to her sister’s bed and lies down beside her, proceeding to wipe the perspiration from Magda’s face with a dry flannel.
‘You’re going to be OK, Magda. I won’t let anything happen to you.’
Magda forces a small smile. ‘That’s my line. I’m your big sister, I look after you.’
‘Then get better.’
Chaya and Dr Kisely walk the few steps from the bedroom to the main room in the small house. The front door opens directly into this cosy living area, with a small kitchen area at the back.
The girls’ grandfather, Yitzchak, stands washing his hands at the sink. A trail of wood shavings has followed him from the backyard, and more lie on the faded blue felt that covers the floor. Startled, he turns, splashing water onto the floor. ‘What’s going on?’ he asks.
‘Yitzchak, I’m glad you’re here, come and sit with us.’
Chaya quickly turns to the young doctor, fear in her eyes. Dr Kisely smiles and guides her to a kitchen chair, pulling another away from the small table for Yitzchak to sit.
‘Is she very unwell?’ Yitzchak asks.
‘She’s going to be fine. It’s a fever, nothing a healthy young girl can’t recover from in her own time.’
‘So what’s this about?’ Chaya waves a hand between the doctor and herself.
Dr Kisely finds another chair and sits down. ‘I don’t want you to be scared by what I’m about to tell you.’
Chaya merely nods, now desperate for him to tell her what he needs to say. The years since the war broke out have changed her: her once smooth brow is lined, and she is so thin her dresses hang off her like wet laundry.
‘What is it, man?’ Yitzchak demands. The responsibility he bears for his daughter and grandchildren has aged him beyond his years, and he has no time for intrigue.
‘I want to admit Magda into hospital—’
‘What? You just said she was going to get better!’ Chaya explodes. She stands up, grabbing the table for support.
Dr Kisely holds up a hand to shush her. ‘It’s not because she’s ill. There’s another reason I want to admit Magda and if you will listen, I’ll explain.’
‘What on earth are you talking about?’ Yitzchak says. ‘Just spit it out.’
‘Mrs Meller, Yitzchak, I am hearing rumours, terrible rumours – talk of young Jews, girls and boys, being taken from Slovakia to work for the Germans. If Magda is in hospital she will be safe, and I promise I won’t let anything happen to her.’
Chaya collapses back onto her chair, her hands covering her face. This is much worse than a fever.
Yitzchak absentmindedly pats her back, but he is focused now, intent on hearing everything the doctor has to say. ‘What else?’ he asks, meeting the doctor’s eyes, urging him to be blunt.
‘As I said, rumours and gossip, none of it good for the Jews. If they come for your children it is the beginning of the end. And working for the Nazis? We have no idea what that means.’
‘What can we do?’ Yitzchak asks. ‘We have already lost everything – our right to work, to feed our families .?.?. What more can they take from us?’
‘If what I’m hearing has any basis in fact, they want your children.’
Chaya sits up straighter. Her face is red, but she isn’t crying. ‘And Livi? Who will protect Livi?’
‘I believe they’re after sixteen-year-olds and older. Livi is fourteen, isn’t she?’
‘She’s fifteen.’
‘Still a baby.’ Dr Kisely smiles. ‘I think Livi will be fine.’
‘And how long will Magda stay in hospital?’ asks Chaya. She turns to her father. ‘She won’t want to go, she won’t want to leave Livi. Don’t you remember, Father, when Cibi left, she made Magda promise she would look after their little sister.’