April 1944
‘M
agda? Magda Meller? Is that you?’
Magda pulls her scarf around her face. She dips her head to her chest and picks up speed.
‘Magda Meller! Stop where you are!’
Magda stops, berating herself. Why did she believe she was invincible when everything around her had gone to hell? She turns round to see the familiar smirk on Visik’s face. Her old school ‘friend’。
‘Visik, what do you want?’ Magda is trying to hide the tremble in her voice.
‘You. We’ve been trying to speak to you for months, and don’t pretend you don’t know.’
‘And who is “we”？’
‘Me and my colleagues in the Hlinka Guards, that’s who.’
‘My colleagues and I,’ Magda corrects him. She hates his smug face, his stupid uniform. He is a little boy pretending to be a man, and he won’t get the better of her.
‘Don’t get smart with me. We’ve come to your house every Friday – tell me where you’ve been hiding.’
‘Hiding? Why should I hide? I’ve probably just been out with my friends. Oh, but that’s right, isn’t it, Visik – you wouldn’t know what a friend is.’ Despite herself, a tiny bit of Magda is enjoying this exchange. It may be her only chance to show him her contempt.
‘You can’t talk to me like that anymore, Magda. I could have you shot, and maybe if I shot you myself I’d even get a medal.’
Magda has had enough. ‘What do you want, Visik? I have shopping to do.’
‘We’ll be at your house on Friday, as usual, and you had better be there. It’s time for you to join your sisters, don’t you know?’ he teases, an infuriating grin on his mouth.
Magda is alert now, the sniping forgotten. She takes a step towards this man-boy. ‘Do you know where they are?’
‘Of course I do, I .?.?. I know everything.’ But Magda hears the hesitation in his voice.
‘You know nothing,’ she hisses. ‘Because you are nothing but a little boy playing with a big gun. Why don’t you go home, Visik, to your mummy?’
Magda turns her back on him and strides off, but she is less sure of herself now. Why hadn’t she done as her mother had asked and gone straight home after the shopping? Why had she had to stop by the little boutique on the main street to admire the dresses? She doesn’t have any money for a new dress, even if she had somewhere to wear it. Now Visik knows she is still in Vranov, and that is bad.
While she is slamming the few tins of fish she managed to find in the grocery store onto the kitchen counter, Chaya comes into the room, and watches her for a moment. ‘What’s wrong with you?’
Magda ignores her. She doesn’t need her mother berating her too, all for the sake of a dress she will never own.
‘Maybe seeing your cousins tonight will put you in a better mood,’ Chaya offers.
‘My cousins?’
‘Your uncle and aunt have invited us to have dinner with them.’
‘Is that because they know we’ve nothing to eat?’ Magda snaps, staring at the three solitary tins of fish.
‘We have food, and haven’t you just been shopping?’
‘Look at it, Mumma. It’s nothing!’ Magda says. ‘It would have been better for everyone if I had left with Cibi and Livi.’ The words are out of her mouth, and it’s too late to take them back. Her mother’s eyes fill with tears.
‘Ladies, ladies, what’s going on? I can hear you from the garden.’ Yitzchak enters the room through the back door.
‘Nothing, Grandfather, it’s nothing,’ Magda says, quickly. She doesn’t need an interrogation right now.
‘Magda thinks we would be better off without her,’ Chaya mumbles. ‘She wants to be with her sisters.’
‘Magda, is this true?’
‘Yes. No! I don’t know. But we have so little to eat. And .?.?. and you would have more.’ Her grandfather is half the size he was two years ago, and he was a slight man even then.
‘Stop it, Magda. Don’t you think we’ve all had the same idea? How is it helpful?’
‘I’m sorry, Mumma.’ Magda reaches for her mother’s hand. ‘I didn’t mean it, but, it’s just so hard. How much longer can we live like this? How much longer can I live like this? Hiding, scared of my own shadow? Worrying about my sisters?’
Chaya pulls Magda to her chest, stroking her hair. ‘Some linden tea, that’s what we all need,’ she whispers. And Magda nods.