Adam and Thomas

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.