What I Would Tell You by Liz Tolsma

Author:Liz Tolsma [Tolsma, Liz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781636094601
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2022-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

We are here. Though Asher tried as much as he could, he wasn’t able to secure us a spot in the bigger ghetto. He apologizes to me every day. He was heartbroken that our child would be born in Baron Hirsch. Though I tried to console him, it was in vain.

—From the diary of Mathilda Nissim

The shabby walls with their peeling paper barely kept out the cold wind that howled outside the tiny flat. Mathilda drew her thick black sweater closer around her, though the bulge of her belly didn’t allow it to close all the way. She wore three pairs of socks, yet the chill seeped through the knitted material and froze her toes.

To keep warm, she strode around the perimeter of the small area they shared with Perla and her family. The two bedrooms weren’t nearly enough space, so some of the children slept in the living room.

Perla stopped chopping the onion Ioanna had brought and gave Mathilda a hard glare. “Something is troubling you. What is it?”

“I don’t know. I just can’t sit still, although this baby is getting heavier and I’m so tired. I’ve tried to keep busy by making a little bed for the baby, and I’ve folded and refolded the clothes and diapers about ten times.”

Ioanna, who had taken a great chance by coming here, nodded. “That means you’ll have the baby soon. When you do, you’ll long for a chance to sit and do nothing.” She rocked her own daughter, only a few weeks old.

Mathilda went to her and stroked the child’s light, downy hair. How unfair that this child, because of the blood that flowed in her veins, had a safe, sunny home. While none of them had much to eat, even in the few weeks since Katina’s birth, she had filled out, her cheeks round and her hands dimpled.

Not that she wished Katina had to endure the same conditions they did. But it wasn’t right that just because her child was born of two Jewish parents, he or she was condemned to this.

Perla’s two youngest picked that time to race from the bedroom, through the cramped living space, and back into the bedroom, shrieking in delight the entire time. “See, Ioanna is right about wanting time alone.”

“I understand.”

Ioanna held her infant to her shoulder and patted her back. “I felt the same way the day Katina was born. How have you been feeling?”

“Some back pain and false labor. That’s what Perla said.”

“I had it with all of mine. You’ll know when the real time comes.”

A scratching sounded from behind the stove. Mathilda shuddered. Mice. They and the rats were everywhere. Perla had thought to bring a trap, but it wasn’t enough. Their droppings were all over the place. The two friends cleaned up the best they could, but it was difficult. Sanitation here was poor at best.

“I only wish I could have given birth to this child in my own bed in my own home where I was comfortable and it was clean.

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