“I wonder what time it is,” Matilda said.
The boys held onto her firmly. They wanted to start running fast, but Matilda held them back.
“Don’t be afraid, these woods are small and not very dense. It looks a lot thicker at night than it does during the day. During the day you can even see right through the trees to the houses on the other side.”
“It must be after ten by now,” said Emil. “The signalman ran to meet the ten o’clock train.”
“Yes,” said Matilda, stroking his head in the dark. “I forgot all about that. Still, I should have taken the clock with us. A clock can come in handy.”
Karl felt in his pocket and was glad to discover that he hadn’t forgotten the penknife that Matilda had given him.
“Do you have your knife?” he asked Emil.
“Of course I have it. I never take it out of my pocket. I’m afraid I might lose it.”
“Are there any animals in the woods?” Karl wanted to know.
“Maybe some stray cats,” Matilda said, laughing. “In the daylight you could see that there’s not much to these woods. But at night it looks like a real forest. There used to be some big, thick trees here, but they were cut down long ago.”
“And the Erlking*?” asked Emil. “Can the Erlking come into the forest?”
“The Erlking is just a foolish bit of make-believe. Somebody made it up just to scare children. You don’t have to be afraid of anything. We’ll be on the other side soon.
“But when we reach the other side,” Matilda continued, “You must walk slowly, as if you’re out taking a stroll. You mustn’t run. If you start running, then they’ll start to chase after us.”
“What if we see a wolf with fiery eyes?” Karl said, more to himself than to Matilda.
“A wolf wouldn’t come so close to the city. The trains passing by would frighten it so much that it would run away. Anyway, if some animal does come near us, I’ll fire at it. I have two guns with me, and they’re both loaded.”
Karl was silent. Emil said nothing, either. He remembered how Matilda pointed the revolver at the signalman, and he felt a pang in his heart for the old man.
“It’s too bad!” he said out loud. “We should have taken the signalman along with us. He’s so lonely.”
Karl sighed. Suddenly something moved and landed at Karl’s feet. It flapped its wings, and then they heard it fly away.
Emil and Karl stood still, petrified with fear.
“Silly boys, you’re just as scared as that owl was. It was sleeping in that tree.”
“Where are we going?” Emil asked, still somewhat afraid.
“Look, here we are, out of the woods already,” Matilda said happily.
After walking the entire way with their heads lowered and eyes half shut, Emil and Karl looked around.
In the distance they saw several little fires burning. It was hard for them to get used to seeing in such low light after walking blindly through the woods. Now they could clearly see a few small houses below them in a valley. Emil and Karl started to race happily down the hill.
“Didn’t we agree not to run?” Matilda scolded them.
Emil and Karl slowed down. The sky grew a little brighter. Here and there tiny stars twinkled and then disappeared, like bright spangles.
“We’re heading back into the city now, but by another route,” Matilda said. “In about fifteen minutes we’ll reach the place where you’ll spend the night.”
“Will you stay there with us?” Karl asked.
“No, tonight it won’t be safe for me there,” Matilda said. “I’ll have to go somewhere else, but you’ll have a nice place to sleep.”
Emil didn’t even want to ask what sort of place it was. He no longer cared. It was all the same to him wherever he was being taken. Even if it was a dark cellar, he thought, like the one where he and Karl wound up spending the night. He remembered the kitten that curled up with him then.
If only he could be a kitten that didn’t need a home, didn’t need a mother and father. But soon he would no longer need a home, either. He’d already become used to the idea that when he’d find a new home, something would happen and he’d have to move on once more.
Tomorrow morning he’d try to learn where his mother was. He had to know what had happened to her. He knew what had become of his father. He’d been at the funeral, with his mother and uncle. But his mother had been taken away, and that was all he knew.
“It must be very late by now,” Emil said, sighing.
A clock responded to his question with eleven strokes, sounding as though someone was pounding with a hammer eleven times.
“Silly, did you hear that? It’s just eleven o’clock. We’ve been on the road for less than an hour,” Matilda said. “At night everything seems bigger and longer.
“We have three more blocks to go,” she continued. “We’re going to my sister-in-law’s house. Her husband was my brother. Thank God, he died a year ago and didn’t live to see all of this turmoil. My sister-in-law is Jewish,” she said, bending over to Emil. “She works at an emigration center. She helps people escape from here. After the present government persecutes them and takes away everything they have, it kicks them out of the country. The lucky ones can find a new country that will open its gates to them.
“Each week,” Matilda said very quietly, “They send off several hundred boys and girls just like you, who have no parents, no friends. Tomorrow they’re sending away another very large group. Emil, Karl, you’re among the lucky ones. It’s easier to save children. There are many sympathetic countries: England, France, Holland, Belgium, America. You have to escape, while there’s still time.”
This made Karl feel happy. His heart was warmed by the list of countries that Matilda had named. England, France, Holland, Belgium, America—they were like stars, little spangles that glistened for a moment and then disappeared into the darkness.
“And will you be going with us?” Karl asked.
“No, I can’t. And—” Matilda paused for a while—“I mustn’t. I have to stay here. I have to stay here, along with hundreds, thousands of others. Now we live like mice, hiding in holes, but one day, somewhere, you’ll hear the good news that Vienna is Vienna again, and Berlin is Berlin again, and people are living like human beings once more. Meanwhile, we have to save you. If you stay here, you won’t survive.”
Emil listened closely, but he felt numb. It was a sensation that often came over him, ever since that day when his mother sat on the footstool and didn’t move, didn’t even speak.
Matilda stopped in front of a small house. She took out a key, walked up a few steps, and unlocked the door.
The face of a frightened young woman appeared at the entrance. She herded Matilda and the two boys inside.
Once inside, they all felt at home. The house was cozy and tidy. The woman’s eyes, warm and dark, were brimming with tears. They looked as though they were about to burst. The young woman embraced Matilda and began sobbing quietly.