I was too distressed to fall into Amos’s arms. I lay exhausted on the floor. The other survivors were quiet all around me, each of us lost in thought. Thinking of those who had died, the comrades we had left behind, the ghetto and the danger that awaited us in the forest.
Rebecca crawled over to me and asked, “Is Daniel still coming?” She was frightened.
I could have lied to her and told her we would go back to get him. But even if we went back to Warsaw in an hour—which was out of the question—Daniel and the others would have been caught or murdered by then. And I didn’t want to lie to her. So I said, “I promised Daniel that I would look after you.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Forever?”
“Forever.”
She wept for Daniel, and I held her tight.