As she’d feared, there were days when being in such close quarters got on everyone’s nerves. There also were days when the women managed to laugh as they told stories to each other and read aloud from the books Mrs. Mulder brought. Every once in a while, Mrs. Mulder brought an underground newspaper for them to read, and Miriam wondered if her friends Ans and Eloise had contributed to it. As long as there were no visitors at the farm, Miriam was able to play her muted violin, which caused a great commotion among the chickens but brought smiles of delight to her fellow refugees.

“Has Betsie always been this quiet?” Miriam asked Julie one day when they were alone. “I’ve noticed she rarely talks.”

“Only since we went into hiding,” Julie said. “She misses our brother. They were very close. She wanted to go into hiding with him and Abba instead of with Mama and me, but it was impossible.”

Miriam’s winter cold worsened as the weather grew colder, until the pain in her chest became unbearable. She couldn’t sit up or stagger to the outhouse without help. The simple trip there and back exhausted her. She felt as though she was burning up, yet at the same time, she couldn’t stop shivering. Sleep brought wild, feverish dreams.

“Christina has developed a very high fever,” she heard Lies telling Mrs. Mulder one evening. “I think Dr. Elzinga should come. I fear she may have pneumonia.”

Miriam was only vaguely aware of the white-haired doctor kneeling on the mattress in the tiny space, examining her. She tried to talk, but it brought on a spell of coughing and such terrible, searing pain that she curled into a ball, holding her ribs.

“I need to take her to a hospital,” he said.

Miriam tried to say goodbye to the other women and to thank the Mulders for helping her, but she couldn’t draw enough air to speak without coughing. A heavy boot kicked her in the chest each time she drew a breath. She knew she was very ill, and she longed to see Avi one last time and to hold Elisheva in her arms, to kiss them once more before she died. Avi had begged her to hang on to life and to survive so they could be together again someday, but maybe it was better to let go and slip away from the pain. She would see her loved ones again in the World to Come.