CHAPTER 21

Isaac

1942

Isaac closed the door to his room and pulled his pack from under his bed, sitting cross-legged on the floor with the pack before him. He pulled out the casket, pushed the pack aside, and took a deep breath. At once the throbbing hum flooded his brain.

Slowly, carefully, he opened the casket, its hinges squeaking a little, and he squinted at it with one eye shut, as if that would help.

A moan fled from inside.

The hum grew louder, and the cold press of the pendant burned against his skin, and a moldy smell like age filled the room. Isaac shivered.

The casket was lined with fabric, satiny and faded to pink from what must have been a deep blood-red, and it was falling to dusty bits. He leaned over. There it was, the object nestled inside, the orb he’d held in his fist when he’d had that nightmare. It glinted silver and his breath caught.

It was a small skull, about the size of an apple, polished and decorated.

The image of the Old Town Square’s astronomical clock and its skeleton of Death rose in his memory. When the skeleton of Death chimed the hour and the grinning skull stared down at him, his grandfather said, “Kostlivec is nothing to fear, Isaac.”

Nothing? The skull inside the casket grinned up at him, the empty eye sockets staring.

* * *

Miss Rachel was the sister of his schoolmaster. She had come sometimes to bring a food basket to her brother. She was quiet, one dark curl escaping her scarf, and Isaac had a crush on her.

But on the last day she didn’t bring lunch. She came to say her brother was not coming to school any longer and they had to leave, leave at once, go straight home, do not stop for any reason.

A van had pulled into the schoolyard as the boys were leaving. But Isaac paused at the gate, sliding to one side, his hand on the wall as soldiers ushered Miss Rachel toward the van. Isaac’s heart slowed to a crawl and his feet were encased in lead.

Jan, behind him, whispered, “They’re monsters.”

Don’t stand out. Isaac hunched his shoulders, trying to make himself small.

“We must do something,” Jan whispered.

“What can we do?” Isaac whispered back. “They’ll only take us, too.”

The soldiers pushed Miss Rachel into the van.

Jan shouted from behind Isaac, “Stop! Let her go.”

The SS officer turned. He pointed his crop at Isaac. Isaac was the tall one. Isaac stood out. “You!” Isaac’s eyes fixed on the badge on the officer’s collar. The Totenkopf. The laughing skull.

“No,” Miss Rachel cried. “He’s just a child.”

The SS officer turned back to her, and Isaac ran.