Aharon Appelfeld - Adam and Thomas

Their new enemy was now the cold and the wind. They had to reinforce the nest, add branches, and carefully build thick walls around the nest with twigs. One day from above they saw Mina come out of the darkness of the forest, place a package on the snow, and go away. Her movements were light, gliding, and hardly touched the snow. Fresh snow filled her footprints right away.

“Think of how much courage she needs to wrap corn pie and cheese in paper and sneak out of the house,” said Thomas.

“She’s a girl from out of this world,” said Adam, and he was alarmed by the words he had said.

They climbed down to see what Mina had left them. This time the package held a piece of cake, a slice of bread, and two sugar cubes.

“I have the feeling that Mina baked this cake.”

“How come?” asked Thomas.

“My heart tells me.”

“The cold is getting worse. Maybe we should go to Diana’s,” said Thomas.

Adam looked at Thomas and said, “It’s not right to leave the forest in this difficult time. The forest has protected us all the time, and I have a feeling that we can hold out without Diana.”

“The cold is penetrating to my fingers and biting them.”

“The cold is getting to me, too. We have to rub our fingers,” said Adam, and he added, “We’ve been in the forest for many months. We overcame fear and want. Now we have two angels who watch over us, and for our part we’ll do everything to overcome the cold.”

“Adam, you constantly amaze me.”

The snow didn’t stop falling. Thick flakes streamed thickly down from the sky. From time to time thunderbolts ripped the heavens. Miro was tense. Adam stopped him from jumping out, getting into danger. He spoke to him softly, saying, “Miro, it’s horrible outside. It’s best for you to be up here in the nest, to curl up under the blankets. When we’re together, the warmth stays, do you understand?”

Thomas wrote in his notebook:

Dear Mom and Dad,

The snow doesn’t stop falling. It’s piled high. If I’m not mistaken, half a meter. But don’t worry. We’ve improved our nest. We put on all the clothes we have. I think about you all the time, but since I don’t know where you are or what you’re doing, my thoughts wander somewhere else every time. Fortune favored us, and our friend Mina and the peasant we met by chance bring food to us. My friend Adam calls them angels. The booming in the distance can be heard very well. Let’s hope it brings the Red Army on its wings. Conditions are hard, but we haven’t lost hope. Last night I dreamed you were liberated and had come to pick up me and Adam. You were very thin, but your faces expressed satisfaction. I hope so much it will be that way. Don’t delay. Come. I love you very much, Thomas.

Thomas read what he had written to Adam. Adam listened and said, “You described the situation correctly. I don’t know how to write the way you do.”

“But you’re better at making your way in nature than I am.”

“Sometimes I have the feeling that my parents receive my thoughts,” said Adam.

“It also seems that way to me, but I’m not sure,” said Thomas.

“You have to be strong and trust yourself, Thomas. When we met you didn’t know how to climb trees, you didn’t know how to walk right in the forest, and now you’re as agile and quick as a squirrel.”

“I still haven’t gotten to your level,” said Thomas.

“There’s no need to compete. Everyone has to be faithful to himself.”

One cold night Thomas suddenly asked Adam, “What do you want to study, Adam?”

“I want to learn from my father.”

“You want to be an expert carpenter?”

“Yes. And what do you want to study?” Adam asked.

“I’ll go on to high school and college.”

“Let’s pray that the winds and snow will leave us alone, and that our parents will come and get us soon.”

Upon hearing Adam’s words, Thomas burst into tears.

Miro startled them. He leaped out of the nest and raced toward the interior of the forest. Tensely they watched him run. Every few steps he would stand still, stretch out his head, listen, and sniff.

“Miro has sensed something. He wouldn’t leap away for nothing,” said Adam.

After an hour of scouting, he came back and stood next to the tree. Adam climbed down and carried him back up, rubbed his legs, and pressed him to his chest. Gradually warmth returned to Miro’s body. “What happened, Miro? The cold outside is biting. Don’t run any risks,” Adam said to him. “Miro is different from us,” he said to Thomas. “Sounds and smells come to him before they reach us.”

“Did you learn anything from Miro’s behavior in the past few days?” asked Thomas.

“It seems to me he’s annoyed with himself because he can’t catch the signs that come to him from far away.”

“What should we do?” Thomas asked softly.

“If the snow keeps falling, and the cold gets stronger, we won’t have any choice except to climb down and light a fire to keep warm.”

“Won’t the fire give us away?”

“We’ll do it cautiously.”

That night Adam heard his mother’s trembling voice speaking to him. “My Adam, we have arrived. Don’t be afraid. You know our forest very well, and everything that’s in it. I’ll try very hard to come in the evening.”

Her voice was clear, as if she hadn’t spoken months ago, but just now. Adam wakened from his slumber. Heavy snowflakes fell from the sky and filled the dark with gray whiteness. Thomas was sleeping deeply. Adam was afraid the cold would trap him in its web, and he woke him. Thomas asked, “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing. Aren’t you cold?”

“No.”

“Try to move your toes.”

“It’s hard.”

“Let’s rub them so they won’t freeze. Your toes can freeze easily when you’re asleep.”

From above, in the last watch of the night, they saw a short creature, wrapped in a blanket, tottering and wandering in the snow. The tiny creature advanced with difficulty, stumbling with every few steps. Clearly it was about to faint, or it was wounded and trying to resist the wind that kept knocking it over.

They didn’t delay but climbed down. They immediately saw that it was Mina.

Her face was bleeding. She was breathing with difficulty. Adam and Thomas held her and carried her to the tree, and carefully, from branch to branch, they carried her up to the nest and immediately started taking care of her.

“What happened to you, Mina? Don’t be afraid. Thomas and I will watch over you.”

Now that they had wrapped her up, once again they realized how light she was, almost weightless.

Meanwhile the thunder in the distance had stopped. It snowed harder from hour to hour. By now it was a meter deep. They curled up together. The blanket that Mina had brought with her helped to cover them. But the cold penetrated anyway, and it stung and hurt them.

“We won’t have any choice but to go down and light a fire,” said Adam.

“Maybe we should wait another day,” said Thomas.

“We’ll wait as long as we can, but no longer.”

Meanwhile they rubbed their hands together, and they rubbed Mina’s feet to draw her out of the cold and her weakness.