Aharon Appelfeld - Adam and Thomas

The first lights shone on the treetops, but Adam and Thomas were in no hurry to go down. They surveyed the forest and listened to the noises.

“How’s your wound, Thomas?”

“It hurts, but it’s not too bad.”

They crouched and kept looking and listening. There were still some candies in Thomas’s backpack. They sucked them and quieted their hunger. Around noontime, when their hunger increased, they slid down the tree and started searching.

They didn’t find any water, but they did find a berry patch and started picking right away. The berries were small and particularly tasty.

They sat at the foot of a tree and looked around. Suddenly Adam knelt down, put his ear to the ground, and called out loud, “I hear the murmuring of water.”

They made a trail and stopped to listen from time to time. In a little while they found a flowing stream.

Thus another day passed. Thomas was less worried. They both were busy improving the nest and finding raspberries and blueberries, and going back to the cherry tree. They even found an apple tree. The apples were sour, but they weren’t tasteless.

But hunger didn’t stop plaguing them. They yearned for bread and soup, for all the foods their mothers made. Adam, who usually didn’t dream, dreamed that his mother was standing in the kitchen and making a sandwich for him. “I was so hungry that I grabbed the sandwich from Mom’s hands. Suddenly I was ashamed and begged her pardon. Mom wasn’t angry. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, ‘No wonder you’re hungry.’ I bit into the sandwich and ate it with an appetite. In my dream I ate a whole sandwich, but now I’m hungry,” Adam said, laughing.

Thomas was so hungry he was dreaming while awake. He muttered and put his hand over his eyes as if he was dazzled.

“What do you see, Thomas?” Adam asked.

“I see Mom carrying a big tray of food in a pot.”

“Is she coming close to you?”

“She comes close and moves away and makes me dizzy.”

“I’d suggest that you take your hands away from your eyes.”

“I’ll fall down.”

“Let’s eat some cherries.”

“I’m afraid. The cherries will give me diarrhea.”

“So come and drink some water. Water never does any harm.”

Thomas took his hands away from his eyes and said, “Sorry, Adam. Hunger is deceiving me, and I have a stomachache.”

“Thomas, don’t worry. We’ll do whatever is possible and even the impossible, and we’ll produce bread from the earth,” said Adam, and for a moment he managed to make Thomas laugh.

The nights were cold, and two sweaters and coats didn’t keep them warm enough. In Adam’s opinion they had no alternative but to go deeper into the forest. “That’s the only place where we’ll be able to light a campfire and get warm,” he said.

Thomas observed Adam, listened to him, and repeated to himself, Adam has practical sense. He’s an excellent guide.

While they were on their way to the stream to wash their faces and drink, Adam spied an old peasant sheepskin cloak in the distance. He went over and picked it up. The coat was old and worn, but it was still in one piece.

“It’s a miracle,” Adam called out.

“Finding an old cloak is a miracle?” Thomas wondered.

“There’s no other word for it,” said Adam. “In any case, somebody is thinking about us.”

“Do you mean that God is thinking about us?”

“I guess so,” said Adam, stunning Thomas even more.

That night rain fell. But Adam and Thomas didn’t get wet. The raindrops rolled off the coat they had found.

“We’re lucky,” said Thomas.

Adam wanted to say, It isn’t a matter of luck, but he wasn’t sure whether it was right to say that.

Toward the end of the night they heard the footsteps of someone running away, but there were no shots. “We can’t keep hiding this way, when people are in danger,” said Adam. “We’ll have to go down and help.”

“How can we help?” asked Thomas.

“We can prepare a thermos bottle of water, iodine, and some fruit. If we see someone trip and fall, we can go down and help him.”

This time Thomas wasn’t put off by the new task. He said, “Studying is important, but helping people in trouble is more important.”

Adam listened carefully to the sentence thatThomas spoke, and he knew: Thomas was trying with all his might. In a little while he’d overcome his fear.

The surprises came one after the other. They kept on exploring the forest and found a small pool full of water plants. “This is where the frogs we hear at night live,” said Adam excitedly.

Adam was happy every time they discovered something. Thomas was still reserved. Still fearful. In the depth of his heart he was still thinking about his parents and his house, and when he didn’t think about them, dreams came at night and showed them to him.

Nevertheless Thomas wasn’t the same Thomas whom Adam had first met in the forest. He was still fearful. But he climbed the tree without help. Also, when he climbed down from the tree, he did it more steadily.

They ate raspberries and blueberries as well as an apple or two, but that good fruit wasn’t filling. Hunger made them dizzy. They sat next to the stream, and from time to time they’d drink some water.

Are we going to die of hunger? Thomas’s eyes asked.

Adam looked at him with friendship and said, “The forest has a lot more gifts to make us happy. Gradually we’ll discover them. If we’re alert and diligent, we’ll find them. Just a few days ago we found a cloak to protect us.”

But what will happen in the meantime, until we find the gifts? Thomas’s eyes asked once again.

“Thomas, we have to get used to the food of the forest. True, it’s different from the food we had at home, it’s not easy to get used to new food, but we’ll do it.”

“You’re a boy who believes,” Thomas surprised Adam. “You don’t get discouraged easily. I keep asking myself: Why am I here? Why have I been punished? That’s probably wrong of me.”

“You can correct mistakes. If we don’t think about the past, but if we think about what we have to do, our mood will improve.”

Thomas listened carefully to Adam’s words and asked, “Who did you learn that practical way of thinking from?”

“From Mom and Dad. I also love to hear my grandparents. They always tell me useful things. When I’m sad, Grandma tells me: ‘Things to make you happy will come your way. You mustn’t be too sad. You have to accept what’s good and what’s not so good, because everything comes from God.’”

Thomas meant to ask how we can know that everything comes from God, but hunger made him tired, and he fell asleep.

That night Thomas awoke from a bad dream and sat up, stunned.

“What’s the matter, Thomas?” Adam asked gently. “I had a bad dream, and it’s hard for me to shake it off.”

“What did you see? Tell me.” “I’m hesitant to tell you.”

“Was it a clear dream, or a mixed-up one?” “It was a clear dream, but painful.”

“Tell me. You’ll feel better.”

“I dreamed I was in school, during recess. Suddenly the children stood up and told me I was going to be punished. ‘Why? What harm did I do?’ I asked, and my body was trembling. Everybody fixed me with their eyes and said, ‘We’re tired of you. Your constant excellence not only makes us angry, it’s unbearable.’ ‘I’m prepared to give up the excellence,’ I told them. ‘You already promised that once,’ the main bully said. ‘We don’t believe you anymore.’ ‘What can I do to make you believe me?’ ‘We decided to whip you. Lie down on that chair.’ ‘If you want to hit me, hit me, but I won’t lie on that chair.’ Hearing my words, they all burst out in hard laughter and slipped their leather belts from their pants. They whipped me hard, and it was painful. It’s a good thing I woke up.”