sisters approached their compartment, Ettie was dismayed to discover they would not be traveling alone. When they slid the door open, Marta gasped. “What is she doing here?”
“It’s not a problem,” Ettie assured her sister. “It’s safer this way.” Ettie seemed confident, but in truth she was nervous to come face-to-face with the golem, although quite amazed by how utterly human her creation appeared to be. Ettie’s first thought was that the monster might take the opportunity of their meeting to harm her, for it was well known that golems often destroyed their makers.
Ava had seen the girls through the glass and had immediately risen to her feet, her face rapt, her shining dark hair flowing down her back like a river. She fell to her knees in gratitude, for her maker was right in front of her, the giver of life, whom she’d believed she would never see again. Ava bowed her head, praying that Ettie would see fit to grant her the continuation of breath and life.
“Stand up!” Mortified, Ettie peered over her shoulder to make sure no one had noticed Ava’s behavior. “You mustn’t call attention to yourself,” she told the creature. “You’re a woman like any other.”
Lea watched this encounter with great interest. What would make Ava get on her knees to a girl not many years older than Lea herself was? Something was amiss, she knew that much. She had the shivery feeling she’d had right before the incident with the soldier. A warning bell inside her that told her this meeting was not what it seemed.
Ava did as she was told, but she took Ettie’s hand and kissed it before Ettie could pull away and throw the creature a dark, irritated look. They hadn’t thought to teach her what it meant to be a woman. Now, if they weren’t careful, she would give them all away. “That’s not necessary. Just sit down. Follow what everyone else does and don’t make a scene.”
“Of course.” Ava was learning human behavior by the minute, although as far as she could tell there was no logic involved.
Ettie glanced at Lea. “I assume this is the daughter.” When Ava nodded, Ettie said, “Make sure she behaves.”
Lea took an instant dislike to the red-haired girl, whose face was pale with anxiety despite her domineering manner. As for Ettie, she ignored Lea completely. All she could think about were the shoddy visas she and Marta carried. Marta, on the other hand, was more than ready to befriend Lea. There were only a few years between them, and Marta was so unworldly and childlike that she seemed younger than the angry twelve-year-old who shared their compartment. Ever since they’d left home, Marta had been crying on and off as she thought of how their mother would react when she discovered they had climbed out the kitchen window. It was a relief to talk to someone else who had left her home behind.
“We know your mother,” she told Lea.
Lea narrowed her eyes. What was this?
“We hardly know her at all,” Ettie interrupted. She wished she’d thought to tell Hanni to get them tickets in different compartments. There was no need for Lea to know the truth of her situation.
“You seem to know Ava.” Lea did her best to figure out what was being hidden from her. There was a secret, one that everyone, including her mother, had been privy to, except for her. “She certainly knows you.”
“She’s my maker,” Ava said simply.
Ettie gave the creature a scathing look. She hadn’t thought the golem would come to life as an idiot. “Stop talking,” she told Ava.
“Does she answer to you?” Lea asked Ettie. “Because she told me she answered to my mother and no one else.”
“We all answer to God, don’t we?” Ettie said.
It was a difficult statement to dispute. Ettie was tricky that way. She knew how to answer a question with a question. Still, Lea knew something was amiss. When the train began to move, she took hold of her suitcase. She should not be here. She should be with her mother. They’d held hands, they’d run with blood on their shoes, they’d slept in the same bed when there were thunderstorms, they’d celebrated Passover with a single apple and no matzoh, reading from a Haggadah, though to own such a book was a crime. Everything was a crime in their world, but she must return to where she belonged. If her mother and Bobeshi were arrested, she would go with them.