The Choice: Embrace the Possible

Edie always dreamed her liberation would be a triumphant celebration, but her body is so physically broken that she can’t feel anything: “Now that the danger is gone, the pain within and the suffering around me turn awareness into hallucination. A silent movie. A march of skeletons” (73). Edie and Magda recover their strength in a German home. Edie, weighing only 70 pounds, sleeps in a crib. One night, two GIs—American soldiers—stumble drunk into Edie’s room. One of the soldiers nearly sexually assaults Edie, but his friend rebukes him, and they leave. The same GI returns the next morning, hungover but begging her forgiveness and spoon-feeding her. Over the next six weeks, he faithfully helps Edie regain her strength, treating this duty like his penance. He helps her re-learn how to speak and write, and they dance to radio music. Once Edie and Magda regain enough strength, they board a train for home. They meet two Jewish brothers also returning home to Kassa; one brother, Csicsi, eventually marries Klara. Edie later learns that only 70 out of 15,000 Jewish deportees from Kassa survived. On the next train, Magda flirts with a handsome young man, and Edie—no longer simply surviving but living as a survivor—begins processing who she will depend on moving forward and how she will cope with her trauma.