Kindergarten (22 page)

“We must go now,” said Hansel. “We must leave this dark forest, and never come back.”

He took his little sister by the hand, and they began to walk.

As they walked, the sun began to rise, and, in the warmth, the snow began to melt from the branches of the trees, sparkling water falling all around them as the green of the trees emerged.

After several hours of walking in warmth and light, the trees beginning to thin around them, grass now growing beneath their feet, they came to a great river, clear and calm in the green solitude. Beyond the trees, beyond the river, open green fields stretched emptily away towards a wide horizon.

“We cannot cross out of the forest,” said Hansel. “I can’t see a bridge, not even a plank.”

“There’s no ferry either,” Gretel replied, “but there’s a white duck swimming there. I’m sure she’ll help us, if I ask her.”

Then she stood on the river bank and sang.

“Little duck, little duck, the river’s so wide
Hansel and Gretel beg you for a ride.
There’s no way across for us, no bridge in sight,
Please take us across on your back so white.”

The duck immediately swam across to them, and let Hansel sit himself on her back.

“Sit beside me, little sister,” he said, making a place for her.

“No,” Gretel replied. “That will be too heavy for the little duck. She shall take us across, one after the other.”

The little duck did this, and they were soon safely across the river.

When they had walked for a short time, their surroundings seemed to be more and more familiar to them, until, in the distance, they saw their father’s house.

Hand in hand, they began to run across the green fields.

As they drew nearer, they saw their father, very still, sitting in a chair beside the door, like a very old man, his head bowed.

“Father!” Hansel and Gretel shouted. “Father!”

Slowly, their father looked up.

He had known no moment of happiness since he had left his children in the forest, and had spent his life in mourning since that time.

He stood up, as they ran towards him, holding out his arms, tears running down his cheeks.

He threw his arms around them, embracing them as if he could never again bear to be parted from them.

“Oh my daughter, oh my son,” he whispered, “forgive me for what I have done. You are my beloved children. Stay with me. Stay in your father’s house.”

They poured the precious stones at his feet. He didn’t even look at them, but gazed into his children’s eyes.

They are together still, happy and contented, living in perfect comfort and prosperity, a devoted family, away from the world, at the edge of the forest.

My story is ended now.

I am greatful or permission to quote from the following texts:

The Diary of Anne Frank:
Translated from the Dutch by B. M. Mooyaart-Doubleday. First published 1947 in Holland by Contact, Amsterdam. Copyright ©1958 by Vallentine, Mitchell & Co., Ltd. “Children’s Crusade,” by Bertolt Brecht: English translation by Hans Keller Copyright ©1969 by Stefan S. Brecht. Reprinted by kind permission of the Estate of Bertolt Brecht.

Emil and the Detectives
, by Erich Kästner: Copyright 1929, 1931 by Doubleday & Company, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Doubleday & Company, Inc.

The House at Pooh Corner
, by A. A. Milne: Published by Methuen & Co., Ltd.

The Wind in the Willows
, by Kenneth Grahame: Copyright by the University Chest, Oxford.

A Calendar of German Customs
, by Richard Thonger: Copyright 1966 Oswald Wolf (Publishers) Ltd. Quoted on page 36.

“On the Death of My Child”: Translated from the German by Leonard Forster. From The Penguin Book of German Verse, page 313. Copyright © 1957, 1959 Leonard Foster. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Books, Ltd.

The Children’s Haggadah:
Edited by Dr. A. M. Silberman. Published in 1937 by Shapiro, Valentine & Co.

The versions of the stories by the Brothers Grimm are based upon the translations by Margaret Hunt and James Stern in The
Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales
. Copyright 1944 by Pantheon Books, Inc. Copyright renewed 1972 by Random House, Inc. Published in Great Britain by Routledge and Kegan Paul in 1975.

I hope that the dedication at the beginning of this novel, which includes all the above authors, expresses my gratitude to them.