Malka hovered around, gesticulating at my uniform.
“They’s all at the river. That’s where you gotta go. They’s all at the river. Me, I have dinner to cook. All at the river. Go there.”
I asked the lads outside where people usually went to swim. They wanted to know if I meant old or young people, women or what. I said it was a grandfather and two little ones. They showed me which way to go.
I headed for the Desna, behind the park.
The Desna sparkled, dazzlingly bright. I was greeted by a jaw-dropping picture.
Ahead of me was Dovid, a cloth on his head, in longjohns and a wraparound undershirt down to his belly button. He was thwacking a stick from side to side, hacking down the tall weeds blocking his next step. Plodding behind him in shiny black underpants were Grishka and Vovka. The
