Recap: The children were turned around by a heavy fog and they don’t know the way to Toledo. A gypsy girl named Josephina passes by and offers to guide them for a fee. She and her cousin Paulina end up joining them, which means two more people to share their food with.

The sun was setting, and Liselle Rosa kept tripping as she was carrying her sleeping brother.

Sabrina held up her arm. “Let’s make camp. We’ve walked like 20 miles. I’ve got blisters on my feet, and everyone looks exhausted. Liselle Rosa can’t carry Davey anymore. We’ll wait until tomorrow to get a fresh start.”

I was tired, too, but I really wanted to just keep walking so we could reach the Rabbi’s house already. Davey woke and started crying. “I want Madre.”

Liselle held him close and whispered in his ear. “I know, Davey. I miss her and Padre too. We have to be brave soldiers. Remember what Padre said. We will meet them in Amsterdam. Shhh!” She rocked him until he fell back asleep.

As we laid out our blankets, Katie whispered to me, “Miri, do you think we’ll ever make it to Rabbi Sarna? And if we do, will he even be able to help us? I’m feeling so discouraged.” She wiped a tear off her cheek. “I miss my family.”

I felt just as discouraged, but I tried to muster some emunah. “Hashem is in charge. Of course we’ll get back to our families.” A little voice of doubt contradicted me. What makes you so sure of that? Liselle and Davey could reunite with their parents. They were separated by water and land, but Katie and I were separated from our families by much more than that – by centuries. How could we cross back, or forward, I should say, to our own time?

Sabrina directed us to gather wood for a small fire. She warmed a pot of water and started boiling some potatoes and beans. She asked me to take over, and she plopped down and took off her shoe and sock. I glanced over and saw she had a huge blister on her toe, and it looked infected.

“That looks painful. Do you have some ointment to put on it?”

“I’m going to soak it in hot water. That’s the best remedy, and resting it tonight should help.”

“I’m sorry this happened to you while you’re trying to help us.”

“We’re all—” I knew what she was about to say: Jews. She stopped herself just in time. “We’re all one family,” she finished. The gypsy girls were near and would hear her.

The beans and potatoes softened. I poked at them with a stick.

Normally, I would not have liked those things, but right now my stomach was grumbling, so they looked delicious.

I set out our plates and utensils on a cloth we were using for a table. Katie refilled the water jug from a nearby stream.

“Are you sure that water is clean?” I asked her.

She shrugged.

“It’s fine,” Sabrina said. “We haven’t got any other water source, so we have to use it.”

We sat together – Sabrina, Katie, Liselle Rosa with a sleepy Dovid on her lap, and me – and ate our simple meal. The two gypsies sat at a distance from us, eating and laughing.

I swallowed hungrily. After the second spoonful, I noticed it hurt going down. My throat felt sore the way it did when I used to get throat infections. Oh, no, I couldn’t get sick here now. There was no doctor anywhere nearby and no penicillin, even if there was one. Please, Hashem, don’t let me get sick.

We heard the distant howl of a wolf. “What’s that?” Liselle Rosa asked, her voice rising.

“No worries,” Sabrina said. “That’s a wolf, but it’s far away, and if our fire is kept up, it won’t come near.”

Katie’s eyes widened, and I felt my neck muscles tighten.

As we cleaned up from supper, I tried not to notice that my throat was hurting and my head was starting to ache.

“It’s now less than one full day’s walk,” Sabrina said as she lay down. “If we keep up a steady walking pace, I think we’ll be there by this time tomorrow.”

I really hoped she was right. I dreamed of a soft bed and a decent meal that didn’t leave me feeling hollow and hungry.

The sun was sinking. Soon, a crescent moon shone down on us. We laid out our thin blankets and tried to sleep.

The ground was hard and cold, and I kept trying to find a comfortable position. Sabrina stoked the fire with a long branch. Then she came closer to us and lay down on her blanket. The gypsies were lying down several yards away on their own blankets.

The fire crackled, and I tried to close my eyes and picture our arrival in Toledo.

Time passed. The flames still danced and hissed. I heard the distant howl of a coyote. Everyone was sleeping except me.

I felt suddenly terribly hot. I took off the sweater I was wearing. Then I felt a chill through my thin shirt. I shivered. My throat felt parched. When I swallowed, it hurt. I needed a drink. I rose and crept quietly toward our jug of water. I gazed at the starry sky. Everything was so peaceful up there in the sky. Those stars flickered from light-years away. Somewhere between Earth and those stars, we’d landed in a different time period. How could we get back to our own time? I begged Hashem to guide us. Please help Rabbi Sarna help us. Please.

I heard the murmur of voices. Something made me stop. The two gypsies were seated near the fire, whispering in Romani.

“Silver pieces a ton. That’s what I heard the priest say.”

“Shh!” Josephina said. “They might overhear.”

“They’re asleep, and anyway, they can’t speak our language.”

Paulina bit into a piece of bread, and then she said, “If you find Jewish children, the king wants them. He’ll pay a huge price. And—” Paulina’s voice was muffled, but I strained to hear what she was saying.

“We’ve got them – a whole group of children running away in the woods. Must be Jewish.”

“They’re going to a sick uncle. That’s what they said,” Josephina said.

“Sick uncle. Could be. Besides, it doesn’t matter. Even if they’re not Jews, the priest is hungry to please the king, so he’ll say they’re Marranos. Think of all the money we can make.”

“Money sounds good to me.”

“I’ll run ahead to the priest in Toledo, and you stay and bring them along. They’ll fall nicely into our trap, and we’ll fall nicely into the gold.”

“Best pack up some food for the trip,” Josephina suggested.

Paulina headed toward our food chest to take food.

I shrank into the shadows. I knew Romani from my housekeeper. I felt like Mordechai, who, unbeknownst to them, understood what Bigsan and Teresh were saying. My whole body trembled. They were going to turn us in to the Inquisition. Think! Paulina was getting ready to leave. I had to come up with some way to stop her. What should I do? I closed my eyes and davened with all my heart. Please, please help me think of a plan.

 To be continued…

 Susie Garber is the author of 11 popular Jewish books, including her newly released historical fiction novel The Blizzard (Menucha 2026) and recently published novel Captured (Menucha 2025). She is also the current news editor of Binyan Magazine.