How It All Goes Down
What We Saw When We Saw Trachimbrod, or Falling in Love
- Not-Augustine has never been in a car, so they drive the car behind her and follow her to Trachimbrod.
- She takes a loooooooong time, picking up rocks and trash on the road along the way.
- It's dark when they finally get there, and Not-Augustine says "It is always like this, always dark" (23.8).
- She tells the horrifying story of what happened to Trachimbrod:
- The Nazis lined up everyone and forced them to either spit on the Torah or be shot.
- Most people spit.
- Except for Not-Augustine's father. He refused to. So the General shot her sister, and she fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes (that's why the fallen potato made Not-Augustine cry earlier).
- They then pull down Not-Augustine's older sister's underwear and put the gun there.
- Her father still refuses to spit, so they shoot her there. Horribly, she doesn't die. She crawls away, leaving a trail of blood behind her.
- So then they put the gun to her father's head. "Spit, the General said, and we will kill you. […] And he spit" (23.9).
- The sister's baby died, but she did not. She later crawled back to Trachimbrod and nothing was left, so she took everything she could find: gold fillings, hair.
- She bought the house closest to Trachimbrod and promised to stay there until death: "It was her punishment […] for surviving" (23.11).
- Sure enough, Alex and Jonathan find a plaque commemorating the "1,204 Trachimbroders killed at the hands of German fascism on March 18, 1942" (23.12).
- They return to Not-Augustine's house, and she says she saw him a couple of years later.
- He had returned to Trachimbrod "to see if the Messiah had come" (23.15).
- They had lunch and fought about Shakespeare.
- Not-Augustine insists she knows nothing about Augustine, and even though Grandfather tries to get her to leave with them, she refuses. She's the only survivor in the area, and she has to stay.
- She gives Jonathan a box marked IN CASE, which has a ton of stuff in it.
- They take the box and all its contents and leave, but before they leave, Alexander introduces everyone and asks her name.
- She says her name is Lista, then she asks if the war is over.
- Grandfather gives her a kiss (on the lips! Go, gramps!) and she retreats into the back room of the house, saying her baby misses her.