No Pretty Pictures

Anita and her brother are in an official building in Sweden. She doesn’t like the stubble growing on her head and screams when the nurse touches her. Marina tells her that these people aren’t Nazis, so the medical examinations aren’t a trick. Marina stays by her side during the X-ray and when the nurse takes a blood sample. Fresh and clean, Anita and her brother sit at a table, drink milk, and eat hearty food. Anita thanks the Holy Mother of God for her new circumstances: She hopes Niania finds out about them.

Anita and her brother have tuberculosis. They go to a hospital in the country to get better. Although she’s clean and well-fed, Anita is suspicious. She wants to know where her brother is, and a nurse takes her to the ward for boys. Anita feels safer and less dirty, but she doesn’t speak Swedish. She doesn’t fit in and thinks of herself as a voiceless animal. The less hungry girls give her the food they don’t want. Anita remembers Krysia: If she were here, she’d be fine, and Anita could talk to her.

At the hospital, Anita thinks they clean floors with watery milk.