Tell him. Right now. Say the words Dad asked you to say. Just say it! Quick, before it’s too late!

"Call Magen David Adom, and tell them there’s a man here with hypothermia.” Yonatan handed his phone to Yanky. “And tell them to hurry.”

Yanky took the phone into his gloved hands. His heart was pounding in alarm. A cruel voice in the back of his mind whispered, So you wanted to see a yetzias neshamah, just once? Well, you’re about to see another one.

“Maybe we should rub his hands?” Bugi suggested.

“No,” said Yonatan. “That would only make it worse.” His personal trainer back in London was also a skiing instructor, and Yonatan remembered his stories about rescuing people lying injured in the snow. “If you rub the limbs, you bring the blood to the skin, away from the vital organs.”

Lulu’s face was gray and cold. “He’s dead,” Bugi gasped.

“He’s alive, I feel a pulse,” Yonatan said, and he sent Bugi to bring the blankets from Lulu’s stroller outside the fence.

“Do you think he’ll make it?” Yanky asked, pulling off the little backpack he was carrying and taking out the thermos Raizele had packed for him.

Yonatan shrugged slightly, his eyes intent on Lulu. “People have survived hypothermia before.”

Except for the ones who didn’t, thought Yanky, filling in the part his friend was leaving out. Gently, he nudged Yonatan aside and dripped a little warm, sweet tea into Lulu’s mouth. It would take the ambulance at least ten minutes to get here, the man on the phone had said. All their vehicles were out at the moment. Meanwhile, he’d been told, it was better not to move the victim, and not to try to warm the extremities… just like Yonatan had said.

Behind them, footsteps approached. Bugi was back at last with the blankets. Yonatan took them gratefully and sent Bugi to wait for the ambulance in the parking lot.

After tucking the blankets around Lulu with great tenderness, Yonatan gazed at the old, craggy face, at the dull gray hair, the blackened teeth, the gap where a tooth should have been. Unaware of the contortion of his own features, Yonatan gazed at this stranger, his uncle. Shalom looked much older than his sixty-two years. Dad looked so much younger, although they were exactly the same age.

Tell him. Right now. Say the words Dad asked you to say. Just say it! Quick, before it’s too late!