Before being born, his mother explained, babies go to school. Not a school like Boriss, but a different kind of school, where all the teachers are angels. The angels teach each baby the entire Torah, along with all of the secrets of the universe. Then, just before each baby is born, an angel puts its finger right below the babys nosehere she paused to put her finger across his lips (could he see the blood under her skin, or did he only imagine it?)and whispers to the child: Shhdont tell. And then the baby forgets. Why does he have to forget? Boris had asked, moving his lips beneath her finger. He didnt want to know, not really. But his mothers back had stiffened, and he could feel that she might get up at any moment, put out the light, walk away, disappear. She pulled her hand away from his face, resting it on her own stomach. So that for the rest of his life, she said, he will always have to pay attention to the world, and to everything that happens in it, to try to remember all the things hes forgotten.
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About Dara Horn, The World to Come
Dara Horn, The World to Come.