Anya's War by Andrea Alban Gosline

Author:Andrea Alban Gosline
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

eleven

Li Mei rang the dinner bell. Georgi was first to the dining room. Anya lifted the handkerchiefs covering the challot and sniffed the braided loaves of egg bread. The crust was still steaming. She raised her eyelids and inhaled to demonstrate how much she loved challah. Gabriel nodded at her and they both blushed.

“Put that cover down,” Papa said. “You don’t want the challah to get jealous of the wine while it waits to receive the last blessing, do you?”

Why is Gabriel staring at me?

The black curls at Gabriel’s shoulders begged Anya’s finger to twirl one or two. Did he have a big lump in his throat, too? Maybe he’d choose her as his partner tonight when they played cards after dinner.

Papa poured four ounces of blackberry wine in the silver kiddush cup and lifted it in his right hand. “Sav-rei ma-ra-nan.” He passed the cup to his left hand and then back to the palm of his right, lowering it until it was exactly nine inches above the table. This was his cue to Georgi to recite the first blessing with him, a privilege saved for boys.

Anya mouthed along anyway “Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.”

Papa drank half the wine and poured the remaining portion into six glasses. The family sipped their wine as he poured water from the pitcher over the tops and bottoms of, first his right, then his left hand, three times into the silver basin. Dedushka and Georgi mirrored him, and together they chanted the blessing for washing hands.

On the eve of Shabbat, Anya always looked forward to Saturday, to reading and playing with her canaries. Not tonight. She drummed her fingers to the silent tune of her scales exercises, right to left, left to right, eighteen times, while Papa recited. Mama shot her the stop-squirming look. Anya’s mind drifted to Kisa. Had she pooped on Li Mei’s bed? Where was Kisa’s mother? Was she tormented by abandoning her child? Was she remorseful? Anya’s head pounded.

How unfair that men decide the fate of girls! What a horrible rule that wives and girls belong to their husbands’ clans and because of this so many Chinese girls die. In ancient Egypt, Pharaoh ordered his soldiers to drown Jewish boys in the Nile River and he let the girls live. How ironic!

When Papa finally said amen, Mr. Benatar blurted, “My Lord, three blessings in less than five minutes.”

Papa held his finger up to his mouth and said, “Shhhh.”

“We’re not allowed to talk between hand-washing and eating the challah. Papa calls this a ‘wholly holy moment,’ ” Anya whispered in his ear.

“But why didn’t he wash up in the bathroom before dinner?”

“The water that comes out of a faucet isn’t mayim chayim, living water. Shhhh.”

The male Rosens wiped their hands dry with the embroidered linen cloth Mama saved for Shabbat. Papa and Georgi lifted the two challot and placed them side by side for the hamotzi. Mr. Benatar and Gabriel bowed their heads and gestured with their hands across and up and down their chests.

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