Blue Thread by Ruth Tenzer Feldman

Author:Ruth Tenzer Feldman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ooligan Press
Published: 2012-11-05T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

Uncle Hermann paused at the curb to offer me his arm. Before I took it, I picked up a particularly beautiful red and yellow leaf. “You’ve told me that our Torah was inspired by God, but that it was written down over centuries and shouldn’t be taken literally.” I focused on the veins in the leaf. “Some parts could be true, though, don’t you think?”

Uncle Hermann escorted me across the street. “It’s possible, especially in the later biblical books on kings and prophets.”

I kept holding his arm, although I avoided looking at his face. “Well, Uncle Hermann, I am certain that the story about the daughters of Zelophehad is true.” My voice shook. “Because the prayer shawl you gave me is magical.”

“Magical? How is it magical?” He sounded encouraging.

“It…um…I know you won’t believe this, and it does seem incredible. But that shawl transported me back to the time, across the olam. It was made by Rashi’s daughter Miriam, that’s why I know about her, although I didn’t meet her. I met Moses, the real Moses, and a woman named Serakh who’s hardly mentioned in the Bible, and Tirtzah and her sisters—the daughters of Zelophehad. That’s how I know about Gabi.”

“I see.” Uncle Hermann replied in a way that meant he didn’t see at all.

“It’s true. I was there. You have got to believe me! Serakh took me there with the blue thread in that shawl. She was the woman your mother and savta told you about. She’s four hundred years old—or she was back then. Please believe me, Uncle Hermann.”

“Miriam. Mim. Oh, my dear, Mim.”

“Listen to me! The blue thread is from Joseph’s coat of many colors. We traveled through the olam, and I stood before Moses and said that Shema prayer we say at services. I went there after I called you on the telephone—well, that was the second time really. That’s why I was late this afternoon. Uncle Hermann, this has been the most amazing experience in my whole life!”

He cleared his throat.

I let go of his arm and tore my leaf in two. And in two again. And again. Ragged fragments clung to my skirt.

Half a block later, he finally responded. “Sometimes our visions, or dreams, or whatever you want to call them…sometimes they can seem very real.”

“It wasn’t a dream, Uncle Hermann, I swear it was real!” I pleaded.

“Perhaps I was mistaken in giving you that shawl. I didn’t mean to upset you this way. Please listen to me, Mim. The mind plays tricks on us. Dr. Sigmund Freud says so, and he’s an expert on dreams.”

“It wasn’t a trick.”

Uncle Hermann put his arm around my shoulder and kept it there until I’d unlocked the front door. “Get some rest,” he said.

I pushed him away and went inside, completely defeated. I thought that he, of all people, would believe me. I was wrong.

“Dinner is at seven,” I heard Mama call after me. “Oh, Hermann, how nice to see you.”

I shut her out. I shut them both out.

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