Miriam's Secret by Debby Waldman

Author:Debby Waldman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781459814271
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2017-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

Those first few weeks after Miriam and Cissy became best friends, Miriam was haunted at night by the fear that she might let the secret slip. In one dream, she forgot that she was hiding food in her lap during dinner. When she stood, it slid off her dress and spattered all over the floor.

In another, she and Cissy were laughing so hard in the hayloft that Cissy fell through the opening above the trough. Instead of landing in the stall, she wound up in the milking parlor, right next to the stool where Zayde sat as he milked Corky.

The week before Passover, Miriam had the strangest dream of all. When she opened the door for Elijah at the seder, Cissy was there, in a brand-new white dress and shiny patent-leather shoes.

“A brand-new dress and shoes?” Cissy said when Miriam described the dream to her. They sat cross-legged in the loft, playing with the kittens. “I ain’t had a new dress in forever.”

Cissy was wearing the same thing she wore every day, the plaid flannel shirt that had belonged to her father and the black wool stockings that Joe had purchased for her at a five-and-dime store north of Maryland and south of New York State.

Miriam looked down at her own dress. Mama had sewn it. She’d used thick, dark-green serge. “It matches your eyes,” Mama had said.

“It’s different for you,” Cissy said, her voice softening. “You live in a house, so you should be dressing nicely. I live in a barn, and I ain’t got a sewing machine, but you don’t need no machine to turn a shirt into a dress. Just a little ingenuity.”

“Engine-ooity?” Miriam asked.

“That was one of my mama’s favorite words. It means cleverness. Pretty clever, turning a shirt into a dress, don’t you think?”

Miriam had to admit that it was.

“Now who’s this Elijah, and why were you opening the door for him anyway?” Cissy said, changing the subject. “Shouldn’t he come when dinner starts? Is he always late?”

Miriam laughed. “He’s not a real person,” she said.

Cissy narrowed her eyes and drew back, confused. “You invite fake people to your dinner, and you think they are going to show up?”

“It’s part of the seder. That’s the name of the dinner we have on the first night of Passover. We open the door for Elijah and invite him in to drink a glass of wine. He’s a prophet—Elijah the Prophet.”

“That Elijah?” Cissy said, as if Elijah were a friend she’d bumped into the day before. “From the Bible?”

“You know who Elijah is?” Now it was Miriam’s turn to be confused.

“’Course I do,” Cissy replied, and then she began to sing.

Satan is a liar and a conjurer too.

If you don’t watch out, he’ll conjure you.

If I could, I surely would

Stand on the rock where Moses stood.

Elijah Rock, shout, shout,

Elijah Rock, comin’ up Lord.

The melody was sad and hopeful at the same time. But what was most surprising was Cissy’s voice. Miriam couldn’t believe something so powerful was coming out of someone who looked as if a strong wind could pick her up and blow her clear across a pasture.

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