The Woman with Two Shadows by Sarah James

Author:Sarah James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2022-05-24T00:00:00+00:00

Eleven

June 1945

Lillian wasn’t the least bit religious. Mother had made a few half-hearted attempts to take the family to temple, but that had ended quickly after Father died. Since then, Lillian hadn’t much thought about religion at all—at least not until her sophomore year at Columbia, when a distracted secretary accidentally handed Lillian her admission records instead of her course history. She looked at what the dean of natural sciences had scrawled about her when considering the merits of her application: “Miss Kaufman, despite being a woman, displays outstanding mathematical ability and would be an excellent candidate for the undergraduate physics department.” She could put up with those four improper words, despite being a woman. She heard them so often they’d lost their meaning. And in a way, it was true, wasn’t it? Women rarely took the same interest in mathematics that she did.

The next sentence, however, read: “Kaufman, it must be noted, is Jewish.”

At first, it confused her. No, I’m not. And then: Well, yes, I suppose, if you want to be technical about it. And then: Why on earth should that matter?

She wasn’t sure what she could do about it. She wasn’t supposed to have seen the file in the first place, so she couldn’t exactly tell anyone about it. And what would her complaint have been, anyway? Columbia had accepted her. Ultimately, it hadn’t mattered.

Eleanor had been shocked by the sentence. “My god,” she said. “You should come to the theater. Judaism is encouraged over there.”

Lillian laughed it off, but again couldn’t help but note the disparity between her path and her sister’s. Eleanor was encouraged and applauded; Lillian was either mocked, regarded with suspicion, or—most commonly—ignored completely.

Now, in Oak Ridge, Lillian was going to be a Presbyterian. No one had bothered to clarify for her if this was the same as Christian; in fact, Andrew laughed rather loudly every time she tried to bring it up.

She wondered, as she slipped into the back of the service, whether this fact had been noted in a record about anyone, ever. “So-and-so, it must be noted, is Presbyterian” didn’t have much of a ring to it. She found Betty in a pew near the back and pointed to the open space next to her. “Excuse me, is anyone sitting there?” she whispered. Betty shook her head no, and Lillian took the seat.

A large cross hung at the front of the church—Christian it was, then.

The service began with everyone rising (remarkably, all at the same time—had they rehearsed?) to sing a hymn. Lillian leaned over to Betty to pass along her message. “Andrew doesn’t have the records yet. He thinks having Martin’s birthday might help. Do you know it?”

“December 9, 1925,” Betty rattled off, and Lillian was struck by the realization that he was younger than she was.

“Thanks.” Lillian shifted uncomfortably. Nobody around her seemed much into the singing, droning on like a bunch of bored schoolchildren. If God existed, he certainly wasn’t going to be pleased with this offering.

“How’s it going?” asked Betty.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.