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#Post#: 38--------------------------------------------------
Another Family Table
DIR By: StoryGod
Date: December 10, 2019, 5:26 pm
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Tikvah was glad she was wearing her nice, white tights. The pool
left her both hot and cold. She carried her bathing suit rolled
up in one of her towels as if she had done it all her life.
Swimming took you away from inside yourself. It made all your
thoughts go away and it was just physical work, not miserable
work like the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, but work, that dissolved
everything, and left you utterly empty. A year or however long
it took of beginner swimming would wash out all the memories
from inside her. She was sure of that. Her mother and
grandparents on that side of the family would be thrilled!
"...when we get inside the dining hall for brunch," Albina, the
mora, explained. She was a suite advisor, but she really did
remind Tikvah of a mora, the Hebrew word for female teacher of
girls. "There are going to be two hot lines, one for breakfast
and one for lunch food. You only get breakfast food in the
breakfast line. You only get lunch food in the lunch line. There
are also two stations, one for fried eggs and omelettes, and
sometimes one for Belgian waffles or a dinner thing. You don't
make a line at the cold bars. There will be a breakfast and a
lunch cold bar and all the other bars we usually have. First
we're going to find a table and then you get on the lines.
Understand?"
Tikvah wondered if she should say anything. Some of the girls
nodded or grunted assent. The line for brunch only began at the
top of the stairs instead of snaking out into the parking lot or
curling around the downstairs commons.
Then the smell hit Tikvah. Bacon! Swine's flesh! People who knew
better than to touch fresh pork, claimed that bacon was the most
sublime taste in the whole world. Grandpa had offered to let her
taste some of his BLT, a few weeks after mommy moved back in
with her parents. Tikvah hadn't taken him up on the offer and
neither had her two brothers, not that day anyway. Gradually,
the grandparents wore away the boys' resistance. The odor of
delectable pork product, made Tikvah ill.
"And remember if there's something you don't like, you don't
have to take it. Let other people enjoy it," Albina spoke again.
"But if there's something you haven't eaten..."
Tikvah raised her hand.
"Yes..." Albina asked.
"What if it's against your religion?" Tikvah asked.
"Then by all means, don't take it. You can detest a food for any
reason, can't you?"
That answer was the typical, trickery way adults won arguments,
Tikvah thought. She also knew all the breakfast food would be
sitting near the disgusting bacon. She'd had a slice of pizza
and cookies for last night's supper. She hoped there would be
pizza, though it was the close to the last thing she felt like
eating.
At long last, Albina and her eight girls made it to the double
doors. "OK, we're going to find a table. Suri pick out a table
for us. A girl whose ginger colored curls hung like brown rat
fur down her barely shoulder-covering, yellow back, strode
ahead. Suri was tall for her age with long legs and a round
buttocks and the beginnings of breasts. She had red fake nails.
She stroked a round table with her nails.
"How many seats are there at the table?" Albina asked.
"Six."
"There's nine of us." Suri picked out a table that seated four,
and she and the mora lifted it up and pushed it together with
another. Meanwhile two other big girls pushed a table from the
other direction. "We're going to do this at most meals every
day," Tikvah realized and she thought of slaves in Egypt.
"Leave your suits and towels on the table," Albina suggested and
they were off.
"What are you going to eat?" Tikvah was brave enough to ask
Corianne. Most gentiles and nonfrum Jews ate a surprising amount
of different things, and LBD dining hall had a lot of choices.
That meant Corianne probably would not eat bacon and if she
did...well Grandpa ate it in an act of ugly defiance. Yes, it
was ugly.
"I don't know. I'm going to check the menu. I can get eggs any
day."
The menu was on a big easel. Because this was Sunday brunch, and
Sunday was the Christian sabbath, there were two easels. On the
first easel it said...
LBD Sunday Brunch I 8/30/20
Main Line (Breakfast)
French Toast
Scrambled Eggs
Hard Boiled Eggs
Bacon
Oatmeal
Cold Bar
Fruit Cocktail
Fresh Fruit
Assorted Pastries and
Fresh Baked Muffins
Specialty Station (Custom Breakfast)
Belgian Waffles
Crepes
Good Morning!
And on the second easel it said.
LBD Sunday Brunch II 8/30/20
Main Line (Lunch/Dinner)
Muffaleta Sandwich
Red Chicken Curry
Lemon Pepper Ocean Perch
Summer Squash Tomato Casserole
White Rice
Brussels Sprouts
Tater Adults
Cold Bar
Cauliflower Medley Salad
Green Pea Delite
Assorted Cakes, Cookies, and Pies
Fresh Fruit
Specialty Station (Custom Lunch)
Hamburgers
Hot Dogs
Good Afternoon!
Tikvah decided that neither the breakfast or lunch lines were
worth braving. She made a bee line for the cereal bar and found
Apple Cinnamon Captain Crunch and whole milk. The only question
was what to eat with this. She decided to try a corn muffin and
got some milk and grapefruit juice. She was the first kid back
to the table. She looked out the big, plate glass window. A few
kids straggled into Landon-Burchard-Durren.
She hoped Corianne would not bring back bacon, but she knew that
was a stupid thing to hope for, because some other girl would
probably have it and if Corianne did, she was free to eat
anything anyway. Corianne did not have bacon on her tray, and
she was one of the last kids to return. She had something that
looked like fish, little green cooked cabbages, rice, a small
bowl of green peas and other vegetables in salad dressing and a
piece of lemon meringue pie.
"I'm starving," the girl confessed.
Tikvah realized she should have taken a second bowl of cereal,
but it was too late now.
"You're all going to walk this off this afternoon," Albina
announced. "We're going on a small shopping trip on Central
Avenue and all learn how to use the bank and ride the buses."
"I'm supposed to feel all grownup about this," Tikvah thought.
The cereal was good. The corn muffin was even good. The juice
was cold. Somebody in the kitchen cared. They got paid for it
but they still cared. Tikvah was not sure why that was
important.
"...Living away from home for the first time is not easy,"
Albina continued.
"Boys go away to yeshiva," Tikvah replied in her brain. She
remembered stories of buchurim breaking into the kitchen late at
night because they were hungry. Here, the place would be locked,
but the buchurim could have as much food as they needed at
meals, so they never developed the cunning to break into
kitchens.
The girl across from Tikvah had a hotdog and an extra large bowl
of tater adults, and some kind of creamy cake with white icing.
She glanced at Corianne and Tikvah's food. "You really like
fish?" she asked Corianne.
"They serve it so obviously people like it," Albina cut the
hotdog eater short.
Albina had hard boiled eggs and a raisin bagel and a bowl of
something from the salad bar on her tray, but grownups ate
healthy and pretended to enjoy it.
"Fish is good," commented Corianne.
"As long as it has fins and scales," Tikvah told herself. She
also told herself she'd get used to the dinner line. She knew
that was a lie. What she ate would probably depend upon her mood
and how preoccupied she felt. It would not even be a matter of
individual scruples. After all the muffin was baked without
supervision and the pizza included hard cheese that was made
with rennet from pigs.
"When we get done eating and I'm NOT rushing anyone, we're going
back to our suite and going to drop off the towels and suits.
Then we'll get our backpacks and do some walking around on
Central Avenue. Then we'll take a bus to White Plains. Sound
good?"
It did not matter whether it sounded good or not, Tikvah
realized. Tikvah also realized that even though she was supposed
to stay locked behind electronic and RFID walls, she was more on
her own than her mother and grandparents thought. That
realization made her very, very happy. It would not be hard at
all to sneak in a call or text message to her father with no
parents watching. "You didn't think of that one Mommy," Tikva
told herself.
"So I want to know if there's anything you forgot... We'll go
around the table," Albina's voice intruded. This was a game of
sorts. The same one they had played the day before when Albina
asked them all why they were at Kotiah-Yovanovitch. This was a
different question, but the round robin format was the same.
"I forgot my roller blades," said Suri.
"How are you going to get them?" asked Albina.
"I could email my mom and ask her to send them, but I'm not sure
they fit any more."
"I forgot toothpaste," confessed a broad shouldered girl with a
bowl bob like a little kid.
"What kind of toothpaste do you use?"
"Any kind."
"OK, when we find a drug store, you can buy a tube."
"Can you borrow another kid's toothpaste?" asked a girl who
braided her own hair.
"What do you think?"
"I think you have to ask first."
"Sounds good to me. "
"I think it's kind of gross. I mean toothpaste and soap are
personal," an African American girl with hair the color of an
old copper penny spoke up.
"What if you don't have any of your own?" Albina parried. "Is it
grosser to be dirty?"
"I'm not sure," the girl confessed.
"OK...next...."
"Next victim," thought Tikvah.
#Post#: 39--------------------------------------------------
Re: Another Family Table
DIR By: StoryGod
Date: December 11, 2019, 8:47 am
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"My shoelace broke last night when we were making beads," a
third girl confessed.
"What can you do about that."
"Tie small bows," she smirked. Several other kids smiled.
"When you get tired of tying small bows?"
"Where do you buy shoe laces?"
"Drug stores, WalMart, places like that."
"I don't have a bucket for my toiletries," complained the fourth
girl.
"Do you have money to buy one?"
The girl blinked and kept silent.
"I want some nail polish," commented a plump girl who had a
round face.
"I don't think that is going to be a problem.
"I don't think I need anything," a sixth girl spoke up when it
was her turn.
"Well what might you like to buy?"
"I want to hang on to my money."
"OK...next."
Tikvah realized it was her turn, and there was only one thing
she really wanted. It was not something she should voice aloud
at this table, so she made something up. "I want new shoes for
the High Holy Days," there she said it. Her school shoes were
not fancy enough, and last summer's sandals which were
comfortable and looked good with most outfits were....it was
going to be Rosh HaShannah soon. Would they even give her time
off for it?
"Maybe we'll do some shoe shopping next week," the mora purred.
How about you.
That left Corianne to go last "I wish I had a stuffed animal to
keep my pajamas in like my roommate." Tikvah glanced at her
roommate and wondered if she should give up her fuzzy frog, but
last night, she had dragged him under the covers and partly
undid his throwie part and hugged him hard.
"I'm mot sure where to buy that. You have a debit card and can
order something like that online."
"I have a what?"
"Your ATM card for your bank account that has money your parents
give you. It's also a debit card and you can order things online
with it if you need them."
"I didn't think about that."
"You have to transfer money to the checking side of your
accounts but you can do that on a computer."
"I don't know how."
"I can teach you. It's not that hard."
"We're still big kids on the outside and little kids on the
inside," Tikvah told herself.
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