In my bedroom, she said the nightly prayers with me, clipping every word, reminding me of the pop! pop! when grease spills on a fire. I loved to count.Īt intervals, Mamá burst out, “No one listens!” and “What I put up with!” and “Why!” In the dimness I couldn’t make out the tapestries on the walls or theįloor tiles-412 green and 412 brown, which had taken me hours to count, because I kept having to start over. Even Haim wouldn’t get lost, because the balcony made a big square,Īnd no matter which way you went, you’d always come back to where you started. Including the bedroom I shared with my older sisters Vellida and Rica. I followed her flickering oil lamp to the courtyard balcony, which led to all the upstairs rooms,
It was another warning, though, at seven, I was too young to realize. Now two of them were suckling, but three were curled up, sleeping, including Goliath.
I continued to watch the kittens as I had done by the hour since they were born. Haim jumped up and raised his hand for her to clasp. She was in one of her silent bad moods, not a yelling one-it wasĪlways one or the other. Mamá, with the baby on her hip, came to take him to bed. Haim said, as if it were two words, “Kit-tens!” When I had my own babies someday, I would cover their hands with my kisses, too. Haim reached his hand out to Goliath, but, fearing he’d be too rough, I guided the hand to my mouth and kissed his fingers. I loved being Haim’s little mamá, as my older sisters were my little mamás.Ībruptly, the biggest kitten, the one I had named Goliath, curled himself into a ball in the middle of play with the others.
Worked in the kitchen and bossed around our cook, Aljohar. I was in charge of him while Mamá, who had baby Soli with her, My younger brother, two-year-old Haim, sat on the carpet, watching the kittens with me. CHAPTER ONE Columbus sailed the ocean blue
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