Chapter 22

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Copyright (c) 2015 Phyllis Zimbler Miller

All rights reserved.

Sinn Fein leader Adams will attend a St. Patrick's Day party at the White House today. -- March 17, 1995

1995

     Marcia has emailed me an account of her interview with the consulting firm that flew her over to New York.

     One interviewer was a former army officer. They didn't have much to say to each other. "It was obvious he thought women didn't belong in the high-pressure atmosphere of consulting, just like they don't belong in combat," she wrote. "He said something about women making decisions based on their feelings."

     I laugh as I email back to Marcia. How like a man. Men don't live in the realm of emotions. They live encased in ice igloos, afraid to show the slightest feelings, to show they're vulnerable.

     Or maybe only most men. In fiction I can create men with feelings.

Spring 1920

     "Chaim, what's wrong?" Judith asked. She wiped her hands on her apron as Chaim entered the deli.

     "Nothing," he said.

     Judith hugged her husband. "Do not lie to me. I always know when you are worried."

      He pointed out the front window. Lillian and Sylvia sat on the curb each eating one of the suckers Chaim kept in his pockets.

     "They haven't changed from their school clothes," Judith said. "I must go tell them."

     "Let them rest. Sylvia had a bad day."

     "What happened? Is she sick?"

     Chaim led Judith to the back room of the deli. The only customers already sat with their sandwiches in front of them, their seltzer glasses filled.

     "Sylvia was called a dirty Jew at school," he said.

     Judith's heart constricted. Her breath pushed out of her. "Is she alright?"

     "She punched the boy in the eye."

     "Oy vey! Was she suspended?"

     "The boy didn't tell the teacher what happened."

     "Oh, Chaim." Judith sniffed into his shoulder. "Is that why you are upset?"

     "Suddenly I was back in Russia. My father paid the schoolmaster to let me attend the public high school along with another Jewish boy. But when the two of us arrived in the classroom the schoolmaster called us dirty Jews and made us leave. He did not return the money to our fathers."

     Chaim picked up a knife and checked its sharpness with his thumb. "In America I thought things would be different."

     "They are different," Judith said. "The girls go to public school -- Lillian's already in high school."

     She took the knife from his hands. "We have been called names for thousands of years. We will survive."

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If you would also like to read women's fiction that takes place in the future rather than the past, check out THE MOTHER SIEGE here on Wattpad at http://budurl.com/MSintro

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