Book & Cook

    “Wake up Nanou,” I heard mom whisper, “Dad and I need to go to Be’er Sheva. We just received a telegram,  Nono just passed away”. “Oh no!” I said sadly.  “I have your costumes ready for you and your brother laying down on my bed. Breakfast is ready on the table and there is food for lunch too. Dad will be back tonight. Behave yourselves and don’t get in trouble.”  Nono , Mom’s father was sick for a while. He had a bad stroke a few years before and couldn’t work. Half of his body was paralyzed. He had hard time talking, he forgot Hebrew and French. For some reason he was able to talk only in Arabic and even that was very difficult to understand. Only  Meme  July understood him. She took care of him all the time.  Meme  fed him, washed him, shaved him and dressed him. All her time was dedicated to him. Whenever we came to visit them, Mom would take over the kitchen and prepare food for everyone, we would help clean the house so  M...

  "Purim is coming soon," Leah my favorite teacher announced. "We are going to put on a play for Purim  with the second-grade class. Now I want you to behave yourselves like an older class is supposed to." She was so pretty. I think that I fell in love with her right from the beginning at the second grade. She was tall and slim. She had dark hair and green eyes, and she spoke so softly and nicely even when I was bad. In time, I got used to it, but at the beginning I was so in love that I couldn't concentrate in class. I daydreamed about how we would walk on the beach and how she would hold me in her arms and how... "Wake up Haim! You are not paying attention again!" She said to me, and I looked at her with this sorry look so that she would forgive me. Sometimes she would ask, "What are you dreaming about all the time?" Now really, what can I tell her? Put yourself in my place, what would you do? "Sorry teach! I was dreaming about you and...

The day after Tova’s wedding when I returned from school, I picked my brother from the kindergarten and we both walked home sharing the experience of the Yemenite wedding. Behind the Okev’s house we found two crates of empty glass bottles. Remembering that Mr. Okev got us in trouble before, I sent Avi to ask him if it is ok for us to play with the bottles. “They are empty, you say?” I heard the voice of Mr. Okev. He didn’t sound like he had time for silly questions. “I am not going to drink them, am I? He said, “Go ahead play with them.” “He is so mean!” Avi complained “let’s play with them, see how they explode against the wall.” I put my bag on the floor and drew a line on the ground two yards away from the floor. “Let’s see who get the bigger explosion if we throw them from here.” I said, picked up one buttle and aimed at the wall. The bottle exploded immediately as it hit the wall. Avi’s bottle did the same. We kept on throwing them one after the other. Some exploded big and some d...