Chapter 36: HAR HA'ZEYTEEM (MOUNT OF OLIVES)
God's Little Drop of Water
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The day arrived on which it was time for Taliya to see the handsome surgeon once more in order for him to prepare for the surgery to minimize the scar on her forehead. It was merely a routine consultation, so Taliya went with Abba to Jerusalem by train. Taliya enjoyed the train ride very much. It was great fun to sit with Abba upon the passenger train, looking out the window at the countryside as it passed by. Plus, the train tracks wended their way between hills and through valleys where there were no roads, no cars, and virtually no other people. It seemed an almost magical journey.
The meeting with Dr. Shemesh went well and he was very pleased. He wished Taliya and her father good day and sent them on their way.
Abba suggested that they spend some time in Jerusalem before boarding the train for home. They took a taxi and rode the short distance to Har Ha’zeyteem, the Mount of Olives. It was to the east of the old city and its elevation offered a spectacular vantage point. Taliya marveled at the sight of all Jerusalem on one side and the vast desert on the other. She was overcome with a sense of time and place and history.
In the blink of an eye, everything changed. The buildings and houses and roads on the mountain vanished, and in their place were fields of green grass and innumerable olive trees. And the people were dressed differently. They were no longer wearing jeans and tee shirts and sneakers. They wore dresses and robes and had boots and sandals upon their feet. Taliya heard the sound of cattle lowing and the wooden wheels of a cart trundling down a cobbled road.
And then her eyes settled upon a man in a white robe. The man reached out his hand, offering food to a small boy.
Taliya blinked her eyes and the houses and automobiles and big red city buses had returned.
The man in the white robe had gone.
In the place of the boy who had received the food, there now was a small boy enjoying a bag of potato chips.
Taliya looked up at Abba, who had been by her side. Abba was enjoying the view of Jerusalem. Apparently unaware.
♦♦♦
Back on the train, Taliya settled into her seat beside the window, ready to enjoy the journey home. The train once more wended its way through the lovely countryside. It was not long before Taliya had put the episode on the Mount of Olives out of her mind.
But as the train rounded a curve and made its way past a hillside, Taliya spotted something curious. Written upon a stone wall in massive letters were the words
Tali takumi.
Tali wake up.
Taliya assumed she was awake.
She turned to Abba, who, ironically, was dozing, with his head back, resting on his seatback. When Taliya turned back to the white letters, the train had passed, and she could see them no longer.
Had other people on the train seen them?
How had they gotten there?
Who had written them?
And why?
Taliya wondered once more if she were in fact asleep. If this were, in fact, the dream. Was she a little girl living somewhere in New Mexico? Or in Germany in the early 1940s? Or in Jerusalem 2000 years ago?
Did she, in fact, need to wake up?
She didn’t know.
More importantly, there seemed no way in which to find out.
♦♦♦
Taliya accompanied Abba to the supermarket on their way home. Taliya asked Abba if she could have some Bamba.
Abba said that she could.
Taliya grabbed a bag, opened it, and proceeded to enjoy it while Abba shopped. She followed along behind Abba, enjoying the peanutty snack. Before long, Taliya had crumbs on her face, in her hair, on her shirt, and on her hands. Bamba could be a rather messy snack.
Taliya also enjoyed inspecting many of the food items she observed on the supermarket shelves. She particularly enjoyed poking and squeezing things which were soft. Especially marshmallows. While Abba shopped, Taliya approached one of the bags of marshmallows and began squeezing them. The little white marshmallows were very squishable.
What Taliya did not realize was that the store manager was following along behind her, watching her eat Bamba and squeeze things.
At last the manager confronted Abba, explaining how he had personally witnessed Taliya eating Bamba without paying for it first, and touching, poking, and squeezing things. The manager claimed Taliya was ruining his inventory. Especially the marshmallows.
Abba inspected the marshmallows. They certainly seemed perfectly fine. He asked Taliya if she had damaged the inventory, as the manager claimed.
Taliya shook her head: no.
Abba was clearly not concerned about a bag of marshmallows.
♦♦♦
When Taliya and Abba arrived home, everything was quite normal. Ima was at her desk, focused upon her lesson plans while Yair completed his homework and Yaroni drew pictures on a piece of paper, which was the homework he had assigned himself.
Yaroni began helping Abba put away the groceries. One of the kitchen cupboards closed accidentally, trapping one of Yaroni’s fingers, causing him much pain. Yaroni began to cry.
Taliya went to Yaroni and kissed his finger gently to make it feel better. She explained to Yaroni that an elf would visit him in the night and would use his special elf magic to make Yaroni’s finger feel better, and that by the time morning came, his finger would be good as new.
Taliya quickly completed her homework as well and then sat at the kitchen counter, on the short side of the L, eating pretzels until dinner was ready. Taliya placed a round pretzel on each of her fingers like a ring and pretended that she was on a deserted island with only these four pretzels to eat. She nibbled on them one at a time, making them last.
Ima came into the kitchen and saw Taliya sitting with four pretzels on her fingers, nibbling at them as a mouse might. She asked Taliya what she was doing. Taliya explained to Ima that she was on a deserted island with only these four pretzels to eat.
Ima said this was nonsense and that there was plenty of food. As if to prove her point, she prepared a large pot of pasta shells in a creamy white sauce with mushrooms, which Taliya liked very much.
The next morning, Taliya was once more sitting at her place on the short side of the L, eating the melted chocolate at the bottom of her bowl of oatmeal, while Abba prepared sandwiches.
Yaroni ran into the kitchen, clearly very excited.
“Tali, Tali!” he cried. “Look!” Yaroni held up his finger, the one which had been injured in the cupboard. “It worked, it worked! The elf came, just like you said he would, and my finger is all better!”
Taliya expressed her delight. She was very pleased that Yaroni’s finger was better. In no time at all, Yaroni was in his bedroom, having a passionate debate with Ima over his wardrobe.
♦♦♦
When the weekend arrived, Taliya went with Ima and Abba and her brothers to Sabba and Savta Nona’s house. It was a smaller-than-usual affair, as Ima’s brothers and sisters all had other plans for the day. As much as Taliya adored seeing everyone and spending time with all of her aunts and uncles and cousins, she also treasured spending time with Nona one on one.
Savta Nona prepared a lovely meal of Italian food, which was her specialty. Yaroni was perhaps the most excited because he absolutely adored spaghetti. When there was no spaghetti prepared and in the refrigerator at home, he would run in a circle around the coffee table, whooping and hollering and carrying on, claiming that there was no food in the house. Yaroni therefore ate heartily, enjoying Nona’s cooking. Nona always put a great deal of spaghetti sauce on her spaghetti, which Taliya enjoyed every bit as much as Yaroni did. Ima did not care for a great deal of sauce, and therefore served her spaghetti with only a bit of sauce, which made the spaghetti difficult for Taliya to swallow. Taliya therefore ate heartily of Nona’s cooking, too.
But Nona also served garlic bread with the spaghetti. She placed a piece of garlic bread on Taliya’s plate which was positively humongous, nearly as large as the entire plate itself.
“Nona, it’s too much!” Taliya protested. “You can’t have spaghetti and garlic bread. It’s too much. It’s either this, or this,” she said, pointing to the pasta and bread.
“It’s good for you,” said Nona, smiling.
Taliya nibbled on her spaghetti, waiting. When no one was looking, she turned to Yaroni, who was seated beside her and was already covered nearly head to toe in tomato sauce.
“Here,” Taliya whispered, “take some of my spaghetti.”
Yaroni’s eyes lit up and he nodded. He watched with great anticipation as Taliya used her fork to push the great majority of her spaghetti onto his plate. Yaroni dove in with delight, packing his cheeks with the succulent pasta.
♦♦♦
After dinner, Nona beckoned Taliya to come and sit with her on the sofa. Nona was enjoying a glass of red wine and had her beloved Bible open upon her lap, and she and Taliya talked about its many stories. Bible study was of course compulsory for all schoolchildren in Israel, so Taliya was well familiar with it. Her favorite stories were the ones about Deborah, and King Solomon and his love poems.
Nona then explained to Taliya that she would soon undergo a surgery for something called cataracts. It was quite routine, Nona explained, and certainly nothing to be afraid of. It was simply a matter of the doctor making a minor adjustment to her eyes, first one, and then the other, so that she would be able to see better.
Taliya asked Nona if she was worried, if she was scared to have the surgeon operate on her eyes. Nona declared that she was not scared at all.
Taliya decided to tell Nona about her visions. About the hospital, and about the fire which had happened there when she was a baby. And about the message she saw from the train: Tali takumi. And about the dreams she’d been having about hiding in caves and in basements.
Nona listened carefully while Taliya spoke, and remained silent until Taliya had finished. Nona reached into her blouse and withdrew a tiny psalm book. Nona kept several psalm books nestled in her bra, so that she could keep the Lord close to her heart. Nona pressed the tiny book into Taliya’s hand and bade her keep it safe. Nona then took Taliya’s face in her hands and looked into her eyes.
“There is nothing to be afraid of,” said Nona.
And all at once, Taliya felt a great and wonderful calm wash over her, for she knew in her heart that Nona was right.
♦♦♦
About two weeks later, the day after Nona’s cataract surgery, Taliya took it upon herself to pay a special visit to Nona. After school, Taliya walked to the nearby bus station, stopping at a flower shop along the way. At the flower shop, Taliya used some of her Gogo pocket money to purchase a beautiful bouquet of flowers for Nona. The flowers were red roses, one dozen of them, because Taliya knew that red roses were Savta’s favorite.
Taliya then boarded the bus to Rishon, where Savta’s house was located. The bus ride lasted about thirty minutes. Taliya sat in a seat next to a window, holding the flowers, and enjoying the sensation of the warm afternoon sun on her face.
Once at Nona’s house, Taliya reached up and pressed the little button which activated the doorbell. A moment later, Nona opened the door. She looked down at Taliya, standing there clutching the beautiful red roses.
Taliya noticed immediately that Savta had a large patch of white gauze taped over one eye. She did her best to ignore it.
“Here, Savta, these are for you!” Taliya offered Savta the roses.
“For me?” Savta smiled, hugged Taliya tightly, and invited her in.
Savta put the roses into a lovely vase and filled it with water. She then set about preparing each of them a nice mug of hot chocolate, and a square of dark chocolate to go along with it.
After chatting for a bit, Savta asked Taliya if she would care for another piece of chocolate.
Taliya said that she did.
While Savta retrieved the chocolate, she said, “Do you know the meaning of your name, metukah?”
Metukah meant “sweetie.”
Taliya shook her head no.
“It means God’s little drop of water,” said Savta.
Taliya liked this very much. She thought about it deeply as she enjoyed her second piece of chocolate, savoring every bite.
Looking up at Nona’s eyepatch, Taliya asked Nona if the surgery had been painful.
Nona explained that she hadn’t felt a thing, the doctor had said it went splendidly, and that it had been quite routine. And that once this eye had healed, they would do the other eye, and then it would all be over. Nona reiterated that it was all quite routine.
At last, Taliya asked the question which had truly been on her mind. “Savta, do you think it’ll hurt when I have my surgery?”
Nona gave Taliya a fierce hug and assured her that everything would be alright.
♦♦♦
The day of the surgery arrived.
Taliya was once more in Jerusalem, inside the Gates of Justice hospital. Taliya sat upon her hospital bed, wearing a small white gown decorated with little blue bunnies. It was time to go into surgery. Ima and Abba were in the room with her, anxious of course, as any parents would be.
The nurse was very frustrated. She had spent the past twenty minutes trying to convince Taliya to drink a small paper cup full of grape juice.
Taliya did not care for grape juice.
She cared even less for the medicine she knew was in the cup with the grape juice. Medicine which, as the nurse had eventually admitted, would make her feel warm and fuzzy and sleepy. Taliya would simply fall asleep and when she woke up, it would be over and she and Ima and Abba could go home. Wouldn’t that be nice?
That would be nice. But Taliya still refused to drink the juice. She sat with her lips pressed firmly together. Each time the nurse tried to make her drink the medicine, Taliya shook her head.
Eventually, Dr. Shemesh came in. He was wearing green surgical scrubs and a little green hat. He asked what was happening, because he had been in the operating room for twenty minutes, waiting.
“The girl won’t drink it,” said the nurse, still holding the small paper cup. “She’s different from the other kids. They always drink it. This one won’t!”
Dr. Shemesh took the cup from the nurse. He was very handsome.
“Now, Tali,” he began, “you know you need to take this medicine, right? We can’t make your scar better unless you take it.”
“I’ll drink it if you promise to be my boyfriend,” said Taliya.
Dr. Shemesh smiled.
“Okay,” he said.
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
Dr. Shemesh handed the small paper cup to Taliya and she quickly drank its contents.
“Good girl,” said Dr. Shemesh.
Soon, Taliya began to feel very sleepy and she wanted nothing more than to lie down.
The next thing she knew, she opened her eyes and found herself nestled under several warm blankets. She was still in the hospital room. Her vision was quite blurry but she saw Ima and Abba standing beside her bed, gazing down at her. She blinked her eyes several times, trying to clear her vision. The handsome doctor approached her bed. He said they were all done, and that she had done very well.
Taliya didn’t know where the time had gone. Surely the operation was not over already.
Dr. Shemesh assured Taliya that it was.
“Was it quite routine?” Taliya asked.
Dr. Shemesh laughed. He assured Taliya that it was quite routine.
Taliya asked him if he would still be her boyfriend.
Dr. Shemesh remarked that he was amazed that Taliya was able to remember their previous conversation. Eventually, however, he said that, yes, he would be her boyfriend.
♦♦♦
For the next few days, Ima massaged a dollop of special cream onto Taliya’s forehead. Dr. Shemesh said the medicine would help her skin to heal properly, and that she needed to wear a bandage.
Taliya was very pleased when Sabba and Savta came to their house for the Shabbat gathering and she and Nona both now wore a white bandage.
This time, Nona brought Taliya a bouquet of red roses, along with a bar of chocolate which Nona whispered was just for her. Taliya opened the chocolate right away and went all about the room, offering everyone a bite of chocolate. Taliya didn’t feel right about not sharing, and she was quite pleased when everyone was enjoying the delicious chocolate together.
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