Rebecca’s Book Excerpt
From Meet Rebecca
Rebecca Rubin tugged at her wooden doll until the top and bottom pulled apart to reveal a smaller doll nesting inside. There were seven painted dolls in all, each one tucked inside the next. They reminded Rebecca of her family, which numbered exactly seven.
The dolls had belonged to Mama when she was growing up in Russia, long before Rebecca was born. But now the Russian dolls were Rebecca’s treasure. She lined them up along the parlor windowsill, behind the sheer curtains.
“Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please!” said Rebecca to her imaginary audience. Slowly she drew back the curtains and wiggled the doll she thought of as the mother to the front of the windowsill stage.
“It’s almost sundown,” Rebecca said in a no-nonsense mama voice. “I hope you’ve all had your baths.” She moved the mama closer to one of the smaller dolls. “Beckie, dear,” she said sweetly, “you are so grown-up now. Tonight you may light the candles.”
Rebecca pretended two of the bigger dolls were her older sisters. She moved them to face the mama and squawked in a high voice, “She’s not old enough! She’s practically a baby!” The two big sister dolls butted into the little Beckie doll, and it wobbled close to the edge of the windowsill.
Rebecca pushed the papa doll until it stood in front of the others. “Well, curl my mustache,” she said in a deep voice. “Beckie’s not a baby anymore. She knows the Hebrew blessing perfectly. She is certainly old enough to light the candles tonight.”
Before Rebecca could make her brother dolls speak, Mama’s very real voice broke into her performance.
“Beckie, you’ll have to put away your dolls,” she called from the kitchen. “It’s time to set the table.”
“Phooey!” Rebecca said under her breath. She let the curtains fall across her dolls and turned back to the parlor. Extra leaves had been placed in the table to make room for everyone, and Rebecca smoothed the large white tablecloth. She set out two silver candlesticks and placed one white candle in each.
Every Friday, Mama cooked and cleaned all day to prepare for the Sabbath. Bubbie, Rebecca’s grandmother, came down from her apartment upstairs to help cook. Before the sun set, the family came together for a special dinner. Friday night was Rebecca’s favorite time of the week. But Mama should let me do something more important than just setting the table, she thought as she lifted a tall stack of Mama’s best dishes from the sideboard.
Mama looked in from the kitchen. “Don’t carry too many plates at once!” she cautioned. “And we need one extra tonight.”
“Who’s coming?” Rebecca asked, adding a plate and dividing the pile in two. Through the doorway, she could see Bubbie frying fish in a black iron pan. Mama and Bubbie glanced at each other, without answering her question.
That made Rebecca even more curious to know who would be sharing their Sabbath dinner. “Who is it, Mama?”
Mama stirred sizzling potatoes and onions as she answered. “My cousin, Moyshe.”
Now Rebecca nearly did drop the plates. “The actor?” she asked. She had overheard her parents talking about Moyshe before, but she had never met him. He usually traveled around the country, acting in vaudeville shows, but other times he was out of work and needed to borrow money from Papa. Rebecca had always wondered what an actor was like in real life, when he wasn’t onstage. Tonight she would find out.
