The Chair Beside the Tall Cupboard

Chapter 1The Second Question

Bubby had answered only one question when Miriam corrected her.

It was a small correction. That was what Miriam told herself.

Their class was making family-history pages. The girls would bring one written memory, a drawing, and an object or photograph if the family agreed.

Miriam had ruled two pages in a fresh notebook and written Our Family's First Pesach at the top.

Bubby sat beside the tall cupboard. Her hair was covered by a soft gray tichel. She had a cushion behind her back and a plate of sliced apples beside her.

"There were boxes everywhere," she began. "Even under the table. We had just moved, and I couldn't find the white cloth."

Miriam wrote: After moving house, the family prepared their first Pesach.

"What white cloth?" she asked.

"The one with the little flowers. My mother had given it to me. I kept saying, 'Where's my cloth? Where's my cloth?'"

Miriam crossed out the repeated question.

"I'll put that you searched carefully."

Bubby looked at the notebook.

"But I wasn't careful. That's the point."

Chapter 2A Much Better Sentence

Miriam had expected a story about a beautiful table.

Instead, Bubby talked about a packing list that had fallen behind the stove, an aunt who arrived with potatoes, and a cupboard door that would not stay closed.

"Was the cloth missing for the whole week?"

"Let me get to it. First your Zeidy brought the chairs in. One chair had a leg that went click. Every time somebody sat down, click."

Miriam wrote: The furniture was not yet in good condition.

"That's a much better sentence," she said.

"Better for what?"

"For the page."

Bubby picked up an apple slice.

"The chair clicked. That is what I remember."

Miriam added a small click in brackets. Then she asked whether everyone had been worried about making the house ready.

"I was worried about the cloth," Bubby said. "Your great-aunt was worried about the potatoes."

Miriam wished they could move a little faster toward the meaningful part.

Chapter 3The Part She Had Not Heard

Bubby opened the tall cupboard and took out a folded cloth.

It was not white. It was pale yellow, with a tiny darn near one corner.

"This was the one we used."

"So you didn't find the white one?"

"Not that day."

Miriam drew a yellow rectangle in her notebook.

"Then I can say you realized the tablecloth didn't matter."

Bubby folded the cloth over her knees.

"I haven't said that."

"But that's the lesson."

"Is it?"

Miriam looked at her notebook. The opening was neat. The sentences were neat. The ending was almost ready.

Bubby placed the yellow cloth on the arm of the chair.

"Perhaps we should stop for today."

"I only need the ending."

"I would like to finish telling it before you finish writing it."

Miriam shut the notebook. The neat page suddenly looked like a room with the door closed.

Chapter 4The Heading Without a Story

At home, Mama looked over the first page. Her hair was covered by a brown sheitel.

"Did Bubby say she learned the cloth did not matter?"

"Not exactly."

"Then whose memory is that sentence?"

Miriam rubbed the edge of the page.

"Mine, I suppose. But I wasn't there."

Mama sat beside her.

"Did you hear the whole story?"

"No. She wanted to stop."

Miriam waited for Mama to tell her how to persuade Bubby to continue. Mama only asked what had happened before the stopping.

Miriam described the corrections, the better sentences, and the ending she had supplied.

"I wanted it to read properly."

"You can help with spelling. That doesn't mean choosing what happened or what it meant to her."

Miriam looked at the yellow rectangle. She had a heading, a drawing, and half a memory that did not belong to her yet.

Chapter 5No Promise of an Ending

The next afternoon, Miriam returned to Bubby with the notebook still closed.

"I kept changing your story before I heard it," she said. "I'm sorry. I made the cloth mean something you didn't say."

Bubby adjusted the gray tichel near her ear.

"You were in quite a hurry."

"I was. If you want to tell the rest, I'll listen first. If you don't, I'll choose a different project."

Bubby looked at the cupboard.

"Leave the pencil there for a little while."

Miriam set it beside the apples.

There was no promise about the page. Bubby had not even said yes to continuing.

They ate an apple slice each. Bubby asked about Miriam's walk. Miriam answered without making it into a paragraph.

Then Bubby reached for the yellow cloth.

"Your great-aunt arrived with the potatoes," she said. "And she put them down in the wrong box."

Chapter 6The Cloth in the Wrong Box

"I was looking for one box marked Linen," Bubby said. "There were three. Your Zeidy had packed two more after I made my list."

Miriam almost asked whether that was disorganized.

She kept her question behind her teeth.

"I thought if I found the cloth, the new dining room would feel like home," Bubby continued. "Not perfect. Home. Those are different."

The yellow cloth had come from a neighbor. They had borrowed it and used it for the first days. Later, the neighbor told Bubby to keep it.

The white cloth turned up inside a box of spare blankets after Yom Tov.

"I was glad to see it," Bubby said. "I hadn't stopped wanting it. But we had already had a Seder. The clicking chair, the potatoes, the new room. That had happened without it."

Miriam looked at the little darn.

"Who repaired this?"

"I did, years later. We kept using it."

Miriam waited again.

This time the ending arrived before she reached for a pencil.