The Story She Left Out of the Visit

Chapter 1The Long Outing

Chaya's cousin Leah had visited a farm with her family.

At their next family visit, Leah told her about feeding goats and seeing a tiny calf.

Chaya had spent that morning at home. She had helped pair shoes by the door and drawn a picture while Mommy cooked.

Leah finished the calf story and asked what Chaya had done lately.

"Nothing interesting," Chaya said.

She tried to think of an outing that could match a farm.

"We went somewhere very busy last week," she said.

"Where?"

It had been the grocery store. Chaya did not want to say that now.

"Just somewhere. There were lots of people."

Leah waited for the rest of the story.

There was no rest. Chaya had described the size of the crowd, not anything that happened.

They went to the front room to get a drawing game.

Leah noticed two small shoes beside the door. One was black and one was brown.

"Do those make a pair?"

Chaya laughed before she could stop herself.

"My little brother thought they did this morning. He lined them up and said the shoes were friends because they were both lonely."

Leah laughed too.

"Did he wear them?"

"No. Mommy found their real partners. He said they could still visit each other."

Leah wanted to hear how the sorting had gone.

Chaya described her brother sitting beside the shoe pile, choosing partners by which ones looked friendly.

Then she told about the drawing she had made afterward: a row of houses for shoes, with a slipper living above a boot shop.

She had not visited a farm. She did have details to tell.

"Can I see that picture?" Leah asked.

Chaya brought it from her folder.

Leah pointed to the upstairs slipper.

"Our slipper went missing behind the flour tin yesterday. My sister put it there while she was pretending the shelf was a bakery."

Chaya looked surprised.

"After the farm?"

"Before supper."

Leah's day had included goats and a hidden slipper. She did not have to choose one kind of story for the whole day.

The girls added a flour-tin bakery to Chaya's drawing, with a slipper waiting outside for bread.

At supper, Chaya told Mommy the shoe-friends story. Leah explained the slipper behind the flour tin.

Later, Chaya remembered her vague sentence.

"That busy place was just the grocery store," she told Leah. "I wanted something big to tell."

"Did something happen there?"

"Nothing I remember. But our boot shop needs a roof."

She opened the folder, and Leah reached for a pencil.