The Water Jug Between Them

Chapter 1Before the First Suggestion

The water jug stood between Leah and Chaya on the kitchen table.

Chaya had come over with permission after Bais Yaakov. They had homework to finish, but first she wanted to tell Leah about her afternoon.

Her cousin had cancelled their visit. They had planned it for weeks. Chaya had kept Tuesday free and put her drawing supplies into a bag.

"Now she can't come until next month."

Leah already had an answer.

"You could go to the library."

Chaya looked at the jug.

"I know."

Leah heard that as a request for a better answer.

Chapter 2Six Ways to Spend Tuesday

Leah suggested a walk, a new drawing, another cousin, a longer homework session, and sorting the art cupboard.

With the library, that made six.

Any one of them could fill an afternoon.

None brought back the cousin who couldn't come.

Chaya took her book from her bag.

"Let's just do the work."

Leah felt a little hurt. She had offered six perfectly usable things.

"I'm trying to help."

"I didn't ask you to plan Tuesday."

The jug made a ring on the table where someone had spilled a few drops. Leah moved it onto a cloth.

It was easier to fix that than decide what to say next.

Chapter 3The Page They Shared

They worked through the first question.

Chaya read it aloud. Leah wrote their agreed answer on her own sheet.

The ordinary work was still possible. The conversation had not destroyed the whole visit.

But Leah kept thinking about the art cupboard.

It really did need sorting. Perhaps if she explained that part better, Chaya would see the suggestion had been useful.

Instead she looked at her friend's unopened drawing bag.

Chaya hadn't brought a problem with six empty spaces for Leah to fill. She had brought disappointment about someone she wanted to see.

Leah had barely let her describe it.

Chapter 4A Smaller Question

During a pause, Leah put down her pencil.

"I gave you a lot of ideas before you finished talking. I'm sorry. Did you want me to listen, or think of things with you?"

Chaya leaned back.

"Mostly listen. I was excited. We were going to draw together, and she was bringing that pattern book."

Leah didn't announce that another book could be borrowed.

"You had the whole visit planned."

"Yes. And I kept saying no to other plans because of it."

There was more to the cancelled visit than one empty Tuesday.

Leah let Chaya finish that part too.

Chapter 5What Listening Did Not Mean

Leah worried that quiet listening might look as though she didn't care.

She asked which picture Chaya had hoped to make.

Chaya described a street with tall windows and an archway. Her cousin was good at drawing people and had offered to help with the figures.

Leah could hear why doing it alone wouldn't be the same project.

"That sounds disappointing," she said.

Chaya nodded.

For a little while they sat without supplying a replacement cousin.

Leah wasn't agreeing that Tuesday was ruined forever. She was understanding which afternoon had been lost.

Chapter 6The Jug Moves

Mama came in wearing her soft grey sheitel and set a plate of sliced fruit on the table.

"More water?"

Chaya said yes.

Leah lifted the jug and filled her glass without turning the small favour into a demonstration that she had become helpful again.

After Mama left, Chaya opened the drawing bag.

"I might use one of these pages now. Would you draw with me for ten minutes after the homework? Not the big picture. Just something small."

"Yes."

This was an actual request.

Leah didn't need to choose the size, subject, and future of Chaya's drawing before saying yes to it.

Chapter 7Ten Minutes

They finished the homework and asked Mama whether the drawing time fitted Chaya's collection plan.

It did.

Chaya drew a row of small plant pots. Leah drew a window above them.

The window leaned. One pot had a very grand handle for such a little pot.

They laughed about that.

Chaya still wished her cousin was coming. The laugh hadn't cancelled the disappointment any more than the disappointment had forbidden the laugh.

When it was time to pack, Leah helped put the pages flat in the bag.

She didn't tell Chaya the afternoon had turned out better this way.

It wasn't her afternoon to grade.

Chapter 8The Question That Waited

On Thursday, Leah was the one with something to tell.

Her family had changed a plan she had been looking forward to. She mentioned it while they put away their books.

Chaya asked whether she wanted to talk about it or think about what to do instead.

"Talk first," Leah said.

Chaya waited.

Leah noticed how much easier the story was to tell without defending it against six suggestions.

Later she did want an idea, and she said so.

There was room for both parts, in their proper order.

The water jug was back on the kitchen table that afternoon. It hadn't become a sign with instructions on it.

But Leah remembered moving it onto the cloth while Chaya's real words waited unheard.

Next time, she could make room for those words before trying to fill the whole afternoon.