DISOWNED Read Online Free PDF Page B

drops of water from the loose bathroom faucet next door, fall and splash inside the basin. They sound like tiny firecrackers.
       "What's wrong, mamma?" Molly's voice is high and whiny.
       Devorah starts without preparation. "She's too young. What's the matter with her?"
    "What are you talking about?" 
    "It's obvious, isn't it?"
       "What?"
      "To you, Molly, nothing is obvious," Devorah goes on. "That's what happens when you live in dreams."
       "Not dreams. Poetry. Works of art."
       "Ha."
       "I have an artistic soul, mamma. Can't you understand?" Molly wraps the words around herself for protection, like a filmy cloak.
    "I'm not talking about your artistic soul. I'm talking about Rivkah. Open your eyes. She's developing. And fast!"
       Molly lets out a sigh of relief. "Oh, it's that. That's all?"
       "Is that all you have to say?"
    "Well, what can I do about it?"
       Rivkah peeks through a crack in the door. The two women are squared off, looking at each other like old enemies. Neither can make room for the other. They never have and they never will. And right at this moment their separate souls, bristle with static in the heavy air.
    "Of all people this could happen to," Devorah goes on, "Rivkah is the worst."
    Why of all people? Rivkah wonders startled. 
       "So, what am I supposed to do?" Molly tries to stand a little taller now, and tosses her loose hair over her shoulders.
       "Is this something I have to tell you?" Devorah stares at Molly with flames in her eyes.
       "When the time is right, she'll understand," Molly is trying to build some kind of wall that can serve as protection between them. "When the time is right, I'll talk to her, and she'll listen to you or to me."
       "Listen to you or me?" Devorah will have none of it. "Rivkah doesn't listen to anyone. She's stubborn. She has her own way of seeing everything. For a child like this, to develop early, it's dangerous! You remember what happened to Chana."
       "Stop it," Molly gives a small scream.
       "Life outside is dangerous. But you wouldn't know it. You don't want to know it."
       "I know plenty."
    "You think you do." 
       Rivkah leans harder against the slightly open door, pressing herself against it as if to find some place of support. The world is dangerous. Rivkah's has heard this hundreds of times. But this time her grandmother means something different.
       "You've got to tell her everything, Molly."
    "No."
    "Right away." 
    "I can't tell her now," Molly replies.
    "What choice do you have? Do you think those breasts will stop growing, just because we want them to?"
       Rivkah gasps a little.
    "Are you stupid or something?" The fury inside Devorah starts to rise, causing the drops of water from the bathroom faucet to splash faster. "This is serious business, Molly. Who knows what will happen to her now?"
       "What's going to happen? Nothing. Stop it!" Molly stamps her foot down. Not hard enough though, not loud enough. Only a tap against her mother's fierce resolve.
       "There's that crazy man Tom, who works down at the synagogue."
       A shiver creeps through Rivkah.
       "And old Fred who cleans the rooftops. He's not in his right mind anyway.  He looks at the girls all the time."
    "Not so loud, mamma!!"
       "Rivkah can't hear anything."
       "How do you know?"
       "And what if she does hear? She has to hear. Teach her the truth, Molly."
    "Not like this," Molly talks fast. "We're frightening her, mamma."
     "And is there something wrong with being frightened? When there's danger around, to be frightened is good. You know what happened to Rachel Leiber only three years ago. And she was only eleven. Did she recover ever? You tell me!"
     Rivkah whirls back from the door a moment, her head reeling.  What happened to Rachel Leiber?
      "I can't tell her now, in so many words," Molly starts chattering. "I will in the spring though. Then it will be easier."
    Rivkah turns