Here and there, a face from Chevron popped out from the crowd. But I tried not to think about Chevron

Elka

“W

hat do you think?” Faiga asked, holding up a small round ball. She had painted it green to look like an apple. “Does it look good?”

I reached for the apple and held it up against an old brown dress that I had found. It would fit Leiba in a few years, but for now it would make an amazing base for a Purim costume. Perfect. I nodded at Faiga and she smiled back at me. “They are going to be the cutest trees! Let me go outside and collect some leaves and we can glue them on over here.” I pointed to the collar.

“Great,” Faiga said, not looking up from the apple she was painting. “Don’t forget we need some for Bracha’s costume, too.”

I nodded, and skipped down the steps to the courtyard in front of our building. Purim wasn’t the greatest time for collecting leaves from the trees, but I was still able to gather a whole bunch.

By the time Purim came, all our costumes were laid out and ready to go. We headed off to shul to hear the Megillah looking like a merry group — a tree with Haman on it, Queen Esther, Vashti and a cute little Yisroel dressed as a clown. Even Dovid joined in the fun and wore a clown costume, like Yisroel. He was in shul already, but Mama said she would bring his pointy clown hat so he could put it on after Megillah.

Shul was a mass of colorful people, all dressed in different costumes.