“It’s something I’ve tried to avoid. Something I didn’t want to have in our house at all. But it looks like it can’t be avoided any longer”

Tovi

In my room, I poured a little puddle of white glue right onto the smooth surface of the desk.

It reminded me of that day in Tishrei a long time ago. I was seven or eight, and Dudi was a bochur. I was fixing a decoration for Savta’s succah, gluing back some stones that had fallen off a mosaic. And the whole time, we were arguing about the glue.

Dudi kept trying to explain to me that it was a plastic substance, and I kept saying it wasn’t plastic, it was glue. He said no, he meant plastic as an adjective, not a noun. It was a concept in physics, he said. I had no idea what he was talking about, and his explanations were only making it more confusing.

“I don’t care,” I told him. “To me, it’s just white glue, and I just want to get this succah decoration fixed. Why won’t you let me call it white glue like everybody else calls it?”

“You can call it whatever you want,” he said. “You can call it cock-a-doodle-doo, for all I care. I’m just trying to explain to you about plasticity….”

Saba and Savta overheard us from the living room and started laughing. “That should be the most serious issue you ever have to fight about,” Saba blessed us.

Dudi lowered his tone, but he kept it up for what seemed like an hour, until I finally understood about the wonderful quality of plasticity. And now, as I looked at the round puddle of glue on the desk, I realized it was a useful concept after all, and I smiled.

By the time the glue was dry, Sari and Chaiky were bathed and in their pajamas. They looked on curiously as I took out a piece of stationery decorated with a cute teddy bear. I peeled the circle of glue, which was transparent now, off the desk, placed it on the paper, and started tracing around the teddy bear with a black marker.

“You’re making a teddy bear out of glue!” Suri observed.

“Yup,” I said, and started filling in the eyes. “I can do that because it’s a plastic substance. Plastic substances are things like playdough — they change their shape when you press on them.”

Dudi’s whole explanation was replaying now in my head as I colored the right ear and then the left. “They’re the opposite of elastic substances. You can pull and stretch an elastic substance, but afterward it’ll go back to the way it was.”

“Like a rubber band?” asked Chaiky. “When I pull a rubber band, it gets long and skinny — but then it pops back when I let go.”

“Right.” My bear was all colored now. I took my school scissors and carefully cut out the shape.

“Could I have that teddy bear?” Chaiky begged.

“No, this one’s for me. But if you want, I can make more tomorrow for both of you.”

I took off my hairband. My little sisters were staring with big eyes. I put my hearing aid down on the desk and tried placing the colorful plastic teddy over it. It looked cute. A little bit of hot glue would probably do the job.

“You’re gluing the teddy bear to your hearing device?” Suri asked. “But nobody will see it anyway when it’s hidden inside the hairband.”

“I’m just trying something,” I said. “And I can’t hear you so well without the device, so don’t talk to me now, okay?”

She closed her mouth and fell into reverent silence.