“Miriam,” I said, turning to her the moment I came out of the bathroom, “how could you sleep last night?”

Elka

My dress was hanging neatly on a hook on the back of the door. My small bag sat on the table in the kitchen with my sandwich, a towel, and a little tablecloth inside. Mama had asked the other mothers here, and they had told her what I needed for school. But even though everything was ready, I just couldn’t fall asleep. My heart was jumping up and down, and every few minutes my legs would twitch, and it was all I could do to stop myself from creeping into the kitchen to check on my packed bag again.

“Miriam,” I whispered. She seemed to be asleep in the bed next to mine, but it couldn’t be that she was sleeping. Who could sleep when we were starting a new school tomorrow? No, she couldn’t be sleeping. She was probably pretending. “Miriam,” I whispered again. No answer. I tried a little louder, which just woke up Leiba, who started to cry.

Quietly, I swung my feet down onto the cold tiled floor and tiptoed over to the bed where Leiba was sleeping. “Shhh, Leiba,” I soothed, patting her back. She must go back to sleep. If Mama came in here and saw that I had woken Leiba, I would be in so much trouble. I patted and shushed and davened to Hashem that Leiba would fall back asleep until finally, finally, her eyes closed.

Whew. That was close. I breathed deeply and tiptoed back to my bed, veering toward the door where my dress hung, just to peek at it again. The pleats on bottom stood stiff and straight. Perfect. Mama helped me heat up the iron on the hot coals and press it against the dark blue material until the pleats lay perfectly. “Soon you’ll learn how to do it yourself,” she said, “so that you come to school looking perfectly neat every day.”

But even though I wanted to sit and touch the sharp, stiff pleats, I knew I needed to go to sleep. I turned around and quietly slipped back into my bed. I could hear the sound of donkeys braying, and silence, and cuddled under my blanket again. But I couldn’t fall asleep. How could I?