“G

OLDY! STOP JUMPING ALREADY!” Mrs. Dember said over the noise of the vacuum cleaner.

Goldy sat down on the couch.

“Sorry, Ma. I forgot again.”

Mrs. Dember turned the vacuum cleaner off.

“Goldy, the workmen who are putting down our new carpet are coming in an hour. When you jump on the steps, off the steps, on the chair, off the chair, I get flustered and can’t concentrate. Can you try not to jump anymore until Pesach? Actually, until after Pesach, because Zeidy and Bubby will be here and all this THUMP! THUMP! THUMPING will bother them.”

Goldy nodded. “I’ll try, but you know me, Ma, I’ve got springs under my feet.”

Mrs. Dember laughed. “It certainly seems that way sometimes.”

“Okay,” Goldy said, “how can I help?”

“Can you bring me a bucket of water so that I can start washing the floor?”

The floors and steps were soon washed and ready for the workmen.

The doorbell buzzed. Two men entered. They lugged in all their supplies. They went back to their truck to bring in the huge rolls of carpet.

Goldy remembered not to jump from excitement; she just jiggled from foot to foot. Finally, they were getting carpet! For years, the tiles in the hallway had been cracked. As a little girl, Goldy would always trip over the broken tiles. Every time she tripped, her mother would say, “We really must fix these floors. Maybe we should put down carpet.”

As time passed, the cracks in the tiles grew longer and wider. Goldy grew and she occasionally still slipped on the cracked tiles. The tiles looked really ugly with all the cracks and holes.

Not too long ago, Goldy jumped off the steps as usual but this time she leaped right into a cracked tile. Her foot got caught in the hole and WHAM! She fell on her head. Her teeth bit into her tongue as her head fell back. There was lots of blood and cries.

When the cut wouldn’t stop bleeding, Mrs. Dember took Goldy to the hospital. The nurse shaved a bit of Goldy’s golden hair and the surgeon stitched the gash.

“No more jumping, Goldy,” Mrs. Dember said on the way home from the hospital.

Goldy, tired, hungry, and very annoyed that a bit of her hair was shaved, nodded. “I’ll try.”

Mrs. Dember told Bubby about the fall. “Oy! Gevalt geshrigin!” Bubby said. She decided that enough was enough. She was going to give the Dembers an afikomen gift: She would buy them carpeting, and those naughty tiles would no longer cause problems.

Finally, the tiles would be covered and they would have carpet!

The workmen lay the base and then unrolled the carpet.

Goldy, watching from the steps, gasped.

(Excerpted from Mishpacha Jr., Issue 756)