WeWriWa—A feeling of otherness

Welcome back to Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday, weekly Sunday hops where writers share 8–10 sentences from a book or WIP.

As last year, my Christmas- and Chanukah-themed snippets come from Chapter 20, “Dueling December Holidays,” of the book formerly known as The Very First (which is set during 1938). The new and improved title will finally be revealed upon its release next year!

Shortly after Chanukah begins, the Filliards and the Smalls, who live together, go holiday shopping at a local plaza. After a volatile run-in between Mr. Small and members of his family’s former synagogue, Cinni and Sparky move to an upscale toy store. Everything seems to be going great till the checkout boy wishes Sparky a merry Christmas. Cinni and Sparky try to explain not everyone celebrates Christmas, but the employee just doesn’t understand.

As they walked to an upscale clothing boutique, Cinni was suddenly acutely aware of how many Christmas decorations there were. Every shop door was hung with a wreath; every window had some sort of Christmas display; every post was strung with lights and evergreens; and there were several large Christmas trees full of ornaments, lights, and tinsel. There was also a reindeer-drawn sleigh giving rides around the plaza, and a North Pole workshop with a Santa and several elves.

“Now I see why you and your brothers feel like you do about Christmas,” Cinni said. “I never thought to notice it before, since it’s my holiday. When it ain’t your holiday, you can’t help seeing it everywhere and being reminded of how different you are. Maybe that’s why my mom’s friends put up Christmas trees. They didn’t wanna fight against it. Your family’s really brave for not giving in and pretending to be just like everyone else. If I moved to a place like China or India, I’d feel left out and invisible too.”

WeWriWa—Holiday decorating begins

Welcome back to Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday, weekly Sunday hops where writers share 8–10 sentences from a book or WIP.

As last year, my Christmas- and Chanukah-themed snippets come from Chapter 20, “Dueling December Holidays,” of the book formerly known as The Very First (which is set during 1938). The new and improved title will finally be revealed upon its release next year!

This is the opening of the chapter, when Sparky Small (birth name Katharina Brandt) and her older brothers start realizing just how predominant all things Christmas are during December in their new country. It’s particularly hard to avoid because they live with a Methodist family.

Sparky, her brothers, the Filliard girls, and Elmira came home from school on the first day of December to a wreath on the door and Mrs. Filliard and Lucinda unpacking all the Christmas ornaments and decorations. Six crates stood in the center of the living room, while small boxes, coiled-up strings of lights and other decorations, and individually-wrapped ornaments were all over the davenport, chairs, side tables, loveseat, and Lucinda’s new turquoise velvet Ottoman. A black and dark green plaid, circular cloth was draped over the back of the davenport, and a green metal object which somewhat resembled a bell was off in a corner.

“You’re just in time to help us with decorating the tree,” Mrs. Filliard announced. “Michael should have it very soon. He was supposed to be back by now, but it’s just like him to inspect each and every tree instead of sawing down the first big tree he sees. If he ain’t back soon, Pietro might have him arrested for trespassing.”

Gary could barely disguise his horrified expression. “Kätchen, Otto, and I must respectfully decline your invitation to decorate a tree, but I’m more concerned about Michael trespassing to get your tree. Did you really send him onto someone else’s property without permission?”

WeWriWa—Guests wanted and unwanted

Welcome back to Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday, weekly Sunday hops where writers share 8–10 sentences from a book or WIP.

As last year, my Thanksgiving-themed snippets come from Chapter 19, “Happy Thanksgiving,” of the book formerly known as The Very First (which is set during 1938). The new and improved title will finally be revealed upon its release next year!

This week’s excerpt comes about five pages after last week’s, when Cinni, her family, and the longterm guests the Smalls sat down to a joint Thanksgiving feast. Cinni’s great-grandmother Leokadia, a very unwanted guest who invited herself, spent much of the meal arguing with the other side of the family. She hates the family her son Lech married into, and never misses a chance to let them know it.

This has been slightly tweaked to fit ten lines.

To change the subject, Babs and Elmira began chattering about what they were doing in school, and Lucinda name-dropped a bunch of brand names she’d added to her ever-expanding wardrobe and accessory collection. As soon as the immense feast came to an end and the table was cleared, Leokadia threw on her shearling boots and black mink coat.  No one spoke to her as she stormed out the door.

“So many people in my family are nuts,” Cinni whispered to Sparky as Leokadia drove away in her black Model B. “When I have my own family, I ain’t gonna invite relatives for Thanksgiving just ‘cause it’s expected of me; I’ll only invite people I want at my table.”

“You’re lucky you have so many older relatives, even if one of them is a bad person. I never met anyone older than my father’s parents.”

“You won’t hafta see my Prababcia Leokadia again, I don’t think. She shows up every so often to insult us, and then leaves. I like Pra-Prababcia Tanja and Prababcia Bogda most, since they always have neat stories about our ancestors, and they knew people who were alive in the eighteenth century.”

WeWriWa—A great feast

Welcome back to Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday, weekly Sunday hops where writers share 8–10 sentences from a book or WIP.

As last year, my Thanksgiving-themed snippets come from Chapter 19, “Happy Thanksgiving,” of the book formerly known as The Very First (which is set during 1938). The new and improved title will finally be revealed upon its release next year!

I decided to skip the scene of the turkey being butchered and go right to Thanksgiving, when five generations of Cinnimin Filliard’s family gather together with the five Smalls to enjoy their immense feast. The women in Cinni’s direct maternal line are usually very long-lived. Cinni herself will live to 120.

Thursday at 4:30, Cinni sat down to a Thanksgiving feast with her extended family and the Smalls. Both sides of the table were piled high with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, cornbread, gravy, mashed potatoes, candied yams, green beans, candied carrots, applesauce, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and bread rolls. Additional foods on the Smalls’ side were chopped liver and some kind of dish made from the other turkey innards. To avoid cross-contamination, the Smalls had several layers of placemats under their tableware, and several folded-up tablecloths underneath their pots, pans, and platters.

Almost everything looked identical, since Mrs. Small had worked from Mrs. Filliard’s recipes. The only differences were that the Smalls’ gravy was made with extra flour, and without cream, butter, or milk, and that their candied yams had a rainbow of colors from the unusual flavors of marshmallows.

Tatjana Modjeska, Cinni’s 98-year-old great-great-grandmother, was petting a fluffy Persian cat in her lap. Sparky was a bit wary of animal fur getting into the food, but anyone who’d lived to almost a hundred was entitled to bring her pet to dinner. Cinni’s great-great-great-grandmother, Helga Wisowska, had passed away four years ago, so Tatjana must miss her mother at the holidays.

WeWriWa—At the butcher shop

Welcome back to Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday, weekly Sunday hops where writers share 8–10 sentences from a book or WIP.

As last year, my Thanksgiving-themed snippets will be coming from Chapter 19, “Happy Thanksgiving,” of the book formerly known as The Very First (which is set during 1938). The new and improved title will finally be revealed upon its release next year!

It’s two days before Thanksgiving, and Sparky (real name Katherine), her mother, her oldest brother Gary (born Friedrich), her best friend Cinnimin, and Cinnimin’s older brother M.J. are buying food for the Smalls’ half of the joint household’s feast. They’re now at their final stop, a kosher butcher.

Cinni held back after Gary opened the butcher’s door for her. Since she didn’t live on a farm and never helped in the kitchen if she could help it, she wasn’t used to seeing animal carcasses hanging up and strewn over tables. It was bad enough when she’d seen that fish head at the Smalls’ Rosh Hashanah supper.

“We usually go to a kosher butcher in Germantown, but this is much closer,” Gary said. “It’s not practical to haul all this stuff back on the streetcar, to our regular butcher, and back onto the streetcar again. I wish we’d settled in a place like New York or Newark, where all the Jewish resources we need are within a five-block radius of our home instead of a long ride and walk, there and back.”

Mrs. Small set her baskets down and approached a small pen of live turkeys. Cinni watched in amazement as she picked several up, felt for the meat on their bones, inspected their eyes and talons, and blew on their feathers. Mrs. Small might’ve never eaten a turkey or selected one for butchering, but she sure knew what to look for in her poultry.