Harvest of Dreams (The Gods' Dream Trilogy) Read Free Page A

She straightened in the chair, wincing at the crick in her neck from sleeping with her head on the foot of her grandmother’s hospital bed.
    She opened and shut her dry eyes a few times, trying to make them focus. Then she checked on her grandmother, lying withered and pale near death. A while had passed since her grandmother had last woken, much less spoken, but Sadie hadn’t given up hope that she would again. Before the end.
    Beyond the partly-opened door of the room, Sadie could hear the bustle of the hospital and the sound of voices. But in the room there was silence, except for the occasional beep from one of the machines connected to her beloved grandmother, her last living relative.
    Please, wake up.
    As if her grandmother had heard her wish, she slowly opened her eyes and blinked in confusion. She turned her head toward Sadie.
    “I’m here, Bubby ,” Sadie said in Yiddish, the language her grandmother preferred. She smoothed away strands of hair that had escaped from her grandmother’s long gray braid and now curled near the faded brown eyes—eyes that had lost their alertness several weeks ago.
    Bubby tried to smile. “I’m…going, Zeesa.”
    “I know.” Just saying the words made Sadie’s throat close up.
    “I hate to…I hate to leave…you alone.”
    Sadie tried to speak, but couldn’t. Instead, she tried to smile through her tears.
    Her grandmother inched her fingers over to the side of the bed.
    Sadie reached out and took her hand, feeling the papery skin slide over fragile bird bones.
    “I’ll be…with my Avi.”
    Sadie had to lean closer to hear her gasping words.
    “I wanted to…die when…he did.”
    She knew her grandmother referred to 1948. Her grandparents had safely hidden through most of World War II, until the Nazis caught them a few months before the end. Weakened by deprivation, her grandfather died. Her grandmother, with her strong spirit, survived the concentration camp, miraculously still pregnant with the baby the couple had conceived just before their capture.
    Sadie gently squeezed her grandmother’s hand.
    “I…I had…to live…for the baby growing…inside me.”
    Sadie gave her a tender smile. “I’m glad you did.”
    “I’d given up…hope that…your father…would give me a grandchild…. ’til you. You’ve been…my light, Sadie.”
    Sadie’s tears spilled over. One dripped on their entwined hands. “And you’ve been the best grandmother ever.”
    “I would go…through it all…again…just to have…you, Zeesa .”
    Sadie stood and bent to kiss her grandmother’s forehead. “I love you. I always will. Go in peace, Bubby. ”
    Her grandmother’s hand tightened on hers, and her expression became anxious. “The medallion.”
    What’s she talking about?
    “Underwear…drawer....”
    Was Bubby hallucinating? Or had Sadie misunderstood her? Her Yiddish wasn’t the best. “Do you have a medallion in your underwear drawer?”
    “Yes.” The word was almost a sigh. “Return....” Her grandmother’s eyes fluttered close. She drifted back into sleep.
    A soft knock on the doorframe made Sadie look in that direction. A short man with a prominent nose stood there. He wore a prayer shawl draped over his shoulders and, when he gave her a polite dip of his head, she saw a yarmulke attached to his short, curly hair with two bobby pins. The expression on his thin face was pleasant, but her hackles rose at the sight of him.
    “I’m Rabbi Kamins,” he said in heavily accented English. “I heard about your grandmother, and I have come to offer words of comfort…to pray with you.”
    “No!” Sadie held back an instinctive growl. She forced herself to soften her tone, to sound polite. “Thank you, we’re fine.”
    His bushy eyebrows rose. “The nurse tells me your grandmother doesn’t have long….that you two are very close….”
    “My grandmother doesn’t believe in God.” Sadie crossed her arms over her chest. “Nor do I.”
    “I’m sorry to