“Where are your parents?”
“We have none. I’m all Ruth has, and she’s my only family.”
The words tore at her heart, and Effie turned away to hide the sadness her face must wear. “Follow me, then.”
David hurried after me. “Where are you taking my sister, miss?”
“To my home.”
“Won’t your family mind?”
“You’ll meet my brother, Avi, and our house manager, Agnes. There are no others to impress in our home.”
David’s expression remained dubious, but he didn’t lose pace.
Effie carried Ruth up the steps and into the parlor of the multi-level Frank home. Delicious smells wafted up from the downstairs kitchen where Agnes would be working hard on jellies and jams.
David stopped on the threshold. “This is where you live?”
She didn’t look back. She didn’t have time to convince him. “Something wrong?”
He wiped his feet on the steps, scraping his shoe soles against the edge of the step. “It’s very nice.”
Effie didn’t answer but carried Ruth to the settee. She settled the girl on the floral cushions.
“Stay here with her, please,” Effie said. She rushed toward her bedroom in the back corner. She rummaged in the top drawer of her dresser until her hand closed around a silken bag. Carefully, she loosened the drawstring and emptied the bag into her palm. A dark blue stone, nearly as big as her hand, slipped out.
She held it up to admire the glimmering fire in the center of the stone. It remained the source of the Frank family magic. The Tikvah Stone had been gifted to King David, and King David had passed it on to his son, King Solomon—or Shlomo. Upon Shlomo’s death, the stone had been bequeathed to one of his many wives.
The consort had carried it, hiding among the wanderers of Europe, passing it down from mother to daughter until the Frank family settled in New London. The magic flamed brightest during Chanukah, the festival of lights, and the Frank family tradition remained intact: one miracle for each day.
Her mother always said it was the best way to remember: “A Great Miracle Happened There.” She hoped it had recharged since the day before.
Effie tucked the invaluable bauble in the pocket she had specially made for each of her dresses and hurried back toward the front room. David gazed down at his sister, his face twisted in worry.
She settled on the settee near Ruth’s feet. “Has she moved at all?”
David shook his head. His chin quivered. “I don’t think she’s even breathing, miss.”
Effie suspected as much. She grasped Ruth’s hands, careful to make sure her fingertips rested against bare skin. She had to hurry before any more time could be lost. The stone grew warm against her thigh.
Magic rushed through her, over her, and through her fingers.
Ruth shuddered as the energy coursed through her.
David dropped to his knees and pressed his forehead to Ruth’s cheek. “What’s happening to her, miss?”
Effie didn’t answer, but, a moment later, Ruth gasped and a coughing fit wracked her body.
She bolted upright. “What happened to me?” She put her hand to her forehead and then drew her hand down to study her fingers. She frowned. “Was I hurt?”
David took her hand. “There was an accident, but Miss Effie made it all better.” He turned to Effie and studied her with a new interest.
One that Effie didn’t like.
Ruth bounced in place. “Did you use the Tikvah stone to help me, Miss Effie?”
Effie blanched. Who had told the little girl about the stone? Had Gad remembered something from the day before?
“What is a Tikvah Stone, Ruth?” Effie patted the girl’s cheek and pretended to stumble over the words.
“Rebbe said it helped make the golem live a long time ago.”
David patted her shoulder. “Hush, Ruth. I’m sure you’re exaggerating.”
Effie tipped her head to the side. “What sort of bedtime stories does the rebbe tell you two before you fall asleep at night?” She turned to David. “Enough to make you see the automaton in the shadows of the alley,” she murmured.
“He said to give this to you, Effie. He said he could never repay your mother for helping him animate a golem, and the golem is needed once more.”
David shushed the girl, but Effie stopped him. “Go on, Ruth. What else is there?”
Ruth raised a clenched hand. “This will be the golem’s last Chanukah.” She took one of Effie’s hands and placed her closed fist on top of it. “This is yours.”
“Wh—what do you mean?”
Ruth opened her hand and then rolled away from Effie. She took a long breath and then went limp. Effie studied the baubles in her hand: a small bell and a scrap of parchment, covered in Hebrew characters on one side and a small drawing on the other side. Effie squinted at the artwork. What could it be?
“Did she die?” David asked. His voice wobbled.
“No, I think she went to sleep,” Effie said. She analyzed the gifts in her palms. She had to find the golem’s resting place. Avi would know something. Perhaps the rebbe had told him.
Effie rushed down to the kitchen, the grocery basket swinging from her forearm and the tiny silver bell jingling in her hand. “Agnes, I’m sorry I’m late.”
Agnes bustled from one side of the kitchen to the others, muttering to herself. “I’ve half a mind to cancel the celebration right now.” The grey-haired house manager turned around, and her eyes went wide as her mother’s saucers. “Goodness, girl, what happened to you?”
“I met a young man,” Effie offered.
Agnes nearly squealed and rushed for the teapot. She placed a cup and saucer in front of Effie and another across the workspace for herself. She brought the tin pot, too excited to bother with the formality of the good tea set.
Effie studied her lap, hiding her smile. The house manager would have rather a fit when she discovered the age of the young man.
She settled on the workbench. “How old is he? Is he eligible? Affluent?”
Effie tipped her head to the side as she unloaded the now-ragged shopping basket. “I think he’s twelve.” She winked. “Definitely eligible. Definitely not affluent.”
Agnes snorted. “You had me going, didn’t ye?”
Effie shrugged. “He’s upstairs with his little sister.”
She jumped to her feet. “What? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Effie touched the older woman’s arm. “Agnes?”
The bustling woman paused. “What is it, dear?”
“Keep them busy until after lunch? I have something I need to do. Would it be too much work?”
Agnes scoffed. “Too much work? You forget who kept you busy while your own mother went sneaking about the city. Can I do it? What a thought.”
Effie grinned. “I’ll take Avi. Are you sure you can handle it on your own?”
“Of course I can. I’ll park them in front of the cook fire with cookies and hot cider and soups.” She took a breath and started in again. “And supper will be on time, you mark my words. The most delicious roast you’ve ever…” Agnes’s voice trailed away as she hurried up the stairs.
Effie studied the scrap of parchment in her hand. Lamb’s skin from a scroll, unless she missed her guess. A string of Hebrew words circled the corner, disjointed and out of order. She scowled… written backwards, almost. The miniature map didn’t show a large enough section of their area to lead them to anything.
Upstairs, Agnes exclaimed over the brother and sister pair. She would feed them to bursting and then keep them so busy they wouldn’t know which end was up. It was her way with children.
Effie dashed toward the rear of the basement. Time to recruit Avi.
She stopped in front of the fake bricks that Avi had installed to hide his gadgets and workspace. Counting from the left, she marched off seven paces and tapped the brick, off-center from the rest in the row of the wall.
“Yes, who’s t
here?” Avi’s voice called from inside.
“The Baal Shem Tov,” Effie said, her arms crossed.
A crack formed in the wall, and the sliding pocket door moved to the side.
Avi hunched over his workbench with his back facing her. His latest invention, a dancing, mechanical dreidel, sat at the corner of the table. He sorted through the mound of small gears and other mechanicals in front of him. The bits pinged against each other as he sorted them into smaller piles. “I’m making another. For that girl…” He paused. “Ruth, was it? She needs a toy.”
Effie didn’t answer.
“Did Agnes send you down? I told her I didn’t have time to eat breakfast,” he said.
“No, Avi.” She didn’t add anything else. Her brother hadn’t disengaged from his tinkering yet. If she explained now, he wouldn’t hear any of it.
“Then what is it?” he gruffed. “Spit it out.”
She took a breath. “Avi, I need your help.”
Her whispered request brought his head up. He straightened. Slowly, he swiveled toward Effie, his work seat creaked in a long whine. “What is it?”
Effie placed the silver bell and scrap in front of him. “What do you remember of the Chanukah golem?”
He studied the objects on the table. “You mean the one mother helped the rebbe animate?”
Effie gaped at her brother. “That’s true?”
“Of course. Don’t you remember it?”
“I remember wanting to meet the golem.”
Avi nodded. “But not much else?”
She put her hands on her hips. “Did you do something to my memories?”
He grimaced. “Guilty.” He stood up and raised a hand. “It wasn’t my idea, though.”
“What?”
“You were the blabbiest little girl, and Mama needed to fit in. She needed work, and she didn’t like moving about the way her own mother did. She couldn’t have you tell everyone that she helped create the golem or that we had a magical stone in our possession.”
Effie snorted. She’d been like Ruth, then. How amusing. “Rebbe wants me to help reanimate the golem.”
Avi scowled. “Do you know why? Last time, it hunted a murderer. What is it this time?”
Effie remained silent. She didn’t have any idea. There had been no murder, no indication at all until the golem key had been brought to her by a child. Why would the rebbe send Ruth rather than delivering it himself? Unless…
She winced. “I don’t know yet.”
“Whatever it is, it can’t be good.”
“You’ll help?”
Avi stood and crossed to the exit. “You’re my sister.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“I’ll help,” he said. “Let’s go get Mama’s golem.”
Dressed as though attending morning prayers, Effie and Avi approached the shul. Though the house of worship itself was small, an extensive cemetery extended for several blocks behind the synagogue.
“Where’s it kept, Avi?” Her hand drifted over the hidden pocket where the Tikvah Stone, the bell, and the scrap of parchment waited.
“Still don’t remember?”
Effie shook her head.
“In the genizah.”
“Where they keep the holy books for burial?”
“That’s the place.”
Small groups of men filtered in for morning prayers. But Avi and Effie bypassed the shul. Instead, they approached a small, mausoleum-like building, situated between the cemetery and the shul.
The white stone building shone in the rising sun. Why had the rebbe sent the child? Why hadn’t he come himself?
They peered in through the grate in the center of the door. “I don’t see it, Avi.”
“Do you see a pile of dust in the corner?”
“It’s as tall as the bench.”
“That’s the one,” Avi said. “That’s the golem.”
“It’s a pile of spring cleaning. How do we get it to do anything?”
“The words and the stone.”
Effie pulled both from her hidden pocket.
A shout echoed across the block, and Effie spun around.
Men ran one way and then the other. The sound of a constable’s whistle filled the air, and Effie clutched Avi’s arm. “What is it?”
“I’ll check.” He jogged away.
Ten minutes later, he returned with red-rimmed eyes, his face ashen.
“What is it, Avi?”
“The rebbe is gone.”
“Gone?”
“He left no notes, no instructions, no nothing.”
She tucked the bell in her pocket. ”You know what that means?”
Avi nodded. “He knew what was coming.”
Effie peered at the pile of dust beside the bench that held two scrolls. Perhaps it wasn’t the right time to animate the golem. Not with the investigating authorities.
Now she had the beast. She knew where he waited.
Perhaps David and Ruth were two clues to the greater mystery. Effie and Avi had to answer several questions before the last light was lit on the eighth night.
When they reached their home intersection, a grin split Avi’s face. With a flourish, he offered a coin to the street sweeper, clearing away the dirt and muck in front of them. “Well, sister dearest, there’s only one question to ask.”
Effie scowled. “What happened to the rebbe?”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “There is that one, but that’s not the one I meant.”
“How are David and Ruth after their incident?”
Avi shook his head. “I’m sure Agnes has them well in hand.”
She tucked the bell inside her secret pocket. “Then what, Avi?”
He opened their front door and gestured for Effie to precede him. “What sort of goodly mischief can two Frank twins conjure with a week’s worth of magic and a golem?”
Read all about the Chanukah adventures of the Frank twins.
Coming in December 2020
Bokerah.com
Thank You!
Thank you from the authors of the Wicked Winters Collection! We hope you enjoyed our stories. Please connect with us online for more information. No matter what holiday you celebrate this time of year, we wish you the happiest of seasons and a Happy New Year!
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