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 Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 8:47 am
Cody was starving. No wonder after spending all morning and the beggining of the afternoon with nothing more but a sandwitch in his stomach, hunting for large shells and colourful pebbles up and down the beach
He was planning a little surprise with them, but he was feeling so hungry that he decided to stop for lunch in the cafeteria instead of leaving the bag in his room first. But he took it with him, so no one would peek or steal his hard work
He paid little attention to what he was choosing, so a couple of pieces of raw fish made into his dish without him noticing. In the end his plate was so full, someone would easily believe he hadn't eat for days
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Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 8:55 am
Chana was sitting at one of the otherwise empty tables, munching on a bagel. It had been liberally slathered with cream cheese and piled high with lox and smoked fish. For all the beaver was happy, Chana was happier as she ate a classic brunch. Shame there was nobody to share it with, she mused as she twirled an odd little top.
Then she heard someone come in to the cafeteria. Her first thought, as she turned slightly, was that he was becoming some kind of fish. Her second was that he was so horribly young.
"H-hey kid," she greeted the boy, almost dropping her meal before she set it down on her plate. "Haven't seen you before. I'm Chana."
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Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 9:02 am
Cody was so suprised he almost dropped the heavy tray. He was so hungry he didn't realised someone else was already here. But at least it wasn't still human
"Hi! I'm Cody" he took his plate and sat in front of her, completely curious about her appearence. He couldn't recognized the animal she was turning into
"What's your animal? I don't think I know it"
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Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 9:10 am
Chana smiled, revealing the prominent teeth marking her serum as a rodent. "Beaver. You can always tell by the big, flat tail," she told Cody. "And yours is...a kind of fish?" she asked. Fish really weren't her strong point, as far as identification went.
She still twirled her toy absent-mindedly. It was the same one Ambrose had given her last year. There was a symbol on each side, carefully painted on. Each time it fell over, Chana would note what it had landed on and spin it again.
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Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 9:23 am
"Oh, right! I didn't saw it"
Cody mentally slapped his forehead. He had seen the Narnia movie, he should been able to recognize her right away
The sight of the teeth send him some shivers down his spine, the memory of a trauma still quite fresh. But he didn't know beavers were rodents like rats and rabbits, so he didn't start running and screaming his lungs out in pure fear
"No! I'm a dolphin"
He raised his tail in demonstration, while he untied the bag from the wrist and started digging in his food
But even though he was famished, he noticed the toy and that sparked his curiosity again
"What's that?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 9:34 am
Chana smiled. Cody was a boy like any other...and that would make this much easier. "A dolphin? Wow, that's really neat. Dolphins are beautiful and graceful creatures you know."
She was a bit shocked, though not surprised, when he asked about her top. "It's a dreidel," she answered automatically. Then mentally berated herself. The boy probably didn't know a thing about it.
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Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 9:41 am
"Yeah... but I'm not so sure if I want to become one anymore..."
Cody tilded his head with a completely confused expression "A dreiwhat!?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 9:46 am
Chana blinked. That wasn't what she'd expected to hear. "Why not? There are worse things out there...I've seen a couple of them."
Then she laughed. "A dreidel. It's a speicial top that little Jewish boys and girls play with during Hannukah. It's a game!" she explained, twisting the toy around to show the symbols. "Would you like to learn how to play?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 9:55 am
"Because... I know most people didn't came here because they wanted to and they're unhappy. I thought they were keeping things secret from me, but then someone told me people can die with the changes. It's just like back in the hospital..."
"Hannukah? I've heard about it, but didn't know it was jewish. How do you play it?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 10:07 am
Chana frowned. Die? She hadn't heard of anyone dying...had she? Wait...she had. But that wasn't because of the changes... "Well," she said aloud, "I've yet to see anyone die from the changes. And I've been here for a year." And that would be that, as far as she was concerned.
"It's a Jewish holiday, yes, but it gets overlooked for happening around Christmas." She held out the dreidel for Cody to see. "The game is all to do with these letters." She twisted the top and named them as she went. "Nun, Gimmel, Hey, and Shin."
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Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 10:29 am
That didn't put Cody's mind at ease. Stories of people dying from experimental treatments was something he was too familiar with. Uncurable diseases like his was full of them
But if even normal, healthy people died with the changes, then what that would mean to him, someone who already had a faulty system!? Just the though of it scared the wits out of him
"Still..." he shook his head, as if he was trying to get those fears out of his mind
Cody picked the toy without asking and started turning it around in his fingers, feeling and much as observing it
"What do they mean? It's like throwing a dice?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 10:39 am
"Well, they're letters. They represent words. Nes gadol hayah sham...a miracle happened there," Chana translated. "It's talking about the story behind Hannukah. But for the game, the letters do make it similar to rolling a die...but different at the same time," the beaver said, trying to make do with Cody's question. She was still unnerved by his tale of people dying of the changes. That was not something beaver or woman wanted to deal with.
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Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 10:45 am
"Weird. And what's the story? And how is it diferent from trowing dice?"
He was really trying to keep his mind fully focused on the toy, but filling his hungry stomach at the same time. The last thing he needed was to get sad again. Specially if he wanted to have his parents with him as a christmas present
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Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 11:12 am
"Well...long ago in what we now call Israel lived the Hebrews. And they, like many other peoples at that time, were ruled by a Greek man called Antiochus. King Antiochus (for he was a King) did not believe in one G-d like the Hebrews did. He believed in and worshipped many gods. He said that all the people who lived under his rule had to do as he did. He said they had to worship the same gods as he did, wear the same clothes, eat the same foods and so on.
"The punishment for defying the king's order was death.
"Many people were afraid of the king. So they did as he was told. But a man named Matthias and his sons refused. He had five sons: Eleazar, Simon, Jon, Jonathan and Judah Maccabee--that means Judah the Hammer." Chana studied Cody's face and decided to interrupt her story a bit. "Can you guess what Matthias and his sons did?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 11:20 am
Cody nodded as the story went on. He had studied about the greek gods back at school and still remembered a thing or two about wars caused by different beliefs, like World War 2
But he couldn't think of anything that that man could have done
"No. Started a war?"
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