#scarsdale

A gentle tap on the girl's door.

A shuffling sound. Things straightened up no doubt. Window closing? Did she stick her head out? mm

"Come in, please"

Zara cracks the door open. "Hello? Tziporah?" The young woman is soft spoken, gentling the accent. She's nothing remarkable to look at - slim, pale, with dark frizzy curls contained in a braid. She wears a soft grey tunic over capris. The one thing that may stand out are her eyes - black as ink, but sparkling with curiosity and intelligence.

"Oh, hello, Zara... " She sounds like she's guessing at that, "Yes, I'm Tziporah. You probably don't remember me well. "

Tziporah wears modest clothes, mourning colors. At least, thats on her mortal frame

"Not very well, no. But I don't think I was very memorable, either. I made you some cookies..."

"Oh, you made them, thank you, they're my favorite" She lifts her chin trying to banish any tears through raw dignity

"That's lucky, then. Food is important. May I come in?"

"Please, it's your house.. I'm so sorry to be a bother but the hospital was ever so wretched."

"But this is your room, for the time. Your space is to be respected, with dignity. I am not here all the time, anymore. I have a place closer to school."

"Oh, right, college, that must be nice, an open campus, you get to walk where you want, to see the whole thing.. make new friends"

"Well... I am not very good at making new friends. And we spent last year online..."

"Ugh" she groans "It's the worst.. isn't it? Trapped and cooped up."

Apparently she did NOT enjoy remote learning

"Well, I was able to see my friends from before college, even if I didn't make many new ones."

"Well, my friends were cut off.. and I lost a few just because of disassociation. mostly I got second hand drama stories...which frankly sound better in my head than what texts can convey"

"But I'm glad you didn't lose any yourself" She nods

"Well, in-person in the fall. That'll help, nu?"

"I suppose" She nods "I... guess I shouldn't act fussy about it... I mean, I met your family and they're very kind."

"Mama has enough heart for three hundred. Papa is quiet, but he listens." A pause. "You know I am adopted, yes?"

"Yes, mom mentioned it once. She thought maybe your mother couldn't..ah.. sorry, well, there are lots of reasons to adopt. But it's not any less real a love" She looks out the window "I was born in my family and I never quite felt like I fit...." A hard swallow at some other thought

"She can't have biological children, no. But she's no less my mother."

"Even with my birth mother - you may meet Miriam, sometime. Not now, of course. Enough is going on now."

"Oh, you know your Bio-Mom?" Surprised "Okay what's the story there? I .. I don't mind the distraction"

"Ah. Well, if you know Hirim and Rachamin?"

"Hirim is Mama's brother. One of his apprentices, a girl named Miriam, fell pregnant when she was... ah... young."

"oh" eyes light up with interest

"Uncle Herschel lives upstate - we do not see him very often, but I should give an honorable mention as he completes the trio. Anyhow... Miriam was young and alone, but was trying to make it. And all was going well enough, in truth."

"Until the bad thing. It... She..." Zara frowns. "A crime occured, aye? Miriam was stolen. I was just a few months old when it happened."

A gasp

"Hirim and Ratchet found me. But no Miriam. Mama took me in, for I had no other family. They looked for Miriam for years, to no avail. And eventually, Mama and Papa formally adopted me. I was too little to remember any other family."

Tziporah ponders "And in a dark and terrible path, a child is sent down motherless, but then found, and like Moses, taken to be raised. A liberator to be, her story hidden in the shadows , but her haven a family warm and welcome"

for a moment , her eyes spark with...light?

"Something akin to that, aye."

She blushes "Sorry, I.. don't know why I said that. It was so cheesy..." A wince

"It does not offend me. There is no need to apologize."

"You may find the Schwartzes an odd household. We have our differences from the norm. And difference is not unwelcome here."

"Well, thank you. I.. used to get teased about talking like that. " A snort "Plastics ruin it even for extroverts"

"Oh... aye. I did not... high school was difficult. I was shy, and weird. I did not fit in well."

"Me neither, different reason, I was outspoken and wouldn't shut my mouth.... every now and then I did something very foolish just to see if it made things interesting, you know? " a shake of her head "Mama used to tell me I was a Shanda factory"

"Mayhaps you should have been named Miriam... though in truth, my birth-mother has quite a tongue, too."

She picks up the plate, takes one, and then offers it to Tziporah. If her hand should graze the top remaining cookie, well, who would notice? If that cookie should now hold a drop of glamour...

And so it goes....the girl takes the next cookie, and plops it into her mouth "Tziporah is the worst name... I'm always Tizzy, Tipsy, or Zippy and..."

she was getting there already, the glamour offered goes into her like gasoline on a fire....

Fire!

Fire from the ovens...

chambers of gas...

Hard eyed men glaring from the walls with hate, or worse, the same indifference one would give vermin...

The Gypsy gasps as she gets her drop of glamour...