What Elijah Brought

By Carolyn Ivy Stein

For eighty-two-year-old Chavah, the holidays are just not the same without a house full of children and a husband to lean on. The only Pandemic-Passover solution they find? A Zoom seder.

 

But technology isn't enough. Chavah longs for close contact. Her daughters want to protect her but will they protect her straight into loneliness?

 

Gene's roommate kicked him out on the first night of Passover. He needs a place to stay, but rooms are hard to come by. Especially rooms safe enough for a seventy-seven-year-old. What looks like bad luck turns out to be fate.

 

Sometimes miracles happen right on time. This seasoned holiday romance set in the early days of the pandemic shows that the hand of the divine blesses young and old alike. A short story to remember!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jeweled Sea Press
• Release date: Mar 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201799786

Carolyn Ivy Stein

Carolyn Stein is a freelance writer and editor. She has contributed articles to The Sea in World History book set, Atlas Obscura website, and other publications. She writes historical, fantasy, and science fiction as well as non-fiction and gaming supplements. When not writing she games and experiments with gourmet vegan cooking.

Book preview

What Elijah Brought

Chava leaned back against the hard but stylish dining room chair. Up until recently her condo had felt like a sanctuary with its textured white walls, large plate glass picture window with a view of the Rocky Mountains from the veranda. Winding paths in the garden areas were always filled with people, and even when she wasn’t amongst them, she enjoyed watching the interaction. She'd moved into the condo when it was new in 1974 with her husband, and in her eyes it still looked as beautiful as the day Mendel nailed the mezuzah to the door jamb and they’d entered laughing.

She stroked her hand over the stylish glass and brass dining room table and chairs, the result of long nights searching through catalogs with Mendel. Forty-five years imbued it with the power of memories. Here she’d spread a feast for her youngest daughter's bat mitzvah. Joanie’s strange wedding had been held in the party room downstairs. Afterwards this table hosted Joanie's vegan party for the bridal attendants. Chava had sat shiva for Mendel almost five years ago here, receiving groups of visitors, their gifts of fruit baskets, deli trays, candies, nuts, and pastries crowding every inch of the table until nothing could be seen of the surface. The air smelled like food for weeks, he’d had so many friends. 

Chava smiled at the memory of so many people crowded into the four rooms of their apartment. She dragged her finger across the table’s surface feeling the chill of the glass and imagining Sadie’s chocolate lemon bars. Then she took a napkin and wiped away her fingerprint. There was nothing on the table today except the seder plate and the small plate with three pieces of matzah. A roasted kosher chicken warmed in the oven along with a kugel. Both had been delivered from the New York