I get back to the shop,
excited to tell my grandfather
all that happened,
but when I run inside,
I hear him coughing.
Mrs. Li is holding him over the sink,
steam rising around his face,
hair wet,
face turned down
in the mist.
When he finally stops,
he takes a drink of water,
sits in his overstuffed chair,
breathes for a while,
until he sees me there.
Etan, how did it go?
His words on the edge of a cough.
I take the jar from my backpack.
We mixed it
with the clay in the pool,
it got warm,
we could feel it, Grandpa!
Mrs. Li bends over,
looks my grandfather in the eyes.
Take it slow, Jacob, she says,
then pats me on the head and walks out.
My grandfather smiles.
Friends, Etan. They are the world. He coughs.
Grandpa, it worked, I think.
I mean, her skin isn’t red anymore.
Well, take each day as it comes.
Remember, it’s a mystery.
He coughs a little more.
This town, Etan, is going crazy for baseball,
like there is nothing else
happening in all the world.
I unlatch the wooden box,
place the jar back inside
next to the other, the golem clay.
Grandpa, there was another tremor today.
Did you feel it?
For a moment
I thought maybe it was a golem
rising out of the pool.