Seth looked up at the same moment his older sister saw the bird.

“Ugh! Maggots!” Talitha shrieked. She backed up so fast, she ran into a tree.

“Want some?” Joshua said, catching a few on the end of the stick and flinging them toward her.

Talitha shrieked again and jumped out of the way.

“Why don’t you go fall in the well, Talitha?” Seth said.

“No!” she said, crossing her arms.

Joshua flicked more maggots toward her.

She flinched. “I’m not moving,” she said.

“Make her leave,” David said.

“I don’t have to leave if I don’t want to!” Talitha replied. “I can go anywhere I want.” She kept her arms crossed. Her long brown hair hung loosely about her shoulders. Her dark brown eyes glared at them, daring them to force her to do anything.

Everyone looked at Seth. He stared at the ground but could feel their eyes on him. He could also feel his cheeks flushing. The thought of his friends seeing him embarrassed made him even more embarrassed.

You’re the man here, Seth, he told himself. You’re the firstborn male. She may be a lot taller, but you have a right to tell her what to do. Seth lifted his chin and pretended to have the authority he didn’t feel. “We are reciting Torah, so you must leave,” he said.

“And not doing a very good job of it,” Talitha added.

David and Joshua muttered something Seth couldn’t hear. He clenched his teeth and his fist. He wanted to hurt her, but he couldn’t.

He took a few deep breaths and then spoke. “We’re still learning. And because we’re trying to do lessons our father assigned us in school, I really think you should go.”

“Come on, Seth,” Talitha said, exasperated. “Just let me stay and listen. I’ll keep quiet, honest.”

“No.” Seth kicked at the dirt, sending up a cloud of dust. “Just go away!”

Talitha turned up her nose. “I like it here.” She dropped to the ground, then re-crossed her arms.

“We don’t like you here,” Seth said. “Father wouldn’t like you here.”

“The maggots don’t like you here either,” Joshua said.

David nodded in agreement.

Seth took a step in her direction, and his nose twitched. It tickled. He took in a deep breath and choked. “Besides, you stink.”

“I don’t stink,” Talitha protested. “I smell pretty.”

“I’m with you, Seth,” Joshua said. “I think she stinks.”

Talitha stuck her tongue out at Joshua. “What do you know? You’re only ten. And you stink like fish.”

“I know more of Torah than you,” Joshua replied.

“Prove it,” Talitha said.

“Why are you wearing perfume?” Seth interrupted. “Does Mom know?”

“I’m almost thirteen,” Talitha said, tipping her head back. “It’s time I started to look and act my age.”

David rolled his eyes. “As if anyone but you cares.”

“Eli cares,” Talitha said, her cheeks turning red.

“That old goat? He must be at least twenty-four years old,” David said. “He’s so blind, he’d fall in love with a donkey if it smelled right.”

Seth and Joshua howled.

“At least Eli can recite Torah properly,” Talitha countered, her eyes flashing fire. “I’d rather marry an old goat like him than a little boy like you.”

“He’s studied Torah for years,” David argued. “If he didn’t know it better, he’d be the laughingstock of Capernaum.”

“And all Galilee and Judea,” Joshua added.

“Which is what our family will be if you keep trying to be a boy,” Seth said bravely. He hated the thought of everyone laughing at his family behind their backs. His father would be especially embarrassed. It would be horrible to have his daughter bring him shame.

“I am not trying to be a boy,” Talitha said, her eyes welling with angry tears. “I just want to go to school. I want to learn.”

“And you think old Eli would like it if you did?” Seth asked.

“I don’t care what he thinks,” she snapped.

“I thought you did,” David said.

For a moment she looked flustered and then she frowned. “I mean I don’t care what people think when it comes to me learning things. At least Mom understands. She teaches me what Father has taught her.”

At the same instant, all three boys’ mouths dropped open.

“Can women learn?” Joshua asked, letting go of his stick and apparently forgetting the bird.

“Do they even want to?” David asked, his words barely audible. “My mom only knows the basic stuff. She leaves the room when my father and I discuss my lessons.”

Seth couldn’t speak. He’d heard whisperings coming from his parents’ room long into the night. But he’d had no idea his father was teaching his mother.

It wasn’t that women weren’t supposed to learn things, he thought. It was just sort of presumed that most women didn’t care. And once they became wives and mothers, teaching them about Torah seemed pointless —except for the things most important for daily living and passing on to the children.

Seth’s obvious shock seemed to make Talitha stand taller. “It’s not against the law, you know,” she said. “Mom told me I could come listen to you.”

“I don’t believe you,” Seth said, hoping his words covered how unsure he felt. “I don’t think you belong here, and neither do David and Joshua.”

Talitha let a slow smile cross her face as she stood up. “I’ll be around,” she said. “Do you really think you little boys can scare me away?” She winked at them. “Remember. I know you are unclean. Don’t you think your parents would want to know?”

“I am not unclean!” David announced, indignant.

“We aren’t either!” Joshua said.

“We didn’t touch the bird,” Seth added. “Not with our hands.” Why is it that when I say it to Talitha, I feel unclean?

“I don’t think that matters,” Talitha said. “Dead is dead. Unclean is unclean.”

Seth glared at her and shook his head. He knew what she was doing. David wouldn’t tattle on his friends, but Talitha would force the issue.

“So can I stay?” She stood with her arms crossed, her right foot planted off to one side.

“Okay,” Seth grumbled, hoping that would keep her from talking to any parents.

“No!” David said firmly. “I will not recite Torah around a girl.”

“You can’t make me do what I don’t want to do,” Talitha announced.

The boys glared at her. She was right, of course. Joshua dug the stick into the squirming maggots. Seth could tell he was considering tossing more at her. Making her unclean. But then he would be guilty too.

“That’s okay,” she said with a smirk. “I have to go anyway. I’m sure Eli would like some help in the field.”

Seth hated that smirk. He hated the way she stood. She knew exactly what she was doing —ruining his life. And worse, she enjoyed it.

She turned on her toe, so slowly that Seth wondered if she would really leave. She moved away gradually, glancing back over her shoulder and looking at each boy. “See you soon.”

When she was finally out of earshot, David looked squarely at Seth. “Are you sure you want friends?”

Seth looked at David, his stomach getting fluttery inside. “What do you mean?”

“You heard me,” David said, lifting his chin slightly.

Seth could feel his heart starting to beat faster. “We’ve been friends almost since the day we were born. Why wouldn’t I want to be your friend?”

“I just wondered,” David said, “because you don’t seem to need any.”

“I don’t understand.” Seth swallowed hard. The truth was he hoped he didn’t understand.

“It’s your sister, locust face,” Joshua added. He picked up a beetle, letting it crawl over his finger. “Seems to us like you would rather be with her.” He set the beetle on a rock and quickly smashed it with another.

The blood drained from Seth’s face. “No, of course not.”

“I don’t want anyone as my friend who likes to stick around girls,” David said. He stood in front of Seth, his chest puffed out.

“Come on. You have pesky brothers and sisters too,” Seth argued. “What’s the difference?”

“Wherever you go, there she is.” Joshua jerked his head in the direction of the small dust clouds Talitha’s sandals kicked up. He stepped next to David, adopting the same stance. “At least our brothers and sisters stay out of the way.”

Seth’s stomach bounced and flipped and turned over and over. “You’ll give me another chance, won’t you?” he said, his voice barely coming out in a whisper.

David and Joshua looked at each other, seeming to trade thoughts without trading words. David turned to Seth. “We’ve been talking.”

Seth didn’t know if he wanted to hear what was coming next. His heart picked up its pace.

Joshua dug his finger into his ear again. He looked at his finger and then wiped it on his clothes. “If this keeps up, we don’t know if we want to be around you anymore.”

Seth gulped. No friends? The days would be torture —not just long and hot, but boring too. They won’t. They can’t. But when he saw their angry faces, his heart skipped a beat.

Joshua squinted up at the sky. “It’s not like we haven’t given you a lot of chances.”

“She listens in on everything we say,” David said.

“She follows us around and says stupid things,” Joshua added.

“She gets in the middle and just stands there so we can’t shoot our slingshots,” David pointed out.

“When we play Hide and Find, she tells where everyone is.” Joshua rolled his eyes.

“When we’re counting, she off-counts so we’ll get confused and have to start over,” David declared. “And that’s not all. We’d be here until Rosh Hashanah if we said everything she’s done.”

Seth nodded grimly. Everything they said was true. In the old days his sister had only bothered them every few weeks or so. But lately she’d been coming around almost every day. Sometimes she acted like she was their mother. Sometimes she acted like a little girl. She was a grown-up one minute and a little kid the next.

Why couldn’t she be like his friends’ sisters? They might run up to ask something, deliver a message, or bring a jar of water. But they never hung around. One look from their brothers and they would be off, sometimes giggling behind their hands. Their sisters didn’t try to teach them Torah or show them up. Their sisters acted like girls were supposed to. His sister was an embarrassment, a bother, a pain the size of Mount Hermon.

Seth scooped up a sharp rock from the ground. He rolled the rock around in his hand, feeling the jagged edges. He willed himself not to throw it at his sister, who had stopped just out of earshot. He clenched his jaw so tight his teeth hurt. He spun on his heels and heaved the stone so hard, it shattered on the target rock.

“Good one,” David said.

“I wish it had shattered on her head,” Seth said.

The other boys nodded their agreement.