Meital

Meital shifted her weight on the hard crate and looked at the tall, covered mirror her mother had once stood in front of, shifting her weight from this foot to the other, tugging this piece of her blouse and tucking in that bit; always making sure she was "just so" before walking out the door.  

The neighbours, who weren't Jewish didn't know the customs of shiva, but they did all they could just the same; Mrs Fitzpatrick had brought over pizza the first night, (with pepperoni,) and Steven, the Super had brought up Cadbury chocolate eggs and yellow and pink marshmallow peeps, explaining that his wife had cleaned out the shelves at CVS after Easter, and that "everyone likes sugar!"

Meital agreed and swallowed the eggs like a starving dog once everyone had gone home.

Now,  the sugar craving hit afresh as she sat, alone on the green crate and wished she hadn't finished the chocolate so thoughtlessly the night before.  All that was left was the two packets of peeps. 

"But they're so cute" thought Meital.  "How can I eat something this cute?"

She took a yellow one out of the packet and held it in her hand.  "Ok," she said out loud,  "when I bite into you, you'll be born some place else, but as a real chick!" Meital had played games like this with herself since she was a girl.  It was the only way she could bring herself to eat animal crackers.  She ate the peeps, one after one and sucked the sugar off her sticky fingers. 

"I wish that when we died, we could be born someplace far away but in a different form" she thought. 

On a distant world, a new baby opened her orange eyes for the first time, as vague memories of someone named  Meital quickly faded like a dream.