Once upon a time in a tiny kingdom there was a little girl. She didn’t have a mom, just a dad who loved her madly.
Her dad sported a big black beard and the girl used to pull it when she was really young. And as she grew up she realized that the beard was her dad’s pride and joy. And then she stopped pulling it. This beard was really comfortable to sleep on when daddy carried her home in his arms, and to cry into when she was sad or hurt.
Daddy’s beard was a safe haven from all the sorrows.
Daddy was looking at her when she slept with her nose tucked in his beard, and whispering: “Perfection!”
Daddy caught her every time she tipped over her high chair because she couldn’t sit straight, only twist and turn.
Daddy was patiently chasing her through the long corridors of pediatric clinic – back and forth, and all over again, ten times at least.
And he wasn’t angry at all when she took his yanuka and tossed it on the floor, laughing. He just picked it up and brushed it off gently.
He watched her stomping her strong little feet on the stones and whispered, “Perfection!”
In their tiny little kingdom they lived in a tiny little house with small windows and peeling walls.
And snaking along the wall was an old climbing rose, planted by girl’s mom. Before she left.
So it happened – the little girl came, and her mom left. And daddy was crying on his knees, holding them both at once.
But one of them will never stroke his head again and say softly, haim sheli*, my love…
He looked at the red wrinkled little face and whispered, his lips puffy with tears: “Perfection!”
Little girl kneeled by her little window and looked out at the little back yard, where a black cat walked with her kittens. All the kittens were gray and only one of them was black like his mom. And it was so wonderful. She was calling her dad and waving her arms, and pointing her little finger at the window, shouting to the cat: come here, beautiful, my daddy must see the kittens too and marvel at them! Daddy only heard something like “mew-mew” and “ba”, but he understood everything just fine and was marveling obediently.
He was running to look at the giant black beetle and was afraid of it along with the girl. But then he would get himself together and solemnly carried the beetle into their small yard to make the girl stop shrieking and stomping her little feet.
And he only laughed every time the girl tipped over her porridge bowl and somehow covered herself with the porridge all over – from her fuzzy black hair to her pink bare heels. He was laughing, kissing her nose and whispering: “Perfection!”
Little girl felt warm and secure lying on her daddy’s belly with her head on daddy’s soft comfortable beard. And she was singing her songs and telling her tales, dangling her feet and laughing. Daddy’s big warm palm held her tight, and daddy’s voice gently encouraged her whenever she got tired of singing. And he told his tales about mommy who used to call daddy “haim sheli” and was a perfection.
And later, at night, when the little girl was watching her mysterious baby dreams in her little bed, dad would get out of the tiny house, sit on a warm porous stone by the window and lightly touch the rose.
“You see”, – He would whisper without a sound, “Our daughter is perfection. Just like you. And even a little better, you can see it for yourself, right?”
The rose always nodded – of course she is perfection, and you’ll be all right, don’t even worry about it. You are the best yiddishe papa in the world. You two will be fine, don’t worry, haim sheli… everything will be just fine.
*Haim sheli – “My life” (Hebrew)
Translated by Diana Shnaiderman-Pereira