Anyway I can get a pretend crown at the dollar store As long as I’m fierce like the queen That’s what matters Grace laughed And beautiful You said Queen Esther was fierce and beautiful I stopped twirling before I got dizzy I draped the scarf around my neck and gave my bestie a bright smile Obviously Queen Esther was fierce and beautiful That’s how she saved the Jews and became a superhero Grace rolled her eyes Elsie they didn’t have superheroes in those days She was as close to a superhero as you get If they made a movie about the Purim story Gal Gadot would play her Grace nodded She’s totally fierce It was no secret that Grace and I loved Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman We’d each watched all the movies she was in a million times It also wasn’t a secret that I wanted to be Gal Gadot Or that 4
Grace had a crush on Gal Gadot who could blame her said Anyway I started looking through the racks for more treasures I can’t wait for the party You’ve been planning for it forever Grace Since last year’s I said Purim parties at the temple are so epic Last year Rabbi Alisha gave out a prize for whoever made the most noise when they said evil Haman’s name And there’s lots of yummy food Of course there’s also the costume contest Which you will win I nodded I was determined to win this year Purim sounds like so much fun Grace pouted a little It is I said But you get Easter with all the chocolate and everything Plus Christmas Well you get Hanukkah with doughnuts and latkes 5
That’s true I pulled a mint-green shirt off the rack and held it up against my chest Grace made a face That color is no good for you she said You’re too pale It would look great against my dark skin But you need darker colors Grace always knew so much about colors and fashion I held the shirt out toward her Want it No thanks She shook her head Not my style I’m just saying the color would work on me I put the shirt back I wish we could do some of those fun things together she said She pulled a hoodie off the rack and held it up to herself When I shook my head she returned it I like to dress up We get to dress up together for Halloween I said Grace sighed Halloween is months away I wish I could go to your Purim party I’d probably be the only Black Wonder Woman there 6
Probably I put my arm around her and gave her a side hug And I wish you could go too But it’s only for temple members I know Grace sounded so sad Suddenly I got an idea Rabbi Alisha was always talking about community outreach She said that learning about non-Jewish people and teaching them about our customs was a good way to build a community where everyone was loved and respected Maybe letting my best friend come to our Purim party was a sort of outreach Hmm I’d ask Rabbi Alisha at Sunday school But I didn’t want to get Grace’s hopes up just in case So I kept my idea to myself I paid for my scarf and then we walked three blocks to the dollar store When we got inside we went past the Easter section Even though it was still only February and Easter was in April the store had all the stuff 7
