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Roza Naumovna’s Recipes: Sour Cabbage Soup

9m read

Roza Naumovna’s Recipes: Sour Cabbage Soup

by Maria Bloyshteyn Published in Issue #15
AgingAntisemitismNon-JewsWWII
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So now you come. Nu, better late than never. I suppose I have to thank that creative writing program of yours. What a woman your age is doing in a creative writing program I cannot understand. First Bali, then Italy, then . . . where was it you went to? That’s right, then was India. Then you taught English in Korea. So where does it end? I’ve been telling your mother for years where it ends. Right here, living alone with two cats and enrolling in a creative writing program.
           
What you should have really done is taken something for working with old people. Because everyone is getting old. And it just keeps going, the oldness. Look at me: who’d ever think I’d be old for so long? I had the flu a month ago. I was lying on the pillow and thinking, maybe now it ends. But no, first day fever, second day fever, third day the temperature goes down and I am still going on, older. Yes, everyone gets old. Even here with their face lifts and tucks and lasers, and their golden age lie. Don’t think you are exempt. I remember you as a chubby toddler and now you have no bum to speak of and wrinkles around your eyes.
           
And now you want a recipe with a story. Is that the college teacher’s assignment or you came up with this gem yourself? Because, what do you think I can give you? Rose petals over a chicken, like in...

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