“Daniel, have you practiced today?”
Sighing at the sound of his mother’s voice, Danny paused in the middle of bouncing balls off the garage door. Summer was almost over, he’d done nothing, and it was all an account of practicing for his bar mitzvah. “I’ll do it later, Mom,” he called back. Enviously, he watched a red-tail hawk wheel in the sky. Nobody was making the hawk practice. And why did he have to have such a long reading, anyway?
It wasn’t fair. None of his non-Jewish friends had to do it, and most of his Jewish friends had gotten theirs over with before the summer. His best friend Joey had had his in May, and had been allowed to spend six weeks in camp this summer.
“Not this year, Daniel,” his father had told him. “The bar mitzvah is costing us too much money, and you need to be practicing anyway.” So Danny had struggled with the tape Cantor Papir had made for him, trying to get the strange words and tune just right. Joey’s reading had been just ten verses – less than half of what Danny had to do.
But then there were the presents. Joey had gotten an iPad and a bunch of video games and a new bicycle… That what was kept Danny going – he knew there was a big payoff: the party and the presents. It was just that at times like this, with all of his friends away while he was stuck practicing, sometimes it didn’t seem worth it. At times like this, bouncing the ball against the garage and catching it in his mitt was about as much fun as he could get. If only his friends were around…