On the shelf was the beautiful silver menorah that Ilana had given her. She looked down at the old menorah tightly clutched in her hands. Then she went to the chest that her father had made for her clothes and buried the menorah way down at the bottom of the chest, under all her clothes. She didn't have very many because her mother had to make them, but there were pieces of cloth for her mother to use to make more clothes (her mother hadn't gotten round to it yet, since she had to prepare Maya's birthday party). Maya flopped down on the hard mattress and picked up her rag doll that her mother had made for her and sighed. She did not like the menorah. She liked the one that Ilana had given her, but how could she tell that to her family? They had given her the best thing they could find, but she just did not like the menorah! Well I'll do this, she decided. I'll tell them that this Chanukah, I'm going to use the menorah that Ilana gave me, and next year I'll use the one my family gave me. Maybe by next year, the menorah will be in better shape.

With this thought she walked slowly down the stairs and into the living room. She took a deep breath, opened her mouth, but before she could say a word, her mother said very excitedly that they should start to clean up the menorah so that it would be ready for Chanukah. Her mother looked so excited that Maya couldn't let her down, so she closed her mouth and said that she would bring the menorah down. She ran upstairs, angry at herself for not telling her mother what she planned to do, but, she thought, it can wait. She ran to her chest and reached down to the bottom, her fingers closed around the menorah, and she pulled it out. She looked at it. It was now dusty as well as old and ugly. She brushed some dust off with her sleeve, then she ran downstairs to her mother. Her mother gave her a cloth and a can of polish. She showed Maya how to clean the menorah, and then sent her upstairs to her bedroom to do it, so that she and Jonatan and David could have a little talk. Maya went up the stairs to her room slowly.