Their friendship is ironic in the way that they both admire each other for what they dislike –or lack in themselves – but they both see each other as superior. The farther along Tsila gets in her pregnancy, the worse it looks health wise. When Bayla visits her newly pregnant sister out of concern, the unsuperstitious Tsila bakes the same cookies she made when Miriam first came into their house, and almost to die a few days later – this only makes us think: would this bring misfortune onto her unborn child? Around this time, Miriam gets a pang of anxiety recalling reeds gathered from poor soil. This happens to me several times a day, feeling intense fear for unprovoked reasons or irrational reasons. Aaron searches tirelessly for a new job and finds one working for Noam, who works him very hard. Through her job, Miriam hears the gossip of how Noam had courted her mother before Aaron did. Noam initially scared Miriam, but sympathy soon follows and she views him differently after learning about both his and her mother’s unfortunate childhood.
When Miriam’s job requires her to read the potentially good news to a mother from her son’s prison, Miriam is tested. The letter reads of death, instead of dating when her son would return to her after a decade in prison. I respected that Miriam read out the letter word for word, and after the deed was done instead of fleeing like she wanted