The Purim Costume Quest
My name is Aliza Beach and I have a big problem! I don’t know what to be for Purim, and Purim is two weeks away! All my other siblings and my friends have their Purim costumes, except for me!
“You could be a cowgirl, Aliza,” my older sister, Shoshana, said. “I was that last year,” I replied.
“You could be some sort of animal,” my dad suggested. “That’s for younger children. I’m 12 years old now,” I answered.
“You could be a character from a book,” my younger sister, Yael, said. “I’ll think about that idea. It’s a good idea, but I just don’t know from what book I should choose the character from.” I said.
“You could make your own costume and then you know for sure that nobody else has the same costume as you,” my older brother, Shmuel, said. “That’s a great idea, but it’s too much work to do,” I said.
“Aliza, how about tomorrow, after school, I take you to the costume store and you can take a look at some costumes and see if you like any of them,” my mom suggested. “Okay,” I answered.
The next day, I went to school on the disgusting, yellow school bus. When I finally made it to school, my friend, Sarah, was waiting for me. Sarah has reddish hair that is always put into a headband, and she wears bright cherry red glasses. “Hi, Aliza. How was your ride on the Vehicle of Terror?” Sarah asked me as we were walking into the school building together. “Bad, as usual,” I replied.
“Sarah, I have a HUGE problem. I don’t know what to be for Purim this year! My mom’s taking me shopping for costumes after school today, but I have no idea what I want!” I said. “Oh. I’m going to be an orange cat wearing a pink tutu,” Sarah said. “What a cute idea! But I would never, ever steal your idea,” I said.
As I got into my light blue van to go to the costume store, my mom asked me,” So Aliza, do have any ideas as to what you want to be for Purim?” “No, not really,” I answered. “Well hopefully this trip to the store will help you decide,” my mom added. “I hope so,” I said back to her.
When I entered the store, I was overwhelmed by how many costumes there were! There must have been at least a hundred of them! “Wow! This place has a lot of costumes, Mom!” I exclaimed.  “Indeed it does,” my mom responded, “how about you start taking a look at a few of the costumes, Aliza.” “Okay, Mom,” I said.
After an hour had passed and I still didn’t like any of the costumes, my mom told me that it was getting late and that we should be heading home. I agreed with her, and then we were on our way home.
“I don’t know where else to go to find costumes,” my mom said, after a long period of silence. “Me either,” I said, “I never knew it could be so hard to figure out what Purim costume to wear.” My mom laughed, “Well welcome to being a girl!” she shouted. And then we both laughed together.
The next day in school, Sarah asked me if I found a Purim costume yet. “No, not yet,” I told her. And then, out of nowhere, she tripped on a student’s backpack, and fell to the ground, and she landed on her right arm! “Ow!!!” she cried. “Sarah, are you okay? Do you want be to go get the nurse? Or maybe a teacher? Can you get up? Here, I’ll carry your books for you, and take my hand and I’ll help you get up!” I told her. “Aliza, I can’t get up. My arm hurts too much. And I can’t move my arm either. I don’t even fell my arm, all I feel is pain rushing from my arm,” she told me. “I’ll go get the nurse right away,” I said,”stay right here.”
“Excuse me, Nurse Brown, my friend, Sarah, just fell and she landed on her right arm, and now she can’t move her arm or even feel her arm. And her arm looks a blueish-purple color,” I told Nurse Brown. “It sounds like she broke her arm. I’ll come there right away.  Just need to grab my things,” Nurse Brown told me.
I ran as fast as I could back to where Sarah was sitting. Her arm now looked worse than before. “Stay strong, Sarah, Nurse Brown is coming,” I told Sarah. As soon as I said that, Nurse Brown came storming towards us. “Let me take a look at your arm, Sarah,” Nurse Brown said. “I can’t move my arm,” she told Nurse Brown as Nurse Brown was looking at her arm.
“It looks like you broke your arm. I’ll have to call your parents and they’ll have to take you to the hospital to get your arm x- rayed. As for you Aliza, you have to get to class. I’ll take Sarah to my office to wait for her parents to pick her up,” she said. “Bye Sarah! I’ll come visit as soon as I can!” I shouted to Sarah. “Bye,” she said back to me.
My mom must’ve already heard the news about Sarah, because as we were driving home from school, my mom said to me,” I made a care package to deliver to Sarah. I assume that you want to see her, so I’ll let you do it,” my mom said. As we arrived at Sarah’s door, my mom told me that she’d pick me up in an hour. “Come in Aliza. Sarah couldn’t wait to see you!” Sarah’s mom told me,” she’s in the playroom.”
When I first saw Sarah lying on the couch, I couldn’t believe how big her cast was! It covered her whole arm! “Hi Sarah. I just came to stop by to see how you’re feeling,” I said to Sarah. “And I couldn’t wait till you stopped by! I was practically counting down the minutes till you’d come, and here you are!” she said back to me. “Was it fun in the hospital?’ I asked her as I went to sit down next to her on the couch. “Not really. A doctor just told me that I’ll need to wear this cast for two months,” she said to me. “Wow! That’s a long time!” I said. “No kidding!” she responded. When you do come back to school, do you want me to write down all your notes for you?” I asked her. “Would you?” she answered. “Of course!” I replied.
“Aliza, you are the perfect girl, just the way you are. I could never imagine having a better best friend than you,” she said to me.
The hour went by so quickly, and by the time I turned my head, it was time for me to leave. “Bye Sarah! I’ll come by every day to see you!” I told her as I was leaving. “Bye Aliza!” she shouted back.
That night, I kept on thinking about what Sarah said about me being the perfect girl just the way I am. When I went downstairs in the morning, I told my mom my Purim costume idea. “Mom! I know what I want to be for Purim! I just want to be plain me!” I said. “Okay. That sounds like a great idea, Aliza,” my mom said.
And I give all the credit to Sarah.