The Last Song

person of the Jewish faith I have ever met. Your people keep apart.”
    “We have no choice. But it wasn’t always so. My father told me that Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived peacefully side by side for centuries in our kingdom. We were good neighbors and all the children played together. We respected each other’s beliefs and traditions. All that has been wiped away during the last hundred years. The Christians became our masters. They made slaves of the Muslims. They converted some Jews to Christianity by the sword. The rest of us were forced into ghettos, called
Juderias
. We had no choice. We still don’t. We must still live in them.”
    “I’ve seen Jews with red and white badges on the streets, but I have never spoken to one of your race.”
    “
Our
race?”
    I didn’t know how to reply. Was I really one of those Jews … reviled and hated by all and doomed to go to hell? How could that be? After all, I was Doña Isabel, the daughter of the queen’s favorite physician, respected and admired by everyone. “You are mistaken, Yonah. Ihave nothing in common with your people!” I stood up and dusted off my skirts. “I must go.”
    “Think about what I’ve told you,” he called after me. “I can help you to become one of us.”
    I clamped my hands over my ears to shut out his voice, but I couldn’t shut out the thoughts crowding my head as I fumbled my way back to my chamber. I did want to learn about my family’s old religion, but if I did, would I be punished with eternal damnation for my curiosity? I couldn’t forget about the young woman and her baby marching to their deaths in the dreadful procession I’d witnessed. If the Inquisitors discovered my interest in the old ways, would I share the girl’s fate – or even worse?
    Safe in my room, I dropped to my knees, as I always did when anything disturbed me. I prayed to the Virgin for guidance. I prayed for her to help me make the right decision.
    The choice was taken out of my hands. Mama and Papa began to talk about the old religion, and they would not stop. It was as if the dam that had held water back finally broke, allowing it to gush out unchecked. My mother’s eyes were filled with joy and my father’s with pride when they spoke of their heritage. Their wordsmade their way into my heart. Whenever the panic and fear rose in me, I forced myself not to think about what could happen to us. I didn’t reveal my friendship with Yonah and how he, too, wanted to teach me the old ways. I wanted to tell them about him, but I was frightened that they would forbid me to see him. Not only was he a Jew, but he was also just a silversmith’s son. They would say that he was inferior to me in every way. I told myself that I didn’t care.
    I was up late every night, my mind teeming with questions I couldn’t answer. Who was I? What did I believe? When exhaustion finally drove me to fitful sleep, I dreamed of church, of the familiar smell of incense that made me feel at home, of the dry taste of the host in my mouth when I took communion, and of the sharpness of the wine when I drank our savior’s blood. I imagined singing the hymns that made my heart soar during mass.
    Five long days and nights passed before I came to a decision. I summoned Sofia to my room and ordered her to go to the Juderia. Her eyebrows rose, but she remained silent.
    “I want you to find me Yonah, son of Natan Abenatar, the master silversmith, and tell him that I will meet him tonight in the same place where we met before.”
    Her mouth fell open. “Young mistress, what are you saying? Surely you did not meet a young man – and, to make it worse, one of that cursed Jewish race – without taking me along with you? Your lady mother will have me flogged when she finds out what you have done!”
    “She will never find out if neither you nor I tell her.”
    Sofia walked to the door, dragging her feet.
    “But, my lady, I’ve never been to the Juderia. What if the Jews kill me and use my blood to make their Easter bread?” She spat on the floor. “A pox on them!”
    I threw my shoe at her. “Don’t talk like that! Be gone with you and do as you are told.”
    From that day onward, Yonah and I met under the branches of the orange tree several times every week. On the days that we arranged to see each other, I waited and waited impatiently for night to fall. It wasn’t long before I couldn’t imagine life without him. How wrong I had been to believe that he was a