A haunting voice, a forgotten legacy, and a golem waiting to wake.
Welcome to ADAM, a bi-weekly serialized historical fantasy rooted in Jewish mysticism and folklore. Each installment reveals a new chapter in the unfolding tales of three Jewish women living during three different moments of history.
This chapter introduces twin sisters Avital and Annelise, identical in appearance yet different in nature, growing up in pre-WW2 Vienna.
If you’re just joining us, welcome! You can catch up anytime using the full Chapter List. If you’re back, I’m so glad to have you here! You can start reading below.
If you’re curious about the inspiration behind ADAM, this article shares how the story came to be and why I’m telling it one chapter at a time. Thank you so much for reading and being part of this journey — it means the world to me.
I’d love to know what you think so far. If you have thoughts, questions, or favorite moments, drop a comment below — I welcome the conversation and am so glad to have you with me.
Chapter List
Chapter One: The Maharal’s Daughter
Chapter Two: The Witch of Döbling
Chapter Three: The ADAM Project
Chapter Four: The Sacred Shidduch
Chapter Five: The Fifth Aliyah
Chapter Six: Interface
Chapter Seven: The Golem of Prague
Chapter Eight: Under the Olive Tree
Chapter Nine: That Night OR The Incident
Chapter Ten: Unseen
Chapter Two: The Witch of Döbling
Döbling, Austria, 1933
The rumors surrounding Avital began when she was only ten years old. It happened after Sadie Graff fell and skinned her knee. The little girl sat on the ground crying, blood from the scrape pooling at her side. Avital broke away from the other girls in the schoolyard to kneel beside her, speaking in a hushed and soothing voice. Their classmates gathered in a circle around the two girls. By the time they were sent home after their final class, whispers were spreading like wildfire.
“Did you see what Avi did?”
“She placed her hand over Sadie’s knee, and it stopped bleeding.”
“There was no scratch or scar! It looked like she never fell!”
“But I saw her fall. She was running and tripped over her shoelaces and went sprawling on the gravel. She was all cut up!”
“But there was no cut. Even nurse said she didn’t have to administer anything to Sadie. No iodine, no ointment.”
“I thought for sure she would have to go to hospital for stitches.”
“The teachers don’t believe she fell.”
“But she did!”
“And the blood is gone too. I went back to look. There was no blood on the ground.”
That evening, over supper, parents scolded their children for making up stories. But the girls in Avital and Sadie’s class knew what they had seen. And the next day held an even bigger surprise. When the girls gathered in the yard during their morning recess, they saw a cluster of bright white Edelweiss growing up from the crack in the cement where the blood had been. It was the only object of beauty in the otherwise barren schoolyard.
“Where did that come from?”
“Isn’t that where Sadie fell?”
“I’ve only seen Edelweiss in the mountains when I visited with my Mama and Papa.”
“It’s not supposed to grow here in the city. Only in the mountains.”
“It’s magic!”
“Avital made it grow!”
By the end of the year, Avital had a new nickname . . . The Witch of Döbling.
***
Unlike her twin, Annalise was known for her beauty. Although Annalise and Avital were identical, Annalise’s features were somehow softer, more ethereal, as though the sun sought the golden highlights in her auburn hair and kissed the rosy curve of her high cheekbones. When the sisters entered secondary school, the boys began to notice Annalise. They waited outside the gates of the all-girls’ private school the twins attended to walk Annalise home. Avital always trailed behind. At first, some of the boys tried to get her attention, but Avital was more concerned with the maple leaves growing overhead, the pink ipomoea flowers blossoming along the fences they passed, or the yellow oxalis sprouting up through the cracks in the sidewalk.
“She’s off in her own world again,” they muttered, and quickly turned their attention back to Annalise. While Avital still wore her hair in braids, Annalise styled hers in a shorter, fashionable bob, her locks falling in soft pin curls around her powdered face. Her dresser was soon crowded with perfumes and lipsticks and rouges and blush, while Avital’s was littered with flowers she had plucked from the woods or herbs she had collected to study. Annalise clipped photos from fashion magazines and often lamented the drab uniform the girls were required to wear to school. “One day, Avi, we will be rid of these uniforms,” she mused wistfully. “We can stroll along the Champs-Élysées in only the finest clothing. Mamma said she will take us shopping in Paris when we graduate. Perhaps she will allow us to wear one of her fur stoles. I’ve admired them for so long, haven’t you?”
Avital wasn’t the least bit interested in their mother’s closet of fine gowns or furs. She preferred to dress in her father’s old wool trousers to kneel in the garden of their home and tend to the weeds and pick berries or till the soil for new seeds. While Annalise entertained her friends in the parlor of their home, American jazz music playing on the Victrola, Avital preferred to be outdoors, alone, even in the coldest months of winter.
Of all the boys who sought Annalise’s affection, she was soon drawn to a soft-spoken young man who attended the neighboring boys school named David Kantor. The day he came to call on Annalise at their home, Avital was planting butterfly milkweed in the garden. She watched, hidden behind the tall ornamental grasses that bordered the garden path as he approached their front door. He paused to straighten the collar of his freshly starched shirt and reached up to press a stray lock of chestnut hair back in place before ringing the bell. The wax combed into his short, neatly groomed hair reflected the afternoon sunlight. The scent of his Eau de Toilette reached her where she knelt, and she imagined him dousing himself in his father’s cologne before leaving his home. Avital giggled at the idea. She could tell he was nervous by the way his feet shuffled as he waited, and a part of her felt sorry for him. She had to admit he was handsome in a traditional sense, just as Annalise was traditionally beautiful.
When their father opened the door to greet David, Avital noticed how David wiped his hand on his trouser leg before shaking his hand. “Won’t you come in?” Her father asked as, from somewhere inside the house, Annalise called out, “I’m coming!” Her lilting voice reached Avital’s ears on a breath of warm afternoon air. Suddenly she was at David’s side, her hand slipping into the crook of his arm. “That’s alright, Papa, we’re going to be late if we don’t leave now.”
“Another time then?” David asked.
“Indeed,” their father nodded. “It was a pleasure to meet you, David.”
“You, too, sir.”
“I trust you’ll have her home by 10:00 this evening,” their father added as they prepared to take their leave.
“Oh, Papa, don’t be so old-fashioned!” Annalise protested, but David hastily replied, “I will, sir.”
They turned onto the path that led to the front gate, Annalise practically skipping beside David. When they were within a few yards of where Avital crouched, Annalise turned her head to stare right in her sister’s direction, instinctively sensing her presence. She paused, waving. David glanced over Annalise’s shoulder and Avital saw the look of surprise on his face when he realized she’d been there all along, concealed by the grass. Standing and wiping her hands on her apron, she walked to meet the couple on the path.
“David’s taking me to the Schönbrunn Zoo,” Annalise said breathlessly. “Isn’t that wonderful?”
“It is,” Avital admitted. The zoo was one of her favorite places in all of Vienna, with its exotic animals and flourishing gardens on the grounds of the Schönbrunn Palace. She remembered her first time visiting the menagerie as a child. She remembered holding onto her mother’s hand as they stood outside the giraffe enclosure, something in her blood quickening as she gazed up at the slender neck and gentle eyes of the grazing creature. All around her were the ornate cages that housed the animals, each one more fascinating than the next. The tree branches overhead rustled whenever birds took flight into a cerulean blue sky. A symphony of sound surrounded them, from the hum of the bees pollinating the flowering shrubs, to the high-pitched chirps of the hummingbirds that hovered in midair, their wings a motionless blur. Avital had felt at home, at peace, surrounded by all that natural beauty. She cried when her mother told her it was time to go home.
“We are meeting Judith and Benjamin at the pavilion,” Annalise continued, and Avital pictured the baroque building in the heart of the zoo where the Emperor used to have his breakfast. “A double date! Isn’t that just the cat’s meow?”
“It is,” Avital repeated, and Annalise’s excitement faded slightly. Sensing something in her sister’s tone, she asked, “Would you like to join us? I know how much you love seeing the animals.”
Avital glanced at David, who politely averted his eyes and pretended not to eavesdrop. Avital guessed she would not be welcome.
“I don’t think so, Lisi. You two go ahead.”
Annalise’s smile returned as she grabbed her sister’s hands and squeezed them excitedly. “You’re the best! I’ll tell you all about it when I’m home!” She leaned forward and planted a kiss on her sister’s cheek before turning back to David, who smiled and took her hand in his. Avital watched them walk away.
Three years later, as the sisters walked up the gangway of the ship that would take them away from their home, Annalise was no longer giddy or carefree. She clung to Avital’s arm with one hand, clutching a handkerchief in the other, dabbing her eyes as she sobbed. When they reached the deck of the ship, she threw her arms around Avital. “I can’t look,” she choked as the ship’s foghorn sounded and the ship began to pull away from the dock. “I can’t bear to look. I don’t know when I’ll ever see David again!”
So it was Avital who watched. Avital watched as their mother waved her own handkerchief in the air as she, too, sobbed. She watched as their father wrapped his arm around their mother, pulling her closer, staring resolutely at the ship as it slowly left the port. And she watched as David, standing beside their parents, slowly grew smaller, his waving hand becoming nothing more than a raised salute, growing soft around the edges, and finally fading from view.
