Sov, Sov, Sov
For @buckysbears also tagging @jewishfitz Happy Hanukkah, friends!!!
Summary: Fitz's Mum teaches her son how to play the dreidel game.
Read on AO3
Leopold Fitz was seven-years-old and busy building Lego in his bedroom. It was Sunday, which meant that he didn’t have to go to school, and was free to do whatever he wanted (as long as Mummy said it was okay, and it didn’t upset Daddy). He absently rubbed his finger over the dots of a green Lego as he considered what to build next. Maybe he’d ask Mummy if she would take him to the park. That would be fun. He could go up to the top of the climbing frame.
He let go of the Lego and got up, heading to the kitchen where he found Mummy sitting at the table, something spinning in front of her. Leopold was transfixed as he watched the spinning object, his mouth hanging open slightly. It stopped spinning and fell over, and Leopold saw symbols that he didn’t recognize on the sides. “Mummy? What’s that?”
Mummy turned to look at him and opened her arms invitingly. Leopold climbed into her lap and reached out to examine the strange object. It was small and wooden, and each of the four sides had a different symbol painted on.
“It’s called a dreidel,” Mummy explained. “It’s a game. To play, each player has an equal number of pieces, and you take turns spinning the dreidel. Each of the sides has a different meaning that tells you what to do.” She took it from Leopold and showed him one side. “This is shin. It means you add one piece to the pot.” She turned it to the second side. “This is hey. It means you get half of what’s in the pot.” She turned it to the third side. “This is gimel. It means you get everything in the pot.” She turned it a final time. “This is nun. It means you do nothing.”
“Make it spin,” Leopold requested. Mummy put the dreidel on the table and twisted it with her thumb and pointer finger. Leopold stared at it as it spun, relaxing against his mother as he watched. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him tight, just how he liked.
“Do you remember what that side is called?” Mummy asked once the dreidel had stopped spinning and fallen on one of the sides.
Leopold stuck his fingers in his mouth to chew as he thought. “Hey?” he guessed.
“That’s right!” Mummy squeezed him again and kissed the top of his head. “Would you like to play the game?”
“Okay.”
“Hop up, love, I need to get pieces for us to play with.”
While Mummy went to the pantry, Leopold went to the cupboard next to the oven and opened the door. He found what he wanted and brought it back to the table, sitting it in the middle. Mummy came back with a bag of pretzels, stopping once she noticed the pot in the middle of the table. “Leopold, why-” she began to ask, before stopping and answering herself, “-oh, because I said that we put the pieces in the pot.” She handed the pretzels to Leo. “Count out 15 for each of us, love.”
Leopold did so, giving 15 pretzels to Mummy and keeping 15 for himself. “Now,” Mummy said, “we start by putting one in the pot.” They did so. “And you get to spin first, because you’re the youngest.”
Leopold picked up the dreidel between his fingers and gave it a twist, flapping his hand as he watched it spin. “Gimel?” he asked Mummy once it had landed.
“That’s right; that means you get to take everything in the pot.”
Leopold took the two pretzels out, and then they both put one pretzel in. Mummy spun the dreidel and it landed on nun . They continued taking turns spinning the dreidel until a few particularly lucky spins of Mummy landing on nun several times in a row, and Leopold landing on gimel meant that Leopold won all the pretzels.
“Can I eat them now?” Leopold wanted to know.
Mummy smiled and nodded. “Yes, you can eat them.” She took the pot to the sink and Leopold began spinning the dreidel on the table while he ate his snack. He liked watching it spin. “Did you like that game, Leopold?” Mummy asked once she returned to the table.
“Yes.”
“I played it with my mummy when I was a little girl, during Hanukkah.”
“Hanukkah’s a holiday,” Leopold observed.
“Yes, it is,” Mummy said. “It’s a Jewish holiday.”
“Can I take the dreidel to my room?” Leopold asked. He had finished his pretzels and was tired of talking. He wanted to keep watching the dreidel spin. Mummy nodded and Leopold went to his room.
In the years that followed, Leopold got very good at spinning the dreidel, even figuring out how to spin it so that it landed where he wanted. He and Mum would play the dreidel game frequently, even when it wasn’t Hanukkah time. After his father left, his mum began teaching him more about her childhood faith and the various beliefs, traditions, and holidays. Even though Hanukkah was considered a minor holiday in the Jewish faith, Leopold considered it his favorite, all because of his Mum, a wooden dreidel, and pretzels.
