Like Sisters and Brothers

Hillie has two problems. At school, she fought with “the queen” of the class and feels estranged from the other girls. At home, she must face a much less banal problem – her mother is undergoing fertility treatment in an attempt to have another child. Hillie naturally wants to know what “fertility treatment” is, and she questions her father, mother and grandmother. Her mother is a doctor and can explain a great deal, but Hillie is more interested in her parents’ feelings than in medical details. She is a sensitive listener: her insights are particularly poignant when she turns her attention to her mother’s experience. As an only child, Hillie has always wanted a brother or sister, and when she feels left out at school, she hopes for a sibling to end her loneliness. But she doesn’t get one. In the meantime, she gets support from an unexpected source: her friendships help her overcome the disappointment of remaining an only child. Here, as elsewhere, Orgad displays her rare ability to see the world from a child`s perspective.