“Yes, I know. But your sister is having a hard time. And sometimes, when we are older and having a hard time, HaShem helps us by letting us sleep and have good dreams. Then, when we wake up, we aren’t so sad anymore.”

“HaShem is so good!” exclaimed Chasya with such a sigh of saintly, heartfelt sincerity, Leah couldn’t stop laughing and kissing her.

“Good!” Mordechai Shalom echoed, jumping up and down, a huge smile plumping out his already enormous cheeks, his long blond curls covering his big, blue eyes.

Such a gorgeousness, Leah thought, scooping him up, his chubby little body tender and sweet in her arms. How she loved them both, she thought, her attention drawn from the teenager to the little ones whose needs she felt so much more adequate to address. And for the moment, she tried not to worry.

“So how did it go?” Yaakov asked as soon as he walked through the door.

“Honestly, I don’t know.”

“You didn’t talk to her?”

“She was sleeping.”

“Sleeping? And where is she now?”

“Still in her room.” Only now Leah realized how many hours had passed, and still Shaindele hadn’t emerged.

Yaakov knocked on the door. “It’s Tateh. Can I come in?”

“Come in, Tateh.”

She was sitting up, her feet dangling off the bed to the floor, her pretty young face wrinkled from the indentations of the pillow. Her thick, dark hair had unraveled in messy wisps that covered her eyes. She pushed them back, gathering her hair in her hand and expertly rebraiding it. Her face was pale, pinched.

“What happened to you?”

“What happened?” she repeated stupidly, her mind still fogged from sleep.

“How did it go? With Rav Grub?”

She looked up into her kind father’s eager, anxious eyes. She’d caused him enough problems, she thought. Besides, he couldn’t help her. No one could.

“Fine, good,” she answered like an actress learning a part. She had better learn it fast, she told herself, because it was the part she’d been given to play. No one else was auditioning. No one else wanted it. If she was going to get through this without breaking her father’s heart, she was going to need to win an Oscar.

22

LOVE AMONG THE RUGELACH

Rav Alter heard the doorbell ring with surprise and—rare for the pious old man—uncharitable annoyance. Were even these few, sacrosanct hours of rest not to be vouchsafed him? Was there going to be no end to the intrusions on his life so that even his right to loneliness and mourning were not to be respected?

But when he looked through the peephole, he was shocked to see Fruma Esther Sonnenbaum. Quickly, he opened the door.

“I’m not bothering you, k’vod harav?” she said, thrusting out her foiled covered tray.