How was she going to get out of this? She wouldn’t have minded telling Bubbee all about Yoel Grub, but if she did, she’d have to explain what she was doing there in the first place; she’d have to explain about Duvie Halpern, and the trips to the city and out to Far Rockaway …

“You’re cold?”

Shaindele shook her head, crossing her arms defensively over her shivering shoulders.

“You had a fight with Leah?”

Shaindele looked up, startled. So that’s what she thought! She hesitated, wondering if she should simply latch onto that for the sake of convenience. But the unfairness of it was too much for her. She shook her head. “Leah has been wonderful to me, Bubbee.”

The old woman raised her eyebrows. This was a new story. Now Fruma Esther was really worried, whereas before she had just been mildly concerned, convinced that some minor rift between Shaindele and her stepmother was at the bottom of this unexpected visit. That would have been understandable, even expected. The girl had been so against the match, and no one could say she was completely in the wrong. After all, her father was a respected talmid chocham, and Leah had been a girl from the street, a baalas teshuva from a single mother who dressed like a … Oy. Better not to even think such thoughts. As much as Fruma Esther had come to respect, even like, Leah, certain things still rankled.

“So what, then, shefelah?”

“I’m going to a psychologist. The school sent me.”

“A psychologist,” she repeated. After everything that had happened to Zissele, just the word made all her nerves tingle and her stomach ache. “For vus?”

“I’m having … had … some … problems,” Shaindele said slowly, selecting every word as if it were a live grenade.

“What kind of problems?”

“Bubbee, you know!”

“Still from your mameh? From all that business? But didn’t we talk about it?”

“We talked. But it doesn’t go away so fast.”

“So this psychologist, what do you do with him? Also talk, no? And he’s helping you?”

“Yes, but…” What was she going to say now?

“Nu?”

“He was helping me a little, but I don’t like him. I’m not going back.”

“So it’s decided? From what, then, are you shaking so much from what’s decided already?”

“I decided. But the school…”

“What does it have to do with the school?”

“They made me go. Otherwise, Rabbi Halpern will expel me.”

“And you told the school you’re not going back? They know? They agree?”

“Not yet. But I told everything to Leah. And she agrees with me!”

That, sniffed Fruma Esther Sonnenbaum, was neither here nor there. “So tell me also what you told Leah.”

“Please, Bubbee, it’s hard for me!”

“Truth surfaces like oil on water. Out with it!”

“I don’t like the psychologist. He isn’t … tzniusdik.”

“Vus?”