The other woman gasped. “I can’t believe it! Our little, sweet Shaindele who was always so frum?” She shook her head sorrowfully. “If her mameh were still alive, it never would have happened.” She sighed. “But you know, Fruma Esther, if it wasn’t your Shaindele, you’d be the first one to say it’s not fair to the other girls to have such a girl in their class, that she might be a bad influence on them.”

“Emes. Believe me, I know. But what can I do, Basha? She’s my little Shaindele. I lost my dear daughter Zissele. What, am I going to lose her now, too? She’ll have to leave the community. She’ll be pushed out to who knows where? To what Gehinnom? Maybe even off the derech!”

“HaShem Yishmor!”

Fruma Esther nodded. “Blood is thicker than water. Anyway, like you said, she’s tsumisht, not evil. Basha, the child has only four months until she graduates. Then she’ll go to the matchmakers, do everything respectably. But if she gets expelled…”

“No matchmaker will go near her, and the boys, her brothers, will also be in trouble.”

“Even worse, she’ll never be able to become a teacher like her mother! No religious school would accept her. And she would make a wonderful teacher.”

“So what you’re telling me is this has to be hushed up, and fast.”

Both women nodded. “I told Yaakov and Leah this. But there’s a problem.”

“Vus?”

“Leah. She doesn’t know from such things. She’s mad on the world! She goes to Halpern and threatens him she’ll go to the police.”

“She didn’t!”

“I’m telling you, when I heard this, it’s getting black in my eyes! She’ll turn him in, she tells him, and Grub, and also—listen to this—the Bobelger Rebbe himself for recommending Grub!”

“I’m plotzing, Fruma Esther, plotzing!”

“What are we going to do? Such a broch. To threaten their rebbe. His hoodlums are already worked up.” Fruma Esther shared the long list of attacks the family had already suffered.

“I can’t believe it! To Shaindele, in the middle of the street, in front of everyone! Such chutzpah. Behemeis. So the word is already out.”

“Was it Halpern or Grub, you think?”

“Probably Grub called Halpern, to complain on Shaindele and get her expelled. But before he could do it, Leah started in with him about the police. Halpern for sure called Grub to tell him what she said.”

“Such a chorbyn!”

“It was an easy way out for Halpern. But don’t worry on him; he’s a nishtikeit! He should only meet a fire! He hasn’t been principal very long. And that son of his, that Duvie, we’ve all heard the stories. So Halpern’s been on shaky ground awhile. You know, my Aryeh sits on the board of Bais Yaakov.”

“I didn’t know that!”