He should stay out of it, for his own sake. That was clear to her now. Even though the position he held in the community equaled that of the Bobelger Rebbe and therefore no one would dare to molest him, still, what did he need it for? There would be accusations against his rulings, accusations against his piety. There was no shortage of things these criminals could think up if you went against them. She would never want to put him in harm’s way. Even with so much at stake, she found that she cared for him as deeply as she did about her own family.

“Fruma Esther.”

She turned around. He was standing by the counter holding the rest of the dishes. “Give me the girl’s name. I’ll look into it.”

She shook her head. “Forget I asked you. It’s a bad idea. It’s dangerous, k’vod harav.”

“Shimon Levi,” he corrected her, his sad eyes suddenly twinkling once more.

34

A DIFFERENT WORLD

“Lola? Is that you?” Cheryl Howard asked sleepily, confused. She had just spent the last hour by the swimming pool in the brutal Florida heat, and her brains felt like sautéing mushrooms, soft and shrunk to a fraction of their size.

“Leah, Mom. Did you hear what I said?”

“What?”

“We are on our way to your house.”

“We?”

“Yes. Me, Yaakov, Chasya, and Mordechai Shalom.”

“The whole family?”

“Well, the older kids are in Baltimore.”

“Where are you now?” she asked, just to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. Lola was coming, bringing the rabbi and his little kids? To Florida? To her nonkosher, secular house? Just like that? After she’d politely rejected every single invitation for over two years? Had it not been for the worry that something must be terribly wrong to have unglued her daughter from that backward neighborhood of religious fanatics she’d been clinging to with all her might, Cheryl Howard would have been over the moon.

Despite her fatigue, Cheryl did a quick review of their last conversation, mining for clues. Well, Lola had remarked that she was, after all, still a feminist (who would have thought?). Then there was that admission about the “ups and downs” of newlyweds. Did that mean something? But if Jacob and the kids were coming with her, she couldn’t be hightailing out of fanatics-ville à la Thelma and Louise. But maybe—could it be?—that she was planning on dumping yeshiva boy once she got there, then kidnapping the kids? Go know.

“Where we are is someplace on I-95.” Leah’s voice interrupted her thoughts, answering the question she’d already forgotten she’d asked. “We’ll spend overnight somewhere along the way to break up the drive. It’s okay, Mom, isn’t it? I mean, you did invite us.”

“Of course it’s okay! I’m just surprised is all. How are the little rug rats?”