Could he escape his inner demons by heading into a war zone?

He was going to miss his flight.

Mendy glanced again at the dashboard and beat an impatient staccato on his knee.

“Sorry, Mendy… this looks like the accident of the year.” Levi heaved a sigh at the unmoving chain of cars in front of them.

“Yeah, bro. No need to apologize, just thinking what to do now.”

“Now we sit. What to do when we get out of this gridlock, you mean. Wait — what’s with all the food?”

Mendy grinned through the worry flickering in his gut.

“Frozen solid enough to knock out King Kong. No need to worry.”

Yet that’s exactly what Mendy was doing while sitting in his brother’s car and sweating through the blast of the air conditioning.

The guy behind them honked, making both of them jump. Levi jerked forward another two inches.

“Say, Mend,” he started, and something in the silence made Mendy look across at him.

Levi scratched his neck.

“I’m not mixing in or anything. But maybe this is a sign you shouldn’t go?”

“Whoa. Where did that come from?” Suspicion bloomed in his mind. “Did Ta say anything? Be honest.”

Levi shook his head.

“So who? Ma’s already said all she has to say. We’re all good, we’ve been through this hundreds of times.”

Levi leaned forward to rub the windshield. An incipient tension headache gathered at Mendy’s temples.

“Levi? Talk!”

Levi slanted a gaze at Mendy.

“A brother can’t worry?” he muttered.

Mendy slipped his hand into his pocket and clenched his fist over Zaidy’s coin. A gift, a tradition. Shaliach mitzvah gelt from his very first time on shlichus. His talisman.