If not for that — the caring for all those mothers and babies — she would’ve quit this mind-numbing job a hundred times

IT was the same place, the same food, the same people.

And somehow, everything was different.

Okay, it wasn’t exactly all the same people. Sruly was with her in Akeres now, and that’s what made the whole Shabbos experience so… strange.

Yehudis put on her earrings — still so odd on her ears, all gleaming diamonds, like she was some queen or something, and ha ha, maybe she was, Sruly’s queen, right? — and inspected her reflection one last time before heading out of her room in the small family wing on the first floor.

Well, bentshing licht was also different. She’d only done it once before, last week, in her cozy little apartment, with Sruly observing  happily. Now, Sruly had left to shul with her father 15 minutes before lichtbentshen, and she was on her own.

She approached the long table set with tea lights with a touch of trepidation, like she was an intruder on the scene. It had always felt that way, spending Shabbos around a whole bunch of new mothers. Now, most mothers were bentshing licht in snoods, and she felt out of place in her beautiful new sheitel.

“Gut Shabbos, Yehudis,” her mother greeted her warmly. “You look so, so beautiful!”

For a moment, it looked like she was going to bend forward and give her a kiss, and Yehudis instinctively recoiled. It was just… weird. They’d never done that when she was single. And also, in front of all those ladies….

“I’m going to my room to daven,” she told her mother.

She caught the frown on her mother’s face, but seriously, what did she expect? Her mother would enjoy herself with all those new mothers, sitting and schmoozing in one of the lounges or in the feeding room. Yehudis didn’t belong there. As boring as it may be, she’d rather pass the time on her own until the men returned.