I can feel the strain through the thread. I am over effusive; she is cordial. Don’t touch me

My laptop’s acting up, and I don’t have the patience to take it back to the store. Calling customer service means the evening on the phone. This may just need a simple tweak. Nava would know.

Nava. I haven’t been in touch with her in over two years. She’s an old friend, a dear friend, a techy geek with a high-fangled coding job somewhere in the teeming city. A job that may or may not be connected with her being far from our world right now. She’s drifted from Yiddishkeit, but apparently, she’s just an e-mail away.

She helps me with my issue over e-mail. I can feel the strain through the thread. I am over effusive; she is cordial. Don’t touch me. Let’s talk cyber-problems and work, nothing personal.

My daughter is playing at my feet as the e-mails go back and forth. Ten months old and Nava doesn’t know she exists.

Back in the day, she loved kids. Even as a high school girl she had the patience to play with kids, to find a baby fascinating. She couldn’t have changed at the core. And besides, she was my friend, she deserved to know.

I add it as a postscript to the e-mail I’m writing: PS, thought you might like to know that I had a baby a little while ago.

I attach a picture.

I don’t expect much back — her response will range from silence to so cute.

A couple hours later she responds. I’m into crocheting, recent hobby. I’d love to make your baby something. A hat, perhaps?

I feel bad. It’s the beginning of spring, my daughter isn’t as small as the picture makes her out to be. Nava probably thinks she’s a newborn who needs a hat all the time.

I reread her e-mail. Realize that it’s more than another project. It’s a way of connecting, of investing herself in something for my baby.

She’s quite big now, I write back, she doesn’t really need a hat till next winter. But we’ll appreciate it lots then.

She’s cute, I’ll make her something for then, she replies, and sends along a picture of her other projects so I can choose a style.

Why did she take up knitting? What is her schedule like that it leaves her with time for yarn and knitting needles?