It was a milestone, something to celebrate… but except for a slight flutter of excitement, he didn’t feel anything that he’d planned to feel

Early in the morning on 29 Tishrei, a small moving van parked in front of the Kleiners’ building, and two porters began loading Berko Zemelweiss’s possessions into the back, supervised by his daughter and son-in-law. With a warm exchange of good wishes, Mr. Zemelweiss bid Yanky goodbye, leaving a few bars of chocolate for the kinderlach, and rode away to his new home in the assisted living facility. By ten o’clock the rental unit was empty, and at eleven, the new tenant arrived.

“Here’s the money,” he said, pulling a bundle of bills out of his pocket. “Six thousand nine hundred shekels, for three months. Next time, I’ll give you checks, b’ezrat Hashem. I just opened a bank account this morning, after I got confirmation from Bituach Leumi that I’m all paid up. There was no point opening an account before that, because Bituach Leumi would have frozen it.”

While Yanky counted the money and wrote out a receipt on a memo slip, Lulu was busy unloading Bugi’s things from the old baby stroller.

“Bugi, I’m putting the clothes in the bedroom closet,” he announced. He opened the closet door and, removing the items from their bags indiscriminately, placed them on the shelves haphazardly. “Wow,” he said. “There’s lace edging on the shelves. This really is a nice place. Almost a hotel!”

After pushing a set of sheets into the closet, Lulu moved on to the little kitchen. “Bugi, I’m putting the bag of kitchen stuff in here!” he called out.

“Thanks, Lulu.” Bugi waited for the feeling of elation that ought to be sweeping over him. Where was it? He’d looked forward so eagerly to this moment. Here he was, in a nice little place of his own, that he paid for with his own money. It was a milestone, something to celebrate… but except for a slight flutter of excitement, he didn’t feel anything that he’d planned to feel.

“Bugi?” Now Yanky’s voice was calling him. “Come here, and I’ll teach you how to do laundry.”

Bugi obediently joined him in the tiny laundry room and fixed his eyes on the dials of the washing machine.

“You do different loads for different clothing,” Yanky said in his teaching voice. “A load for colored clothing, and a separate load for whites. And if you want your clothing to stay bright, you should buy a detergent specially made for colors. See this compartment over there? That’s for the detergent. Here’s where you put the fabric softener. And this is the instruction manual for the machine.”

“You’d better write it all down for him,” Lulu called from the foyer. “He won’t remember it.”

“Okay, I can do that,” Yanky said. “Now, something else to keep in mind — after you take a shower, or dry your dishes, you need to hang up damp towels in a well-aired place, so they won’t get moldy.”

“I don’t have any towels!” Bugi suddenly realized.

“Uhmm…” Yanky stopped and thought for a moment. “Here’s an old kitchen towel that Mr. Zemelweiss left behind. Maybe you could use it for now, and I’ll ask my wife if we have some extra towels we can lend you.”

“We’ll buy you towels as a housewarming present,” Lulu announced. “Last night we were talking about what to get for you. Avery and Mishmesh want to chip in, and even Musa promised to give 20 shekels, even though he hardly has enough money for vodka. But we didn’t know what to buy. So now I know — we’ll get you some towels.”

(Excerpted from Mishpacha, Issue 778)