Blinders
| April 3, 2023“I’m not going to be riding horses anymore. And I couldn’t find a way to tell you, so I didn’t. But seeing as you’re here anyway, coming to tell me about other bad choices I’m making in my life, I guess now’s the time.”
The first time I watched chassidim dance, it was on a screen.
Not a video though, and not really a dance. I stood in my kitchen and studied the mute interaction of the couple standing next to their luxury SUV in our driveway. Even with that skewed fish-eye quality of images transmitted by security cameras, it was a mime for me to parse.
She lifting her chin to indicate the thing he was wearing on his head. He removing it, slowly. Holding it. She shaking her head. He clearly undecided, head lowered, hand hovering as if to put it on again. Another firm shake of her head. He opening the car door and depositing it on the seat.
I threw a quick glance around my kitchen again. The platter of crudités ready for serving, plastic cups. Only sparkling water and vegetables, Michal had said.
Would they come up the path now?
No — she pointed downward and her husband bent to straighten something, but I couldn’t see what. His shoes, maybe. Socks? Something else went into the car.
And then the mime ended; the couple just standing still, looking up at our house.
They were probably more nervous than I was. At least we were on our turf. I quashed the unseemly fluttering in my gut, put on my hostess face and waited for the buzz of the intercom.
Eli folded his newspaper and tucked his glasses away, his slowness making me bite down on my tongue. Ponderous was the word that suddenly came to mind as he walked towards the door, a half pace in front of me. Pompous.
Don’t be like that. Smile.
Together we stood as he opened the door, together we smiled at our guests.
Precarious.
Eli spoke first while I made sure my smile didn’t slip throughout the awkward footwork necessary to get all of us to the dining room without any faux pas.
I studied her as much as manners would allow as I put down the crudités and opened the bottle. She was absolutely regal. The outfit she wore looked like she had been sewn into it. Straight back, confident bearing — even with the hat. A Jackie Kennedy-style pillbox. Aristocratic. I felt my smile soften.
This might work.
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