Eye contact is the least of her problems. She walks into my home, her whole body tilted away from me in such obvious wariness that I want to cry, to close the door behind her and her issues,
I felt entirely at peace. My tefillah had been heard on Yom Hazichronos — — heard, and answered. The answer was no. And that was okay
I look at my father. There’s a fire, he says, a bad one. We need to get home, fast
“So, Ma,” my 17-year-old asked again that year. “Are you going to shul for the whole davening?”
Just 12 hours before flight time, my doctor put down his otoscope and calmly informed me I wasn’t going anywhere for at least two weeks
