“This is anthropology, Gabe. We’re scientists. We study every subculture and counterculture”

There is little that Penina wants to do less than make small talk with Gabe Cohen

Gabe has spent a lifetime dodging conflict, and he isn’t about to change that now

“I remember how we were warned about your father when Ezra was in shidduchim. A nice girl, but a strange family”

Penina makes a split-second decision. “I’m coming over. Are you at the cemetery?”

Right. Abba is dead. It’s still a strange, unformed thought, like a wispy bit of fluff that floats away when Gabe reaches for it

“Are you all right?” someone else asks. A teenager has her phone out and is filming her humiliation