The troublesome two had discovered that the storm had only damaged succahs on one side of Sunny Lane.

Mr. Krankowitz tried getting a builder for repairs, but nobody had time so soon before Yom Tov. He threatened to complain to everyone from the police to the president. But still no builders had time. Mr. Friedman and Mr. Faigelbaum were unsuccessful, too. There were no new succahs available either. Many people needed a new succah, and they were all sold out.

Mr. Morris ran into Mr. Friedman the next day.

“Did you manage to find a succah?” he asked in concern.

“No,” responded Mr. Friedman. “I don’t know what we’re going to do, to be honest.”

Mr Morris threw his arms wide open.

“Why don’t you join our family? We have a large succah, and you’re more than welcome.”

Moishy was pleased when he heard about their guests. The Faigelbaums would be joining, too, which made him smile. Moishy was fond of little Efraim. But he wasn’t too pleased when he found out who else would be joining: Mr. Krankowitz.

Uh-oh. The old man would doubtless be groaning and grumbling. Moishy couldn’t help wishing he would go somewhere else.

To make things worse, Mr. Krankowitz kept coming over to check that everything was to his liking.

“This succah’s too cold. I need heaters,” he muttered. On Erev YomTov, he insisted on bringing over a bunch of heaters and plugging them into every available outlet. He switched them on. Suddenly, there was a pop, and all the lights went out. The heaters stopped working, too.

Moishy ran to the kitchen to call his mother. He found that all the electricity was off there, also.

“A fuse must have blown,” Mrs Morris murmured unhappily. “How are we going to get it fixed before Yom Tov?”

It was Moishy’s idea to call Jolly Solly. The clown called an electrician friend, who came over to see what he could do. The electrician frowned when he saw the heaters.

“It’s these that did it,” he declared. “There are too many of them, and they overloaded the circuit. Get rid of the heaters if you don’t want your electricity to blow again.”

“But how will we heat up the succah?” asked Mrs Morris.

Jolly Solly grinned, and turned a quick somersault.

“I have a special heater that can do the job. You’ll see. It will keep your whole succah toasty warm!

And so it did. That night the Morrises, Friedmans, Faigelbaums — and Mr. Krankowitz — sat in the nice cosy succah. Everyone enjoyed the delicious meal and the company. And they all said it was quite the most enjoyable Succos they could remember.

Although Mr. Krankowitz pointed out that the soup could do with some more salt.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha Jr., Issue 830)