ZeeZee leaned her head against the cool window pane. Behind her, an American woman was talking loudly into her phone about her son in shidduchim.
“He’s very shtark. No, very, very shtark. He needs a girl who’ll let him learn all the time. All the time. You know, not the type who wants to go out to eat every Rosh Chodesh.”
ZeeZee shook her head. The guy sounded like a total bore. Suddenly, she perked up. Hey, he’d be perfect for Chana Malka! She began to giggle as she pictured what her family would say if Chana Malka came home from seminary engaged — and that she was the shadchan!
ZeeZee’s stop was coming up, and the lady was still harping on about her son’s shtarkness, so she hastily took out her bus receipt, turned it over, and scribbled her phone number and the message, I have a shidduch for your son. She handed the note to the surprised woman and walked off the bus, laughing to herself.
As ZeeZee hiked up the stairs to the Kleins’ apartment, she wondered how anyone in their right mind could buy an apartment on the fourth floor in a building without an elevator. She took a moment to catch her breath and then knocked.
“ZeeZee!” Rikki Klein grabbed her arm and pulled her inside. “I’m so glad you’re here!”
“Sorry I’m late, Mrs. Klein. The bus took longer than I expected.”
Rikki waved her hand. “Whenever you get here is just super. You are a lifesaver, seriously. And call me Rikki. I’m not that old.”
ZeeZee grinned. She was liking this lady more and more. She walked inside, looking around curiously, and caught her breath as her eyes fell on the glass doors to the mirpeset.
“Whoa,” she whistled. “TMR.”
Rikki blinked. “Huh?”
“Totally Mah Rabu,” ZeeZee translated. “What an awesome view.”
Rikki laughed. “Okay, so I am old. Gotta brush up on my seminary lingo. But yeah, there’s nothing more amazing than looking at the mountains of Yerushalayim while you eat breakfast.”
She walked over to join ZeeZee and pointed to a garden below them. “See that villa there, across the street? That’s the center where I work. Yad b’Yad.”
ZeeZee craned her neck eagerly. “So close! Do you ever have girls over at your house?”
“No. In my line of work, it’s really important to have firm boundaries.”
“Mmm.” ZeeZee was lost in her own thoughts. “So close,” she murmured again.

Rabbi Freund’s office was not big enough to accommodate four people, comfortably, but he, Mrs. Levy, the educational director; the social worker; and Chava were squeezed around his large, cluttered desk anyway. The administration liked to have occasional meetings with each mechaneches to make sure they were staying on top of all the students, and Rabbi Freund’s office offered the most privacy.
Chava had stayed up late last night writing notes on each of her girls. She grimaced inside when she saw who was next on her list. “Shani Mandel.”
“I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something off about her,” Chava said slowly. “She’s a good student, she’s doing her work, but she’s not happy.” She related their conversation in the library the other day.
“She comes from a difficult background,” Rabbi Freund said. “Her parents divorced last year, and apparently it was messy.”
Chava winced. “When will parents learn to act like adults?” she muttered.
The social worker spoke up. “Would it help if I meet her?”
Chava considered this. The social worker was young and worked in Shvilei only a few hours a week, a new hire last year when the school decided they wanted to show the parents they had an in-house therapist.
“That might be a good idea,” she said. She squeezed her fingernails into her palm and willed herself to say the next part. “I know that Shani is close to Tammy Hurwitz, the new eim bayit.”
Rabbi Freund pulled out his cell phone. “Great! How about we ask her what she thinks?”
A moment later, Tammy was on speaker, listening as Chava voiced her concerns about Shani. She could just picture Tammy’s face: sympathetic. Eager to help. Proud to be consulted.
Now her voice was coming through the phone — slow, calm, self-assured.
“You’re right, Mrs. Edelman, for picking up on the fact that there’s a problem. But I don’t think there’s any need for psychological intervention at this point. Shani’s been speaking to me a lot and things seem to be under control.”
Something in Tammy’s words made Chava bristle (was it the patronizing way she’d complimented Chava for picking up on the problem?), and she looked toward Rabbi Freund to see his reaction.
But he was simply nodding. “Okay, Mrs. Hurwitz, if you say so.” He hung up and turned to Chava. “That takes care of Shani. Who’s next?”

Chava walked down the hall slowly. She felt drained from the meeting; no, more than drained. Depressed. How could she not have figured out that Rivky had an undiagnosed learning disorder? Or realized that Suri was calling her mother nightly, begging to go home? There were too many girls she didn’t have a good handle on, and that fact hadn’t quite hit her until today.
Girls were emptying into the halls from their last class, and Chava spotted a vivid red ponytail just ahead of her. She sped up to catch up with ZeeZee; one of the things that had come up in the meeting was the fact that ZeeZee Keller still didn’t have a chesed placement. And Chava took full responsibility for that lapse. She’d promised to find something that would be a good fit, and she would keep her word, as hard as it was to satisfy the girl.
“ZeeZee? A word?”
ZeeZee separated herself from her group of friends and walked over to Chava, looking mystified.
Chava took a breath. “I feel bad that I still haven’t managed to find a good chesed placement for you. Maybe we can schedule a meeting later this week to sit down and hammer out options?”
ZeeZee frowned for a moment, and then suddenly brightened. “Thanks, Mrs. Edelman, but I actually just started at a chesed.”
Chava stared at her. “You did?”
“Yeah. It’s Mrs. Hurwitz’s friend. She needed someone to watch her kids two afternoons a week.”
Chava cleared her throat, trying to hide her shock. “I thought you didn’t want to do a chesed by a family like everyone else.”
ZeeZee shrugged. “Yeah, funny, right? But Mrs. Hurwitz introduced me to this lady, and we just clicked, so I figured, why not?”
Chava’s eyes narrowed as she watched ZeeZee bounce off, and she felt a rock settle in her stomach. So that was it. Mrs. Hurwitz works her magic once again, and suddenly everything was wonderful.
to be continued…

(Originally featured in Family First, Issue  740)