Chava swallowed. “How nice!”

“Yeah, she’s adorable. Really sweet. She even agreed to host a sale in her apartment for me. We’re doing it next Tuesday, and I’m really excited. This is my way to break into the young American crowd, you know?”

Because all they’d been missing until now was the opportunity to blow their kollel stipends on a ridiculously expensive tichel.

Chava took a breath. This was her daughter. She should be happy for her.

“That sounds fantastic!”

“Yeah…” Devoiry smiled and turned toward the door. “Anyway, I’d better run back and get to work. Thanks a million, Mommy, for babysitting.”

Chava nodded and waved as Devoiry closed the door. Then, with a sigh, she walked over to the table and closed her Ramban. Looked like it would be a late night, tonight.

Well, if Tammy Hurwitz could give up her evening to help Devoiry, how could Chava resent doing the same?

“So, challah baking. Totally challah baking. With some six-strand shaping or something.” Tehilla leaned forward on her bed, eyes sparkling as if she’d just announced the most brilliant idea in the world for a Thursday night pre-Shabbaton activity.

ZeeZee, sprawled on a bean bag, rolled her eyes at Rusi, who was sitting next to her, notebook in hand, recording the notes from their planning session. “Challah baking? Can’t we get even a tiny bit original?”

For each in-Shabbos, three different rooms were chosen to plan the theme and activities, and this week was their turn. If it were up to ZeeZee, she would’ve chosen very different partners. But Mrs. Litwin was the one who created the groups; now it was up to ZeeZee to make sure their Shabbaton wasn’t mortifyingly lame.

Tehilla looked hurt. “It’s parshas Chayei Sarah! Get it? Sarah’s ohel?”

ZeeZee frowned. Yes, she was aware it was parshas Chayei Sarah. She’d wanted so badly to go to Chevron this Shabbos like the rest of the world, but she’d been informed in no uncertain terms by her sister Gitty (that snitch, Chana Malka) and Mrs. Edelman (that snitch, Gitty) that Chevron on Chayei Sarah was no place for a good Bais Yaakov girl.

She suspected this was why Mrs. Litwin had chosen her room to coordinate this Shabbos — just in case ZeeZee was planning to sneak off anyway. Which she had been.

She propped herself up on her elbows. “Fine, so lichvod Chayei Sarah, let’s make shidduchim. Each girl has to call a random name in the phonebook and redt a shidduch for their son or daughter. I’ll start.” She broke out in a grin, remembering. “Oh, wait. I already did.”

The lady from the bus with the shtarker-than-shtark son had called her the other day to find out about her shidduch idea. ZeeZee had told her all about Chana Malka, and the mother had sounded interested. So ZeeZee had called Gitty and asked her to send over a shidduch résumé ASAP.

Maybe that’s why her sister was on the war path at the moment.

Tehilla snorted, and even Rusi was shaking her head.

“Come on!” ZeeZee said. “How much d’you wanna bet we make at least one shidduch from this? And then we can all split the shadchanus fee. How cool would that be? Whaddaya say, Shani?”

Shani was sitting in the corner of the room between two of the beds, as if she were hiding. She started at the sound of her name.

“Challah baking sounds nice,” she said, lips twitching.

“You guys have zero imagination,” ZeeZee huffed, as everyone else in the room laughed. “Okay, wait a sec, here’s another idea. Body painting. You know, like Moroccans do for weddings.”’

“You mean a henna?” Miriam made a face. “You know someone who knows how to do that?”

“Yup! My new friend Dafna. She’s really cool.” She’d already been back twice to the Yad b’Yad Center, and she and Dafna had struck up a friendship. ZeeZee still wasn’t sure how Rikki felt about this. She tended to magically appear in the backyard every time Dafna showed up, which made ZeeZee wonder how she was getting her work done if she spent all her time chaperoning.

On the other hand, Rikki had had plenty of time to tell ZeeZee not to bring the kids to the Yad b’Yad trampoline, but she hadn’t said a word.

Tehilla looked interested. “That’s definitely different.”

ZeeZee bounced up on her knees. “How awesome would that be, all the girls going around in body paint all Shabbos?”

Rusi shook her head. “Rabbi Freund will go nuts.”

“Is he going to be there?” ZeeZee grinned. “How about it? Should I ask Dafna to come?”

Rusi squirmed and Tehilla shrugged. But, to ZeeZee’s surprise, Shani’s voice piped up from the corner. “I think it sounds cool.”

Chava stifled a yawn as she headed toward the staff room. She was generally not a coffee drinker, but after staying up so late last night preparing, there was no way she’d get through the morning without caffeine.

Pushing open the door, she nearly bumped into Tammy Hurwitz, who was on her way out.

“Oops, sorry,” Tammy said, stepping back. “Oh, hello, Mrs. Edelman!  Nice to see you.”

“What are you doing here this time of morning?” Chava asked, smiling.

“Actually, I came by to hang up a flyer for… um…” She turned pink, but a quick glance at the bulletin board told Chava what the flyer was for; she recognized Devoiry’s logo.

“Oh, of course.” Chava shifted the books in her hand. “Um, thank you for hosting my daughter’s event. I —uh — know it means a lot to her.”

Tammy beamed. “It’s my pleasure! Your daughter is super talented. You must be so proud of her!”

Chava’s smile tightened. “I am.”

to be continued…

(Originally featured in Family First, Issue 743)