“I just wish could really shut off. It feels like borrowed time. I know that the second we return, it’ll be right back to Dizzyland”

“Lancaster,” Yochi announced as he walked through the door of their hotel room, “is the Brooklyn of Pennsylvania.”

Pessie spread avocado on a roll. “I guess we aren’t the only ones with the kids home, huh?”

Yochi had suggested this trip the day after he’d returned from Greece, when Pessie had groused that with the kids off for two whole weeks between camp and school, they’d all go crazy. “Let’s go away for a few days, it’ll break up the time,” Yochi had offered.

Not that he could afford to be away for a few days. There was so much work to do before the Succos tour, he had no time to breathe. But he wanted to do it, for Pessie, for the kids. To compensate for the Africa trip.

But when they’d actually loaded the car and sent the kids inside for one last bathroom trip, he started having doubts.

“Can you believe we’re doing this?” he’d asked Pessie as he nudged the trunk closed. “There’s so much chaos in my brain, but we’re off, escaping … I just wish could really shut off. It feels like borrowed time. I know that the second we return, it’ll be right back to Dizzyland.”

Pessie had given him a look. “Why does it have to be that way?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, why does this job have to take over your entire life? You’re not even the owner of the company. Why does everything always falls on you?”

He couldn’t read if she was being sympathetic or accusing. “Well, that’s the nature of the job, right?”

“To carry the stress for Binick? That’s nuts.”

Maybe she’d meant to validate his feelings, but the kids came skipping to the car and the conversation ended there, leaving him feeling anything but validated.

What was worse, Pessie didn’t seem too interested in this family trip. She kept worrying about getting the kids ready for school and shopping for the Succos tour, as well as getting everyone ready for his sister Suri’s wedding, which was taking place the day school started. He felt like she’d only agreed to the plan to make him feel good. Were they each going on this trip only to do the other a favor?