Bracha?!  The woman joined the organization a month ago, and suddenly she’s qualified to lead it?

Ayala rubbed her eyes as she wheeled her suitcase through the JFK terminal. Since making aliyah, she’d flown back about once a year to visit her parents, but her frequent trips notwithstanding, she inevitably had to stop herself from speaking Hebrew to the airport personnel, and felt unsettlingly out of her element as she took in the people, the advertisements on the walls, the atmosphere — a culture shock that only got stronger as the years went by.

“Welcome home,” the passport control official said with a smile as he stamped her American passport. She smiled back, but inside she felt the awe and gratitude that was still there, after 13 years, that she had the zechus to live in Eretz Yisrael.

And then she took back her passport, headed toward the luggage carousel, and the anxiety of the present smacked her in the face once more.

Ma.

What had happened during Ayala’s 12-hour plane ride? Was her mother still in the hospital?  Was she still in danger or had her condition stabilized?

Her shoulders tightened as she stepped outside into the crisp, early morning air, and it wasn’t just from the bite of  a New York winter. Ayala checked the time yet again.  Six fifteen.  Still too early to call Zev.

“Where to?” the Uber driver asked. Ayala hesitated for just a moment. She wanted to go straight to the hospital, but her rational side told her not to be ridiculous. What was she going to do, drag her suitcase, carry-on, and sheitel box all around the cardiac unit?  She gave him her parents’ address.

Then she leaned her head back, closed her eyes, and tried not to think about what might be waiting for her when she arrived.

There was something inside Dini that screamed “petty” about her insistence that the meeting with Bracha be at her house, but Dini ignored the voice. All these years, Dini had schlepped in to RBS for Chesed Tzirel meetings and had done so willingly, because Ayala, after all, was the head and founder.

But she felt perfectly justified pulling rank on Bracha and asking her to drive to Maalot Dafna. It wasn’t just about convenience; it was about establishing the fact that in the Chesed Tzirel hierarchy, Dini had seniority.

Despite the fact that Ayala had chosen to put them both in charge.