Ayala gave a twisted smile. “Completely irrational, I know.” She raked a hand through her too-short sheitel. How could she describe her fear of not measuring up to Dini without sounding like a baby?

Bracha laughed and patted her on the shoulder. “You’ll knock their socks off,” she said, grabbing a biscotti from the refreshment table. “Did you bake, too?”

Ayala shrugged. “I don’t have Dini’s catering budget.”

“You sound almost bitter, my dear.”

Ayala gave a small smile. “I have no right to be bitter when I’m the one who drove her to leave.” Absently, she picked up a cookie, then realized she had no appetite.

Bracha looked at her. “You’re being harsh on yourself. It wasn’t you. Might have been me,” she said fairly. “I overreacted. I know.”

Ayala shook her head. “No, it was me. We’ve been at odds for a while about what Chesed Tzirel should become.” Looking around at the young women milling around the garden, she added, “What’s ironic is that Dini’s vision won out — but she’s the one who quit.” She sighed. “But it is what it is, I guess.”

Spotting the hostess, she called her over. “Penina, is everyone here? We should start, no?”

Penina nodded and hurried to ask the women to be seated. Ayala was in the middle of taking a deep, calming breath when her phone rang. She looked down at the screen and her brow furrowed.

“Leora Schwartz,” she muttered to Bracha. “I haven’t heard from her in a while. I wonder if —” She hesitated, watching the volunteers sitting down in the chairs, looking at her expectantly.

“Can you take it?” She thrust the phone at Bracha, who nodded and hurried off to a corner of the garden.

Ayala tried to tear her eyes away. Bracha’s perfectly capable of handling this. Don’t let yourself get distracted. Right now, your job is to make sure you have enough money to continue helping people like the Schwartzes.

It was the type of thing Dini would say, and it was true. But as she stood up in front of the crowd, she knew that she would infinitely prefer to be helping Leora Schwartz with a medical emergency.

She took a breath and gave a wide smile. “Good evening, ladies! Thanks so much for coming on such short notice. I also want to thank you for everything you’ve been doing for the campaign. It’s coming up soon and we’re all really excited.”

Her voice sounded flat to her own ears. How would Dini say it? Something like, We are so, so pumped for this campaign! It’s going to be awesome, especially because we have the greatest team in the world!

Dini would certainly be more effective than she was being. She would certainly have the girls responding with more than just a few tepid nods.

She plowed on. “Anyway, I’d like to discuss what’s going to be happening in the coming two weeks. By now, you should have all compiled your list of contacts, right? I think some of you have already even started reaching out for donations.”

This got more forceful nods — and an obvious squirm from one bright-red girl, sitting in the front left corner, which brought Ayala up short. She’d forgotten… Was she the one who’d revealed Bracha’s secret to her sister? Ayala quickly averted her eyes, pretending she hadn’t noticed. Instead, her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the back corner, where Bracha was on the phone. She was listening intently and frowning. Ayala frowned herself. What had happened? Did Leora need her? She was the one managing their case, not Bracha.

She pulled her eyes back to the audience, blinking as she tried to refocus. “So now we’re up to the home stretch. The video is done and it’s stunning. I’ll send you the link.”

“Dini already did,” Penina called out.

“Oh. Great. So you’ve seen it for yourselves already.” She paused. “Dini did a fabulous job on it, didn’t she?”

This got applause, and Ayala used the interlude to cast another glance in Bracha’s direction. Now she was talking. Did she look worried? Ayala couldn’t tell.

Swallowing, she continued. “So now what we want to do is let as many people as possible know about the upcoming launch of this amazing new song.” She glanced down at her notes, which were based on the outline Temima had written out for her. “I believe you guys received email and WhatsApp scripts, right?”

“Yeah, Dini gave us a folder with all the campaign material,” someone said.

“Super. So now I want you to start spreading the word. Put it out on whatever WhatsApp groups you’re on, tell everyone you know. We want them to have heard enough about this song that by the time the campaign goes live, they’ll be curious enough to go on our page and watch it. Does that make sense?”

Another quick glimpse. She sucked in her breath. Bracha was looking in her direction and she seemed to want to say something. Ayala took an unconscious step forward before stopping herself. No. She was in the middle of a speech right now. She gritted her teeth. There was something so, so wrong about this scene.

She rubbed her forehead and looked back at her notes. Next on the agenda was the campaign itself. “Now let’s talk about what’ll happen on the day of the campaign. You’ll each have your own people to call, and we’ll also give you a list of other numbers to reach out to. It’s best to start reaching out right when the campaign begins, and then several times over—”

“Where will the call center be?” someone called out.

Ayala blinked. “Uh — in your homes.”

The girl who’d blabbed Bracha’s secret spoke up. “But Dini said there’d be a call center set up, with food and entertainment and prizes and all kinds of exciting stuff.”

There was a murmur in the crowd. Ayala tried to hold back her frustration. Bracha was now gesturing to her urgently, but what was she supposed to do? She was stupidly trying to fill a role she’d never signed up for and would never live up to, while someone needed her for the job she was good at.

She needed Dini. Badly.

Trying to ignore the tightness inside, she said, “Yeah, well, no one more than I wishes that Dini were here right now. But—”

“Your wish is about to come true, my friend,” called out a familiar voice.

Ayala was squinting in the direction of the voice, when she heard Bracha call, “Ayala!”

At the same time, someone else was making her way to the front of the garden, grinning broadly. Ayala’s eyes widened in shock as, around her, the volunteers erupted.

“Dini?” she gasped. How? Why? She had no idea what she was doing here or what it signified, but she had never before felt such stupendous relief.

Her friend gave her a quick hug as she turned to the crowd. “Hi, girlies!” she called. “I’m back! What can I say? I missed you guys too much!” Dini grinned at the wild applause.

“We’ve got a ton to do if we want to make this the most successful campaign ever. So I’m gonna take over from here. Not that you weren’t doing a good job, Ayala — wasn’t she, girls?” She met Ayala’s eye with a twinkle in her own. “But, y’know, I think you have more important things to do right now.”

Bracha ran up to her, holding out her phone, and said, “Sorry to interrupt, but Leora really needs you.”

“What made you come?”

Dini left right after finishing her speech to drive Ayala to Hadassah hospital, where Reuven Schwartz had been taken with a blood infection.

Dini’s eyes crinkled. “Honestly? The thought of you running a volunteer event terrified me.”

“Well, can’t say I blame you.” Ayala rubbed her eyes and leaned back on the headrest. “You saw how happy everyone was to see you. I think they were more terrified than you were about the thought of me running the show.”

Dini laughed as Ayala added, “Admit it. You loved the superhero’s welcome that you got.”

Dini’s smile faded. “If you ask Bracha, that’s the reason I started the volunteer club in the first place.”

Ayala’s fingers clenched in her lap. “She did not say that.”

“She did. More than once.”

Ayala’s brow furrowed. “She didn’t mean it.”

Dini shrugged but didn’t answer, her eyes on the road.

Ayala cleared her throat. “I hope you know that I don’t think that.”

Dini shot a quick glance at her. “No. I don’t think you thought I was doing this to fill some need to be popular. For other needs, maybe.”

“Such as?”

Her lip curled. “You tell me. Power? Kavod? To prove myself? To bulldoze through my approach to growing Chesed Tzirel?”

Ayala chewed her lip. Yes, she had suspected Dini of all of those motives. And maybe she was right. After all, they were human, and had pesky human emotions to deal with, even when it came to their proudest acts of chesed. But that didn’t take away from the good they were doing.

“Guilty,” Ayala said. “Now tell me all the psychological needs you suspect me of filling in my Chesed Tzirel work.”

She grinned at Dini’s startled laugh. “And then we’ll each forget about it, because, at the end of the day, we’re both doing very important and very necessary klal work. And doing a great job at it, if I do say so myself.” Ayala reached out to touch Dini’s shoulder. “I’m sorry for not showing my appreciation in the past. But I’ll say it now: We make an awesome team, partner.”

To be continued…

(Originally featured in Family First, Issue 911)