“Okay, we’ll make cookies today.” That would be enough doing of something to feel like it was a day in her space in Chicago

Someone may have many people around them and yet still feel profoundly lonely. —Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Freakonomics, Episode 407

Hatzlachah!!! You’re gonna crush this!!!

Shira held down the exclamation mark key. Ephraim was long gone, he’d left quietly long before the rest of the house was up. It was his first day and he wanted to know where he was going, what he was doing, and how to get the best seat in every class.

At least that’s what he’d said. Shira knew he was nervous but would never say so. “Good prep is the best offense,” he’d say when he slipped into sports analogies. They’d been popping up more often now that he was back in Chicago, home of the Cubs, Bears, Bulls, and whatever the hockey team was called.

She was nervous for him, for them.

Racheli toddled into her room, dragging her blanket behind her. Shira could hear Dovi calling, he hadn’t yet figured out how to climb out of this crib — one blessing she could count here in Chicago.

“What should we do today, princess?” She cupped Racheli under the chin. “We need to do something,” she told her daughter, knowing she was the one who was feeling restless.

“I want cookies,” Racheli answered.

“What kind of cookies?”

“Sprinkle.”

Shira laughed. Are there any other kind of cookies to a four-year-old?

“Okay, we’ll make cookies today.” That would be enough doing of something to feel like it was a day in her space in Chicago. Or so she hoped.