“I remember how we were warned about your father when Ezra was in shidduchim. A nice girl, but a strange family”

BY

the end of the first day of shivah, the stream of people who knew Abba peters out. Rivi expects it, knows that most of their visitors will be her neighbors and acquaintances, but it’s humiliating when her sisters-in-law are underfoot.

Some are kinder than others. Sweet Eliana, the newest one, hangs out with Rivi’s kids, playing dolls with the twins and board games with the boys. Chaya had stopped by for a few minutes and then run out for a carpool. Suri and Atara, though, lurk in the shivah room, chatting with each other or the few visitors and casting a judgmental eye on the mostly empty room.

Rivi? Of course she has no family. She’s always busy with that job of hers. She has no time for family, let alone friends. It floats in the air between them, carried by every low whisper and furtive glance.

Rivi had spent her high school years trying desperately to fit in, then giving up on the fruitless exercise. This is nothing new, though it should be long over in her mid-thirties.

To make matters worse, Gabe makes zero effort to be normal. He speaks passionately to a glazed-eyed Suri about some species going extinct in Madagascar and seems oblivious to the way that Suri’s lip curls when she asks questions, slyly mocking.

“Gavriel,” Rivi says in a low voice. “I’m sure that Suri isn’t interested in any of this.” Rivi isn’t interested, either, though there’s a part of her that longs to understand, to grasp the stranger sitting beside her on a too-low chair. Gabe is still awkward around people, but there’s an ease to him, a confidence that he’d never had in childhood. His years out in the world are alien to Rivi, and he is, too, now.

“Oh, no,” Suri says, her eyes widening and her face pursed in a defiant smile. “I think you’re fascinating. Really helps me understand Rivi a little more. You’re both so… accomplished.”

From her tone, it sounds like an insult, and Rivi tenses. Suri’s husband is one of Ezra’s favorite brothers, and that’s the reason Rivi plays nice. It’s also why Rivi’s been quietly helping them for the past year, though Suri is oblivious to that fact. She’s so proud; knowing that her husband’s work isn’t doing as well as it seems would crush her.