They had seven bochurim, most of them too tired or unmotivated to look for somewhere more exciting

A

kiva was sitting at the table, staring glumly at what Rina thought was a nice supper. Maybe it wasn’t her best, but it was decent.

He had apologized, and then apologized again. She knew he would share what was bothering him when he was ready, and it was smarter not to push him.

He finally started to play with the mashed potatoes, then took a forkful and tasted it hesitantly, as if he was considering trying food again after all.

“You know, Rina,” he finally said, “there’s the job and then there’s the real world, and a person likes to think it’s all the same thing, that it’s not just make-believe between nine and five. Know what I mean?”

She had no idea, actually, but she didn’t say that.

“Akiva Putterman, groisse problem solver, he calms people down just by walking into the room, right?”

Okay, she thought she saw where he was going, now.

“And here I am, with World War III raging all around me, and I can’t figure out what to do or how to make things better.”

“Well, people say that Putin’s thing is World War III, so technically this would be World War IV, no?” she tried a joke. Sometimes that worked. He even had a speech on that, “The Smile within Reach” or something like that, about how jokes at the most random times could diffuse tense situations and change the script.

“It’s terrible,” he continued like she hadn’t spoken, which was unlike him. A moment later, though, he realized what she had said and smiled weakly. “Cute. But b’kitzur, it’s very uncomfortable and I’m personally in a rough spot. Chaim makes himself oblivious, but he’s plenty sharp and he sees what’s going on. Reuven barely speaks to him, just enough to be polite, and he can’t even bring himself to look in Heshy’s direction.”

“Why is it your problem, though?” Rina asked. “Why can’t you just stay out of it? If anyone is a diplomat, it’s you.”

She was annoyed by what he was saying. She had friends in Lakewood, something that she didn’t take for granted, and those friends were Shaindy Brucker and Nechama Stagler. This tension threatened to blow it all up. Who needed to relive high school drama when they were close to 50 years out of high school?