Clearly, something had happened at the meeting at which he assured her nothing would happen

The men sitting in the head office of Second Stage Living were very happy for Stagler to step into the role of neighborhood council chairman at Alameda.

Adler, who had held the post since the first families had moved into Alameda, had a severe heart condition and now the doctors were insisting that he take it easy. They wished Adler well, of course, he should be gezunt and shtark, but from their perspective, it was just as well that he was handing over the reins to someone else.

He had been, they agreed, impossible. The gardeners came too early and made too much noise, the garbage removal people drove like chayehs, and did anyone realize when they had planned the development that the turning lane on Aspen only got a green every three hours and you could finish the whole Tehillim in the time it took to wait to turn in?

In the Second Stage office, Beri Glick from resident services muttered that of course Adler had a heart problem, he was always stressed. Zalman Frankel at the next desk looked at him disapprovingly, so Beri looked around and said, “Okay, okay, sorry, whatever, he should be well. The new guy from Queens seems perfect, is all I’m saying. Change is a good thing, sometimes… and Frankel, you don’t have to look at me that way, like you’re the gaavad of the Appropriate Comment Beis Din, okay?”

Reuven Stagler was sitting in the small waiting room, engrossed in his daf yomi Gemara as he waited for a meeting he wasn’t sure he still wanted. He had never been a committee type, happy to pay his dues and allow others to enjoy the limelight.

But listening is free. And he had more free time than ever before.