“If that happened to me, I would have walked straight out,” muttered Dassi. Chayala was surprised at the edge in her voice

The Ess ’N Fress sign cast a weird red neon glow on Dassi’s dashboard, which held a large wad of extra napkins and several crumpled shopping bags. Chayala dragged a fry through a small plastic container of ketchup and popped it in her mouth.

“Guys, I was beginning to think these cholent runs were over with, we’ve been so bad with them lately,” she said with a wry grin.

Aly unwrapped a paper straw and took a long sip of her Diet Dr Pepper. “I was davening for us to start back up again, so you’re welcome.” She grinned.

Shira laughed. “Wait, I have a lot of other things I need you to daven for if your tefillos have so much power.”

Chayala noticed that Dassi didn’t join in the joking around, but she didn’t seem anxious or worried, so she didn’t push it. “So what’s new, guys?” she asked to the car in general, hoping Dassi would bite.

“Something crazy actually just happened to me,” said Aly, wiping the corner of her mouth with a flimsy takeout napkin and folding it primly. “I went to Megillah on Purim night at a new place this year. Usually I go to shul but someone on my block mentioned they were reading around the corner from me in someone’s house because one of the parents is sick.”

She punctuated this with a wave of a plastic fork loaded with kishke.

“Anyway, so I come in and sit down on the chairs they set up in the living room, and the room gets pretty full. The woman sitting next to me who I don’t know looks at me and says something like, There aren’t enough chairs for the ladies, could I help her bring some more in from the kitchen? So of course I say sure and go help.

“Oh, nooo, I know where this is heading,” said Chayala.

“Yep. I’m in full chair-schlepper mode, and I notice that the lady who asked me to help ushers someone over to the seat I just got out of, and it was taken by none other than Miriam Kleinfeld, who is all of what, 21 years old? With a spanking new sheitel on her head, obviously. I used to babysit her! I helped her study for her biology tests, like five minutes ago. Can you even?” She was laughing, but there was a tinge of exasperation there that was real.

“Oh gosh, that’s nuts,” said Shira. “People really are so beyond clueless sometimes.”

“Take it as a compliment to your skincare routine,” quipped Chayala with a shrug.

Aly laughed.

“If that happened to me, I would have walked straight out,” muttered Dassi. Chayala was surprised at the edge in her voice; she was usually the one cracking the jokes with the best of them.