“Everyone is so excited that you’re joining us today. It just feels like we can be a family again. Your father would be so happy” 

They had deliberately arrived an hour late to the July 4th barbecue to slip in, and maybe slip out. But Tante Hindy was getting something from her car and spotted them pulling up. She waved enthusiastically and mimed opening the window. Michal obliged and was the immediate recipient of a wet kiss. It took all her willpower to not wipe her cheek.

“Michal! Husband I don’t know yet! So happy you came. Park all the way down so you’ll be closest to the backyard. Then meet me at the pool house, you can’t miss it. Tante Leah renovated it this year. I want to introduce you to everyone.”

There went her fly-under-the-radar plans.

“She’s nice,” Chaim commented, as Tante Hindy waved them on. Michal resisted rolling her eyes. Did he not see the same woman she did? She thought of the comment he’d made when she told him about the invite. “Yay, some normal family.” He’d said it lightly, like she’d get the joke. Maybe she should have, because she did talk about her crazy mother and numbed brother. But it wasn’t right — she could make fun of her people, he couldn’t, with his white-picket-fence family. He didn’t get it, he never got it.

Just arrived at the alternate universe, she texted Mordy.

The driveway seemed endless, but once out, Tante Hindy was right, you couldn’t miss the pool house, which was more house than pool. The pool itself was fenced off from the rest of the backyard, and Michal could see a few men watching, holding beers, and a gaggle of boys splashing in the water and making an overall ruckus.

Tante Hindy linked arms with her, pulling her to the back where the barbecue was being held.

“Everyone is so excited that you’re joining us today. It just feels like we can be a family again. Your father would be so happy.” She gave Michal a meaningful look when she mentioned her father. Michal felt nothing. In some ways it was like he’d never existed, except when it was convenient for their mother to blame something on him, usually a shortcoming of Michal’s or Mordy’s. Then she’d go on about it not being totally their fault; they came from bad stock going all the way back to Michal’s father’s grandfather, who was apparently “the worst.”