Amram turned to her. “By the way, Leebie, I invited Yehudis and Sruly for supper tomorrow”

Amram had one job on a Herzogs’ heim Shabbos:

to make Kiddush and Havdalah for the ladies. Friday night Kiddush was less of a situation. The mothers stood around their beautifully set Shabbos tables, and Leebie and the kids stood next to Amram at a small serving table between the kitchen and the dining room. It was neat and quick and worked out fine. Havdalah, though, was done in the lounge, with the women crowding around and cell phones ringing every minute. Amram hated it and disappeared the minute it was over.

But Leebie lingered. Her shift would be over shortly — Ita should be on her way to take charge of the nursery until the night shift settled in — and she just had to see that the Melaveh Malkah program was underway before leaving.

Also, after spending a whole Shabbos with her guests, she enjoyed hanging around a little for the Motzaei Shabbos matzav.

“Ladies, you’re all invited to the dining room for Melaveh Malkah at ten thirty,” Leebie announced. “Please make sure all your babies are fed and settled before joining us.”

A woman standing next to her — the mother who’d just given birth to her 16th child, if Leebie remembered correctly — shook her head incredulously. “I believe we must all be magicians. Anyone capable of eating another bite after this Seudah Shlishis must have some superpower.”

Leebie laughed. “The things we’re capable of….”

The woman closed her eyes briefly, then murmured, “Only Hashem knows that, right?”

Silently, Leebie blessed her that Hashem should truly give her koach. She headed to the kitchen to check that Melaveh Malkah was indeed running on schedule, then continued on to the dining room to supervise the food setup and get the microphone and speakers ready for Rina Haas’s comedy.