The previous year, Erev Pesach, when Yehudis had been engaged and there was just so much to take care of, it hadn’t been easy. She’d griped about the work to Miriam, and Miriam had been scandalized. “You’re abusing yourself,” she’d told Leebie. “If it’s the money, and you don’t have to tell me if that’s the case, then I’m telling you, cut back on other areas. Do gemach gowns, it’ll be fine, just get cleaning help. A woman in your stage should not be washing walls and cleaning the fridge and oven for Pesach.”

She’d kept quiet, because, no, it wasn’t the money, it was Amram’s do-or-die shitah. She never complained about the cleaning to Miriam again, and when it came to the fridge, Amram rolled up his sleeves and did it. So how could she complain?

And yet, this morning, she didn’t have the energy to scrub bathtubs. She looked around the bathroom, at the towels and Floafers dumped on the floor. She was so tired, yawn, she was too tired to acknowledge how tired she was.

But she got the job done, and it didn’t even take long. She still had 15 minutes of peace and quiet to have her coffee and put up the cholent before it was time to wake up the kids.

She was putting away her laminated birchos hashachar booklet when Amram walked into the kitchen holding a box. “Is this yours?” he asked curiously.

Leebie squinted, and then it registered. The baby earrings.

She left the cabinet door hanging open and grabbed the package. “Yes, uh, yes. It’s mine. Thanks, I’ll take it.” Then, aware that Amram was expecting an explanation, she quickly added. “It’s an order for Akeres. I must have put in our address by mistake.”

Avoiding Amram’s gaze, she hunted for a bag and slipped the box inside. Then she hung the bag from the coat closet doorknob and asked Amram, “Do you want a coffee? I’m going to have mine now.”

“I had my coffee two hours ago, Leebie. You know that.”

“Oh, sure. I thought maybe you’d want another one. With some of that muffin you bought.”

Why was he staring at her? Could he stop staring? And also, which courier delivers packages at 7 a.m.?

The bag didn’t mysteriously vanish, and Amram spent the next 15 minutes hovering over Leebie’s cholent and making inane small talk. It was getting late — she had to wake up the kids — but she waited for him to leave before going to their room. Too bad if they missed their buses. She wasn’t going to leave that bag unattended.

IT

was only once she was safely sitting in her office at Akeres that she allowed the excitement to set in. At last, she opened the box to inspect the tiny pieces of jewelry.

A smile spread over her face as she fingered the tiny studs. There was nothing like turning a newborn baby girl into a bejeweled princess. They cried, but she soothed them, and then their content smiles melted her heart.

On Monday, she would officially be in business. She tried not to worry that it had been years since she’d last pierced a baby’s ears. This wasn’t a skill you lost over time. She’d be careful, it would all be okay. And of course, she’d come home with a neat little envelope, which would slowly add up….

And July?

July sat on her shoulders like the burden it was as Leebie reviewed nursery inventory and submitted vendor orders. The first of the month was less than a week away, and she simply didn’t have the funds to pay Yehudis’s rent. The earring money wouldn’t add up quickly enough. She’d had to pay for those earrings before she could think about turning a profit, and there was no way she could do that by credit card or Zelle — Amram closely monitored all activity there. She’d had no choice but to take “seed money” from the remaining bills in her sheitel-turned-eternity band envelope. But now, how could she come up with money for Yehudis in such a short time?

The answer met her in the nursery a half hour later, in the form of Tziporah Schiffman.

“Why in the world are you here today?” Leebie asked her, watching Tziporah scoop a baby out of a bassinet and position it on the counter for a sponge bath. “Aren’t you doing Shabbos this week?”

“I am, but three nurses called in sick last night, so it was chaos in the nursery. Perl asked me to do a night shift.”

“You mean, you’re still here from yesterday?”

“Uh-huh. But I’m leaving after this bath. I hope I can catch a nap sometime today before I have to be back here.” She squirted Johnson’s Head-to-Toe into her palm and gave Leebie a wan smile. “I love my job, really. I only wish this Shabbos thing wouldn’t be part of our contracts. I hate it.”

And there it was, her solution. “There’s no way you’re doing Shabbos this week,” she told Tziporah resolutely. “I’m taking over.”

“No way. You were here last week!”

“It doesn’t matter. I want to do it.”

In fact, there’s nothing I want more right now. July rent, here we go.

“Uh, if you really mean it… I can’t resist. And obviously, I’ll take over for your next turn.”

“No, no, seriously, Tziporah, you’re not taking over my turn. I really enjoy being here on Shabbos. And you know something….”

She stopped herself, absently following Tziporah’s movements as she patted the baby dry and rubbed lotion into its skin.

If you really hate it, I don’t mind doing it more often. In fact, I’d be more than glad to.

Amram was not happy about the unexpected plan. “We were just there last week!” he protested when she called to let him know. “Besides, what are you going to do with all the food you cooked?”

Leebie paced between the rows of bassinets, trying to stay calm. “I’ll serve it on Sunday. I need to do this for Tziporah. She’s been in the nursery all night, it’s totally unfair to make her come for Shabbos.”

“That’s your boss’s concern, not yours. And Leebie, Yehudis is coming to us this Shabbos. Did you forget?”

Oh.

Uh.

Yes.

She’d completely forgotten.

Yikes.

“I’ll call her,” she said quickly. “I’ll ask her if she wants to join us here again, and if not, I’ll send her all the food.”

“Please ask me next time before you go offering favors to people. And, Leebie, you need to request extra pay, doing this on such last-minute notice….”

S

he reached Yehudis on her recess break.

Yehudis was surprised by the update, and she didn’t comment on any of Leebie’s apologies. “No, we’re not going to heim with you,” she said, a little coolly. “I guess we’ll just stay home.”

“I cooked. I’ll send you all the food.”

“Fine, whatever.”

Leebie hung up feeling horrible. She’d been trying so hard to treat her couple well. She sent food whenever possible, found them a great deal for an air conditioner — and sent Pinchas over to help Sruly install it. She always complimented them to each other, and she’d even randomly given Yehudis petty cash to pay for a much-needed wash-and-set.

She hated disappointing Yehudis. Hated the pinch in her stomach that she was getting it all wrong.

But really, sheifeleh, she wished she could tell her daughter, I’m doing this for you.

IT

was her teaching bag that did it for Yehudis.

She remembered shopping for this bag. She’d gone to at least five stores with her mother, gone back three times to return the bags her father nixed, and then they’d finally settled on this classy black leather Longchamp tote, which her father assured would serve her well for many years.

It had. But what was she meant to do with it now? Throw it away? Give it to her sister Dassi to play “school?”

She dumped it in the coat closet irritably. She didn’t want to think about it. She didn’t want to think about anything. The last day of school had always been exhilarating. She would fondly part from her students, leaving with warm, fuzzy feelings and looking forward to her summer break with a light tutoring schedule before greeting a new class in September.

This last day had been her last ‘last day,’ and there were no warm, fuzzy feelings.  She’d left Mrs. Eisen high and dry, without an extra curriculum advisor, without an eighth-grade teacher — and without a fifth-grade one, either. She’d left a job she’d been good at, in exchange for a job that — she could never admit it to Sruly — she knew in her gut was doomed for failure.

And for what? To earn more money? Why was that even so important, now that her parents were paying half of their rent?

It was getting late. Sruly would be home in a little over an hour, and nobody had invited them for supper. That meant she had to cook.

Ugh, she hated cooking.

Her phone rang as she was starting on a meatball mixture. It was her mother, and she pressed the speaker button with her pinky.

“I’m passing your house in a minute,” her mother said. “I have the July rent for you. Can you come outside to get it?”

“Oh, sure, yes. Thanks!”

She washed her hands quickly and was about to run outside when she paused, vacillating.

Stay in a tichel — or put on a sheitel?

Oh goodness, how ridiculous was that? This was her mother! Why in the world couldn’t her mother see her in a tichel?

Her mother’s Sienna pulled up in front of her house a moment later, and she rolled down the window.

“Hey, Mrs. Mann! You look so cute in a tichel!”

Ha. Ha. Ha.

“Thanks,” Yehudis said, blushing.

Her mother stuck her hand out the window to give Yehudis the envelope. Yehudis avoided her eyes as she took it, because seriously, this whole Thing was beyond weird, and did the money really have to come in an envelope? Maybe her parents could send a Zelle to her landlord every month or something, so she wouldn’t feel like such a schnorrer.

“Just one thing, Yehudis….”

Well, now she had to face her, no choice. “Hmm?” she asked.

Her mother seemed to hesitate, and then, as though unsure which words to use, she said, “Tatty doesn’t know about this… rent arrangement. So, uh… let’s keep it that way, all right?”

To be continued…

(Originally featured in Family First, Issue 929)