August 14, 2026 Categories: Features
Persuaded – Chapter L
Velvel
Recap: Rikki has announced her engagement to Yerucham Elman, and Zahava is furious. Velvel arrived home in good spirits. The weather had been beautifully mild for November, and he’d won his tennis match against his friend Yossi Hertz, who had recently relocated to the area to live near his grown children. Velvel inwardly gloated at the way he’d kept in shape compared to his friend. “With that paunch, Yossi ought to cut back on the scotch and the steaks,” he thought. Although that was just a bit hypocritical, given that he himself was looking forward to a steak dinner tonight. Zahava had proposed it, and offered to buy and prepare it for them, and yes, he might even pour himself a glass of Cabernet to go along with it. With Rikki back in Brooklyn, not to mention Chani and his marvelously wealthy new son-in-law, it would be just the two of them tonight. Thank G-d he had Zahava! She was Velvel’s princess, his firstborn and the child who resembled him most closely. She had been named for his mother, a”h, which never failed to warm his heart; she was the oldest daughter who had faithfully stepped into her mother’s shoes to take care of him when Dena left them so early. As much as he knew she was dying to get married, and wanted to see her happy, he simultaneously dreaded the day she would move out. He had no idea how he would cope. What if that shidduch with Yerucham worked out? He put that uncomfortable thought out of his mind and strode into the house cheerfully, planning to take a hot shower and change into clothing more suitable for his evening minyan. But when he walked into the kitchen, the first sight that met his eyes was Zahava bent over on a chair, breathing hard, her face red. He raced over in a panic. “Zahava, what happened?” he gasped. “Are you alright?” The sight of her father’s concerned, loving face brought down all of Zahava’s defenses, and she started to sob. “Zahava!” Velvel cried. “What’s going on?” He put his arms around her and drew her against him. “Tell Tatty what’s the matter!” She was sobbing so hard she couldn’t speak for a long while. Finally, she lifted her head and managed to blurt out, between sobs and gasps for breath: “Rikki—got engaged—to Yerucham Elman!” Now Velvel was speechless. Yerucham and Rikki? Yerucham was supposed to marry Zahava! Yerucham knew she wanted to date him! How did that even happen? The shock was soon replaced by a cold, steely anger coursing through his body. He wasn’t sure who to be angry at. Should he rail against Yerucham for deciding to pursue Rikki? Or should he rail against Rikki for using her feminine wiles to ensnare Yerucham? That woman had been a guest in his home all summer! She had professed to be his daughter’s best friend! This was absolutely intolerable! “How did that even happen?” he cried. “I don’t know!” Zahava wailed. “I thought Mrs. Lowy was bringing me up to him again; that’s what she said! I never heard anything back, then Rikki goes back to Brooklyn, and before I know it, she’s got Yerucham sewn up in a bag! How dare she! She knew I was interested in him!” Velvel could think of all manner of choice words to use for both Yerucham and Rikki, but as a presumably religious man, and a father standing in front of his daughter, he did his best to suppress them. “I’m going to call Mrs. Lowy,” he declared, fishing his phone out of his pocket. Mrs. Lowy didn’t pick up, and then the smell of charring meat reminded Zahava she’d left the steaks under the broiler too long. She grabbed them from the oven and dumped them on the counter, contemplating the chef’s knife she’d left out from chopping the vegetables and feeling tempted to take it and throw it into the wall. More hot tears coursed down her cheeks as she threw silverware on the dinette and made plates for the two of them. With a tenderness he rarely displayed, Velvel found a tissue and gently wiped them away, guiding her to sit down across from him. Father and daughter picked at their overcooked steaks in silence, their appetites vanished. As Zahava stood up to clear the plates, Velvel’s phone finally rang. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t answer before, Mr. Elman, I was on an important call,” Mrs. Lowy said. “What can I do for you?” Velvel did his best to state his case without ranting, but he still felt hot under the collar as he began to speak. “Listen, Mrs. Lowy, my daughter and I had asked you to look into a shidduch with Yerucham Elman not so long ago,” he began, “and we thought he was about to move ahead with a yes. But today she just got word that Yerucham Elman is engaged to Rikki Kline! How did that even happen? It’s unconscionable! Rikki was supposed to be my daughter’s best friend! She knew Zahava and I were in the middle of working on this shidduch, and then she goes and steals him from under her nose?” Mrs. Lowy, drying dishes in her spotless kitchen in Brooklyn, was taken aback. “I had no idea!” she said regretfully, shaking her head and putting down the dish towel. “I was certainly not involved in that shidduch! I had sent Yerucham Zahava’s resume, which he said he didn’t need to see because she’s related to him, and he knows her already. Then he never got back to me. I’m so very sorry to hear this, for Zahava’s sake! I was hoping I could make it work!” “But what happened?” Zahava wailed in the background, loudly enough for Mrs. Lowy to hear. How much worse could her life get? First, she was forced out of her childhood home. Then her younger sister got married before her, to a millionaire, and now the only attractive shidduch prospect in months had been snatched away by the person who was supposed to be her best friend! “He must have pursued it on his own,” Mrs. Lowy said. “I do hope he went about it in a kosher way.” She sighed. “I don’t know,” she said. “I made Rikki’s first shidduch, and she married a very nice boy. I don’t know what happened to her! She comes from such a nice, ehrliche family, but it seemed like she developed some kind of wild, rebellious streak. I sure hope her children will be okay with this. And her ex is going to be furious that she found somebody else after just a few months. Imagine how confusing it will be for the children!” “She’s a sneak!” Zahava yelled. “She’s a selfish brat who took advantage of my friendship to steal away the one guy I was interested in!” “Rikki stayed in our home the entire summer,” Velvel explained. “Zahava wanted to give her a little vacation while her kids were in camp, thinking she’d been through so much with her divorce. We treated her like a member of the family! And now—this!” “I’m not going to that vort,” Zahava declared as her father rang off with Mrs. Lowy, who promised to try to find out more, and redouble her efforts to find somebody top quality for Zahava. “I can’t look at either of them.” “Nor can I,” Velvel agreed. “Sunday night, let’s go to the best restaurant in Lakewood instead, and celebrate that we finally saw the true colors of those two, and that you narrowly averted ending up with a lowlife like Yerucham or continuing a friendship with that conniving witch.”To be continued.
