Persuaded – Chapter XX

Chani

Recap from last week: Chani, Mindy, and Chezky and his sisters went for a Sunday morning jaunt to Marine Park to get some exercise, and are now preparing to leave.

“How was the walk?” Chezky asked his sisters. “Ready to go back? Where did Chani disappear to?” He gestured to his friends. “Hey guys, let’s start walking back!”

Chani walked away from the tree she’d been hiding behind. She took a few steps in another direction and then swung around to reappear as if she’d just gone off on a little private jaunt of her own.

Chezky and his buddies started off in the direction of the Moskowitz home, the men in front, the women trailing half a block behind. “This is the way to the Haber house,” Hennie remarked as they started off.

“Oh no!” Mindy moaned loudly. “I do NOT want to go this way! I am so not interested in spying out this family just because they’re checking you out for a shidduch!”

“Shh!” Hennie said, although the men’s heads had turned and they’d clearly all heard. “No one’s supposed to know!”

“I just do not want to get caught up talking to Mrs. Haber for hours,” Mindy said. “I mean, she’s a nice lady and all, but so not my style. I don’t need some Bais Yaakov-y style discourse on the parsha or tznius or whatever.”

“She’s not like that,” Hennie protested. “She’s very normal! Would you like her better if she had a big fancy house like your father?”

Mindy shrugged. It wasn’t clear if that was assent or disagreement.

“Going by their house is actually the closest route home,” Lieba pointed out helpfully. “Obviously, we wouldn’t knock or anything.”

“I would never knock!” Hennie said, horrified. “Look at me! I’ve just been walking all morning, I’m sweaty and gross!”

“Chezky might knock,” Lieba said with a wicked grin. “He’s buddies with Chaim Haber.”

Mindy seemed peeved the entire walk home, as if still out of sorts with Chezky. In the end they passed the Haber house, a small, somewhat neglected-looking brick house with a scraggly yard. Mrs. Haber happened to be outside taking out a garbage bag, which caused Hennie to duck in shame behind Lieba while Chezky called out cheerfully, “Mrs. Haber, how are you? Is Chaim around?”

As Chaim was off somewhere, Chezky was able to extricate himself after just a few minutes of friendly conversation, minus any Bais Yaakov-type lectures, and the party continued their walk home with no further issues, except that Chani had started to limp from her blister and was feeling the effects of too much sun. Why had she forgotten her water bottle?

A honk on the side of the road stopped everybody short as a gleaming white Tesla pulled up alongside them. Avraham and Shiffy Krauss were in the front seats, he in a polo shirt and khakis, her in a crisp striped shirtdress that was the height of elegant simplicity. “Hello athletes!” Mr. Krauss said as he rolled down the window.

Effi ran up to the car to greet his brother-in-law, who addressed the rest of the crowd like a royal pausing to greet the peasants from his carriage. “Gorgeous day for a walk!” Avraham said. “We were just rediscovering Brooklyn. Amazing how it spread out! Look at this neighborhood—mezuzahs everywhere now!”

He looked over the clump of women and the clump of men. “Anybody want a ride home?” he called. “We’d be happy to oblige, although this car obviously isn’t big enough for everyone.”

Nobody answered. Hennie and Lieba were fine, Mindy was too proud to accept an invitation, and Chani too shy. Mr. Krauss turned the motor on again, but suddenly Effi sprang forward again and said something to his brother-in-law, stopping him from pulling away.

“Chani, you should go,” Effi called to her. “You’ve been limping. Take a ride!”

She turned scarlet at the idea he’d noticed. “No, I couldn’t really—it wouldn’t be fair to everyone else—”

“I insist,” Effi said. He opened the back door and made a sweeping, courtly gesture indicating the seat. Chani admitted defeat—this was an offer she couldn’t refuse. She limped over to the car and got in. Their eyes met briefly, and she thought she saw the faintest glimmer of kindness in them—was that possible? Could he really have any charitable feelings towards her even though he had surely never forgiven her? But then he turned away, the moment was gone, the car pulled away, and the Krausses were chattering away in the front seat.

“Such a nice family, those Moskowitzes!” Avraham said. “Very wholesome, down-to-earth girls they have!”

“They are,” Shiffy agreed. “Very unspoiled and unentitled.”

“Don’t you think Effi should just go after one of them?”

“They’re much younger than him!” Shiffy protested. “At least six or eight years younger!”

“So what?” her husband rejoined. “My grandparents were ten years apart.”

“That was a different time,” Shiffy said.

Sitting in the back seat, Chani felt invisible. And what about me, she wanted to ask, am I chopped liver? I’m in the right age range for Effi! Why did no one ever think about her? Or, even worse, maybe they did know her backstory with Effi, and were deliberately avoiding bringing her up as a possibility.

“Well, I say, they’re sweet, attractive frum girls, so why not,” Krauss said.

“Oh, Avi,” his wife sighed. “You’ve been living in Palo Alto, which is a desert for frum girls, so as soon as you see a nice one you want to grab her for Effi! But shidduchim aren’t that simple!”

“Why not?” he rejoined. “You and I knew right away we were meant for each other. They told me you were a smart, nice-looking girl from a good family, and when I met you I knew that was it! Should I tell Chani how quickly we got engaged?”

“Please don’t,” Shiffy said. “It’s practically embarrassing. The shadchan was furious with us for moving ahead so fast when she thought we need more dates to be sure.”

Avraham laughed. “And then we got married six weeks after our engagement,” he told Chani, “because otherwise we would’ve been into Pesach and Sefirah and having to wait another two months. But I think that was a bracha in the end. I think long engagements are counterproductive.”

“Well, we certainly had no time to obsess over tablecloth colors or menu options,” Shiffy concurred. “We took the first hall available and finessed the rest. My family couldn’t afford a fancy wedding anyway.”

“I sure didn’t care,” Avraham said. “Guys never notice the niceties anyway and—”

“Avi, LOOK OUT!” Shiffy shrieked as he narrowly missed running into a car that had unexpectedly pulled out into traffic from a parking space, without benefit of a signal to inform oncoming traffic of its intentions.

“Oops,” he said between clenched teeth, regaining his equilibrium. “I forget we’re back in New York with the crazy drivers. And this isn’t a car I’d like to crash.”

“I don’t even know if they sell parts for these cars around here,” Chani said honestly, causing both Krausses to roar with laughter.

“You’re right, my dear,” Shiffy said. “Silicon Valley might be a shidduch desert, but when it comes to tech, it’s the forest.”

“Or the jungle,” Avraham said. “But what do we care? For us it was a rain forest, and as long as it keeps raining, I’m good. But I’ve actually seen quite a few Teslas as I’ve been driving around. They’re not just a Silicon Valley thing anymore.”

Another few turns, and they arrived at the Moskowitz residence. “Go rest up,” they told Chani. “Once Mindy and Chezky’s kids are back you won’t have much of a chance!”

With a grateful smile, Chani emerged from her first Tesla ride and limped back into the house.