Shulamis
Recap: With Chani back to her regular schedule in Brooklyn, Shulamis proposes to get together.
Shulamis returned to Brooklyn from Lakewood for a few days in mid-July, recalibrating after a draining week helping Simmy and her family after baby number four. Her daughter’s mother-in-law had arrived to take over, so she left with a tranquil mind, ready for a few days of blessed quiet and a chance to put her house in order.
It occurred to her that Chani, living in Mindy’s rambunctious household, might also relish a break. She invited her to dinner one evening at a new, upscale restaurant near Avenue J, proposing that she accompany her to visit the Krausses afterwards. Shulamis had promised Velvel that she’d look in on them (and his house), and it was time she fulfilled her obligation.
Over salads and pasta in a sleek, dimly lit space, Shulamis shared that she’d received reports from Velvel about how happy they were in the new house in Toms River. But she told Chani confidentially that she didn’t think it was so wonderful that Rikki would be with them for the whole summer. “I know Rikki and Zahava are always together, but it doesn’t seem all that appropriate for her to be in such close quarters with a widowed man an entire summer,” she said.
“I know,” Chani sighed, pushing fettucine around with her fork. “I mentioned it to Zahava, but she just thought I was crazy. But the way Rikki looks around our Brooklyn house as if she’s devouring it with her eyes always makes me nervous.”
“I guess it’s just temporary, since Rikki will have to come back to her kids at the end of the summer,” Shulamis said doubtfully.
She showed off pictures of her new granddaughter in Lakewood, reporting that her son-in-law had just received semicha and their town house was getting too small for them. But Chani’s attention seemed elsewhere. It was only when Shulamis asked what was new in Brooklyn, not expecting much of an answer, that Chani related the outing to Deal two weeks prior and the horrific accident that Lieba had brought upon herself.
This was a lot to process! First, Shulamis required reassurance that Lieba was on the mend, to which Chani could reply that the doctors were cautiously optimistic. “I wish I’d known!” Shulamis said. “I was in Jersey, just half an hour away, I would have gone immediately to visit!”
After a moment’s reflection, she registered the fact that Lieba had been on a date with Effi Weinberg, Chani’s former shidduch. “Lieba and Effi? Isn’t she quite a bit younger than him?” she said.
“She is,” Chani admitted. “But the Moskowitzes invited the Krausses for Shabbos lunch, and they brought him along, so I guess he got a look at the girls. He’s well established now, and still single, so I’m sure he’s looking to get married. Lieba’s a sweet girl who’s a lot of fun.”
“Too much fun, in this case,” Shulamis sighed. Privately, she wondered at Effi’s judgment in choosing to date Lieba. How could a man who had been so enchanted by Chani deign to date a Lieba Moskowitz! She was so much younger, and while by no means stupid, definitely not the sharpest knife in the drawer! It made her feel justified in having pulled Chani away from him eight years ago. Such indiscriminate taste was clearly a red flag, no matter how much money he’d made since then.
They finished their dinner sharing a molten chocolate cake. “Do you have the nerves to come visit the Krausses with me?” Shulamis said. “I think it’ll be weird for both of us, to see someone else living in your house, but worse for you than me.”
Chani had heard from Mrs. Moskowitz that Effi was planning to visit Ralph that evening, so she assured Shulamis that she’d be fine. “I met the Krausses by Mindy, and I’ve gotten used to the idea of them inhabiting my home,” she said. “In fact, if I had to invent the ideal tenants for my home, I would have invented a couple exactly like them.
“The only thing that hurts,” she confessed, “is when I think of my poor mother, aleha shalom. She would have been so disturbed to see her family fallen on such hard times that they had to leave her house to strangers.”
They walked the few blocks from the restaurant back to Shulamis’s house, where Chani had left her car parked in the driveway, and crossed the street to ring the bell of the Elman house. It did feel funny for Chani to knock at her own door, but within seconds Mr. Krauss greeted them with a big smile. “Come on in!” he said heartily. “So nice to have you here!”
“I wanted to introduce you to Mrs. Rosner, who lives across the street,” Chani said. “She was my mother’s best friend, and she’s still very close to all of us.”
Shifra was soon right behind him. “Chani, nice to see you!” she exclaimed.
Shulamis appraised Mrs. Krauss as Chani made the introductions (“Just call me Shiffy, everyone does”). She had apparently been doing the dishes, wearing an apron over a business-appropriate straight skirt and silk blouse. The house smelled of grilled fish and roasted vegetables. “Can I get you a cup of tea?” she asked in her direct, welcoming manner. “Avi, what do we have to offer? Maybe some biscotti? I tried a new recipe last Shabbos that wasn’t bad. Cappuccino chocolate chip for my chocoholic husband.”
Seeing that Mrs. Krauss was so down-to-earth despite her wealth put Shulamis immediately at ease. She knew that, like herself, Shifra hadn’t grown up with money; her husband had made his fortune by dint of his own shrewd ideas and knowledge of the markets. She had also heard that Shiffy was something of a phenomenon in her own right, the force behind the marketing that shot their company to the top so quickly. The woman must be bright, although Shulamis had no idea how all this social media stuff worked (for her, going viral meant that chicken pox had spread). She also saw that Shifra seemed to like Chani very much, which was a green light.
“Would you like to take a look at the house?” Mr. Krauss offered. “We really haven’t done much to it at all. I fixed the back door because it was squeaking—I don’t know how you all put up with that for so long!—and got a plumber to look at the water pressure in the master bedroom shower. Other than that, I left everything alone.”
“You took down some of the mirrors in the master bedroom,” Shifra added.
“Oh, yes! I can’t stand looking at myself everywhere I turn! How does Mr. Elman stand it?” (Shulamis and Chani exchanged glances and tried not to burst into laughter.) “Anyway, I just hid them behind the dresser, and in their place I hung the picture from our daughter Avigail’s wedding.”
The conversation eventually turned to the disaster that had happened in Deal. “What a way to attract a girl—by bashing her head in!” Mr. Krauss said with a laugh. “Not recommended!”
His wife gave him a gimlet eye. “Stop it, Avi,” she chided. “You were the one to convince him to try going out with her. Personally, I think she’s too young and flighty for him.”
“Lieba’s a very nice girl,” Chani said diplomatically.
Shifra didn’t look convinced, and she could see in Shulamis’s eye that Shulamis didn’t have the highest opinion of her either. “Well, let’s just hope she makes a full recovery,” Shulamis said. “It’s so scary! Brain injury! What has your brother told you?”
“He’s totally distraught,” Shifra said. “He barely knows this girl, and then she throws herself down a flight of stairs and he somehow blames himself for it. He says he told her not to jump, and she did it anyway.”
“That sounds like Lieba,” Shulamis said acerbically.
“I told him to take a break,” Shifra said. “We have to go to a conference in Boston next week, and I convinced him to come with us.”
It was getting late—“Past my bedtime!” Shulamis said cheerfully.
“Come over any time,” Shifra told them sincerely, and her husband wagged his head. “Chani, in your case at least, the phrase mi casa es tu casa truly applies!”
To be continued.