Her entire life in Boston had been surrounded by action and drama and chaos. Why had she wanted to leave it all behind?

HE

gave a rhythmic knock on the door of the little condo. It swung open to reveal his mother beaming at him.

“I love that you’re close enough to just swing by. Hello, hello, sweetheart, how are you doing?”

He leaned down for a kiss. “Baruch Hashem! How’s the unpacking?”

She laughed and adjusted her tichel. “It’s… going. What brings you here? Oh, right, you’re picking Daddy up for the parshah and poppers thing, right? You already ate with Estee?”

He thought of the bright, happy kitchen he’d left behind; a smile tugged his lips upward. “Yeah, figured we’d catch the last hour of this thing. Introduce Daddy to everyone.”

His mother was watching him closely, a smile on her own lips. “Great! Dovid, your son is waiting for you.”

His father came out of the study, buttoning his sweater. “Hi, Yonah. I’m ready, although I’m not sure why I’m coming along. What’s an old fogey like me going to speak to these boys about?”

Yonah decided to ignore his father’s doubts, considering they were absolutely groundless. “Great. Bye, Ma!”

Dovid sighed. “See you later, Golda. Dinner was great, thank you!”

Yonah followed his father down the path and, with an elaborate bow, opened the passenger side for him.

His father grunted. “Drive slowly, please. Like I said, I’m an old man. How far is this?”

Yonah slid next to him. “Two blocks away and I will drive so perfectly, you’ll think it’s my driver’s test.”

So, of course, when he cut off an old man crawling at 15 miles per hour, his father declared that he’d failed. Oh, well.