Chapter 7

Shaina had a tendency to touch the shoulders and forearms of the person she spoke to, but when she listened her fingers locked into themselves and she leaned in, taking in every word. I realized she did it unconsciously, but it made her magnetic. “I can’t believe I’m even telling you. A crazy thing happened.” She spilled everything immediately in a cocktail of story and self-reproach. “I was told today, TODAY, to go to Mrs. Feinman’s office before I change class. The Royal Mrs. Feinman herself, high school Yiddish principal herself, took me into her room to tell me one important thing. This: ‘Don’t sit, talk, stand, breathe near Freidy Wertheimer and don’t tell her what I said.’ See? I’m supposed to just pretend you don’t exist and stand a mile away from you. And then I go and sit down RIGHT NEXT TO YOU!”