What a long day! I am so glad this week is over. Hannah placed the pen she was holding down on the yellow legal pad that lay on her desk. She straightened the pad so that it laid directly center on the desk blotter and then she twisted the pen so that it was perpendicular to the blue lines on the pad. It was a gesture she did every Friday afternoon. Like her mother, who used to spend hours cleaning the house for Shabbos, Hannah could not leave her office with even a hint of disorder at the end of the week.
She switched off the computer on the small desk behind her, threw some papers into her briefcase, snapped it shut and turned out the lights before exiting.
"Good night Miss Levitz," The custodian said. His large dust mop was already filled with an unbelievable amount of detritus from the school day.
"Good night, Brian," Hannah said, "Gut Shabbos."
"The same to you." He returned to his sweeping.
Hannah stepped out of the door into bright spring day. In the playground near the parking lot she saw many of the children who were her charges enjoying the extra daylight before they had to be home for their own Shabbos dinners. She smiled at their innocent joy.
If only I could feel that way again. It would be so nice to play with such abandon again.
Once in the car, she punched the hands-free feature on her cell phone and waited for the speed dial to connect her with Larry.
"Hi, hon. It's me. I'm leaving work now. I should be home in about 40 minutes. When will you be over?"
"I'm done here at 5:30. I could be there at 7:15 or so."
"That's cutting it awful close to sunset. Try to make it a little earlier if you can," Hannah said.
"A few minutes won't matter one way or another." She could hear a slight irritation in his voice. Since she had started dating Larry, there had been little tiny clashes like this. Larry did not always appreciate her affection for the traditions of her faith.
When are we going to find the balance that would allow us to move on with their relationship? She had two sets of dishes, kept kosher and was a regular temple attendee. At first, Larry seemed to like this about her. He found it "quaint". Lately though he seemed to lose patience with her noodging him about which plate or cup to use when he came over, or how he would tease her about her "frumie" work clothes. They had been dating for just a month now. She liked him but was discomforted by his apparent disregard for her feelings on these subjects.
Larry viewed his Jewish ness as a simple matter of birth. He grew up in a secularized family in the northern suburbs. He hadn't even been made a bar mitzvah, though in an early incarnation his first band had played at many of them. Now in his 50's he was teaching music at a public high school and playing in clubs on weekends. Hannah presented a new and exotic world to him and though intrigued, he found some of her "little Yiddishisms," as he called them, annoying.
Hannah sighed as she turned her Toyota on to the Interstate. She met Larry while out with a couple of girlfriends. Sylvia, her best friend had convinced her that they all needed a "Sex in the City" girl's night out. It was during Purim and her school had been a madhouse of costumes and gaiety and noise. Exhausting as it was, Hannah was itching to have some fun of her own. Divorced now for nearly 10 (was it really that long?) years, the balance between work, recreation and of course, dating had swung to the negative. A night out was just what she needed. Hannah dressed in a blue satin button down blouse that was tailored to show her cleavage, nicely cut, low riding black silk pants and her only pair of Jimmy Choos (a "birthday gift" acquired from her mother's closet). The club they went to was noisy and fun and had the advantage of having a live band. Hannah always preferred live music.
Larry was in the band.
He looked good standing behind his array of keyboards. She also thought that his back up vocals were every bit as lyrical as the guitar/lead singer who fronted the group. Larry was about 5'9", brown hair and nicely shaped beard which was flecked with grey. He wore black wire framed glasses and he had a delightful smile which he showed when Hannah caught his eye during one of the group's forays onto the dance floor. On the way back to the table Sylvia teased her.
"Hannah's got her flirt on!"
"Oh stop it Syl." Regardless, she blushed.
"Well why not, girl friend, he's cute and you're free."
"Uh, huh and you would love it if I hooked up and left you and Miri here by yourselves," Hannah said.
"Don't use me to as an excuse darling," Miri retorted. "I know how to call a cab if I want one. I also don't have any qualms about us ending our girl's night early if some lusty fun is involved."
"You slut," Hannah joked.
"That's right, and it wouldn't hurt for some of my sluttiness to rub off on you. Dear. When was the last time you got laid?"
"None of your damn business, Miriam," Hannah didn't like the direction of this banter.
"Knock it off you too," said Sylvia. "No one is going home yet, alone or otherwise." She finished her drink and stood up. "I'm for the ladies. Either of you coming?"
"I'll go," said Miriam. "Hannah?"
The music stopped.
"Uh, no, I'm fine. Go ahead."
One of the reasons Hannah preferred live music was the fact that the band would eventually take a break. At clubs with DJ's and wall to wall sound, there was never a place or time to just talk to someone. Maybe that's the point nowadays. Too bad, Hannah liked to chat and flirt. At least here she had a chance. Even though the club filled the time with some canned pop, it was at a volume level that allowed for some conversation.
The keyboard player headed straight for her table. He looked good. Not exactly trim but definitely nicely proportioned. He wore black corduroy slacks and a designer Italian pullover sweater in blacks, reds and flecks of white.
Hannah felt a tingle in her loins
"Hi, where did your friends go?" He asked.
Hannah casually picked up her drink and sipped at it. "Where else do women go in two's and threes," she said with a pert smile that grasped invitingly on the straw of the drink once again. Her eyes lit up. Yes, dear Sylvia, Hannah has her flirt on.
Larry laughed and then the next ten minutes flew by. When the other women returned, Larry excused himself and wandered back to the bandstand but not without a look back and a flash of that wonderful smile. The "oohs and ahhs" of her friends brought a satisfying flush to Hannah's cheeks.
The rest of the night was more fun than she expected. Larry returned to the table at each break. He hit it off nicely with Miri and Sylvia. At the end of the evening numbers were exchanged. Miracle of miracles, he called and an actual date followed. There was one after that and one after that. It was after this third date that they had sex, at his place. Hannah now found herself to be half of a budding couple for the first time in months. She liked the feeling.
So why does his teasing and offhand matter about things "Jewish" bother me?
Just then she was confronted with a series of flashing brake lights as the traffic came to a complete halt on the Interstate.
What now?
She fiddled with the tuning of the radio to find the local all news channel. After about three minutes the traffic report came on and informed her that a tractor trailer had overturned two exits up and the delay would be extensive.
