The Goy Next Door (Girl Meets Goy #2)

Chapter 10 The Jewish Halloween

This was one of the longest weeks since Leah had moved to Manhattan and it was only Thursday. She felt like enough time had passed for it to be at least Sunday, or maybe even the following Thursday, but somehow, the week still hadn’t ended and Leah was still fretting about her big mistake. Tony hadn’t said anything further about it since she submitted her correction and later wrote the article again once the loan had actually closed, but his silence was almost worse than a reprimanding. She wasn’t sure where she stood and whether she had any business working at Club Business.

But at least it was Thursday evening. And after living in Manhattan for several months already, Leah knew that Thursday evening was the real start of the weekend. Thursday evening is when hard working professionals decided to kick back and waste parts of their paychecks that they wouldn’t miss on extra curriculars. Sure, everyone would show up to work on Friday, most would even show up on time, but hardly any would actually accomplish anything. But Fridays were for being present and warming seats. They were not for being productive.

Leah was excited for the Chabad Purim Party that Maya had bought tickets for. She wasn’t excited that it was hosted by Chabad—in fact, Leah hadn’t even been to any Chabad events since her very first evening out in Manhattan when she had met Maya. But she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t heard about Chabad’s reputation when it came to Purim.

Every Jew who had heard the word Chabad knew that the organization held tightly to the biblical tradition of drinking until you didn’t know the difference between Mordechai and Haman, or good and evil. Leah had heard stories of the Chabad Purim celebrations that lasted through the night and sparked rumors of which rabbis who could do somersaults. She wondered if that was in store for her this evening and if it was, well, she was excited for it.

She and Asher were reviving their costume duet of Sandy and Danny from Grease. Leah pulled her black leather leggings up to her belly button and slipped into a matching black leather off the shoulder top. A thick black belt buckled in front to bring the costume together.

She fluffed her curly hair to make it as big and high as possible and put big hoop earring in her ears. Next she painted her lips a red much brighter than anything she would ever wear and stepped into tall high heels that matched her lipstick.

She had a satin Pink Ladies jacket that she slung over her shoulder and blew herself a kiss in the mirror. Then she took a selfie and sent it to Asher.

You better shape up!

Wow! He responded immediately to Leah’s disappointment. She wasn’t sure why his text was disappointing, maybe she had hoped he would write some lyrics from the movie or something clever, but words weren’t Asher’s specialty.

“Is it Halloween or something?” her roommate Marissa said when Leah was about to leave the apartment. The question startled her and she almost jumped right out of her pumps.

“Purim,” she responded, although she could see that word meant nothing to her roommate. “It’s like the Jewish Halloween.” The explanation did not do the holiday justice. Purim was more than just about dressing up. It was about prevailing against evil, about surviving persecution, and celebrating a strong woman who saved her people, but how should she explain that while teetering in her way too tall heels?

“Have fun!” Marissa offered and Leah thanked her and stepped out the door. The air was crisp and she slipped her arms into her jacket. She walked to the subway to head downtown to meet Asher by his apartment so they could walk to the Chabad together. She didn’t care that people might stare at her costume. She knew she looked good.

“I got chills,” someone said and Leah couldn’t help but smile. Her smile fell when she turned to see Gabe walking out of the bodega she was about to pass. “They’re multiplying,” he continued with a laugh. Leah felt herself giggling with him.

“What on earth are you wearing?” Gabe asked once the giggling subsided.

“It’s Purim,” Leah said, realizing her explanation was just as meaningful to Gabe as it was to Marissa. “It’s like Halloween for Jews.” She wished she could see some sort of recognition in his eyes. He nodded.

“You want to ask me trick or treat?” Gabe held up his brown paper bag from the bodega and again Leah found herself giggling.

“It’s not like that. I guess it’s only like Halloween in that we dress up.”

“Too bad, I might have had a good treat for you.” He winked and Leah wanted to melt into him, sing a Grease duet and promise they would always be together. “Well, have fun. If you want to, I don’t know, hang out after your party or something, I mean, I’m probably much more like Eugene than Danny Zuko, but, hey, Sandy shouldn’t totally forget where she came from before she was a Pink Lady.”

Leah blushed brighter than her lipstick. “I’m sure Sandy would always have time for Eugene.” She wanted to tell him, YES! I’d love to hang out after the party, but she knew she couldn’t.

“I have to go,” was all she said because she really did need to get on the subway if she wanted to meet Asher on time. She didn’t offer any more information because she didn’t want Gabe to know she had a boyfriend, a nice Jewish boyfriend at that, even if he didn’t understand all the Grease references that made Leah giggle.

“You look beautiful,” Gabe responded. “Have fun celebrating Purim.”

She nodded and walked away, feeling self-conscious as her high heels clacked the sidewalk. She caught the subway and starred out the windows to the black walls of the track until she got off in Midtown.

Asher was waiting for her by the subway exit in a black leather jacket and a black wig with the signature curl in the front.

“It’s Grease lightening!” he belted out and started tapping his heel and pointing his straight arm at her when she approached. Again she felt herself giggling and she rushed to his arms. He did know some things from Grease. And he was trying.

“Sandy, my darling, you look amazing,” he said when they kissed ever so gently as to not ruin Leah’s lipstick.

“Remember when everyone was Esther and Mordechai for Purim?” Asher asked as they walked to the party. “Purim used to be purely about the Megillah, but now it’s morphed into something else entirely.”

“Halloween,” she repeated for the third time that night.

“Exactly,” Asher responded as though it was profound. “Like, Purim is so special on its own, why do we have to compare it to a secular holiday? Why don’t Christians try to appropriate our holiday and say Halloween is like Purim except that they eat candy rather then drink and shake groggers at the name of the bad guy in the story?”

“First of all, I think we both know there is a lot of drinking on Halloween,” Leah laughed.

“But not enough groggers,” Asher commented and Leah agreed. The silliness in their conversation amused her almost enough that she wasn’t thinking so much about Gabe anymore. It made sense for her to be with someone like Asher, who could joke about groggers and understand the real point of the holiday. It wasn’t just about the holiday, it was about understanding who Leah was, how she had been brought up, and her people’s struggle throughout their history.

She couldn’t have a future with someone who was content at thinking Purim was the Jewish Halloween and likened the traditions to that of trick or treating. Asher understood the struggle. He understood what Purim represented, groggers and all.

“Just in time for the Megillah reading!” A bubbly young woman in a headscarf said to Leah and Asher when they arrived. Maya, dressed as the devil, and Kevin, an angel, had gotten there too. “I’m Hannah! You’re Leah, right? And Maya? I haven’t seen you in a while!”

Leah wasn’t sure if she’d ever seen Hannah before, but then she remembered the woman had welcomed her at the Chabad Young Professionals event back in the fall where she had met Maya. These Chabad people all had great memories for faces.

“I’m so glad you guys could come! Great costumes!” Hannah handed them each a grogger and they went inside to the party where someone was reading the Purim Megillah to the crowd. There were a few people facing the reader and listening intently, but most of the people seemed to be standing back and mingling.

There was a makeshift bar with scattered bottles and plastic cups where people seemed to be serving themselves and Kevin suggested they grab drinks. Asher grabbed one of the bottles of vodka and poured very steep drinks while Kevin splashed some of the soda that was still left in each of the cups.

“L’chaim!” Kevin raised his glass just as the entire room started booing and hooting and shaking their groggers. The four of them chimed in, shaking their groggers, booing, and laughing to drown out the sound of the name of Haman, the villain in the Purim story.

Leah had loved this tradition when she was a child. She remembered her mom taking her to synagogue and she would sit in the front while the Rabbi read the Megillah. She would listen intently as he told the Purim story starting with Queen Vashti who refused to dance at King Achashverosh’s party and how he executed her and wanted a new bride who would meet his standards.

Mordechai convinced his beautiful Jewish niece, Esther, to charm the king who fell in love with her all the while his evil advisor Haman wanted to murder the Jewish people. While Haman plotted to kill the Jews with the king’s consent, Esther begged her husband to save her people and she prevailed. And now, for generations to come, every time a Jew heard the name Haman, they raised their grogger and shook it to make as much noise as possible to drown out the sound of the name.

When the Megillah reading ended, shots were passed around the room and music blared. People were dancing, drinking, but not doing somersaults. Leah danced with her friends and sipped her drink, enjoying herself in a way that she hadn’t in a while. She felt like she was becoming uptight since moving to Manhattan, she hadn’t smiled as much, let loose as much. She felt like she was forced to stay composed all the time, even when having fun, and where was the fun in that?

So she shook her curls and tossed her hips, knowing that she pulled off her costume perfectly—except that her curls were brown instead of Sandy’s blonde—but no matter.

When her phone buzzed, she hadn’t even felt it, she was so busy dancing in Asher’s arms and with Maya. She may have even seen a somersault or two before she and her friends stumbled out of the party.

“You’re not going anywhere dressed like that,” Asher slurred when the two girls followed their boyfriends to the Midtown apartment they shared. Leah was happy to snuggle up with Danny Zuko all night without thinking about having to get up for work in the morning.

It wasn’t until she was on her way uptown to shower and change her clothes early the next morning that she saw the text from Gabe.

Can’t stop thinking about you and how much I’d like to celebrate Purim.