Ought To & Can (A San Francisco Fable)

Part I: Ought To--Chapter 6

"So Dad says you decided not to do your gap year in Israel."

The Melameds had spent Friday night at the Himmelschein house and went to shul with them. Lillian, Roger and Little Ethan joined Fred, Beth and Sabrina on the walk home this cloudy February Saturday.

Sabrina had started to realize that as the clock to graduation ticked down, the adults in her life would take the cue to appoint themselves as advisors. In this case, it was Lillian. Sabrina didn't mind it all that much in her case: Lillian was the most level-headed of the sisters, but she still dreaded having to explain every single decision she made from now on.

"Yeah, I'll just get my freshman year done, and maybe go on one of the Hillel trips."

"Whatever you do, you absolutely need to go," enthused Lillian. "Learning about your heritage is a must, for sure. But it's just so beautiful. I close my eyes at night when I'm falling asleep, and I remember walking through the wetlands in the Hula Valley on a cloudless day, or seeing the sun set over the Mediterranean. You never forget those things. It was the best decision I made in my life."

"Bree, don't walk like that!"

Sabrina looked at her dad, confused. "If you walk fast like that, you'll ruin your shoes," he explained.

Back on Steiner Street, the Melameds had a present for Sabrina. After hearing that Sabrina had applied to all the Ivy League schools, Lillian asked Roger, who does woodworking as a hobby, to make a large board that Bree could hang prominently in the house. It was done in light-colored wood, with three columns: all eight colleges, painted in appropriate colors, with "yes" and "no" boxes in the other columns.

Sabrina, who'd wanted the whole Ivy League thing to die and be forgotten quietly, was flattered to have so much attention lavished on her, but otherwise wasn't thrilled. "Thanks. This will be...helpful."

###

I get married and the wedding gift is probably a board where I can tell everyone when I had sex and if I conceived.

Sabrina had kept in text communication with Neil. They instinctively knew not to overdo it. Who knew when parental hands or eyes might be on their phone? So they limited it to five times a week, or so. Usually commenting on whatever frustration was happening in their lives.

So what do you do when you know more about the class subject than your teacher?

That was Neil, talking about the quandary he was in with his Civics class.

But even when they were in each other's presence again, at the state qualifier tournament, they realized they couldn't get too chummy. His teammates would start asking him about her. Dwight would do the "Neil's got a girlfriend!" routine. Andy would pull out his "Mormons can't have sex, right? Ha-ha-ha!" routine. And on Sabrina's part, there was May and her hawk's eye.

But the tournament was being held at Sloat-Bushnell. Sabrina, comfortable on her home turf, arranged via text to meet Neil during a long break between rounds out in a hall, far away from the extemp prep room.

"Wish my locker was more interesting," she fretted as they walked past a GADWALL PRIDE banner.

"It's just a locker," he noted. The locker was very clean and organized, with only a printout of a chai inside the door to announce that it belongs to a Jew. But, Neil silently noted, a girl showing you the inside of her locker is the height of intimacy for a chaste high school student.

Sabrina gave Neil a guided tour of SBCDS, pointing out classrooms that belonged to teachers she liked and she hated.

They critiqued the large painted version of the ever-present Sloat-Bushnell school shield painted between entry doors of the auditorium. "Why does it say 'MDCCCXCVII' inside a broken wire clothes hanger?" he asked.