Our Covenant  

“Mazel tov!” I replied. I hadn’t seen my second cousin in years and was happy to hear the news.

Had I tuned into the uneasiness in my mother’s voice, maybe I wouldn’t have been so shaken by the bombshell she dropped next: “Abby’s not giving the baby a bris — Heidi told me.”

I was standing there in my kitchen, midway through making dinner, but I felt like I’d suddenly been flung back in time.

My father and Heidi, who is Abby’s mother, are first cousins. They grew up together, but as adults, their paths diverged — my father stayed in the Five Towns and married my mother; Heidi moved up to the country with her husband, Howie.