The Exchange

Yeah, right, says her reflection over the bathroom sink.

Tackling the upstairs bathroom is on today’s agenda. She wrings a sponge and peers into the mirror. Green eyes, hemmed in by crow’s feet. She gives the merest smile. The feet take deeper grip.

Raising the boys. Six boys. Six yeshivos. Six chasunahs — well, seven, if you counted Yoni’s first marriage. Now they were starting to marry off the grandchildren.

Her face is cobwebbed by life.

Mariam shakes her head and reaches for the spray bottle. Women her age are doing Botox treatments, laser resurfacing. But she’s okay with her appearance, okay that the years show. She doesn’t need go to bat against nature.