Page 45 of The Dreidl Disaster

That is, if Artur remembered to ask her again. If she had to bring it up, it was fate. Because the bottom line was that she couldn’t initiate anything. Too much was on the line for her to remind him if he hadn’t had the intention to begin with.

Chapter Sixteen

Despite all ofArtur’s concerns about what had happened at the initial meeting with the subsection of the chamber of commerce, it turned out that with a few exceptions it had, in fact, been a prelude to suggestions delivered by some of the chamber members during the second meeting itself.

“Story time involving the temple youth group, with a special group of selections from Briarwood Tales celebrating Jewish authors and Hanukkah stories.” The suggestion came from Jennifer Cohen and Carol.

“Some of the Briarwood restaurant owners and food vendors have volunteered to create Hanukkah-appropriate menus based on the cuisine of their menus,” said Peter Levitan. “There is a great deal of Hanukkah food from all over the world, and a great deal of it can be represented in Briarwood.”

“There are a few conversations that need to take place,” said the superintendent of schools, “but I think the district and the boosters would love to organize an outdoor sports section.”

The list of suggestions continued on, and the inspiration was a red sports car, flying through the autobahn of his mind. Visions and photos popped up like random gas stations. This was absolutely wonderful.

They weren’t out of the woods yet, but it felt really good.

“There are so many wonderful ideas,” said Liv, full mayor persona on display. “It’s going to be difficult to narrow them down. Thank you all.”

As she banged the gavel and the meeting ended, he found his head spinning.

“Walk me to the car?”

He nodded. “Absolutely,” he said.

They said their goodbyes and as they left the building, side by side, they headed toward her car.

“You’re quiet,” she said in the glow of the streetlights by town hall. “What’s going on?”

He had to be careful on how he couched this from the beginning, knowing both the mayor and Briarwood wanted an event of their own, that wasn’t like any of the other Hudson Valley Hanukkah events, not even in name.

“I wonder,” he said after pausing for just a little, “what the feasibility is of having amulti-day event cycle?”

“What?” she asked. “Explain.”

She looked intrigued, which was a victory. “Well, how about you make thearrival of the dreidl sculpturethe core of a series of events that take place over a few days? Center the whole thing around it, like you see with the arrival of an honored guest—human or horticultural—that happens during this time of year.”

She snorted.

Maybe he went a little too far. Hmm.

She interjected, “I like this idea.”

“I’m sensing a ‘but’?”

She nodded. “We have to be very, very, very careful.”

“Aah yes. It’s a multi-day cycle celebrating the arrival of Hanukkah and the Briarwood dreidl sculpture.”

“Great idea,” she said with a grin. “As long as nobody starts singing‘here comes the dreidl, made out of clay, spinning and bringing joy every day…’”

He laughed as a vision of a dreidl wrapped in a white ribbon spun through his brain. Of course, her song cued up another musical memory of his. But his voice was worse than hers, so he didn’t even try to sing it; a reference was going to be better. “Just don’t make a dreidl lane. That would make it worse.”

“As long as the rabbi, the cantor, and the youth group aren’t spinning the dreidl down that absolutely not renamed street, we’ll be fine,” the mayor replied.

He could see the joy in her eyes under the lights; his guess was that she was desperately trying to hold back a tidal wave of laughter.

She was gorgeous.

Which meant he had to shove things back on track. “Dreidl as signifier of Shabbat?”

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