“Hey! Hey!” shouted Maya, as she banged on the locker room door. “Someone help! I’m stuck down here! Please!” Unfortunately for Maya, help was not on the way, at least not yet. After a few minutes more of banging and shouting, Maya slumped down on one of the benches to think. Yes, she was stuck in the locker room, but other classes would come down for gym at some point. If not, there was likely a practice or a game or something. Maya knew she would eventually get out. So instead of panicking, Maya decided to relax. She might be missing class, but she had a great excuse.
Meanwhile, upstairs, Maya’s friends were going about their days as usual. None had seen Maya in the past hour, but they weren’t nervous. They knew Maya needed her space when she got upset, and sometimes that meant not seeing her for a few hours. Maya could easily be speaking with the school social worker or taking a period off with her teacher’s permission. Finally, Maya might simply be washing her face in the bathroom. She might walk into class at any second.
The truth was that two of Maya’s friends weren’t exactly looking forward to seeing her. Gila and Allie were the reason Maya ran away, although these two didn’t think they did anything wrong. Maya, Allie and Gila were part of a group of friends that liked to tease each other about unimportant things, and each girl was pretty good at laughing at herself. So when Maya took her three steps back to finish Amidah, tripped over Mrs. Schwebel’s leg, and fell into Kayla’s lap, of course they laughed. In fact, they expected Maya to laugh along. Neither Allie nor Gila could have known that at home that morning Maya’s (very rude) older sister was making fun of Maya for being clumsy. Maya left for school feeling mad at her sister, and had not yet calmed down when the “Tripping Incident” happened. So of course, Maya blew up and stormed out. But she’d be back, right?
So, one hour passed, then two, then three. At that point, it was time for lunch. Being that it was Tuesday, Allie and Gila should have been eating lunch with Maya. However, Maya was a no-show. Gila and Allie waited at their regular table for five extra minutes, in case Maya was running late. When she didn’t show up, Allie turned to Gila and shrugged. “Well, I guess she needs her space.” Gila agreed. “Yep, Maya and her space.”
Meanwhile, in the locker room, Maya was feeling nervous and hungry. When she closed her eyes on a bench three hours ago, she didn’t expect to take such a long nap. Maya figured someone would have woken her up by now. With her lunch upstairs and nothing to eat, Maya stood up to walk around and think. However, she had not taken more than 10 steps when something startled her; another person was sleeping on another bench!
Maya’s loud gasp woke the sleeping girl, who proceeded to gasp right back. By then, Maya realized who it was. “Jordana! What are you doing down here!?” Jordana shook her head back and forth. Well,” began Jordana, “yesterday I got my Chumash test back and I was very unhappy with my grade. I had studied really hard and I don’t know what happened. I was embarrassed to be around anyone else who did better than me, so I came down here to be alone.” I’ve been stuck here ever since.”
“Wait, you’ve been here since yesterday?! How has nobody noticed you were missing?!” Maya was shocked. Jordana gave a sheepish smile. “My parents are away for three days so it’s just me and my sisters. I was thinking about staying the night at Talia’s but I wasn’t sure. I had told Talia ‘maybe’ and I had told my sister ‘maybe,’ so each probably thought I was with the other one! Good thing there is plenty of food down here!” With that, Jordana pulled open a door to her left that revealed shelves full of snacks and a refrigerator full of food. “Wow!” exclaimed Maya, “A real excuse not to go to class and a closet full of food! This isn’t so bad! Eventually someone will find us! But for now, let’s party!”
Meanwhile upstairs, Gila and Allie were starting to get nervous. “Allie, do you think Maya went home? What happened wasn’t so terrible, but we still haven’t seen her? Should we check with the office to see if she left?” Allie thought for a second, remembering how the secretary had yelled at her last time she asked if someone went home early. “You know what, Gila? Let’s go to Parsha class, and Maya doesn’t show up by the end, we can go ask.” Gila, feeling relieved, nodded. “Good idea. You know how Maya likes her space.” Allie nodded in agreement. “Yep, Maya and her space.”
Rabbi Pomerantz began Parsha class with a question. “When someone with Tzara’at is ready to rejoin the camp, the passuk says, ‘He is brought to the Kohen.’ But is this true? The Kohen actually comes all the way out of the camp to the Metzora! Why does the passuk phrase it as if the Metzora is being brought?” After a few suggestions from students, Rabbi Pomerantz began his answer. “Like a Metzora, people often need to be alone for their own reasons. However, we can’t leave these people without an opening to rejoin. It often feels easier to leave them be—what if she is upset with me? What if he makes me feel worse? But truthfully, it’s probably harder for such people to come back than it is for you to bring them back. They might get used to being alone. They might start to think they don’t need other people. We can’t have that happen! We must do what we can to bring them to us, even if they seem like they don’t want to.”
With that, Allie and Gila jumped out of their seats and raced out of the classroom. You know what happens next.
Yair Daar is the middle school dean of students at Yeshivat He’Atid. He can be reached at [email protected].
