Monsey is the nearby community against which the narrator imagines a different life from the one she has known in Williamsburg. Although her new apartment is in Airmont, just outside Monsey, the area represents country living, greater independence, and a less intrusive religious routine.

Setting and Move

After weeks of encouraging Eli to leave Williamsburg, the narrator tells Aunt Chaya that the move is already underway: boxes are half packed. Aunt Chaya responds, “Monsey? I think it could be a great idea for you to move there.” The narrator hears uncertainty in the approval but welcomes it as an open-minded response. She imagines that living in Airmont, away from everyone’s attention, will let her become truly independent.

The couple’s apartment is on the ground floor of a ranch-style house on a dead-end street near the New York State Thruway. The narrator finds comfort in the country setting and says she cannot imagine returning to the city’s prying eyes and cramped quarters. She walks along Route 59 to reach the commercial area for shopping, but as her pregnancy advances she worries about relying on walking. Knowing that some women in Monsey drive, she decides to take lessons and persuades Eli that driving could help on long trips.

Everyday Life and Autonomy

Driving lessons mark a practical shift in how the narrator understands her options. Her decision is prompted by the prospect that walking may become harder as she grows bigger; it is also a move toward greater mobility in a place where shopping requires a walk to the commercial area. Monsey’s surrounding roads and driving culture thus become part of her effort to make daily life less dependent on others.

The narrator’s account of the driving lessons complicates the idea of independence. She hides her pregnancy from her instructor because he makes disparaging comments about Hasidic women as “baby machines.” After scraping a car in a parking lot, she considers quitting, feeling that she has no right to be on the road. Her instructor insists that she get back behind the wheel and teaches her to drive assertively, taking her onto the highway despite her fear.

The Mikvah

The Monsey mikvah gives the narrator a concrete point of comparison with Williamsburg. After her postpartum examination, she returns for immersion and feels self-conscious about her altered body: her stomach remains pouchy, stretch marks mark her thighs, and her body’s changed shape feels unfamiliar. Yet the attendant’s calm manner eases her concern.

She prefers the attendants in Monsey to those in Williamsburg because they are less nosy and more efficient. Her visits never last more than an hour. That difference makes the local ritual feel more manageable, even as the narrator continues to negotiate religious expectations and the bodily changes of motherhood. In Monsey, greater independence appears not as a single escape from communal life, but as a series of practical differences in movement, privacy, and everyday treatment.