"So my employer was telling me." She gave him the side-eye when he drank the sour milk, a comical expression soon crossing her face.

Menachem nodded, "If you notice anything.. off.. you can let me know." He was wanting more information on the strange going ons, but he couldn't get very close without exposing himself. He noticed the look and smiled. "It isn't rotten, just a little bad. Won't make me sick, and its free."

"You can have the rest of my breakfast too if you are that hungry," she said seriously and scooted it over closer to him. She then nodded at his request and said, "Alright. I'll tell you."

Menachem looked at her with a slight frown. "I'm just keeping the food from going to waste. You need to eat what you can so you have your energy. You won't get anything else until tonight when we celebrate. " He pushed it back. "Thanks. And don't argue "

"I ate as much as I can stomach," she said, not really argumentative but stating a fact. She had tried to eat, it was hard to when one couldn't get passed the taste of the food. Burnt toast was not appetizing at all.

Menachem shook his head as he ate it. "You will learn if you get a few hard days. I used to only like the fancy stuff, and I wouldn't lie and say this is just as good. It's terrible, but I've had worse. And my money's a bit tight so I won't say no."

She didn't say anything to the contrary, though she wanted to tell him she knew what going hungry felt like... Sometimes if she did something wrong as a little girl, her punishment would be no meals all day save for a crust of stale bread. She grew lost in that thought and her eyes looked far away for a moment.

Menachem was chewing her burnt toast when he noticed the look. "What's on your mind?" He looked at her and tilted his head.

She shook her head and the unpleasant memory away. "Just a memory," she said with a half-smile. "Sometimes if I behaved in a way that wasn't befitting how I was being raised, I'd spend the day chewing on a heel of stale bread for my only meal all day. I behaved the best I could to avoid that but could never completely avoid it." She shook her head, "But that was a long time ago and it's over."

Menachem nodded a little. "Sounds rough. Too many people are parents who probably didn't want nor knew how to take care of kids." He shrugged and drank the sour milk. "Mine for example. I think all of my siblings and I have problems. Only my baby brother has turned out as someone people would want to get to know if they really knew us. And he is living in sin with the woman carrying his child." He laughed lightly.