Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 35 of a new online serial novel, Beneath the Surface, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every Thursday or Friday. Click here for previous chapters.

After pausing hesitantly one more time, Menuchi picked up the phone that she had just hung up and dialed reluctantly.

Simi picked up.

“Um, hi, Simi. How are you?”

“Hi,” Simi replied cheerfully—as always, come to think of it. “I’m good, baruch Hashem. How are you?” Her voice was warm, much like her mother’s. It was the same voice that she had been using to speak to Menuchi for an entire week already.

Come on, Simi’s waiting for an answer! “Baruch Hashem, fine…” Ribono Shel Olam, what are you supposed to make small talk to a sister-in-law about when you have a favor to ask her? School? Shidduchim? The pages we worked on together? Whatever came to mind seemed trite and tasteless to Menuchi. Simi waited.

“Um…” Menuchi despaired of finding a topic for small talk. She would just state her request directly. “Tell me, maybe you have an idea of what I can give, I mean buy, for the seminary girls I teach?” The girls I teach. How presumptuous. One would think that I spend twenty hours a week with them. “I mean, for a good-bye present. My lessons there are stopping for now because the girls are starting vacation in two weeks. Less, even.”

“What vacation?” Simi asked, puzzled.

“They’re being sent home early for Pesach vacation. There are serious money problems there, and it looks like the school might even close down permanently.”

“Oh, no, that’s too bad. So you’re stopping to work there?” Keep Reading…

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 34 of a new online serial novel, Beneath the Surface, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every Thursday or Friday. Click here for previous chapters.

“The bottom line is that you have to prepare the questions at home. You can’t just come to class, call a girl’s name, and then begin to quickly scan the Chumash or Navi. Precious time is wasted, important details are omitted, and the test becomes ineffective.” As Mrs. Deutsch, the didactics teacher for limudei kodesh studies, completed her sentence, the bell rang—if its hoarse buzz could be called a ring. She put her spiral notebook back into her briefcase.

“That bell has got to get fixed,” Simi remarked to Rachel as she hurried to the door.

“Hey, where are you going? Aren’t you washing?” Rachel asked in surprise when she saw Simi turning right.

“Not now.”

“So when will you eat?”

“Later.”

Rachel shrugged and joined the stream of girls heading toward the sinks. Simi must be hurrying to the Bnos leaders’ room again. She liked her friend very much and it never entered her mind to envy her, but Simi being a leader meant that she, Rachel, was sometimes left out in the cold, and such moments generated a bitter, unexplained taste in her mouth. Or maybe it was explainable. It was only natural to feel this way, wasn’t it?

“Running there again, isn’t she?”

Rachel whirled around in annoyance. She found it strange that some girls still behaved so babyishly despite being in seminary. But that’s the way things are. Childishness doesn’t always disappear as people grow older. On the contrary, it often becomes more pronounced.

“Who’s running?” she asked, as though not understanding Lakey, the girl standing right behind her, who had made the comment. Keep Reading…

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 33 of a new online serial novel, Beneath the Surface, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every Thursday or Friday. Click here for previous chapters.

Ten minutes after the Orchos Tzaddikim lesson ended and Menuchi left, Mrs. Deutschlander, the principal, appeared at the apartment. The girls crowded around her.

“How are you girls?” she asked warmly, casting glances around her. “I haven’t visited you here in quite some time. I think the last time was…”

“On the first day of school?” Millie filled in for her.

“Right. On the first day of school. Are you managing?”

Adina perused the older woman’s face closely. Was that a fresh crease in her forehead? Perhaps.

“Will you join us for supper?” Chasya Ehrentreau asked, suddenly emerging from the kitchen. “And how are you? You don’t look so good.”

“Oh, I’m fine,” the guest replied, entering the large kitchen. “I didn’t come to eat. I came to speak to you, girls.”

The girls all took their places, chattering as they usually did, not worried in the least. Adina scanned their faces in surprise. How could they maintain such a calm demeanor in such a strange situation? Or perhaps it wasn’t so strange that the principal had suddenly shown up to speak to them, and she was the only tense one because of the snatches of conversation she had overhead.

The aroma of omelets wafted through the kitchen. “It smells delicious, Chasya,” Mrs. Deutschlander said. “Come, girls, let’s get to the point. Unfortunately, I don’t have especially good news for you.” Keep Reading…

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 32 of a new online serial novel, Beneath the Surface, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every Thursday or Friday. Click here for previous chapters.

The door to Mrs. Deutschlander’s office was only partially closed. Adina Baumel put her gray bag down on the old counter in the kitchen and switched on the kettle.

Mrs. Deutschlander’s voice wafted out of the office; she sounded tense, and it was no wonder that her high-pitched tone came through the rather flimsy door. “So what should I do, fire the teachers? Reduce the hours that the girls learn?”

Adina took out a glass cup from the cabinet along with a small saucer. She opened the sugar container and rummaged around for a clean spoon. She didn’t really intend to eavesdrop on the conversation, but it didn’t sound by their tones like anyone was trying to keep matters a secret.

It was quiet in the rest of the apartment cum school building. The girls had already left. Only she was still there, making coffee for the principal, something that had become a habit after spending her long afternoons in conversation with her as the principal tried finding a suitable job for Adina. This was the third or fourth cup for the day.

“I’m afraid we’re going to have to take much more drastic steps,” Adina heard Rabbi Fogel, the seminary administrator, reply. His voice was lower, but also reached Adina’s trying-not-to-listen ears. Keep Reading…

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 30 of a new online serial novel, Beneath the Surface, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every Thursday or Friday. Click here for previous chapters.

At the top of the stairs sat a young woman, looking at her with a smile-cum-grimace of pain. “I had hoped it was you,” she said in Flemish (!), “but really didn’t believe that this would be the way our meeting would occur.”

Chani gaped at her. The face was so familiar! But the tone of voice, the lilt… No, it couldn’t be her; she had nothing to look for here. So who was it?

“Could you please bring me a broom?” the girl asked as she struggled to stand up. “It was supposed to be a gift for you, but the trash can will obviously be the new recipient.”

“A gift?” Chani echoed. “For what?” Suddenly the picture came into focus. This girl—whose identity she was not sure of yet—had obviously come to see her. Apparently she had fallen and something broke. Perhaps she had been injured?

One thing was clear: the girl needed help, urgently, and instead of doing so, she, Chani, was standing and gaping at the scene and asking questions.

“First things first,” she said briskly. “Come inside.”

“Oh, so you’re not throwing me out,” the girl said with relief, limping slightly as she crossed the threshold.

“Throwing you out? Why?”

The girl turned. “If you would do so, it really wouldn’t be fair of you. After all, I did what you wanted. But then, when we spoke, you were so hostile and cold, so it’s only natural that I would be afraid of such a thing.”

“Very natural,” Chani echoed, sensing her last doubts falling away slowly. It was her; it was her voice, and she had come here, obviously as a gesture of good will of some sort.

And perhaps not? Perhaps it was all a show?

She would have to be careful.

She led her unexpected guest into the living room. What now? Should she serve some refreshments? Wait, she had to sweep up the glass in the stairwell. Someone else could fall and get hurt.

But could she leave this gentile girl here herself? Who knew what she could do in the interim? Keep Reading…