Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 1 of a new online serial novel, Without a Trace, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every Thursday or Friday. 

Zevi flipped the pillow over to the other side, hoping that perhaps this simple act would achieve something, although he knew the chances were slim. One would think that this side of the pillow had something that would help him finally fall asleep. He was nearing despair. Was it possible to not fall asleep the whole night?

The silence that enveloped the room irritated him. His three roommates were the type who got into bed, said Krias Shema, turned over, and after a moment or two were sound asleep. He usually dropped off easily as well, but lately, he had been having trouble. Strange. He had long gotten over the adjustment of his new yeshivah.

Or perhaps not. He sat up with a sigh, and swung his legs over the side of the bed so his feet touched the floor. Yehuda Levy turned over in his bed on the other side of the room, while the seventeen-year-old youth quickly stuck his feet into the shoes waiting beside the bed and laced them quietly. Yehuda continued tossing and turning, and then suddenly he raised his head and queried, “Oww oh ah?”

Zevi raised a surprised pair of eyes. “Aah!” he cried. He had been sure, for some reason, that he was the only one in the room awake. Apparently there were others who sometimes had trouble falling asleep, too, but they did it in a quieter fashion than he did. “Ah uh huh!” he replied.

Regardless of whether he understood or not, Yehuda burst into typical “Yehuda” laughter. Zevi couldn’t help but join him. There was something contagious about Yehuda’s laughter, and there was undoubtedly something very humorous about this situation. Two yeshivah bachurim sitting on their beds at half past two or three in the morning, conversing in such an odd way—a stranger entering the room would no doubt be convinced that he had happened upon an institution for deaf-mutes. Of course, that would only be if he didn’t realize that both boys had already recited Hamapil.

Yehuda fell suddenly silent and pointed to the half-open door. “Mmmm?” he asked, and Zevi provided a nod in response, watching as Yehuda shoved his feet into his slippers. The two boys rose, stretched, and together made their way toward the door.

Keep Reading…

Without a Trace

Zevi Bloch is hiding something. Something that no one outside of his family may ever find out…

Unbeknownst to Zevi, he has a secret stalker, as well. Eliyahu Katz is determined to find out information about the seventeen-year-old yeshivah bachur, even if he must resort to pretty atypical means of doing so…

And then there’s Zevi’s aunt Chasida, his mother’s twin sister—still single after all these years, still working in her parents’ store, still attempting to quash her feelings of loneliness and pain…

From Haifa to Bnei Brak, from the yeshivah dormitory to a health food store to an alternative medicine practitioner’s office…Without a Trace will lead you into many different scenes and sites as it enthralls you with its spellbinding plot… Be swept up with the emotions of eerily realistic characters on a journey that will leave behind…not a trace…

Check back at the end of this week for Chapter 1 of this exciting new Israel Bookshop online serial.