Libby turned out to be a very entertaining child, who talked most of the time, spent a small amount of time wandering around curiously, and spent an even tinier amount of time listening to Chasida talk. Even then, she usually had a quick answer on the tip of her tongue for whatever Chasida said.

“This store is cute,” she said seriously. “But I think it’s a bit boring. Tell me, don’t you get bored from it?”

“Sometimes,” Chasida conceded. “When there are no customers. But when the store is busy, I don’t have a minute to be bored.”

“Well, I see that now there are no customers, right? If I wasn’t here, you’d probably be very bored. How much time could you be in one place without talking to a single person?”

“When you get used to it, lots of time.” Keep Reading…

As soon as the lunchtime break arrived, Yerachmiel hurried to the room where the hot water urn was set up, to prepare himself some coffee. He didn’t usually leave his campers right at the beginning of the break, but his thirst was stronger than his willpower. No, he wasn’t worried. He didn’t suspect that the old side effect from the operation was coming back to haunt him. It was simply that it was a quarter to two and he still hadn’t put a thing in his mouth that day, not even a drink of water. So it was no wonder he was thirsty.

He opened the refrigerator and took out the milk, trying to focus his thoughts on his campers and the big quiz coming up for them—anything so as not to think of the conversation with Mrs. Kurzman. He wasn’t being particularly successful at it, but at least the sharp, tangible pain was dissipating a little with each minute that passed since the phone call.

“Yerachmiel, would you mind making me a cup, too?” It was Ephraim, one of the younger counselors. Yerachmiel had liked his cheerful smile from the first time he had met him at the counselors’ meeting.

“Sure,” he said. “Let me just finish drinking mine. I haven’t eaten a thing today.”

“What’s with you—I was kidding!” Ephraim said as he opened the fridge. “Since when do I drink coffee? Where’s the Coke? Who finished it?” Keep Reading…

Shevi’s fists were clenched. Small beads of sweat glistened on her skin and she quietly whispered chapters of Tehillim. What had happened to Eliad? Why had the hospital summoned them with such urgency? To…say goodbye, chalilah? From her perch on the back seat, she glanced at Reb Eliyahu’s hands on the wheel. She didn’t know what the speedometer said, but she had a feeling that the car was traveling fast, very fast.

Eliyahu was talking to Gavriel. “A sting?” he asked as he overtook a gas truck.

“That’s how it started,” Gavriel replied. “But it seems to have gotten much more complicated than a simple sting.”

“Yes, but what kind of sting was it?”

Gavriel turned his mouth down in response.

“The head, you said?”

“Near the eye. I think they’re afraid for his vision.”

Eliyahu murmured something, and then glanced in the rearview mirror. He wrinkled his forehead, and then dialed a number on his cellular keypad affixed near the wheel. Three long rings cut through the silence in the car before someone answered.

“Hello, Rabbi Eliyahu!” a voice boomed through the line.

“Hi, Arthur. What are you doing now?”

“Me? I just came up from the hotel dining room and I’m planning to take a nap. Why?”

“I have other plans for you.” Keep Reading…

Eliyahu and Chavi sat down to a quick breakfast. The children, surprisingly enough, were busy with a quiet game, and their parents took advantage of the unexpected reprieve, knowing it would be over almost before it started. Yesterday, after Eliyahu had returned from Bnei Brak, they had gone on a planned trip with the kids and had returned late in the evening, too exhausted for a serious conversation. Only now did Eliyahu have the time to tell his wife some more details about his meeting with Chanoch and Shoshi.

“So, what do you say?” he asked as he reached for the milk. Chavi hadn’t seen him speaking so calmly about the greater Dresnick family for a very long time.

“It sounds like a good start,” she said. “What did you decide?”

“That we’ll speak again. They’ll be in touch with me.” He put the milk back in the middle of the table. “They don’t object to me paying for Zevi’s operation, even though Chanoch made it clear that they’ve heard that this type of surgery does not have high success rates. That’s why they never made any special efforts to raise the money they don’t have.”

He fell silent for a minute, sipping from his mug. Chavi gathered the plates, and then heard him add suddenly, “The court convicted the manufacturer for faking the cream, but not for causing damage to Zevi. The doctors at Tel Hashomer weren’t one hundred percent sure that the cream had caused the gangrene, but Chanoch told me that the family is positive that’s what it was. Anyway, the drug company that sued the forger got what they wanted, but the Blochs didn’t get a penny.” He passed a hand over his forehead. “For years they’ve been saving for rehabilitative treatment, but it’s been slow-going. They have accumulated something, and I understand from Chanoch that Shoshi would want very much to try and treat the foot despite the low chances.”

“Ima!” Libby catapulted into the kitchen, followed by a handful of her sweaty and dusty siblings; there was no sign of the clean clothes that Chavi had dressed them in a mere hour earlier. “When are we going to Saba Beer Sheva already?” Keep Reading…