Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 27 of a new online serial novel, Night Flower, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

“Do you think it’s a good idea for me to leave?” Rachel stood at the doorway to the porch, observing Chaiky and her mother. Chaiky was folding laundry with slow movements, and her mother was standing with her back to the door, taking the clothes off the line. “Because if your parents are here…”

“No, don’t go!” Naomi leaped out of wherever she had been, wearing a mask on her face, and hung herself over Rachel’s shoulders. “I like it that you’re here, even if Saba and Savta came.”

“You help me a lot, Rachel,” Chaiky said as she picked up a towel that her mother had just thrown into the basket. “You keep the children busy, give them attention, and take them to the park and shopping…right, Ima?”

Mira smiled. The ten hours she’d been here had been enough for her to get to know Rachel, the girl who had somehow found herself living in her daughter’s home—even though no one could pinpoint exactly when and how it had been decided. “Right,” she said tersely. The fact that she had bad memories of an ungrateful girl who had grown up in her own house didn’t mean that every girl who needed a home was ungrateful.

“The two of you make such a cozy-looking scene, you know?” Rachel noted. She stood bent over, jiggling Naomi who was on her back. “Mother and daughter together on the porch, chatting calmly under the moonlight, the mother taking down the laundry while her daughter folds it…” Keep Reading…

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 26 of a new online serial novel, Night Flower, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

The young woman walking in the park with her cell phone pressed against her ear didn’t attract any particular attention. Even when her voice rose a bit, no one noticed. The path on which she was walking was empty at this early morning hour.

“Listen to me, Aunt Irena,” she said, “I’ve long passed the age where you can be on top of every little thing I do, and may I remind you that at the age when it was possible, you were not the one who took care of me? And as time went on, you did not exactly become more devoted to me.”

“Don’t get me started, Anna,” the aunt replied. “Even if at one point you moved in with those Jews, whatever their name was, most of your education is to my credit.”

“I’m not arguing about that,” the young woman replied with a trace of irritation. “And by the way, her name was Mira. I’m only saying that you can’t decide things for me today.”

“I’m not deciding. I’m just asking if you don’t think it’s time to get married already. You’ve been thirty for five years already, have you noticed?”

“Four and a half.”

“It’s an old age by any standard to establish a home. You know that Grandfather very much wants to see you establishing your own home.”

“While I’m in the middle of my career?”

“Which career, of all your careers, are you referring to?”

“All of them. I haven’t reached the final stage of any of them yet.”

“Well, you’ve apparently inherited your unsettled nature from your mother; you’re not from our side,” her aunt said. “But it seems to me that you are being rather successful at your most recent one.”

“Not at all.”

“No?” The aunt was surprised. “You think you’ve failed? Grandfather won’t be happy. He is investing a lot of money in you, you know.” Keep Reading…

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 25 of a new online serial novel, Night Flower, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

It was normal for new mothers to not be able to fall asleep, right? They have so much going on in their heads… And if your roommate was named “Nur Faiza,” and her whole clan was clamoring around her, then it should be even more normal. And if your husband happened to be detained in Russia, and you were not even sure you’d be able to speak to him before the bris—then it should already be very, very understandable why you were unable to fall asleep, tired as you were.

So when the curtain was pushed aside to reveal twinkling eyes and a wide smile at two in the afternoon on Friday, it didn’t really disturb Chaiky. After all, it’s not possible to wake someone who isn’t sleeping.

“I didn’t bother you or anything, right?” Rachel asked warmly. “And don’t worry—I’m not planning to come back again today. Elsie warned me to let you rest. I just wanted to wish you mazel tov.” She stepped hesitantly into the room. “I bought you flowers in the shop downstairs. Do you like flowers?”

“Yes, very much.” Chaiky sat up, looking at the large bouquet that was totally disproportionate to the tiny plastic container it was sitting in. “They’re beautiful. Thank you so much! I really, really like flowers, and these are such pretty ones!” The night table beside her was empty. Yoel and Shifra had come last night, just after she’d been moved into the ward. They’d brought a bag full of expensive chocolates and a cute outfit.

“What an adorable baby!” twenty-year-old Shifra had enthused, like a little girl. “I saw him! I snuck into the nursery—no one even stopped me. He’s so sweet, and looks so much like Dovi!”

“You spoke to Shlomo’s parents, right?” Yoel had asked. “What did you tell them? That you want them to visit you?”

“I didn’t tell them anything,” Chaiky had said weakly. “I just called to tell them about their new grandson. We hardly spoke.” Keep Reading…

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 24 of a new online serial novel, Night Flower, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

“Hashem will give us a prize? Do you mean s’char?”

“Yes. And I’ll buy you a good prize, too.”

“And are you also going to get a prize?”

Chaiky smiled.

“I think,” Dovi mused thoughtfully, “that your prize will be if Abba comes back. Right it’s a punishment that they took Abba, and when he comes back it will be a prize?”

“We don’t know why Hashem does all kinds of things,” Chaiky replied with effort. Rachel appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. “I think it is better for us to call this a ‘challenge.’ A challenge that Hashem sent us to see how we behave when it is hard for us.”

Naomi entered the house just then, with her regular announcement that she was “starving,” bringing the discussion to an end, and everyone trooped into the kitchen. Rachel offered to set the table. Lunch was tomato and rice soup that Chaiky had cooked the night before, and she’d added slices of frankfurters to it in the morning.

“You didn’t make this soup for such a long time, Ima!” Naomi exulted as she chose the orange bowl for herself. “Rachel, do you like tomato-rice soup? We love it, and Dovi sometimes even eats three bowls of it!” She brought the spoon close to her mouth.

“Naomi.” Chaiky was tense as she gently stopped her. “What did you forget?” Keep Reading…