Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 53 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. 

Ezriel and Dina Struk left the office of Martin Weber, a noted attorney who specialized in cases that dealt with the smuggling of valuable items. His office was on the seventh floor of the Tel Aviv Towers, and they hurried toward the elevator, hoping to be able to catch the eight o’clock train to Haifa.

Ezriel summoned the elevator, but the latter seemed to be working at its own pace.

“He actually sounded encouraging,” Dina said, just to cut the silence that filled the lobby where they waited, the air between them, and the entire floor.

“Well, what does he care?” Her husband was rather somber, and not interested in smiling. “As long as he is not actively managing the case, he has no problem making promises. But I don’t know how knowledgeable he really is in Russian law. Somehow, things sounded much simpler from him than they do when Shlomo’s lawyers present them,” he said, staring at the glass wall in front of him with narrowed eyes.

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Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 52 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 early afternoon when Yoel parked his car near the community center in Yokne’am. He had popped over for a surprise visit to his sister and her children, to see how they were; maybe he’d order some pizza if he saw she hadn’t prepared lunch and they hadn’t eaten yet. But only Dovi and the baby were home, along with the girl who lived with them. There was a tantalizing aroma of something baking in the oven, and Dovi’s face was stained with ketchup, though he ran to clean it off before going back to cheder for the afternoon.

They didn’t know when Chaiky would be home, so Yoel decided to wait for her here, outside the community center. After waiting ten minutes, however, he gave up and called her.

“Chaiky, are you going to be at the community center for a while?”

“I don’t know,” she replied, sounding a bit disoriented. “Why, did you need something from me?”

“I just wanted to visit. I’m parked outside the community center now. So, should I come back another time?”

“No, no,” she said hastily, sensing that it would not be wise—or nice—to send him away after he’d made the effort to come all the way there. “The truth is that a few interesting things have happened here, and they are just telling me about them now. I’d want to hear your take on them. I’ll be out in two minutes, okay?”

“Fine,” he said, and leaned back. He wondered how long “two minutes” was, in female language.

It wasn’t as long as he’d feared. After four and a half minutes, he saw Chaiky walking down the path, Naomi’s hand tucked into hers. They climbed into his car.

“Hello, Yoel.” Chaiky’s voice was tight.

“Hi. Regards from your house—it smells delicious there, and everything was calm and quiet. Since when does Dovi go back to cheder in the afternoon?”

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Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 51 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 woman who met Chaiky and Naomi at the library didn’t look much like Elka, although it was her. Her eyes were shifty, as if she was embarrassed to focus on Chaiky, or perhaps it wasn’t only embarrassment. Something was bothering Elka very much, and it was not only the awkwardness at unexpectedly meeting up with her dedicated employee in this library.

“I need to speak to you, Chaiky,” she said as she picked up a book from the floor. “I’ve been meaning to for two days, but it just didn’t happen yet. You see how busy I am here. Miri is trying to help me, but there are hours that I need her to be sitting at the entrance and doing other work, so I’m stuck in here.”

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Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 50 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 windows in this stairwell were built in a very strange way—narrow and high, covered with shutters that partially blocked them. The dust that had accumulated over the years took care of blocking the rest. When the light went out suddenly, Noa found herself groping in near darkness as she made her way down to the entrance. She could not recall how exactly she’d left the house. She’d shamefacedly murmured something; Mira had nodded and halfheartedly asked how she was doing today, and offered politely to keep in touch.
But that was just it—Noa didn’t really want to keep in touch. Not after she’d discovered almost with certainty that Chaiky Struk of today was the cute Chaya’le of then. That was also why she hadn’t spent too much time apologizing—because when Mira would find out who she really was, the whole story of their disastrous parting in the past would pale in comparison to what she had done to Mira’s daughter these past few months.

Only after searching all her pockets did she remember that the new phone that she’d bought as soon as she’d arrived in Be’er Sheva was resting deep in the bottom of her bag. She’d wanted to spare it the same fate as its predecessor, which was now resting—intact or not—on the floor of that strange store next to the bus station in Tel Aviv.

She leaned on the wall of the stairwell and switched on the phone. The memory was empty of numbers, of course. She didn’t even have Adi’s number! It was a good thing she knew her grandfather’s number by heart. Keep reading…

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 49 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 took two days for Noa to recover from her frenzied getaway from Tel Aviv, during which time she did nothing but rest in the room she had found, in a small, cheap hotel. No one seemed to be looking for her either. After two days, she went to visit the old street, a visit that was actually the purpose of her trip south.

The street and the building remained much the same, but there were a few things that had changed. For example, the gate. Noa smiled to herself when she remembered her first encounter with this building, when she’d walked up the path and entered the stairwell with the high ceiling. Now she climbed to the top floor, and discovered that the nameplate on the door had also been replaced.

Her knocks yielded no response. She stood near the door for another minute, suddenly feeling overcome by exhaustion, and wondered if a dark-haired two-year-old, tottering on her two chubby legs, would suddenly burst out of the house. It was funny; she’d known her from age zero till about six or seven, but the image that remained etched in her memory, strong and tangible, was that of Chaya’le as a toddler. Sweet Chaya’le, who, from all the things Noa had found so hard to part with at the time in favor of Yadovsky, had been the most difficult.

The door remained locked and silent in her face, and Noa finally grasped that there was no point in standing there. As she walked back down the stairs, she wondered if Mira was still a preschool teacher. Maybe she could ask the neighbors what time Mira usually came home, and if she was even in town right then. What if Mira was out of town, or even out of the country, at the moment? If that were to be the case, she would have to come up with another plan.

She stopped near the door on the first floor, just as the sound of footsteps echoed from the entrance of the building. Someone was on the way up the stairs, and she was talking on the phone. Noa tensed. Keep Reading…