Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 57 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. 

“Elka is not answering this time.” Adi dropped the phone onto a pile of towels and continued folding. “I guess I’ll try again soon.”

This was the fifth day since Noa had disappeared. Adi had returned to her own home by now, but every day she was back at Racheli’s place for a few hours, trying to make headway with her in tracking down Noa.

Racheli peeked out from the kitchen. “Yehudis, go help Adi,” she said. “I don’t feel comfortable that she’s folding our laundry. Where’s Esty?”

“She’s watching Chana’le.” Adi’s face was creased with worry. “Do you think I did the wrong thing by not calling the police? I don’t think Elka can help. She just wants to settle accounts with Noa.”

“In any case, the police will tell you to first check all the other places where Noa could be before they take any action,” Racheli said. “I know how it works. A nine-year-old kid from this neighborhood once disappeared for three hours, and the police did not come before the parents called all the friends to find out if they knew anything. And that was regarding a child, not an adult like in this case.”

“What happened in the end with that boy?”

“His friends had no clue where he could be, so the police finally agreed to get involved. They eventually found the boy in Ramat Gan. He got mixed up with the bus numbers and had no money for a return trip and no phone with which to call home.”

“So maybe I should try and call a few mutual friends,” Adi remarked. She abandoned the washcloth she was folding. “Maybe Noa went to one of them or said something to one of them.”

But none of the friends she called had heard from Noa for at least half a year. Adi seemed to be the last one she had been in touch with.

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Israel Bookshop presents Chapter 56 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. 

“She’s crazy,” Chaiky whispered, almost hypnotized. “Totally crazy.”

“Who?” Yoel drove on. Although they hadn’t discussed it, he was already halfway back to Yokne’am.

Chaiky recovered. “What would you say, Yoel, if someone with whom you are not on friendly terms—quite the opposite, actually—all of a sudden starts sending you warm messages and reminding you about your good old days together?”

“And there never were any good old days?”

“No,” she replied firmly. “She brought me a gift after Yisrael Meir was born, and we spoke for a few minutes, I guess in friendly conversation, but she’s not talking about that now. She’s talking about all the pleasant days we spent together, and the long conversations that we had, and…” She tried to remember what Miri had relayed. “And how good it was to work with me, and how intelligent I am.”

“Well, I’m sure it’s wonderful to work with you, just like I am sure that you are very intelligent.”

“Ah, yes, my completely impartial little brother. I know you are loyal to me.” Chaiky smiled. “But in all my interactions with her, she never displayed any loyalty or appreciation to me. On the contrary.”

“Is this the woman you were speaking about earlier? I’m asking you this for a reason.”

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Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 55 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. 

“What’s the matter, sweetie? Why are you crying?” Rachel was pushing Yisrael Meir’s carriage around and around the dining room table. “Are you hungry? Do you want your Ima? Maybe your Abba? How about a bottle?”

But the baby didn’t seem to want anything except to cry.

“Oy!” Rachel fretted as the phone began to ring. “It must be your mother, and she’ll be very upset to hear you’re not happy. She was so glad to hear before that you were sleeping so that she could go shopping with Naomi! Isn’t it a shame?”

The phone kept ringing.

“There’s no choice,” she announced to the world. “We’ll pick up.” And she pulled the carriage over to the phone.

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Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 54 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. 

 Noa had always liked the scent of strawberries. There was something calming about it for her. When Mira Brodsky had wanted to treat her, she would look for little strawberry scented soaps for Noa to decorate her room with.

Noa clearly remembered the last soap she had received. It was big, shaped like the Eiffel Tower, and its scent was so strong that little Chaya’le had been sure that it was a giant candy and had bitten off the tip.

The bitten-off soap had accompanied Noa to the Yadovsky household, and even when she fell out of favor with them and began her many wanderings, she took it with her. When had it disappeared? It was hard for Noa to recall. It had been several years since she’d lost it, but when its scent or something similar tickled her nostrils, it evoked in Noa memories of Chaya’le wailing, “Yuck, it’s so bitter! It’s so bitter!”

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