Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 20 of a new online serial novel, The Cuckoo Clock, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

“What does that mean, he disappeared?” Rabbi Walkin stopped abruptly en route to his chair.

“When my wife returned from a shopping trip, she found only Edo at home. He told her that Gustav told him that he had to go, and he just went. And he hasn’t come back.”

“How many hours have passed since then?”

“Now it’s already almost two o’clock, so it’s a bit more than four hours, I think. We looked for him in every possible place. I asked Rothstein to even sniff around in the municipal hospital, but we’ve turned up nothing.”

“Did he leave you a note? A message? Did he say something yesterday or this morning?”

“Nothing.”

“Do you think he was kidnapped?” The orphanage director pressed his hand to his forehead.

“No. I’m afraid that he went back there of his own accord.”

“Back? To that other place?”

“Yes.”

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Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 19 of a new online serial novel, The Cuckoo Clock, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

Bayla Stockhammer walked into Peretz’s empty room and opened the ironing board. How many shirts was she supposed to iron for him ahead of time? She’d be happy to iron all twelve of his new shirts, but in recent years, ironing had become increasingly difficult for her. She couldn’t do it sitting down, and when she stood to iron, it didn’t take long for her legs to begin protesting. If she could have spread the ironing over a few days, that would be one thing. But the wedding was in less than a week, and she had so many errands to do, and it was the aufruf this Shabbos… Maybe she would just give everything to a professional ironing lady.

She didn’t even plug in the iron. Instead, she went to find the most recent advertising circular that had arrived in her mail. If she wasn’t mistaken, there was an ad every week for just this type of thing.
The circular was waiting on the mail table in the hallway, and just as she found the ad and was about to make the call, the phone rang.

“Hello, is this Mrs. Stockhammer?”

“Yes, it is,” she replied, sinking into her favorite old armchair.

“This is Attorney Rosenblit. Your receipts have arrived, but we cannot file them because Peretz did not sign them.”

“What?”

“I called a day after our meeting to let you know that my client is requesting the signature of the chassan and kallah on each of the receipts.”

“Ah, yes, now I remember,” she murmured. “I didn’t really like that directive, which is probably why I didn’t remember it.”

“Could be.” He was very courteous, but remained firm. “I’m sending them back to you with a courier so Peretz can sign them immediately, and the courier will bring them back to me. Alright?”

“Fine…oh, but one minute. Peretz is only coming home the day after tomorrow, on Friday. He’s in yeshivah now.”

“So be in touch with me when he comes home, and we’ll set up a time for him to sign everything.”

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Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 18 of a new online serial novel, The Cuckoo Clock, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

“Shaina?” It was Nechama Kagan, Shaina’s cousin from Petach Tikvah. As principal of Bais Yaakov Zichron Elchanan, Shaina Rosen was a busy woman, and her cousin had caught her just as she was about to leave her office.

“Hi, Nechama, how are you?”

“Baruch Hashem, nothing special here. Tell me, we got a very strange invitation today from friends on the block… What’s the story with Stockhammer and Potolsky? Bais Yaakov Zichron Elchanan is your school, isn’t it? Since when do people make weddings in your gym?”

“It’s really just a one-time thing.”

“Is it true that Stockhammer’s son, the chassan, is sick? And he’s supposed to have surgery in another month, so they’re making the wedding early?”

Shaina switched off the light in the office. “I haven’t heard of such a thing,” she said cautiously.

“So what did they tell you?”

“That they got money from a special fund if they would make the wedding on Rosh Chodesh Teves, and being that all the regular halls were already taken, they were looking for an alternative that could work.”

“Strange. Maybe this money is just an excuse to cover up the truth… I heard that they asked a rav, and he told them not to drop the shidduch. A school gym as a wedding hall…? Who called you about it?”

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Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 17 of a new online serial novel, The Cuckoo Clock, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

“In the gym of Bais Yaakov Zichron Elchanan…?” Avigail Auerbach raised her eyes from the invitation she was holding. “What’s the story with Tzippy?”

She went back to reading, and then: “What?!”

Her little shriek did the trick, and her mother came rushing into the room. “What happened?” she asked her daughter, who was also a kallah, in alarm.

“Look!” Avigail said. “It’s Tzippy’s chasunah invitation… She’s getting married next week!”

“So, what are you so shocked about?”

“She told me that the wedding is in the middle of Shevat! Why did they suddenly make it six weeks earlier?”

“Oh, you’re talking about Tzippy Potolsky?”

“Yes. And not only that. Look where the wedding will be held!” Avigail handed her mother the cream-colored invitation.

“Strange…” Mrs. Auerbach murmured. “I hope everyone’s okay there. What was so urgent all of a sudden? And to make a wedding in such a place? What is going on?” She and her daughter exchanged anxious glances.

“She was supposed to get married six weeks after that. You remember we met her doing errands?”

“Yes, sure.”

Avigail sat down near her desk, playing with the cap-less pen that she found there. “But they both looked perfectly fine. What was strange was the standard of things they were buying, remember?”

“Yes, but I think this conversation is getting a bit gossipy.” Her mother handed her back the invitation. “I will tell this to Abba, though. He needs to know any unusual information regarding people who take loans from the gemach. It’s other people’s money, you know.”

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