Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 44 of a new online serial novel, Outside the Bubble, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

Hinda served a late lunch of bread, cheese omelets, and tomato salad that had been left from last night’s supper. Dov and Martin ate in the dining room, and Hinda, feeling that she didn’t have a drop of energy left to converse with Simi and give her explanations, sent Dov to Simi’s room to do the explaining. She could always serve Simi a meal later on. At worst, Simi would just order pizza or falafel; she and her husband certainly seemed to have experience doing that.

After Dov returned to the dining room, she didn’t even remember to ask him what Simi had said. She joined him there, in the chair near the window, and studied the Canadian boy who was digging in as though he hadn’t eaten in a good few hours.

“First of all, I think I need to call Shimon Weisskopf and milk him for more information. You said that he was his regular driver,” she said.

“Yeah. Good idea,” Martin said, his mouth full of food.

“Then maybe we’ll call those people from Mexico. I think they were the last ones to have contact with Michoel.”

“You had contact with him very recently,” Dov interjected. “He spoke to you the day before yesterday, or yesterday, didn’t he?”

“Yes, that’s true. So at least we know he’s alive. But he sounded strange,” she said fretfully. “I think we need to go even further back, to the beginning. Before he disappeared.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 43 of a new online serial novel, Outside the Bubble, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

Yosef’s shift on Wednesdays began at seven in the morning. He left the house at ten after five for vasikin, leaving the small chessboard on the shelf in the living room.

“Will you be coming home late again today?” Hinda asked as she tightened the belt on her morning robe. She tried to walk him out each time he left, even when it was very early.

“I don’t know,” he said. After a moment he asked, “Are they leaving today?”

“Who, Dov’s daughter?”

He nodded.

“I have no idea,” she said in a low voice. “But Yosef’l, the house is yours. You don’t need to avoid coming home because of them.”

“I don’t avoid coming home because of them.” He hugged his tefillin bag to his chest. It was the same bag as Baruch’s, except for the first initial. Identical twins, except for a few things. “If I want, I’ll come home on time, okay?”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 42 of a new online serial novel, Outside the Bubble, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

“Yosef?” Dr. Kaplan stopped near the bench on which the young man with the light beard was sitting. “Yosef, wasn’t your shift over an hour ago?”

“That’s right,” Yosef affirmed.

“So, what are you doing here now?”

The young aide shrugged. “I’m not in the mood of going home.”

Dr. Kaplan lowered his voice. “And your medications?”

Yosef dug a small container of pills from his pants pocket. “I took everything with me.”

“Good. What’s going on at home? How is your twin? You have a twin, right?”

“Yes, and he’s even on vacation now; we call it ‘bein hazmanim.’ But he went to stay with my older brother, who is married. Because he also didn’t really want to come home. My mother has guests, and…it’s more comfortable for me here than at home.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 41 of a new online serial novel, Outside the Bubble, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

By 11:30 at night, the hall had emptied, and Mali called Hinda. “Ima, what should I do with the money?”

“Give it to Michoel, of course.”

“I didn’t see him here,” Mali said, sounding puzzled.

“And his worker, the one who organized it all?” Hinda was sitting in the empty kitchen, sipping from a cup of cocoa she had prepared for herself. Dov had fallen asleep on the couch, and if she was not mistaken, Simi and her husband were sitting near the window that faced the open sea, getting some fresh air. Yosef had been sleeping for almost two hours already. He had returned late, eaten dinner, and then escaped to his room. He preferred not to show his face when Simi and her husband were around.

“We didn’t see any worker. Right, Riki?”

Mali’s friend nodded.

“There were a ton of people here, and I think only the importer of the clothes is here now, with his workers. They’re packing up the stuff that’s left. But there’s no one here representing Uncle Michoel.”