Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 64 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. 

Despite Yosef’s grim mood that afternoon, he woke up the next day charged with energy – which worried Hinda.

She wanted to make him another appointment with Dr. Brand, but was afraid to clip his wings. If the idea of traveling to Michoel filled him with so much vitality, she didn’t want to be the one to snuff it out. She would just gently insinuate, in little bits at a time, that it wasn’t certain that this plan would actually pan out, at least not as long as the directors of the facility where Michoel was did not give more information about their exact location, and if they were willing to accept him.

“Ima, you’ll go with me to the embassy, right? Our appointment is early this afternoon,” he said after breakfast, which he’d eaten together with Martin. Their friendship was interesting. Yosef could engage in conversation with the Canadian youth for a long time, but then he could abruptly withdraw into himself and not exchange a word with him for the next hour.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 63 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. 

Not a single day of Chol Hamoed went by without Yosef mentioning Michoel and the passport that he needed to renew in order to travel to him and bring him home. On the morning of Isru Chag, he tackled the issue with uncharacteristic vigor.

“What do we need to do to renew my passport, Ima? Where is my old one? We can’t leave Uncle Michoel like this! Oh, and we need to speak to a travel agent.”

“You’re going to travel alone, Yosef?” She was sitting on the old armchair, and she looked into his eyes.

“Yes,” he said, his eyes narrowing. “Sure, what’s the problem?”

“I’m happy to accompany him,” Martin said, from the side of the room. “I want to get to America anyway.”

Yosef looked at him, his forehead creased. “But you’re from Canada, right?”

“Right.”

“So why aren’t you going there?”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 62 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. 

“No minyan, nothing!” It was the day after Yom Kippur, and Michoel was almost crying to Hinda on Mike’s phone. “Not on Rosh Hashanah, not on Yom Kippur…what kind of Yamim Noraim did I have here?! And what will be with a sukkah?”

“I want to speak to them,” Hinda declared firmly. “Uncle Michoel, tell them I want to speak to them.”

“I don’t know if they will agree. I still don’t know if they’ll agree to take Yosef, even if you decide to send him in the end… What’s doing with him, by the way?”

“Before Rosh Hashanah, he moved to Maayanei Hayeshuah in Bnei Brak, and he stayed there for all of Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, until last night. I don’t know if I can send him the way he is now, Michoel.”

“I hear… How much time have I been here, Hinda?”

“That’s a good question. You weren’t at my wedding, and that was four months ago. But I don’t know if you were in Israel then, or if you’d already left the country.”

“I think I went to Mexico,” he said slowly. “I had a wedding there… But I had planned to be back for your simchah. What’s your new husband’s name again, remind me?”

“Dov.”

“Dov,” he echoed slowly, and then fell silent.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 61 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. 

Rob, who had bought a Jewish calendar for Michoel, had no idea what a dust-up he would cause by doing so.

“I’m not in a closed institution!” Michoel said, for the ninth time. He was heartily sick of repeating this mantra by then. “All I am asking—demanding, actually—is to be allowed to pray on the two days of the holiday in a Jewish community. That’s all!”

“Indeed, you are not in a closed institution, not at all.” Dr. Jerry, apparently, was not sick of repeating himself at all. “But you are a very unwell man, Mr. Perl. We cannot release you for even one day.”

“What am I unwell with, huh?” Michoel was furious. “Explain it to me, please!” He stretched out his arms and slowly balled his fists. As he studied his fingers, he suddenly realized how much bonier, whiter, and more wrinkled his hands were—much more than ever before. “I feel perfect, Doctor, and I have no intentions of praying on my own, when there is a Jewish community just about twenty-five miles from here!”

“How do you know about that?”

“From the kosher products that I get from there.”

“Is that your appreciation?” Skulholt asked quietly.