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.
“It’s going to be Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan soon, so I need to start my tzedakah rounds,” Hinda said. “But yes, I can work my collections around this trip. The documents are ready, right?”
“Yup. Okay, that’s great, then!” He grabbed a bentcher from the holder in the middle of the table and began to bentch with gusto.
Hinda watched him, feeling very uneasy. Never, in all the years of Yosef’s illness, did she remember seeing him like this.
***
Dov’s phone rang a moment before he left for the office. Yosef was already in his room, and Martin was about to go up to his room, so that he could continue working through the stack of books Dov had given him to read. Hinda could hear Dov gasp. A minute later, he retraced his steps from the front door to the kitchen, where Hinda was.
“It’s Penina,” he told Hinda. “You hear? She and the baby fell together, and the little one got hurt, and they’re taking them now to Tel Hashomer hospital.”
“The hospital!” Hinda’s eyes opened wide. “Poor thing! What happened exactly?”
“I have no idea. The baby was shrieking so loud, it was hard to hear Penina.”
“If she was shrieking, that’s a good sign…” his wife murmured. “Oy, that’s so hard. I’m assuming Zevi is going along with them, right?”
“Yes,” Dov said, rummaging in his jacket pocket for his keys. “And I’m also going to go. Do you want to come along?”
“If you think I can be useful there, then sure.”
“Of course you can be useful there,” he said. “What’s the question!”
Hinda put the dirty breakfast dishes on the counter, as they were, and hurried to her room to get ready. Poor Penina! To have her little baby fall and hurt herself…
“What does ‘injured’ mean?” she asked Dov, after she’d quickly put herself together. She stuck two bottles of mineral water and some fruit into a bag. Penina probably hadn’t taken anything along to eat.
“Her hand is very swollen.”
“Did she throw up?”
“I don’t think so.”
“And you said you heard the baby crying?”
“Yes, screaming.”
“Let’s hope she didn’t hit her head. In any case, they won’t want to release such a small baby so fast, even if it’s only a broken arm…” Hinda grabbed her bag from the table.
Just then Yosef emerged from his room. “You’re going out?” he asked, with narrowed eyes.
“Yes, I’m going to Tel Hashomer. Dov’s granddaughter fell, and she’s been taken to the hospital. We’ll have to reschedule our appointment at the embassy, Yosef. I’m sorry. But this is a medical emergency, and I’m sure they’ll give us another appointment very soon once I explain to them what happened.”
Yosef glanced darkly at the open door to the house, then went back to his room and slammed the door shut.
“Can I help with something?” Martin asked politely.
Hinda hesitated. “Please, just keep an eye on Yosef,” she said quietly. “I’m a little…anxious about the way he’s been acting lately.”
He nodded.
A moment or two later, Yosef emerged from the room again. “Are they gone?” he asked.
“Yes. A little baby fell. It was important for them to go be there with her.”
“Okay, I’m also going out.”
“Where to?” Martin asked.
“Do you think you’re my babysitter?” He was holding a slim red bag, his shirt was partially untucked, and he had a wild look about him. “I’m going wherever I want to go.” He rushed out of the house and called the elevator. It came, and he got inside—but a moment later, he stepped out. Then he got in again, and then stepped back out. His finger planted on the call button on the outside, he leaned on the wall with closed eyes. Martin stood inside the house, observing him from the open door.
“Come with me!” Yosef suddenly called to Martin.
Martin went out of the house and walked down the hall to him. “Come with you? Where to?”
“To the American Embassy. I have an appointment there to renew my passport. What, you think I’m going to wait for my mother to come with me? She’s got too many other important things going on in her life.”
“She’s very worried about you, too, you know,” Martin said. “I’m sure that if you would chalilah fall and break a hand, she would go with you to the hospital right away, too.”
“Don’t talk to me about bad things that could happen to me!” Yosef was so tense that he could hardly string together coherent sentences. But Martin, whose command of Hebrew wasn’t that great, didn’t really notice.
“Fine,” he said. “It was only an example. And maybe, instead of getting annoyed that your mother left, you should daven for this baby.”
“She should have a refuah sheleimah and be fine, amen,” Yosef snapped. “Nu, come, we’re going to Yerushalayim. My mother has so much pity for Dov’s granddaughter, but when it comes to her Uncle Michoel, she doesn’t. Poor guy.”
He was silent until they were seated on the Jerusalem-bound bus. Then he asked, “You know computers, right?”
“Yes.” Martin smiled. “Why?”
“And you’re sure the photographer really erased my picture? I’m scared.”
“He erased it.”
“I’m afraid he didn’t.”
“I checked it,” Martin said. “It’s erased.”
“I’m afraid not. They want to follow me, I know.”
“Why should they want to follow you?”
“Maybe to kidnap me.”
“Why would they want to kidnap you?”
“So that someone will pay a ransom for me.”
“Come on, Yosef. Who should pay the ransom? Your parents aren’t so rich. Kidnappers prefer to target millionaire families, not people like you.”
“Maybe this Dov is really a millionaire, and he just isn’t revealing it to my mother.” Yosef bit his thumb. It was trembling. So was his chin.
“So let them kidnap his children, not you.”
“But they didn’t go take pictures like I did!” Yosef shouted. Heads on the bus turned in their direction. “I was such a fool, and now who knows what they will do with my picture!”
“You want to go back to Haifa?” Martin asked, and immediately regretted it. All that hapless photographer needed was Yosef to storm into his store with accusations. Chances were that it would not end well.
“No!” Yosef’s eyes were ablaze. “I’m going to the embassy. I need to renew my passport. I need to save Michoel!”
But his eyes were so clouded. Yosef suddenly seemed very different than the way he’d been the past few days. Martin was afraid that the look in his eyes was indicative of an impending storm, threatening them both.
***
Little Batsheva’s CT scan was baruch Hashem clear, and an x-ray showed that indeed, there was a fracture in her hand. This hardly seemed a comfort to Penina, who was crying nonstop, although she did murmur tearfully at one point, “Baruch Hashem, it’s not a head injury.” The team in the pediatric emergency room seemed friendly to the young couple, but when they asked over and over again, “How did it happen?” something cracked inside Penina.
“I didn’t do it on purpose!” she shouted to the young female doctor whose fortune it was to be the eighth one to ask the question. “I didn’t do it on purpose, okay? When will you get that?! I was walking with her in my arms, and I bumped into the edge of the table. I fell, with her, and at the last second, I gripped her in a way that I would absorb the brunt of the fall and she wouldn’t fall right on her head. Is that good enough for you?!” And she continued to sob, but louder this time.
“Mom, you need to calm down,” the second doctor chimed in, trying to sound warm. “We’re not suspecting you of any bad intentions. But when such a young child comes in with a story of an injury, it is our job to find out exactly what happened. That’s all.”
Penina turned her gaze away from the doctor and kept rocking Batsheva’s carriage gently. The baby had finally fallen asleep after her tiny hand was casted; she was exhausted from all the pain and the shrieking.
“Should I bring you a drink?” one of the two nurses, who had dashed into the room, asked Penina. She didn’t want to think about how they knew to join at this very moment.
“No,” she answered with a sniff, as she rummaged in the diaper bag for a package of tissues. “Thanks.”
Just then Dov and Hinda walked in. Penina’s weeping picked up all over again. She didn’t remember ever seeing Hinda hug anyone before, but now Hinda hugged her, and Penina cried bitterly in her arms. “It was so scary…” she gulped. “I thought that I was going to lose her…”
Zevi, who had gone to speak with the orthopedist, entered the room, bringing over a chair for his wife. He looked overjoyed to see the guests. “I’m so glad to see you,” he said with relief. “Thank you so much for coming. Should I get some more chairs?”
“We prefer that you don’t,” the doctor said. “We can’t have family gatherings here. Maybe it would be wise for the men to stay here, and this kind grandmother can take Mom outside a bit for some air, alright?”
Penina went pale. “Do you want to tell my husband something that you don’t want me to hear?” she asked tremulously.
“Not at all. We just think it will be good for you to get some fresh air, that’s all.”
Hinda and Penina went out to the waiting room. “I want to be home already,” Penina whimpered as she sat down on a bench shaped like a flower. “But they said she’s going to have to stay here at least until tomorrow.”
Hinda sat down beside her. “I imagined that would be the case.” She took out a greenish tangerine and peeled it; then she handed Penina one segment at a time. “They say these are still a bit unripe, but I think that the tart flavor is actually quite delicious.”
“Yes…” Penina murmured as she ate the segments quietly.
Hinda’s phone rang. And then again, and again. At first she ignored it, but when it kept ringing, Penina said to her, “You can answer it, it’s fine. I’m not hysterical anymore.”
Hinda leaned back against the large red plastic petal of the bench and answered the phone. It was Michoel. “They approved it!” he cried excitedly. “They are willing to accept Yosef for treatment! You can fax his medical documents over to here; I’ll give you the fax number. This is major progress!”
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