Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 71 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. 

“Um…um…hello, good morning.” Martin’s voice didn’t sound very stable when someone finally answered the phone, but he really didn’t mind. He was Yosef Schorr, and he was confused and uptight from his flight; he was allowed to sound unsure of himself.

“Hello.”

“This is Yosef Schorr. I landed last night.”

“Where are you now?”

“In Boro Park, Brooklyn. In the home of,” he swallowed, “my second cousin.”

“Okay. There’s a ticket in your name for the next part of the trip. Be at Newark Airport this evening at 6:30, and you’ll get instructions from there.”

“Where am I going?” he mumbled.

“We keep our location a secret, Josef.” It sounded like the man was smiling kindly. “Otherwise, we would have given your mother the information when you were still in Israel.”

“Oh…” His voice faltered.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 70 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. 

Shimon Weisskopf, standing in a corner of the arrivals hall, did give the impression of being on the ball. His curled peyos reached his shoulders, and he wore a broad, friendly smile as he lowered the sign that said “Yosef Schorr” and shook Martin’s hand. “Hi, how are you?” he asked in English, with a faint accent that Martin could not identify.

“Baruch Hashem, good,” Martin replied in Hebrew.

“You don’t look like the Yosef I remembered, but it doesn’t matter. The main thing is that you both have gray eyes.” He winked and took the handle of Martin’s – er, Yosef’s – large suitcase. “How was the flight?”

“I slept the whole time.” Now Martin answered in English, slowly and deliberately. He had no idea if any one of the dozens of people around them had come here, at Skulholt’s behest, to keep an eye on him. He needed to act as Yosef from now on.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 69 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. 

“Hi, Yosef. I came to say goodbye.” Martin approached the young man seated in front of the screen in the hospital’s computer room; he seemed to be reading an article on the parshah.

“Huh?” Yosef turned around. “Oh, it’s you… Are you going back to Canada?”

“Yes, the time has come. I’ve been driving …your mother and her husband crazy for too long. They are probably happy to be getting rid of me.”

“I don’t think so,” Yosef said carefully. “Dov is nice because he likes to be, not because he has to be.”

“Yes, I noticed.”

Yosef slowly scratched his left hand for a few long seconds. “Uh…” he murmured, “Um…what did I want to tell you for a long time…? Oh, wait, we went somewhere together recently, right? Where did we go?”

“To renew your passport,” Martin reminded him cautiously.

“Oh, right. I’m…sorry for the ruckus I made. What ended up happening?”

Martin took a chair from the next desk and sat down. “Your passport didn’t come out good.”

“Why?”

“Because you didn’t want them to use your picture.”