Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 80 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. 

“The house is so empty…” Dov said late one evening, as they sat in the living room, where the large window faced the sea. Hinda raised her eyes from the plans she was working on.

“Mmm?” she said. Dov was the busy type. He was constantly going, coming, speaking; just five minutes ago, he had finished a conference call with three of his daughters.

Hinda hadn’t listened to the conversation—she couldn’t do more than one thing at a time—but she was able to hear some of the exchanges, and Dov had been laughing, sounding full of life and interest. At the end of the conversation, they’d seemed to be discussing a very interesting shidduch that Yael was working on between her sister-in-law and Chevy’s brother-in-law, though he hadn’t told her—Hinda—about it at all.

She was fine with that. He didn’t have to tell her everything that went on between him and his daughters. And often, he did tell her interesting details from their conversations. Maybe it wasn’t good that she worked during the evening hours, when he was home.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 79 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. 

“My uncle’s been injured? I don’t understand.”

“No, he hasn’t been injured, Josef—I told you, he just collapsed in the street,” Rob said. He hadn’t noticed the small cell phone that made its way into “Josef’s” pocket a second before Rob had opened the door. Not a safe place at all, but that’s what Martin could do for now.

“How do people just collapse in the street?”

“Maybe he didn’t feel well or something,” Rob suggested. “Or his brain injury suddenly returned.”

Martin rubbed his cheek with his palm. “And he’s in the hospital now?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t they bring him here? This is also a hospital of sorts.”

“Yes, but not for physical injuries of that type, especially when the people who were there already called an ambulance…it’s a little complicated to explain. Later on, when he is discharged, he will be able to come back here for continuing treatment until he is completely healthy.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 78 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 left the room and quiet reigned once again, but just for one minute. Martin barely waited till the door was closed before he hurried over to the closet, the blanket hanging loosely over his left shoulder. He hoped there was no surveillance camera in the closet, and if there was one behind it, then his glorious cape would hide whatever he was doing. Here was his suitcase, and the hidden compartment. And here was the phone and the charger. Excellent.

He closed the doors of the closet and leapfrogged impressively back to the middle of the room, sitting hunched over under his blanket, the phone in his right hand. He took a deep breath. It was not likely that someone would come into the room a second time in the next few minutes. Now was his chance to try.

He pressed and held the number 2, the speed dial for Shimon Weisskopf.

“Hello?” Shimon answered in seconds, as if he had been sitting and waiting for this call since they’d parted at the airport.

“Hello, Shimon?”

“Yes?” He sounded cautious.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 77 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. 

Martin got sick of walking up and down the deserted corridor, and went to his room. He needed to get whoever was watching the cameras used to the idea that there were strange behaviors in this room. Maybe he’d get under the blanket now and take something with him, so that at a later time, he’d be able to hide with his suitcase and his phone, without raising too many suspicions.

He walked around the room and opened the door to the bathroom. He walked in, came out, opened the narrow closet behind the door, closed it, opened it again, and took his brush off the top shelf. Good, an excellent item. Now the blanket. In no time he was seated in the middle of the room, with his legs folded under a little mound. He shook himself mightily a few times, making the mound rock back and forth.

Someone knocked on his head. “Hello, are you alright in there, Josef?”

“Not especially,” he announced in a muffled voice from inside. “But I’m trying to find some peace.”

“Peace from what?”

“From my exhausting life in this world.”