Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 33 of a new online serial novel, Nine A.M., by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week. Click here for previous chapters.
Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications.
The Lion’s Tooth –
A flower found in the temperate climates of the planet. Its head is yellow when it first blooms, and it then turns into a ball of white-silver hairs. It can serve as food and as a healing plant. Its leaves can be eaten, despite tasting a bit bitter. They are rich in vitamins and good for the improvement of liver function.
Naomi read the caption under the dried leaves of the yellowish flower. “This is wonderful, Zuska,” she said, and turned the page over. “All the pages here…you worked so hard on this, didn’t you? I think that your collection of dried flowers is the biggest one of all the children in the camp.”
Zuska, lying in the bed, smiled shyly and nodded.
“How do you know so much about these plants?”
“My father told me,” her student replied. “He reads a lot.”
Naomi turned another page in Zuska’s book of dried flowers. The investment in every detail was very evident in the little book, and she was duly impressed.
“It’s a good thing you never brought this to school,” she said as she set the book on the small table beside the bed. “Girls might be jealous, and the little kids could ruin it. But it’s really wonderful that you’ve been sent home so that I could come and visit you. Look what I got out of it!”
She looked around. The house was empty; Zuska’s parents were at work. “Is there something I can do for you before I go back to the other children?” she asked, trying to be practical.
“I don’t think so,” the girl murmured.
“Did your mother leave you food?”
“Yes. Soup and potatoes. And she also promised to come back during her lunch break to see how I’m doing.”
“That’s great. Should I heat up the soup for you?”
“No, I ate it already.”
“But what if you still get hungry?”
Zuska shrugged. “There’s always bread,” she said. Naomi relaxed a bit.
“Okay, great.” She stood up and smiled at her pale student. “The main thing is that you should rest well, and b’ezras Hashem, you’ll get stronger and completely better very soon. We’re looking forward to having you back with us!”
The girl nodded, and Naomi waved as she turned to go. There was no comparing the last time she’d seen her student and this time. Zuska had literally returned to the land of the living.
The snow that had fallen all night had stopped toward morning, and now everything was covered in a blinding layer of white. Naomi pulled her coat tighter around her and considered where to go now. The children were playing nicely, and she had a few more minutes until the time she’d promised Katy and Rivku that she’d be back. She would go to the offices, to tell Elky about the big improvement in Zuska’s condition. After all, despite everything that was going on between them and around them, Elky deserved to be thanked for what she had done.
Naomi’s footprints dotted the snow-covered path as she walked toward the small building near the factory, wondering if she’d have a chance to see Binyamin for a minute when she got closer. Maybe he would just happen to be outside. He had looked so awful yesterday at Zeide and Babbe’s apartment, that even Aryeh had told her afterward at home that he hoped Binyamin wasn’t coming down with pneumonia like so many of the others.
She didn’t see her brother, but she did hear his name being called. As she squinted and looked at the group standing in front of the cement structure, she heard a babble of voices, and it didn’t sound good at all.
“It’s Binyamin!”
“Call someone from the infirmary!”
“Shvirtz! What happened to Shvirtz?”
Naomi stopped and gaped in horror. What had happened to Binyamin?!
Someone emerged from between the trees at a fast clip, and almost collided with her. “Oh, hi, Naomi,” she murmured.
“What…what happened?” Naomi asked tremulously.
“What happened? Ask your grandmother.” Elky’s voice was loaded.
“My grandmother is here? She’s dealing with…what’s going on here?”
“Your grandmother?” Elky paused for a moment. “Your grandmother deals with everything that happens. And excuse me for my chutzpah, but I didn’t ask her to deal with the situation! All I did was tell my mother about the invitation to the birthday party, and she said we should ask her advice. And now, because of her, I lost out on a grant of forty marks! Do you get that?!”
No, Naomi didn’t get it. “But what happened to Binyamin?!”
It looked like Elky didn’t get it either. “I’m not even talking anymore about the party itself,” she continued, as if Naomi hadn’t said a word. “Although they asked me to come, did you know that? They came to me and invited me personally! And I’m the one who didn’t end up going… Okay, so that I could handle, maybe. But I’m asking you something else: Will someone pay me back for the grant that was coming to me? Shoshana Gold went in my place, and she got the payment instead of me! Huh!”
Naomi blinked, and then stared ahead at the crowd that was forming. “Something happened to my brother,” she muttered, her voice coming out choked. “And I don’t know if they went to get help or not. And you’re getting angry about grants?!”
And without saying another word, she turned to the snowy path on the hill and ran at a speed that she never fathomed she was capable of, toward the infirmary.
***
“Two grandchildren in one blow,” Sara Liba said sternly. “Naomi, haven’t you learned yet, at your age, that nothing good can come out of being hasty? Running down the hill in the snow?” With her lips pressed together, she tightened the last bandage around Naomi’s wrist. “I hope it’s not a break… Our supply of casts has been dwindling recently. Wangel promised to bring some more, but they haven’t done it yet. Okay, let’s see how you feel the rest of today and tomorrow.”
The infirmary was quiet. At the end of the room, two beds were occupied.
“I think it’s okay…” Naomi tried carefully to raise her arm from the metal frame it was resting on. “Ow, it hurts… But not terribly.”
“You’re not going back to the preschool today, right? You need to rest at least until tomorrow.”
“Fine,” Naomi said, resigned. “The number of hours I’m owing Rivku is growing and growing… Still, it was worth it for me, to be able to visit Zuska. She was so happy.”
“And in honor of the fact that she vacated her bed here, baruch Hashem, you both decided to come here together?”
“She was scared for me.” Binyamin’s voice came from one of the beds. “That’s why she ran like that.”
“Yes.” Babbe suppressed a smile. “Everything is fine, you devoted brother. We’re not forgetting that it was all with good intentions. And how are you now?”
“Better. I’m still very dizzy…but that’s all.”
“Strong dizziness and extreme fatigue. Exhaustion.” Babbe studied Binyamin with folded arms. “You’ve totally overdone it these past few weeks. How many furs did you process this week?”
“I’d rather not say,” he whispered.
“And how were you able to do it?”
“It became almost official. Wangel is pleased with my output, and he lets me stay extra hours as long as I don’t leave the factory.”
“So you stayed there night after night? Until dawn? And then you started another day’s work right away?”
“And then I went to shul. But not every night. Only three nights a week.”
“It was all for us?” Naomi couldn’t contain herself.
“No.” He bit his lip. “I’m the strong type, really, don’t—” He fell silent in the face of his grandmother’s glare.
“If something happens to you, chalilah, you will never be able to help anyone again,” she said. “Now listen to me, and listen well: According to my diagnosis, and you know I’m almost a real doctor after all these years of working in this infirmary, you didn’t get the pneumonia that was raging here. You are simply tired, drained; you literally squeezed your body out to the last drop.” She raised a hand to silence him.
“And I hope that when your mother leaves work soon, and hears everything that her dear son has done, she will also hear my diagnosis, and not only the description of how, in the middle of a conversation with other workers, you suddenly swayed and crumpled to the floor in front of their eyes, like a tree that was cut down.”
“I hope so, too.” He smiled at the description.
“So you’ll stay here for five days’ rest, Binyamin, and stop taking the whole world onto your shoulders. Hashem has many emissaries; you’re not the only one. Do you hear?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “Who else is here in the infirmary now?”
“The son of Zuretzky, from the bakery, and Elkovitz, who is watching his little daughter.”
“How is she, Babbe?” Naomi, who had remained sitting on her chair, suddenly sat up straighter and lifted her head.
“Baruch Hashem, much, much better. The antibiotics arrived just in time, although we can’t release her yet. She’s still very weak.”
“Everyone should just be healthy,” Binyamin murmured.
“So is it clear, Binyamin? You’re staying here under observation, and I don’t want to hear a single word in argument, okay? Maybe, if you’ll be a very good boy, we’ll let you go out to the shul for Shacharis. I’ll make sure that you eat healthy, filling food, without missing a single meal, and you’ll just rest, rest, rest. Yes?”
And to her astonishment, Binyamin nodded in agreement.
***
“You need to come to our get-togethers,” Charna said at the end of the visit, while she stood and supervised her children putting away the toys. “Our next meeting is the day after tomorrow. Maybe you want to be the speaker? Each time, a different one of us speaks. You can speak about life in Eretz Yisrael, what we can learn from the people there, what you can learn from us…”
“Are you making fun of me?”
“Not at all. Why do you think I am? You don’t have anything to learn from us?”
“I have lots to learn.” Dena tried valiantly to mend the impression she’d made during those first moments of their initial encounter. “I meant, the fact that you want me to speak. Me? I’m a…simple woman. Not someone who gives speeches.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that I’m really not a special woman. I try to be a good wife and a good mother, that’s all.” She shrugged sadly. “And please, let’s not talk about it, okay? This week is my eight-year anniversary. It makes me sad when I think about what a good wife I could have been… But I’m not.”
“Your anniversary! Mazel tov! Do you want a good recipe for an out-of-this-world cake?”
“What for? No cake that I make can possibly compete with my husband’s mother’s creations…”
“So what are you going to make for the anniversary?”
“I don’t have anything to make.”
“No such thing.” Charna didn’t understand.
“So now you see that there is such a thing.” Dena shook her head, and after a moment added, “Well, of course there are lots of things that I could cook or bake, but anything I make will…have no value. It won’t be special.”
“So you have to come to our next get-together, and we’ll give you some good ideas of really special things you can whip up for your anniversary,” Charna said as she put Yudi’s raincoat on. “Okay, Dena? I’m not letting you get out of this!”
“It’s too late.” Dena smiled dismally. “My anniversary is tomorrow.”
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