Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 51 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. 

In exchange for this paper, products and merchandise with the value of
50 Reich marks
Will be provided
Provision of the goods is conditional on the document being whole and original, stamped by the lager administration, and signed by an authorized figure.

Naomi’s eyes were fixed on the single voucher that fluttered down from the closet, right next to her. She’d never held a voucher for such a huge sum of money. Fifty marks!

“Elky…” She forced herself to look away from the small rectangle on the floor. “Elky, h-how are you doing?”

“Not good,” Elky said, breathing heavily, in an apparent attempt to stem her sobs. “But why did you come into my house without being let in?”

“She’s not in your house; she’s standing outside,” Dror clarified. “We opened the door because you didn’t answer when we knocked. Do you have a sugar cube? If you have so much money”—he hadn’t missed the sight of those vouchers either—“then you probably buy sweets all day, right?”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 50 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. 

In chalk, on the wooden wall in the room adjacent to the kennels:

Wire is a very useful material –

Make your mother happy with a nice gift for hanging clothes, which will amuse even the little children!

Make a doll figure from the wire, following the sample piece.

Be careful not to leave sharp edges exposed, because they can damage the fabrics of the clothes!

“Thanks,” Yanku murmured at the end of the lesson, as he escorted Binyamin out of the room. The children stood behind them, arguing about who would be the best person to ask for remnants of wire. Yanku’s expression all but screamed, “Please leave as fast as possible, and don’t try to question me again!” Binyamin didn’t argue. He didn’t have a spare minute in any case. He had to be back at the factory before the end of his break.

“Thanks for the opportunity, Yanku,” he said. “Should I come back tomorrow?”

“I want to make sure that we won’t be missing these few minutes at the end of the day,” the younger boy responded. “I’ll check what we’ve managed to finish by the end of today, and I’ll send you a message.”

“Great. See you.”

Yanku sufficed with a nod, and Binyamin hurried up the path to the factory. He wondered if Yanku knew anything solid about Tatte’s mysterious death, or if he’d just heard something and was quick to draw conclusions.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 49 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. 

A paper hanging on the wall of the rabbit cage:

Attention kennel children!

Anywun who finishes his choors by eleven in the morning can kum to a short, intristing shiur in the back room. It will be given by Binyamin Schvirtz.

It’s worth hurrying; he’s kuming for a very short time.

Yanku

“We need to talk, Yanku,” Binyamin said after he finished reading the note. He glanced into the back room, where about ten boys of various ages were waiting for him.

“About my spelling mistakes?” The boy scowled. “Everyone tells me about them. You want a pen to fix them?”

“No, that’s not the issue at all. Our conversation yesterday, about my father’s matzeivah, was too short.”

Yanku glanced around worriedly. “The boys are waiting for you, in case you didn’t notice. You promised a shiur. And I promised it would be interesting.”

“It will be very interesting,” Binyamin reassured him. “But listen, I spoke to my sister the other day. She found out that I wanted to clean something off our father’s headstone, and she wanted to know what it was about. So I told her that when I scraped off the ink, someone was watching me, and then I spoke to him.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 48 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. 

A note, written in the secret code that Binyamin and Naomi had made up together years earlier, was waiting for Binyamin at home at the end of the workday.

________________________________________________________________

 “You just got here, Binyamin.” Rechel was worried. “Again you’re taking extra hours of work? Where are you going now?”

Binyamin lowered his gaze. “Naomi asked me to come,” he said quietly.

“Naomi? What does she want?”