Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 55 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. 

On a page torn out of a notebook:

Dear Naomi,

Good morning.

I’d like to speak to you about a certain problem regarding Dror but without him knowing about it. So it’s better if we don’t meet in the classroom but rather in another quiet place. Where and when can we speak privately? I prefer the mornings, obviously.

Suzy Elkovitz

Response on the other side of the page:

Dear Mrs. Elkovitz,

I think we can speak in my house tomorrow at ten. If you don’t send me a different note with Dror, I’ll understand that this works for you.

Naomi

“Fine,” Rivku said. “So I’ll leave an hour earlier today, on account of the time you want me to spend with them alone tomorrow.”

“Don’t the children’s parents get annoyed?” Katy pressed them loudly. “The frum ones want Naomi and don’t know that sometimes, only Rivku is with them, and the Reform want Rivku and don’t know that sometimes only Naomi is with them.”

“But she’s not teaching them anything during that time,” Rivku said impatiently, ignoring the fact that sometimes, even when she was in the classroom, the children in her group were riveted by Naomi’s stories of Tanach. And she didn’t work too hard to distract them or keep them busy with anything else.

Naomi did not respond at all; her mind was focused on what Suzy Elkovitz might want from her. What kind of problem could there be with Dror?

The child was thriving; he didn’t seem troubled by any type of problem. On the contrary, he had learned the aleph-beis and the kamatz and pasach vowels beautifully. He participated in games with the children, laughed, and ran around, all age-appropriately.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 54 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. 

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“What’s this?” Binyamin asked his mother when he noticed a note on the table, next to his supper plate.

“Naomi popped into the sewing shop today and gave this to me. I thought it’s in your secret code.”

“No, no.” Binyamin studied the numbers for a few long seconds, then folded the paper and stuck it into his pants pocket.

“Is everything alright, Binyamin?” Rechel asked.

“Yes, baruch Hashem.”

“I’m a bit worried about you.”

“Why?”

“You’ve been looking very uptight lately.”

“No, not uptight,” he said carefully, as he watched her face. “It’s just that I’m not a kid anymore, and it happens to be that I think about things.”

“Like about what, for example?”

“Like about our lives here.”

“What’s there to think about? We are alive, baruch Hashem, and we live with miracles.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 53 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 Katy handed to Naomi:

Dear Naomi,

I hope you won’t tell anyone what you saw and heard in my house.

Elky

Naomi folded the note and stuck it into her pocket, wondering about her dream last night. “Who gave you this note to give to me, Katy?” she asked. “Elky?”

“Yes.”

“And then she went on to the infirmary?”

“No, of course not, she went to her job. I saw her going up the path.” Katy loved providing information.

Naomi hoped Elky’s going to work meant that Mottel’s condition had improved. Where was Babbe this morning? In the infirmary? The kitchen? There was no way to know. Normally, she cooked here in the mornings, and only went to the infirmary in the afternoon. But when there were more seriously ill patients, she was there most of the day.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 52 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 that David Elkovitz slipped under his Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, which he brought with him to the field early in the morning, for his learning session with Binyamin:

Don’t speak about the subject in Polish or Hungarian. Bernard showed up yesterday. My wife saw him, and as we know, he loves surprise visits to the camp. Let’s start learning, and we’ll switch to Lashon Kodesh.

Both of them drew on sifrei kodesh for their grasp of the language, but Elkovitz’s fluency was very weak. They quickly discovered that it was difficult, if not impossible, to communicate this way.

“Lo re’isiv—I did not see him.” Binyamin glanced over his shoulder into the fading moonlight that was clearing way for the soon-to-be rising sun.

“But I did see him.”