Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 8 of a new online serial novel, If Anyone Is Listening, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

This time as well, Shimmy had to go to the fish market, but at least Shio Ching’s stall was already closed, and the man was standing and waiting for the taxi as he spoke animatedly into his phone.

“Hello,” he said as he slid into the car. “So, you came back to us, huh? I understand that your Tankum came out something special.”

“Tanchum,” Shimmy muttered. “That’s exactly what I want to check. Should we go to the factory now?”

“I’m just on the phone here with Sun Jang, and he says that you have nothing to come for before the first payment is transferred.”

“What does that mean? Gedalya already sent him eight thousand dollars!”

“That’s what you say, but Jang claims that he didn’t get anything. Should we go to the hotel?”

“Not to the hotel, to the factory,” Shimmy snapped stubbornly. “And tell him he shouldn’t lie. If Gedalya said he sent the money, then he sent it.”

“And if Jang says he didn’t get it, then he didn’t get it.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 7 of a new online serial novel, If Anyone Is Listening, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

“Your mother is not going to come here, is she?” Ruchi asks worriedly as Yudi paces the small kitchen space, opening cabinet doors, closing them, and then opening them again. Ruchi’s mother is putting some fresh dairy products and breakfast for tomorrow into the fridge.

“Yudi!” his father-in-law calls loudly from the dining room. “Yudi, do you know who I met today?”

“She won’t come,” Yudi answers his wife tersely, and then steps out of the kitchen and into the dining room. “Who?” he asks, sitting down on the edge of the couch. His father-in-law is sitting at the table, his eyes tired as he sips a cup of cold Coca-Cola and looks at all the stuff lying haphazardly on the floor around them.

“I meet your boss, Blumenfeld. He said that because of some financial trouble, he had to fire some workers, and you are one of them.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“You didn’t tell us anything.”

“It only happened about two days ago, and you were very busy with Ruchi and the hospital.”

“But still, we want to know what you are going through.”

“Okay.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 6 of a new online serial novel, If Anyone Is Listening, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

“Even after I got out of the taxi, it was above me the whole time, circling in the air like an annoying little drone.” Shimmy swung back on the metal legs of the kitchen chair. “You know what it reminded me of, Mommy? That little baby duck that stuck to me when I was little, in Lakewood. Remember how it ran to me every time we went for a walk near the lake?”

“Sure, because you gave it food all the time. Did you give this bat anything?”

“He took by himself,” Shimmy said in a joking tone, as he sipped from the coffee his mother had placed before him.

“Maybe it really was that duck from Lakewood!” His mother laughed. “What color was it?”

“It was not a duck,” Shimmy said. “It was clearly a bat, with a very mousy face, and wings. Did you ever realize that bats know how to smile?”

“No. And whatever the case is, it’s a really strange story.”

“Right. The main thing is that at one point, before I entered the terminal, it just disappeared—baruch Hashem!” Shimmy yawned. “Thanks, Mommy. This coffee is great.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 5 of a new online serial novel, If Anyone Is Listening, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

Shio Ching, the interpreter, listened with interest to the story about the bat while he was waiting with Shimmy for the taxi that would take him to the airport. Now, as well, Shimmy censored out the part about the cookie pieces that were thrown at him, because even without that juicy detail, the story sounded delusional.

“The hotels can deny it as much as they want,” Shio said when the story was over. “But when animals lose their fear of people in certain areas, there’s almost nothing to do. And I’ve heard stories like this before.”

“So there are other incidents like what I just told you, in the area where I was? I’m not the first guest in the hotel to have a bat invade his room?” Shimmy scowled. “When Gedalya described to me what goes on in China, he didn’t talk about bats in the room. I thought it was a good hotel!”

“It’s a very good hotel, but not exactly the top tier. You asked for something inexpensive, right? Next time, if you want, go for a better hotel.”

“If I would have known this was what was waiting for me, I would have agreed to pay even another hundred dollars a night.”