Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 16 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.
Batya walked out to the path, pushing Shmuli’s carriage. She basked in the sun’s gentle warmth, and when she glanced at the baby, she saw that he was also gazing wide-eyed at the brilliant blue sky.
“A bit of sun, an outing, and some wind won’t hurt us right now, right?” She smiled at him. “We have nowhere to hurry. Abba will be back for supper only in five days, at the earliest, b’ezras Hashem, because China is a country that keeps people very busy. So we can walk calmly to the grocery to buy some cheese and a few nice cucumbers. Who needs cooked food? You certainly don’t.”
She walked into the store and meandered down the aisles. She’d never loved to cook, and didn’t particularly care for cooked food either. Bread, cottage cheese, and a tomato were a perfect meal in her view, especially in the years when she’d come home late from school and didn’t want to become fleishigs. One of the hardest things she’d had to adjust to after her marriage was getting used to eating “real” meals, and, even more than that, cooking those meals.
The phone rang. Batya was surprised to see her mother-in-law’s number on the screen. In middle of the week? Even when Shimmy was in town, they hardly spoke by phone, and when such a conversation did finally take place, she was usually the one to initiate it. She was the one who remembered to call to say good Shabbos once in two or three weeks, or at least, a gut voch. But since when did her mother-in-law call her? When she needed something urgently, she called Shimmy, and even that was quite rare.
“Hello,” Batya answered the phone, while putting a few vegetables, a can of tuna, and a package of yellow cheese on the register counter.
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