Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 22 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.
The darkness on the mountainside grew thicker, and Shimmy discovered just how dark the world could be. Really dark. No lights from windows of buildings, no light from passing cars’ headlights. Thick darkness that enveloped everything. Somewhere above him, there were somewhat clearer skies; the road at the top of the mountain may have been lit up, but that light did not reach him. After exerted efforts to crawl, which included a scary fall and two smaller slides, he was about four meters higher than where he’d been when he first woke up, but it was still a far cry from where he had to get to.
He thought about Batya and about Shmuli. Did anyone know yet that he had disappeared? He didn’t call home every hour and a half, only once a day—and they’d already spoken that day. But his translator knew that he’d disappeared, and in that case, he should have updated Gedalya. If he had done so, then someone was surely searching for him already. The question was if they knew where to look—not that he had any suggestions to make on that front. He had no clue as to where he’d been thrown.
If his father was with him here, he would say that they were not alone, that Hashem hadn’t left them for even a moment. But if Tatty would be here, everything would look different. Not that he thought, chalilah, that it wasn’t true; he knew that Hashem was with him everywhere. But Hashem was also with those people who had disappeared, thrown to desolate places—the people who ultimately succumbed to dehydration and never returned.
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