Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 41 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. 

Eli Katz, Ruchi’s father, walks into the house, wrapped in his thoughts, his gaze unfocused. It’s so out of character for him that even Ruchi, sitting in the armchair, asks him, “Tatty, are you feeling okay?”

“I’m fine, baruch Hashem,” he says as he takes a seat near his son-in-law. Yudi is sitting and doing nothing more than gazing at the ceiling. Ruchi begins to laugh, that hoarse, somewhat forlorn sound that she had taken to using these past few weeks.

“You look so funny!” she says. “The two of you sitting next to each other, without talking. It seems like you don’t even notice that you’re sitting near each other!”

“I definitely noticed Yudi, actually,” her father says. “Hi, Yudi, how are you?”

“Huh?” His son-in-law turns to look at him with wide eyes rimmed by dark circles. “Me? So, I don’t know. Uh…baruch Hashem, fine.”

“When did you get home from work?”

“I didn’t go.”

“Why?”

“Because my boss said that he can’t pay for the next month anyway, and if I come late, then it’s better that I shouldn’t come at all this month.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 40 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. 

“Zahava, how is Yaakov Shlomo feeling?” It was Yankel.

She was sitting on a bench in the ward, outside her husband’s room, yawning. “Fine, baruch Hashem. Today they sat him in a chair.”

“That’s very fast, isn’t it? Wasn’t the surgery just yesterday?”

“Yes, but that’s how it is here. I hope they are good enough and that they know what they’re doing…”

“I think it’s a good hospital,” her brother said to her. “It really is a shame that you couldn’t come here for this surgery, but there was nothing we could do about it. Besides, even without taking your financial situation into consideration, I doubt they would do any surgery here now for foreign residents. You said that Tzippy made some inquiries about the surgeon, right?”

“Something like that. Believe me, I don’t remember anymore what she told me and what she didn’t. She’s only seventeen, and it was very hard for her to be here alone in this situation.” She glanced toward the end of the corridor.

“So she’s home now? Did you send her home to rest and recover a bit?”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 39 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. 

“Thanks for being here with me, Bayta,” Tzippy said. She put her Tehillim into a bag as her sister-in-law came back to sit next to her, after disappearing for a few minutes. She looked with distaste at the croissant that Batya offered her. “What’s this?”

“This? It’s yeast dough, rolled up and baked,” Batya said with a little laugh. “Maybe there’s some chocolate filling inside—I have no idea.”

“You just bought it at the cafeteria?”

“No, my mother sent some food along with my father.”

Instinctively, Tzippy looked behind her, where she saw the profile of the mechutan, Batya’s father, sitting in a corner far across the room.

“I hope it doesn’t bother you that my father came here,” Batya said, playing with the paper bag that held the croissant. “My parents don’t think it’s appropriate for two young girls, even if one of them is married, to be sitting alone in the family waiting room.”

“That’s true,” Tzippy said. “And it’s really nice of your father to come. Chumi’s friend’s mother offered to come, but I didn’t feel comfortable being here myself with her. And it’s for sure not a good thing for Chumi herself to be here—she’s too sensitive.” She leaned back, her eyes fixed on the corridor that led out from the huge room. Was that where the doctor or nurse would come from, to update them about the progression of the surgery?

Over the door was a large screen, with constantly changing numbers. Every patient had a number, and that was the only update she had right now about her father’s status. Until half an hour earlier, it said that S67 was in preparation for surgery, and now he appeared on the list of those who were already in the operating room. The next stage would be recovery, but she had no idea how much time would pass until her father’s number would be transferred to that column. Or rather, until her father would be transferred into recovery.