Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 61 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. 

The note in the bottle of cleaning soap:

I spoke to someone; she is Jewish. And not only her… The conversation was very strange. I’m very confused. Everything we knew…may not be true.

It’s not clear who rules. Those who we thought did—have long been defeated. Including the leaders and the army.

Maybe they control only these areas nearby? I didn’t quite understand.

Another person listened with me for some of the time, and she’s also confused.

We need to be very careful. Even though I wrote this note in gematria, destroy it right away, and don’t speak about this subject for a few days.

Also, until we see that they are not looking for us, I don’t want to meet.

“Where was this hidden?” Binyamin asked his mother, who had taken a break to run home at exactly the same time as his personal break. He folded the note, keeping a neutral expression on his face. “Is this what was in the bottle Naomi brought here this morning?”

He glanced outside through a slit in the window shade. The area in front of their house was empty. His break would be over in a few minutes, and he’d go back to the factory.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 60 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. 

1.5 marks – 500 grams sugar – March 23

2 marks – 250 grams fish – March 24

2 marks – 5 kg potatoes and carrots – March 24

1.5 marks – 200 grams white cheese – March 24

4 marks – 2 bottles cleaning soap – March 30

Total for payment: 10 marks

“The bill is really big already. Will you pay it now, Naomi?” The young cashier was really sweet, but Naomi knew that the payment had nothing to do with her. She had also spent a long time behind that counter.

“Is it alright if I wait two more days to pay, until we get our salaries?”

“I hope so,” Chaika Shmuelson replied as she rubbed her forehead. “I mean, if they don’t make an inspection tomorrow morning.”

“If they come, send someone to call me quickly from the preschool, and I’ll come to take the scolding.” If she’d even go to work tomorrow. Based on her headache right now, she had no idea whether she’d be up to doing anything tomorrow.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 59 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 torn page flying around on the ground in the camp, near the Wangels’ garden:

I have no energy anymore,

But I have to earn enough.

It’s impossible for me to imagine life when we are destitute—like others here.

The little paper had the misfortune of getting stuck to the sole of Wangel’s left boot, as he entered the manor house’s garden from the direction of the camp. With repulsion, Wangel removed the stained paper that had stuck to his boot and crumpled it into a ball. After a minute, regretting it, he opened the paper and smoothed it out. He would find the one who had thrown trash on the ground!

But there was no name on the paper. It was a torn paper from a work hours report, and on the other side, there was Hungarian writing. Wangel wondered who he could ask to translate the words for him. Of course, Leo Sherer would be a good choice, but he might perceive it as belittling to be asked to translate two lines on a torn note. Maybe his younger daughter Eva could do it.

At that moment, his wife and two daughters entered the front gate of the manor house’s garden.

“Hi, Josef!”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 58 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. 

Yahadus notebook belonging to eleven-year old Surele, last page:

-Roizy, what happened to Morah Naomi? She’s not feeling well?

-I guess not. A minute ago, she got confused and said chametz instead of matzah.

-And at the beginning of the lesson, after she came back and was shaking and sat for a few minutes till she started to teach, she told us we’re waiting to go out to galus instead of to the Geulah. Did you notice?

– Sure. And it’s not like her to get confused twice in one lesson!

-Should we ask her what happened to her?

– You think that’s nice? Is it okay for us to ask?

-I don’t know, but I think we have to.

-Why do we have to?

-Because otherwise what we wrote here is just lashon hara, and if we ask her what happened it will be that we spoke lashon hara l’toeles.

“It’s not so simple to speak lashon hara l’toeles,” the voice of Morah Naomi said above them. The girls recoiled and then blushed. “You have to plan it ahead of time, before you talk, and there are a few conditions that must be met. But it’s fine, I forgive you. I see that you are really worried about me.”

“Do you feel okay?” Roizy asked timorously.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 57 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. 

Don’t do things hastily.

But sometimes that is better than not doing them at all!

Leo Sherer’s newsletter had a column featuring sayings that he himself wrote. No one knew from which bottomless pit Leo got all of his endless—and sometimes foolish—sayings, but some of them certainly had a source. And Babbe had said regarding this particular one, which had been published a few months earlier, that she was familiar with it in Polish; she’d heard it back when she was a girl in Lodz. She liked the saying and claimed it was wise.

Naomi gripped the phone, after her big declaration, knowing that this was an opportunity that was unlikely to repeat itself. But what was she going to say to the secretary at Hanter’s?

She claimed that she was Jewish. It sounded like a bad joke, as if someone had been sitting and waiting for her call, and had decided to make fun of her and drag her into a trap.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 56 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. 

Sign next to the soaking pools:

If it is not necessary for you to be here, do not stand in this area. Some of the materials are corrosive and harmful to your health!

David Elkovitz didn’t usually spend a lot of time around the smelly pool area. But now he was standing in for his father-in-law, whose fever had spiked the day before, to accompany Hauptmann Wangel on his routine inspection of the factory.

The cordless telephone was stuck in the pocket of the man’s brown uniform, and Elkovitz had a few ideas about how to get him to take the phone out of his pocket and put it down in a random place, so that he could forget about it for at least ten precious minutes.

The Nazi delicately pressed two fingers to his nose. “The substance in there doesn’t look clean,” he snapped. “When was the liquid last changed?”

“Yesterday, Herr Wangel,” said Pinchas, one of those in charge, as he nervously raked his fingers through his graying cowlick. “The color you are seeing is caused by the furs that are resting on the bottom of the pool.”

“And everything is as high-quality as usual,” Aryeh chimed in from the side. He was holding a large stick, and checking something in the depths of the pool.

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.”