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.

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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.

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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.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 51 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.

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In exchange for this paper, products and merchandise with the value of
50 Reich marks
Will be provided
Provision of the goods is conditional on the document being whole and original, stamped by the lager administration, and signed by an authorized figure.

Naomi’s eyes were fixed on the single voucher that fluttered down from the closet, right next to her. She’d never held a voucher for such a huge sum of money. Fifty marks!

“Elky…” She forced herself to look away from the small rectangle on the floor. “Elky, h-how are you doing?”

“Not good,” Elky said, breathing heavily, in an apparent attempt to stem her sobs. “But why did you come into my house without being let in?”

“She’s not in your house; she’s standing outside,” Dror clarified. “We opened the door because you didn’t answer when we knocked. Do you have a sugar cube? If you have so much money”—he hadn’t missed the sight of those vouchers either—“then you probably buy sweets all day, right?”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 50 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.

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In chalk, on the wooden wall in the room adjacent to the kennels:

Wire is a very useful material –

Make your mother happy with a nice gift for hanging clothes, which will amuse even the little children!

Make a doll figure from the wire, following the sample piece.

Be careful not to leave sharp edges exposed, because they can damage the fabrics of the clothes!

“Thanks,” Yanku murmured at the end of the lesson, as he escorted Binyamin out of the room. The children stood behind them, arguing about who would be the best person to ask for remnants of wire. Yanku’s expression all but screamed, “Please leave as fast as possible, and don’t try to question me again!” Binyamin didn’t argue. He didn’t have a spare minute in any case. He had to be back at the factory before the end of his break.

“Thanks for the opportunity, Yanku,” he said. “Should I come back tomorrow?”

“I want to make sure that we won’t be missing these few minutes at the end of the day,” the younger boy responded. “I’ll check what we’ve managed to finish by the end of today, and I’ll send you a message.”

“Great. See you.”

Yanku sufficed with a nod, and Binyamin hurried up the path to the factory. He wondered if Yanku knew anything solid about Tatte’s mysterious death, or if he’d just heard something and was quick to draw conclusions.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 49 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.

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A paper hanging on the wall of the rabbit cage:

Attention kennel children!

Anywun who finishes his choors by eleven in the morning can kum to a short, intristing shiur in the back room. It will be given by Binyamin Schvirtz.

It’s worth hurrying; he’s kuming for a very short time.

Yanku

“We need to talk, Yanku,” Binyamin said after he finished reading the note. He glanced into the back room, where about ten boys of various ages were waiting for him.

“About my spelling mistakes?” The boy scowled. “Everyone tells me about them. You want a pen to fix them?”

“No, that’s not the issue at all. Our conversation yesterday, about my father’s matzeivah, was too short.”

Yanku glanced around worriedly. “The boys are waiting for you, in case you didn’t notice. You promised a shiur. And I promised it would be interesting.”

“It will be very interesting,” Binyamin reassured him. “But listen, I spoke to my sister the other day. She found out that I wanted to clean something off our father’s headstone, and she wanted to know what it was about. So I told her that when I scraped off the ink, someone was watching me, and then I spoke to him.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 48 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, written in the secret code that Binyamin and Naomi had made up together years earlier, was waiting for Binyamin at home at the end of the workday.

________________________________________________________________

 “You just got here, Binyamin.” Rechel was worried. “Again you’re taking extra hours of work? Where are you going now?”

Binyamin lowered his gaze. “Naomi asked me to come,” he said quietly.

“Naomi? What does she want?”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 47 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 the paprika label, in tiny letters, in German:

This product was packaged with the highest standards of hygiene, quality, and freshness. But there is the rare possibility of insects getting into the product after it leaves the factory. Checking is necessary.

“Naomi?” Chani, her mother-in-law, noticed her strange position.

“Yes,” Naomi said as she slowly put the glass jar down on the shelf.

“Is everything okay? You…you weren’t offended by anything I said, right?” She fell silent because at that moment, her sons came back to the kitchen.

“What else should we take to the table, Mamme?” Eli asked, and before he finished the last word, the cloth napkins were placed in his hands, along with napkin rings and silver chargers.

“Everything should be folded very precisely!” Chani instructed, and the two boys scampered out again.

“Aren’t they tempted to sometimes taste the food?” Naomi asked, sounding as if she’d just woken up from an afternoon nap and was still groggy and confused.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 46 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. 

ALT – Alanine Transaminase

AST – Aspartate Transaminase

ALP – Alkaline Phosphatase

Total Bilirubin

Albumin

HB – Hemoglobin

RBC – Red Blood Cells

WBC – White Blood Cells

Glucose

Creatinine

“One who begins a mitzvah is told to finish it, Naomi.” Babbe didn’t expound much. She appeared at the preschool less than fifteen minutes after she’d left, when Naomi came back. Now she was holding a small wooden box and a hastily penciled note.

“What is this?”

“These are the vials,” Babbe said. “And here is a list of the tests we need. I would ask you to ask the Wangels to supply us with new vials, because these are our last ones. But right now, I don’t think you should do it.”

“She’ll think I’m asking for new tests, for someone else,” Naomi filled in.

“Exactly. So, are you going?”

“You’ll stay here in my place?”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 45 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. 

Nirtzach (Murdered)

Binyamin leaned over the headstone, nearly pressing his face to the ground, as he passed a finger over each letter. Nun. Reish. Tzaddi. Ches. The ink was long dry, and he had no way of knowing if the word had been written two days ago, a month ago, or more. The last time he’d been here, on Tatte’s yahrtzeit, it wasn’t there.

Who had taken the pains to write this on the side of Tatte’s matzeivah? Was it someone who wanted to convey a message of sorts and was afraid of it being discovered, or did it just express strong pain?

Binyamin sat down on the ground, leaning his head on the large, rectangular stone. He was supposed to be davening. Naomi had asked him to. But his lips were dry. Who knew what had happened to his father? Mamme, maybe. Her fear of speaking about it was telling.