Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 10 of a new online serial novel, Night Flower, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

Yoel and Shifra arrived late in the evening for a visit.

“Ima isn’t very excited about the idea of someone coming to live with you.” Yoel got right to the point as Chaiky boiled water for coffee. She was happy that the kitchen was in reasonable shape. “But even she thinks that it’s something to be seriously considered.”

“She’s not excited because of Anna,” Chaiky said. “And she’s aware of it. Shifra, when you have a cold, you prefer tea, right?”

“Yes, thanks,” her sister-in-law replied.

Yoel leaned on the counter, his legs crossed in front of him. “Anna left the house when I was very little, and I remember nothing about that time,” he said. “You do remember something?”

“Sure,” Chaiky said as she took the milk out of the refrigerator. “I was six at the time.”

“And what do you remember?”

“I remember someone older than me, spoiling me, taking me to her friends’ houses, and playing with my hair. I also remember her having these endless conversations with Ima, though I understood almost nothing about what they were saying… You know how I was your big sister as you were growing up? That’s exactly what she was for me.”

Yoel stuck his hands in his pockets. “But what do you remember about her leaving?” he asked.

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Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 9 of a new online serial novel, Night Flower, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

Already the next afternoon, the girl from the brick wall knocked at her door.

“Your salad was good,” she told Mira, taking a step inside the apartment, “but my aunt said that she has no time to prepare such things, and if you think that it’s important for me to eat cucumbers and peppers, then you should give them to me yourself.”

The problem was that her stock of vegetables had been almost depleted, but Mira did not give up. In the drawer of the fridge she found one shriveled carrot, a small kohlrabi, and a tiny radish. “Today I’ll make you a different type of salad,” she said to Anna, and took out her cutting board. “This way you’ll get to taste different vegetables.”

The kohlrabi was especially difficult to cut; she’d never tried to cut it into tiny cubes. But twelve minutes later, she had a salad ready in a little bowl. Three minutes after that, it was gone.

“This was also pretty good,” Anna said and leaned back in her chair. “But yesterday’s was better.”

“But I’m out of pepper and other things,” Mira said. “Do you want to go with me to the vegetable store?”

“Sure!”

That day Anna went with Mira to the vegetable store. The next day they went to the grocery together, and the day after that, when Mira returned home from work, she found the girl standing at her closed door, an accusing look in her eyes. “Didn’t you know that I’d come?” she asked.

“I didn’t know,” Mira said honestly, rummaging in her pocketbook for her key. “And I couldn’t be home today—I was at work.”

***

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Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 8 of a new online serial novel, Night Flower, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

“I thought that maybe, it will be good for me if someone moves in with us here.”

“What?” The darkness outside the bus window was so inky, Mira couldn’t even see the outline of a single tree or hilltop, and she felt like darkness was also smothering her brain. What was Chaiky talking about?

“I said that maybe it would be good for me and the children if I would find someone to live here with us. She can help me a bit, let’s say with babysitting. And in general, I won’t be alone.”

“Oh.” Mira was quiet, suppressing a deep sigh. So the idea that Chaiky was coming to terms with was Yoel’s. “Someone to come live with you?” she echoed slowly.

“Yes. I’ll find a woman or a girl who needs a place to live, even in exchange for payment or something. You sometimes see ads in the paper about these kinds of things.”

“Right, but through the newspaper it’s impossible to know exactly who the woman or girl is and what kind of story there is behind her.”

“So you make some reference calls,” Chaiky replied sensibly. “And we can always make up ahead of time that we would start with a trial period.”

“Right.” Suddenly, when the idea of Chaiky coming to live with them did not seem like the ideal solution it had seemed before, Mira found herself looking at Yoel’s idea through a different lens. Remarkably, it didn’t seem quite so bad.

But why did she still just not like the sound of the whole thing?

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Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 7 of a new online serial novel, Night Flower, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

“What? You want a strange girl to move in with her? Really, Yoel!”

“Why not, Ima?”

Mother and son happened to be attending the same wedding in Bnei Brak. The chassan was an old friend of Yoel’s, while the kallah was the daughter of Mira Brodsky’s good friend. Mira and Yoel were standing and talking on the sidewalk outside the hall.

“First of all, it really isn’t for our Chaiky. She needs her privacy and her peace and quiet at home. It’s hard enough for her now that she’s finally trying to get back to some type of routine with work and all that.”

“So?”

“So I don’t think that after a busy morning of dealing with everything she has to deal with at work, she has to come home and start talking to a stranger who is going to be on her head constantly, instead of unwinding and taking care of her children.”

“That’s what she told me, almost word for word.” Yoel leaned on the metal guardrail. The thundering of the drums could be heard all the way outside the hall.

“Nu, I told you, we think alike, the two of us.”

“And I still think that you two have to try and persuade her to do this.”

“Me—and who else?”

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Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 6 of a new online serial novel, Night Flower, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

“Chaiky? What?” Yoel gaped into the darkness of the room, trying to focus on what Chaiky was saying. “I can’t understand a word. Try to calm down. What happened?”

Shifra looked at her husband as he scratched his chin. What had happened to her sister-in-law? Chaiky knew that they went to bed early; Yoel had to get up very early for work. If she was calling now, it must be really urgent.

“Locked out? What?! You, too?” He was still a bit confused after having been woken up suddenly. “I don’t understand; where are you? Did you fly to Russia without telling us?” He pressed his hand to his forehead. “Oh, you’re at home?” Again he fell silent and listened, and Shifra finally saw him nod in understanding. “Oy, that doesn’t sound like fun,” he said sympathetically. “Poor you! So you finally called a neighbor and no one answered? Oy…” He fingered the phone wire. “Calm down, that’s first of all, and let’s think of a solution. Do you want us to call your brother-in-law? I’m sure that they won’t do any—are you sure?” He turned to his wife hesitantly. “And you say your in-laws are for sure sleeping already? Do…do you want us to come, Chaiky?”

“Come? To where?” Shifra asked, looking out the window at the sleepy street.

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Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 5 of a new online serial novel, Night Flower, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

She had just settled onto the couch, sefer in hand, when the phone rang yet again. How could she lower the volume of the ringer?

Elka. Oops, Shlomo’s fax really had banished the memory of her promised return call.

“Hi, Elka,” she said as she placed a slip of paper to hold her page.

“Chaiky, it’s not like you. I was waiting and waiting for you to call me back, and you didn’t.”

“Sorry, something came up here that made me forget.”

Elka was quiet for a minute. “Not that I see it as neglect, Chaiky, because I know you, and I know you’re very responsible and that you take your job seriously, but you should know that this kind of forgetfulness does not come from a good place.”

Sure, a fax from the prison in Russia couldn’t be classified as a good place.

“Right,” Chaiky said again, and without wanting to, she raised her voice. “It’s not alright that I forgot, but it was something important.” She’d better go out onto the porch or the children would wake up. On the porch, she’d also be forced to lower her voice, so that the neighbors above her didn’t hear. So it was a net gain. Even if Elka would irritate her now, she’d reply in a respectful, quiet tone.

“Well, fine. So what did we decide, Chaiky? When can you go with Noa?”

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Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 4 of a new online serial novel, Night Flower, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

In the end she said yes. She needed to make every effort to preserve the remnants of the regular, successful, vivacious Chaiky. She could not allow herself to become more of the confused, tense Chaiky who had a hard time noticing small details. When was the last time she’d stood before an audience and spoken? More than half a year ago, when they’d planned a Rosh Chodesh party at the community center and the guest speaker had cancelled at the last minute. Elka had given Chaiky the job of taking over.

“I know you can speak powerfully,” she’d said, not giving Chaiky an opportunity to decline. “So let’s go—we may as well enjoy your talents!”

And they’d enjoyed, baruch Hashem. Shlomo had prepared a nice idea about the parshah for her, and she’d connected it to something current that had happened that month. What month had it been? She couldn’t remember right now. It was hard to remember what she had even spoken about; it was hard to remember what the Chaiky of those days—whose life was flowing along so smoothly—had thought and felt. But she did remember that the speech had been a success.

And now she’d agreed to speak for an audience again. So what? When she would have some free time tomorrow or the next day, she’d open a Chumash with Ramban and look for a fitting concept that was easy to grasp, and that older women could also relate to and enjoy. Keep Reading…