Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 85 of a new online serial novel, Outside the Bubble, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

When Shimon Weisskopf arrived on the scene, things progressed much more smoothly than expected. He walked into the emergency room building with a tall, broad fellow, whose confident stride elicited respect, despite the fact that at his side was a little girl, with her hand tucked into his.

The six-year-old girl skipped ahead and tried to pull the man—who seemed to be her father—forward at her pace. “Where is he?” she called as she looked in every direction. “Where is Mike?”

Michoel Perl gave Shimon a warm slap on the back. “Ah, you’re here!” he said, and looked behind him at the hospital room. “It took you quite a long time, huh? We made up to meet half a year ago or so!”

“Not exactly,” Shimon corrected him. “You said then that you’ll consider whether or not to keep me employed.”

“Oh, that’s right. So, I decided that I want to keep employing you!”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 84 of a new online serial novel, Outside the Bubble, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

“What did he tell you?”

“Nothing special,” Mike repeated for the fourth time. “He wanted to hear what had happened to his uncle, that’s all.”

“And where does he have a phone from?” Rob looked at the phone in his hand. The last call had ended the minute he’d tried to find out who was on the other end, and all his efforts to call the person back had been futile.

“I don’t know. I guess someone gave it to him.”

“There are only four calls here, and they are all to the same number. Who was he speaking to?”

“I don’t know,” Mike insisted.

“It’s a shame you’re not telling me everything, Mike. Dr. Jerry won’t be very pleased about this.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 83 of a new online serial novel, Outside the Bubble, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

Martin left the emergency room building. He wouldn’t be foolish enough to head for the hospital entrance; it would be too easy for them to locate him, if that was what they would try to do. Instead, he ran on the sidewalk and turned into the next building in the row, a six-story building with a huge sign informing that it was the Pediatric Department. He confidently pushed open the door, colored in varying hues of pink and green, and walked inside.

He had to make contact with Weisskopf, to warn him. There was no way to know what they were doing now with his phone, and if Shimon had figured out what had happened, or if he was pouring too much information into Rob’s ears at this very minute, which could be dangerous.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 82 of a new online serial novel, Outside the Bubble, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

“Move to Bnei Brak? It’s actually a nice idea,” Yosef said to his mother and Dov. “We’ll be able to visit each other. Hey, can I offer you a drink?”

“Thank you, I’d appreciate that,” Dov replied as he looked around the room. “You know, the ward here is very nice.”

“It is,” Yosef agreed. “I was thinking that it’s better for you that I’m not around all the time.”

“It’s nice when you’re home.”

“And it’s nice when I’m not,” Yosef said with a chuckle. “I have brains, you know.”

“Your mother never said otherwise.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 81 of a new online serial novel, Outside the Bubble, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

“Mike.” Dr. Skulholt addressed the young man, his tone strident. “Come outside with me now. I want to speak to you.”

Mike dutifully followed him out of the room. The psychiatrist chose one of the red chairs opposite the door and pointed to the seat beside him.

“Pray with your uncle in the meantime,” Rob instructed Martin, who had remained in the room. He glanced nervously toward the corridor. “Wait a minute, you aren’t putting on your boxes? Why did you bring them?”

“To pray together with my uncle, obviously,” Martin said hastily, and opened his tefillin bag. Something in the psychiatrist’s expression was making him nervous. Had Shimon Weisskopf managed to get here already? Had he tried to interfere in the healing center’s affairs in a way that had aroused the man’s suspicions? He hoped not. Shimon had seemed like the cautious and measured type.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 80 of a new online serial novel, Outside the Bubble, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

“The house is so empty…” Dov said late one evening, as they sat in the living room, where the large window faced the sea. Hinda raised her eyes from the plans she was working on.

“Mmm?” she said. Dov was the busy type. He was constantly going, coming, speaking; just five minutes ago, he had finished a conference call with three of his daughters.

Hinda hadn’t listened to the conversation—she couldn’t do more than one thing at a time—but she was able to hear some of the exchanges, and Dov had been laughing, sounding full of life and interest. At the end of the conversation, they’d seemed to be discussing a very interesting shidduch that Yael was working on between her sister-in-law and Chevy’s brother-in-law, though he hadn’t told her—Hinda—about it at all.

She was fine with that. He didn’t have to tell her everything that went on between him and his daughters. And often, he did tell her interesting details from their conversations. Maybe it wasn’t good that she worked during the evening hours, when he was home.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 79 of a new online serial novel, Outside the Bubble, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

“My uncle’s been injured? I don’t understand.”

“No, he hasn’t been injured, Josef—I told you, he just collapsed in the street,” Rob said. He hadn’t noticed the small cell phone that made its way into “Josef’s” pocket a second before Rob had opened the door. Not a safe place at all, but that’s what Martin could do for now.

“How do people just collapse in the street?”

“Maybe he didn’t feel well or something,” Rob suggested. “Or his brain injury suddenly returned.”

Martin rubbed his cheek with his palm. “And he’s in the hospital now?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t they bring him here? This is also a hospital of sorts.”

“Yes, but not for physical injuries of that type, especially when the people who were there already called an ambulance…it’s a little complicated to explain. Later on, when he is discharged, he will be able to come back here for continuing treatment until he is completely healthy.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 78 of a new online serial novel, Outside the Bubble, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

Rob left the room and quiet reigned once again, but just for one minute. Martin barely waited till the door was closed before he hurried over to the closet, the blanket hanging loosely over his left shoulder. He hoped there was no surveillance camera in the closet, and if there was one behind it, then his glorious cape would hide whatever he was doing. Here was his suitcase, and the hidden compartment. And here was the phone and the charger. Excellent.

He closed the doors of the closet and leapfrogged impressively back to the middle of the room, sitting hunched over under his blanket, the phone in his right hand. He took a deep breath. It was not likely that someone would come into the room a second time in the next few minutes. Now was his chance to try.

He pressed and held the number 2, the speed dial for Shimon Weisskopf.

“Hello?” Shimon answered in seconds, as if he had been sitting and waiting for this call since they’d parted at the airport.

“Hello, Shimon?”

“Yes?” He sounded cautious.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 77 of a new online serial novel, Outside the Bubble, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

Martin got sick of walking up and down the deserted corridor, and went to his room. He needed to get whoever was watching the cameras used to the idea that there were strange behaviors in this room. Maybe he’d get under the blanket now and take something with him, so that at a later time, he’d be able to hide with his suitcase and his phone, without raising too many suspicions.

He walked around the room and opened the door to the bathroom. He walked in, came out, opened the narrow closet behind the door, closed it, opened it again, and took his brush off the top shelf. Good, an excellent item. Now the blanket. In no time he was seated in the middle of the room, with his legs folded under a little mound. He shook himself mightily a few times, making the mound rock back and forth.

Someone knocked on his head. “Hello, are you alright in there, Josef?”

“Not especially,” he announced in a muffled voice from inside. “But I’m trying to find some peace.”

“Peace from what?”

“From my exhausting life in this world.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 76 of a new online serial novel, Outside the Bubble, by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

The bed was wide and had a thick, comfortable mattress, but the linens were rough, and the smell of the floor cleaner that they used here was heavy and cloying. Everything was so fuzzy and confusing, complicated and unclear in this place, even the physical conditions in his private room.

It seemed as if this was all intentional.

How much could he trust Mike? “It was a process,” the American boy had said. Processes were an interesting thing; the question was where you would land up at the end.

Martin sat up in bed. It was obvious that this entire place was under surveillance camera at all times, and it was possible that everything was also always recorded. He sat leaning forward, scratching his forehead obsessively. The motion—surprisingly enough—really helped him concentrate. He needed to speak to Michoel Perl to ask him more about this place.