Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 46 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. 

Dr. Jerry Skulholt’s office was designed with clean lines, and was rather empty—in line with Michoel Perl’s taste. The wooden chairs were simple and straight, and actually pretty comfortable. The square desk was perfectly matched to the closet, and together, they blended in with the large window frame that took up most of the western wall. Perl felt a strong urge to examine the room more closely, but he knew that it was not a good idea. He was sitting and waiting for the doctor to come in; in the meantime, out of boredom, he studied the three square, framed pictures on the wall opposite him.

Someone closed the door.  Michoel turned around. “You are Dr. Skulholt?” His arched eyebrows almost knitted together when he saw the man who, in the early days of his stay, had called him “Dad.”

“Yes, I’m Dr. Jerry Skulholt. Pleasure to meet you.” The man smiled and shook Michoel’s hand. Then He turned to the closet, opened the top door, and with slow movements—Perl did not know if it was deliberate or not—he took out a large purple binder. Michoel despised the color.

The man sat down on the other side of the desk. “I’m happy to see that you feel better, so that we can really get to know each other,” he said as he pulled a gold pen out of his pocket.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 45 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. 

In the morning, Michoel felt much stronger than he had in the past few days. Almost all the products that Rob, the male nurse, had bought him last night bore familiar American hechsherim, and that confirmed his conclusions regarding which country he was in.

The good meal was having the right effect, baruch Hashem. He washed his hands and stood up to daven, happy to see that he was able to remember most of the davening by heart. He felt bad that he hadn’t remembered to put on tefillin for a few days—and that he had no idea where they were. But he would demand from the staff again to get his belongings. And if they were not here—maybe he really had come here following a serious trauma—he would ask them to get ahold of tefillin for him somehow. Maybe from the other guy who kept kosher.

He passed the nurses’ station and went down to the director’s room. The door was locked again, and this time, no knocking or turning the handle got it to open. He studied the door, from the floor to the top of the doorpost, and went back up to the ward. This time he stopped at the nurses’ station.

“Yes, sir?” a dark-skinned nurse asked sweetly.

“I’d like to speak to the people in charge here,” he said. “Where is Skulholt now?”

“Do you mean the director or the CEO?”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 44 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. 

Hinda served a late lunch of bread, cheese omelets, and tomato salad that had been left from last night’s supper. Dov and Martin ate in the dining room, and Hinda, feeling that she didn’t have a drop of energy left to converse with Simi and give her explanations, sent Dov to Simi’s room to do the explaining. She could always serve Simi a meal later on. At worst, Simi would just order pizza or falafel; she and her husband certainly seemed to have experience doing that.

After Dov returned to the dining room, she didn’t even remember to ask him what Simi had said. She joined him there, in the chair near the window, and studied the Canadian boy who was digging in as though he hadn’t eaten in a good few hours.

“First of all, I think I need to call Shimon Weisskopf and milk him for more information. You said that he was his regular driver,” she said.

“Yeah. Good idea,” Martin said, his mouth full of food.

“Then maybe we’ll call those people from Mexico. I think they were the last ones to have contact with Michoel.”

“You had contact with him very recently,” Dov interjected. “He spoke to you the day before yesterday, or yesterday, didn’t he?”

“Yes, that’s true. So at least we know he’s alive. But he sounded strange,” she said fretfully. “I think we need to go even further back, to the beginning. Before he disappeared.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 43 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. 

Yosef’s shift on Wednesdays began at seven in the morning. He left the house at ten after five for vasikin, leaving the small chessboard on the shelf in the living room.

“Will you be coming home late again today?” Hinda asked as she tightened the belt on her morning robe. She tried to walk him out each time he left, even when it was very early.

“I don’t know,” he said. After a moment he asked, “Are they leaving today?”

“Who, Dov’s daughter?”

He nodded.

“I have no idea,” she said in a low voice. “But Yosef’l, the house is yours. You don’t need to avoid coming home because of them.”

“I don’t avoid coming home because of them.” He hugged his tefillin bag to his chest. It was the same bag as Baruch’s, except for the first initial. Identical twins, except for a few things. “If I want, I’ll come home on time, okay?”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 42 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. 

“Yosef?” Dr. Kaplan stopped near the bench on which the young man with the light beard was sitting. “Yosef, wasn’t your shift over an hour ago?”

“That’s right,” Yosef affirmed.

“So, what are you doing here now?”

The young aide shrugged. “I’m not in the mood of going home.”

Dr. Kaplan lowered his voice. “And your medications?”

Yosef dug a small container of pills from his pants pocket. “I took everything with me.”

“Good. What’s going on at home? How is your twin? You have a twin, right?”

“Yes, and he’s even on vacation now; we call it ‘bein hazmanim.’ But he went to stay with my older brother, who is married. Because he also didn’t really want to come home. My mother has guests, and…it’s more comfortable for me here than at home.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 41 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. 

By 11:30 at night, the hall had emptied, and Mali called Hinda. “Ima, what should I do with the money?”

“Give it to Michoel, of course.”

“I didn’t see him here,” Mali said, sounding puzzled.

“And his worker, the one who organized it all?” Hinda was sitting in the empty kitchen, sipping from a cup of cocoa she had prepared for herself. Dov had fallen asleep on the couch, and if she was not mistaken, Simi and her husband were sitting near the window that faced the open sea, getting some fresh air. Yosef had been sleeping for almost two hours already. He had returned late, eaten dinner, and then escaped to his room. He preferred not to show his face when Simi and her husband were around.

“We didn’t see any worker. Right, Riki?”

Mali’s friend nodded.

“There were a ton of people here, and I think only the importer of the clothes is here now, with his workers. They’re packing up the stuff that’s left. But there’s no one here representing Uncle Michoel.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 40 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. 

Hinda had spent more than half the morning finishing the kitchen plans for Leah Weitzen. Simi spent that entire time closed in her room. Her husband must have gone to learn in one of the shuls in the area; Hinda hadn’t seen him come or go.

At noon, Hinda collected her papers from the kitchen table, leaving Leah a voicemail message that she’d finished, baruch Hashem, and then she went to the door of Simi’s room. She listened for a moment, and when she heard the baby wailing and Simi cooing to him, she knocked gently. There was silence inside; only the baby was still whimpering.

Finally, Simi answered, “Yes?” She didn’t say, “Come in,” so Hinda remained outside.

“How are you doing, Simi?”

“Fine, baruch Hashem,” the other woman replied through the door.

“I wanted to know if there’s anything special you’d like me to make for you,” Hinda said pleasantly.

“No thanks, don’t put yourself out.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 39 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. 

Hinda didn’t know if “Chaya Cohen” was a real name or not. The young woman talked and talked, hardly giving Hinda a chance to respond. Hinda scrubbed the soup pot, every so often inserting an “Uh-huh” or “Really…” But suddenly, Chaya’s rush of words stopped.

Then, after a long moment of quiet, Chaya added, “A support group doesn’t work for me, because I’m not the type who can sit and talk about these things in front of a few women. But I do feel that I need to do something with myself, because I don’t want to reach the point where I’ll need to say, ‘It’s either me or them.’”

“You won’t need to, b’ezras Hashem,” Hinda replied. She was unable to understand why Rebbetzin Werner had given her phone number to this woman. Their lives were so different, no matter which angle you looked at it from. Which part of her life experience could help Chaya? Her challenges, it seemed, were of another nature entirely.

“Do you think so?” Chaya’s voice was laced with a sense of despair.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 38 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. 

Simi’s manners were impeccable, to be sure. She offered her courteous thanks, like one thanks a waitress in a restaurant, adding a compliment about how tasty the food was, yet she collected her own dishes from the table. Even when Hinda objected, she insisted on doing so, but when it came to wiping down the tablecloth, she relented, smiled, and went with her husband to their room.

“The food really was excellent,” Dov said, as he wiped down the tablecloth himself. “Did you even eat, Hinda?”

“A little bit,” she replied. “I don’t have much of an appetite.”

“That’s not good,” he protested. “You need strength. Hosting these new mothers one after the other…it’s not so easy.” He squinted for a moment, and Hinda imagined that he was recalling the other times that his previous home had hosted his daughters after birth, and the other person who had been hovering and catering to them.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 37 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. 

Yosef stayed in the supply room until three o’clock. When someone from the staff entered—and it happened a few times—he pretended to be looking for something in the drawers, making every effort to appear calm.

When he emerged, glancing furtively in all directions, Ra’ayah, one of the nurses, greeted him with an angry rebuke that Dr. Tennenbaum had been looking for him, and what was this all about, and how could he display such a lack of responsibility? He apologized politely, but she did not seem pacified by his apologies, and they certainly were not going to help the doctor whose shift had already ended. Oh, well. Dr. Tennenbaum was a nice guy who usually complimented him a lot; they got along really well. Now he probably wouldn’t want to be as complimentary.

But what could he do? There are emergency situations in life.

He boarded the bus and headed for home.

Ima did not come to the door when he knocked; Dov was the one who opened it for him after a few long moments. “Ah, Yosef!” He looked surprised. He stood for another moment in the doorway, and then moved aside. “How are you?” he asked. Then, turning to inside the house, he called out, “Hinda, Yosef is here!”