Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 33 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. 

The moment of candle-lighting was her breaking point. Behind her, Yisrael Meir lay in the carriage, sweet as could be in one of the new outfits that he’d received as a gift at his bris. Dovi and Naomi sat on chairs in the kitchen, watching curiously as their grandmother checked the fridge for the roasted egg and zeroa, and asking her a thousand questions. Chaiky stood in front of the shelf; her mother’s candles were already lit, and hers were waiting to be lit. She struck the match, but found that she couldn’t say a single word.
The small flame quickly ate the match and inched closer to her fingers. She dropped the match to the floor when it got too hot. Then she gaped at it, glowing red-orange on the tile before it went out completely. Clumsily, she took another match out of the box.

“Is there a problem with the matches?” Rachel approached. “Your mother’s in the kitchen. Should I ask her for other ones? You know, those Chinese workers who made them probably didn’t really care if they came out good or not. Lots of times there are boxes where the matches don’t light well, especially those with the pink heads. They probably have almost none of that sulfur substance on it, and that’s why they are so light colored. Oh, I see that these match heads are really red. Do you want to try another one before I ask your mother for a different box?” Keep Reading…

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 32 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. 

The last time Noa had visited her grandfather was when she’d turned seventeen. They’d traveled to Russia for a two–week visit, most of which they’d spent within the confines of the house. Noa couldn’t complain, because the house was hardly confined, and in fact, was so large that even two weeks wasn’t enough to explore the whole thing.

It really hadn’t been enough. This hall, where her grandfather was waiting now, was one place she hadn’t visited then.

The door opened before her as she approached, and she smiled. Something about the automatic glass door, the type that you see in every big shopping center or health clinic around the world, was hardly the same style as the elegant, heavy décor of the hall—from the dripping chandeliers, the dark table and chairs, and the gleaming wood floor, to the walls covered with heavy, tightly pleated drapes (she had no idea if there were any windows behind them). Despite the huge expanse of the hall, Noa felt stifled. She turned toward the glass and metal door, which still remained open.

“You’re smiling,” she heard Grandfather’s voice rumble. Noa looked around. At the head of the massive table that filled the hall—and which was bare except for two ashtrays—was a chair upholstered in leopard-print leather. But Grandfather was not sitting on it.

“I’m here,” he said, and she turned around in surprise. On the other side, near a small, low glass table, he was waiting for her, sitting on a light wood, high-backed chair, and studying her with a penetrating gaze. “You are smiling,” he repeated. “Why?” Keep Reading…

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 31 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. 

Had Elka seen the young woman walking the halls of the Russian villa, she would never have recognized her Noa. But it was Noa, striding briskly, and ignoring the fact that Stefana, the servant girl that her grandfather had assigned to her, was trying valiantly to keep up with her.

“Madam? Madam! Your milk!”

Only when she reached the stairs did Noa turn her head. “Really,” she noted icily, “I’ve long passed the age of needing a nanny. And even when I was that age, I didn’t have one.”

“So I should spill out the milk?” Stefana asked submissively.

“You can drink it yourself, if you’d like. And let them know in the kitchen that I don’t like milk,” Noa said as she continued walking.

“Once, Madam liked it very much.” Stefana shook her head in wonder.

Noa spun around. “What do you know about me?”

“The Master made sure that I know.” Stefana nodded her head. “He gave me a page out of your personal file to read.”

“My personal file! Ahem!” Noa lowered her voice. “So I understand that I really am filed away here like one of the employees. Tell me, Stefana, what other documents were there?” Keep Reading…

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 30 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. 

“As is well known, the budget for each one of the yeshivah and kollel students is fifty two thousand shekel a year. Therefore the Finance Ministry has decided to stem the unlimited flow and to divert it to other purposes…”

Yoel raised his head. “Benny!” he called. “If you absolutely must hear all these lies, don’t do it next to me, okay?”

His coworker chuckled. “Really now, don’t be naïve. Even if you come from there, it doesn’t mean you have to continue covering up for them.”

“Covering up for who and for what?” Yoel asked sarcastically. “For the soy schnitzels and orzo that I ate in yeshivah when I learned there? It would actually be interesting to find out how much I cost the Finance Ministry in those years. Today I probably cost them more. One second, excuse me.” He glanced at his cell phone and went outside. “Chaiky? Is everything okay?” If she was calling him at work, something must have happened.

“Right now, yes, but I need you to come help me, Yoel!”

“What happened?” Keep Reading…

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 29 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. 

Noa put her suitcases down on the floor and locked the door. “There,” she said into the small cavity of the studio apartment. “Welcome. Have you finally arrived home?” She examined herself in the huge mirror hanging at the entrance and quickly retreated. She didn’t like looking at herself from up close.

“Well, the time has come to get used to a new house,” she said aloud, and chuckled. For the first time, she had a corner that was only hers, and not just some space inside someone else’s place. She bent down to pick up her bags and walked into the inner room. It was heavily furnished, with very ornate pieces. She wondered how much the rent was here. After all, she had to remember that this tiny home was not actually hers, not only because it wasn’t registered in her name, but because she wasn’t even paying the rent.

She sat down on the only bed in the room. It stood in the center of a rug that was a blend of turquoise and other  shades of blue, and thought about how none of her sets of linen matched the colors of this room, so it was as good a time as any to buy some new linen. Maybe something turquoise would be good, to match the rug, the curtain, the picture frames, and the door of the walk-in-closet. On the other hand, beech-wood shades or silver would also match, because that was the color of the furniture in the room. Tomorrow after work, she’d go shopping.

She tiredly took her clothes out of her suitcase and went to open the door to the closet. She hung the skirts on hangers and wondered if she should buy some new clothes, if she really would be visiting her grandfather in the near future. He would hardly be pleased to see her in these clothes, even though it was he who had initiated the whole thing.

She would have gladly forgone the whole visit; she hadn’t quite enjoyed the few encounters she’d had with him in the past. But that was not an option. She knew that, and her grandfather knew that she knew it.

She passed her hand over the shelves to make sure they weren’t covered in dust. Just then, her phone rang. Keep Reading…

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 28 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. 

Noa couldn’t stand the busy hours at the library. She loved the hours when it was quiet, and she could cover books, sort, catalog, and do anything else she pleased. Even those morning hours when a few women came to exchange their books were bearable. But the noise of Sundays and Wednesdays from four till seven were a major pain for her, and recently, they had become unbearable. Already at ten to four her head began to ache.

“Young lady.” She left her desk and approached a short girl who was sitting on the floor, taking out books from the bottom shelf and stacking them next to her as she leafed through one of them. “What do you think you are doing?”

“I want to see the covers.” The girl raised a pair of innocent eyes. “Then I’ll put them all back, don’t worry.”

“Fine, but you’d better start doing that soon, because it’s already six thirty.”

“Okay,” the girl replied, her head back in the book on her lap.

“We haven’t been here in a long time,” a voice behind her said, “because Ima didn’t have the energy to bring us. Rachel, will you also take out some books? You should. There are really, really good books here for your age.”

“How do you know?”

“Because when I once wanted all kinds of books from the higher shelf, Ima told me that I’ll read them when I get older. And you’re big already, right?”

“Right. But I don’t really like to read.”

“Besides for your book about flowers. My father also knows a lot about flowers, you know. We once took a trip during vacation, before he went to Russia, and he helped us find twelve different types of flowers! Twelve!”

Noa turned around sharply. Yes, it was Chaiky’s daughter. And the older girl next to her looked like the one she had once seen in their house. Aha.

“Hello, sweetie,” she said warmly to the little girl. “Your name is Naomi, right?”

The girl raised her head to her. “Oh, you know me because you’re here at my mother’s work, right? You also once came to our house.”

“That’s right.” Noa smiled. “How is your mother doing?”

“Baruch Hashem, fine.”

“You have a new baby, right?” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the older girl drop Naomi’s hand and walk over to the shelf with the encyclopedias.

“Yes.”

“Send regards to your mother, okay? Is she home?” Keep Reading…

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 27 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. 

“Do you think it’s a good idea for me to leave?” Rachel stood at the doorway to the porch, observing Chaiky and her mother. Chaiky was folding laundry with slow movements, and her mother was standing with her back to the door, taking the clothes off the line. “Because if your parents are here…”

“No, don’t go!” Naomi leaped out of wherever she had been, wearing a mask on her face, and hung herself over Rachel’s shoulders. “I like it that you’re here, even if Saba and Savta came.”

“You help me a lot, Rachel,” Chaiky said as she picked up a towel that her mother had just thrown into the basket. “You keep the children busy, give them attention, and take them to the park and shopping…right, Ima?”

Mira smiled. The ten hours she’d been here had been enough for her to get to know Rachel, the girl who had somehow found herself living in her daughter’s home—even though no one could pinpoint exactly when and how it had been decided. “Right,” she said tersely. The fact that she had bad memories of an ungrateful girl who had grown up in her own house didn’t mean that every girl who needed a home was ungrateful.

“The two of you make such a cozy-looking scene, you know?” Rachel noted. She stood bent over, jiggling Naomi who was on her back. “Mother and daughter together on the porch, chatting calmly under the moonlight, the mother taking down the laundry while her daughter folds it…” Keep Reading…

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 26 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. 

The young woman walking in the park with her cell phone pressed against her ear didn’t attract any particular attention. Even when her voice rose a bit, no one noticed. The path on which she was walking was empty at this early morning hour.

“Listen to me, Aunt Irena,” she said, “I’ve long passed the age where you can be on top of every little thing I do, and may I remind you that at the age when it was possible, you were not the one who took care of me? And as time went on, you did not exactly become more devoted to me.”

“Don’t get me started, Anna,” the aunt replied. “Even if at one point you moved in with those Jews, whatever their name was, most of your education is to my credit.”

“I’m not arguing about that,” the young woman replied with a trace of irritation. “And by the way, her name was Mira. I’m only saying that you can’t decide things for me today.”

“I’m not deciding. I’m just asking if you don’t think it’s time to get married already. You’ve been thirty for five years already, have you noticed?”

“Four and a half.”

“It’s an old age by any standard to establish a home. You know that Grandfather very much wants to see you establishing your own home.”

“While I’m in the middle of my career?”

“Which career, of all your careers, are you referring to?”

“All of them. I haven’t reached the final stage of any of them yet.”

“Well, you’ve apparently inherited your unsettled nature from your mother; you’re not from our side,” her aunt said. “But it seems to me that you are being rather successful at your most recent one.”

“Not at all.”

“No?” The aunt was surprised. “You think you’ve failed? Grandfather won’t be happy. He is investing a lot of money in you, you know.” Keep Reading…

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 25 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. 

It was normal for new mothers to not be able to fall asleep, right? They have so much going on in their heads… And if your roommate was named “Nur Faiza,” and her whole clan was clamoring around her, then it should be even more normal. And if your husband happened to be detained in Russia, and you were not even sure you’d be able to speak to him before the bris—then it should already be very, very understandable why you were unable to fall asleep, tired as you were.

So when the curtain was pushed aside to reveal twinkling eyes and a wide smile at two in the afternoon on Friday, it didn’t really disturb Chaiky. After all, it’s not possible to wake someone who isn’t sleeping.

“I didn’t bother you or anything, right?” Rachel asked warmly. “And don’t worry—I’m not planning to come back again today. Elsie warned me to let you rest. I just wanted to wish you mazel tov.” She stepped hesitantly into the room. “I bought you flowers in the shop downstairs. Do you like flowers?”

“Yes, very much.” Chaiky sat up, looking at the large bouquet that was totally disproportionate to the tiny plastic container it was sitting in. “They’re beautiful. Thank you so much! I really, really like flowers, and these are such pretty ones!” The night table beside her was empty. Yoel and Shifra had come last night, just after she’d been moved into the ward. They’d brought a bag full of expensive chocolates and a cute outfit.

“What an adorable baby!” twenty-year-old Shifra had enthused, like a little girl. “I saw him! I snuck into the nursery—no one even stopped me. He’s so sweet, and looks so much like Dovi!”

“You spoke to Shlomo’s parents, right?” Yoel had asked. “What did you tell them? That you want them to visit you?”

“I didn’t tell them anything,” Chaiky had said weakly. “I just called to tell them about their new grandson. We hardly spoke.” Keep Reading…

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 24 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. 

“Hashem will give us a prize? Do you mean s’char?”

“Yes. And I’ll buy you a good prize, too.”

“And are you also going to get a prize?”

Chaiky smiled.

“I think,” Dovi mused thoughtfully, “that your prize will be if Abba comes back. Right it’s a punishment that they took Abba, and when he comes back it will be a prize?”

“We don’t know why Hashem does all kinds of things,” Chaiky replied with effort. Rachel appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. “I think it is better for us to call this a ‘challenge.’ A challenge that Hashem sent us to see how we behave when it is hard for us.”

Naomi entered the house just then, with her regular announcement that she was “starving,” bringing the discussion to an end, and everyone trooped into the kitchen. Rachel offered to set the table. Lunch was tomato and rice soup that Chaiky had cooked the night before, and she’d added slices of frankfurters to it in the morning.

“You didn’t make this soup for such a long time, Ima!” Naomi exulted as she chose the orange bowl for herself. “Rachel, do you like tomato-rice soup? We love it, and Dovi sometimes even eats three bowls of it!” She brought the spoon close to her mouth.

“Naomi.” Chaiky was tense as she gently stopped her. “What did you forget?” Keep Reading…