Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 22 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 placed the frozen pizza he had just removed from the freezer onto the counter and studied the two ovens. He was fortunate that Perl was a religious Jew who observed kashrus, because that was the only thing that he still retained from living with Grandma. So, it was safe to assume that the oven near the stovetop was for meat, and if so, the one to his right was dairy. Martin switched the oven on, placed the pizza on the tray that was inside, and closed the door. Ten minutes on the bake setting should be enough.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 21 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. 

“He’s always been very caring, my uncle.” Hinda’s voice held a sad note as Dov turned the pages of the album. The album began when the twins were five and Mali was a year old. “After I was widowed, he decided that if I would not take photos of the kids, he’d do it. I didn’t have a camera at home, so he would come every so often with his, and snap photos of whatever he thought was interesting.” She looked at the second album Dov had picked up. There, the twins were nine, and the photo on the first page was a memento of their outing to Ganei Yehoshua.

“Here, he already had a digital camera.” She smiled at the memory. “He wanted me to take a picture of him and the twins together, but I couldn’t figure out how to use the thing, so Chani took the pictures. They actually came out nice.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 19 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 door opened. He waited a beat, and then walked into the dark house, closing the door behind him.

The old fluorescent light hanging from the ceiling by two gold chains blinked for a second and then switched on. Light flooded the large hall in which he was standing, and Martin could see that it led into a dining room with gold-hued wallpaper. There was a slight noise above him, as if someone was walking on the second floor with soft furry or cloth slippers.

“Good morning, I’m not a thief, don’t panic!” Martin shouted. Then he fell silent, waiting for a response.

There was no response. Martin turned his head in all directions, and walked carefully toward the doorway of the dining room. He froze for a minute when he saw a figure walking to his right, but then realized that it was a huge mirror, and it was just his own reflection.

Where was the old man?

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 18 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. 

He had no idea how it happened, but Martin soon found himself on the bus. It didn’t seem like any of the handful of passengers had helped him board; he must have dragged himself on, somehow. He swiped his bus card and slumped down onto the front seat, leaning his head on the clear plastic partition that separated him from the driver.

The bus sped through the empty streets, and the monotony of the ride made his brain even fuzzier. But he couldn’t let the fog overtake him. Every few seconds, he opened his eyes and glanced outside. He wondered if this route was purposely designed to take the windiest roads, with the sharpest turns. To Martin, it was all unfamiliar territory. But the sixth time he opened his eyes, he began to recognize the scenery. Now he could not allow himself to slump forward. He sat up straight, despite the hammering in his head, and pressed his face to the window. When the bus passed a certain house, his eyes grew as big as tennis balls.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 17 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 didn’t ask the taxi driver if he was available; he just sat himself in the back seat. “Please drive,” he said. “As fast as you can. My head is exploding.”

The driver glanced at him through the mirror. “It really looks like it is,” he said, making no move to turn on the ignition. “But if that’s what you are feeling, you should go into that building behind you, not take a drive with me.”

“Thanks. I’m coming from there.”

“What’s your story?” Based on his accent he seemed to be an Arab, but Martin wasn’t sure.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 16 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. 

Maybe he’d really had a concussion of sorts; his thoughts usually streamed at a much quicker pace.

Martin lay on the bed, listening to the regular hustle and bustle of an emergency room, and pondered his options. He would probably be released in the morning, or sometime the next day; if there would be minor complications, it might take another couple of days. The question was what the word “released” meant for him. If they were planning to charge him with murder, or attempted murder, then release from the hospital would only be a pit stop on the way to being arrested, and from there to prison.

Martin turned to the other side, keeping his eyes closed. His temples were pounding, and he tried to relax a bit so his pulse would slow down. He didn’t have a lot of experience with false accusations in Israel, but the impression that he had made on the Israelis, along with this accident, were unlikely to earn him an easy acquittal. There was little chance he could persuade a police detective that the accident was the natural result of driver exhaustion. Perhaps it was very negligent, but it had nothing to do with him.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 15 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. 

Someone tugged him forcefully into the light. A dark-skinned face smiled at him. “Good, he’s coming to. You’re alright, aren’t you?” The Ethiopian paramedic measured his blood pressure and murmured, “Much better now.”

“What’s this?” Martin asked when a device was handed to him.

“A breathalyzer. Measure, please—do you know how?”

“I didn’t drink!” Martin looked around him. He was in an open-doored ambulance, based on what he could see. The ambulance was standing in the middle of a road, and he could see the streetlights from the open door. There was a big tumult outside.

“Makes no difference. Just do it.”

“And I wasn’t the driver!”

“These are the rules,” someone else, sitting on the bench that ran along the wall of the ambulance, explained. Martin looked at him and felt like he was sitting on the biggest carousel in the local amusement park in Sudbury. “You’re a policeman,” he said, and closed his eyes again.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 14 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. 

He had no idea when the bus from Modiin left to Yerushalayim, but Martin didn’t ask. He still wasn’t sure he wanted to go back. The bus had dropped him off near the right building and then drove off, and Martin looked up at the structure towering above him. “Sixteenth floor,” Rudy had told him the last time they’d met. Then he’d laughed. “But check first if I’m home.”

Well, Martin hadn’t checked, and he had no idea if Rudy was home. But if he wouldn’t be there, Martin wouldn’t wait; he would go straight to Efrat. Let the Israelis try to find him. As if the security forces were bored. Amidst all the super-important stuff they had to do in order to restore tranquility to this land, they had extra time to look for information about an innocent youth, whose only crime was that he was a bit too patriotic for them? Fools.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 13 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? This is Rabbi Eisenthal. How are you?”

Martin’s muscles tensed. This was the first time he was being called out of a lesson for a phone call from Canada; no one had ever called him until now. He had been the one to make the calls, a handful of times.

“I’m fine,” he said blandly.

“Enjoying?”

“…You could say so.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 12 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. 

Mali hadn’t been to visit Uncle Michoel in a long time. In fact, in recent years she’d hardly come at all. That’s how it was; her uncle didn’t even try to conceal the fact that he was on her mother’s side, or he at least tried to be objective. “Your mother is my only niece, and she is a very clever, warm woman. I think that you are mistaken,” he once said to her indifferently, the last time she’d tried to complain that he wouldn’t even hear her out about her difficulties.

“Difficulties? Go to your mother. I’m sure she can help you solve them in the best way possible.”

The dentist she’d been using for the past two years was a three-minute walk from her uncle’s house, but except for one time when she’d dropped in to visit, she never went there. Once upon a time ago, when she’d first moved to the dorm, Ima had suggested that she visit Uncle Michel every so often, to see if he needed anything and if he was doing alright. But she’d never actually gone.

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