Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 56 of a new online serial novel, Nine A.M., by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

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Sign next to the soaking pools:

If it is not necessary for you to be here, do not stand in this area. Some of the materials are corrosive and harmful to your health!

David Elkovitz didn’t usually spend a lot of time around the smelly pool area. But now he was standing in for his father-in-law, whose fever had spiked the day before, to accompany Hauptmann Wangel on his routine inspection of the factory.

The cordless telephone was stuck in the pocket of the man’s brown uniform, and Elkovitz had a few ideas about how to get him to take the phone out of his pocket and put it down in a random place, so that he could forget about it for at least ten precious minutes.

The Nazi delicately pressed two fingers to his nose. “The substance in there doesn’t look clean,” he snapped. “When was the liquid last changed?”

“Yesterday, Herr Wangel,” said Pinchas, one of those in charge, as he nervously raked his fingers through his graying cowlick. “The color you are seeing is caused by the furs that are resting on the bottom of the pool.”

“And everything is as high-quality as usual,” Aryeh chimed in from the side. He was holding a large stick, and checking something in the depths of the pool.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 55 of a new online serial novel, Nine A.M., by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

On a page torn out of a notebook:

Dear Naomi,

Good morning.

I’d like to speak to you about a certain problem regarding Dror but without him knowing about it. So it’s better if we don’t meet in the classroom but rather in another quiet place. Where and when can we speak privately? I prefer the mornings, obviously.

Suzy Elkovitz

Response on the other side of the page:

Dear Mrs. Elkovitz,

I think we can speak in my house tomorrow at ten. If you don’t send me a different note with Dror, I’ll understand that this works for you.

Naomi

“Fine,” Rivku said. “So I’ll leave an hour earlier today, on account of the time you want me to spend with them alone tomorrow.”

“Don’t the children’s parents get annoyed?” Katy pressed them loudly. “The frum ones want Naomi and don’t know that sometimes, only Rivku is with them, and the Reform want Rivku and don’t know that sometimes only Naomi is with them.”

“But she’s not teaching them anything during that time,” Rivku said impatiently, ignoring the fact that sometimes, even when she was in the classroom, the children in her group were riveted by Naomi’s stories of Tanach. And she didn’t work too hard to distract them or keep them busy with anything else.

Naomi did not respond at all; her mind was focused on what Suzy Elkovitz might want from her. What kind of problem could there be with Dror?

The child was thriving; he didn’t seem troubled by any type of problem. On the contrary, he had learned the aleph-beis and the kamatz and pasach vowels beautifully. He participated in games with the children, laughed, and ran around, all age-appropriately.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 54 of a new online serial novel, Nine A.M., by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

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“What’s this?” Binyamin asked his mother when he noticed a note on the table, next to his supper plate.

“Naomi popped into the sewing shop today and gave this to me. I thought it’s in your secret code.”

“No, no.” Binyamin studied the numbers for a few long seconds, then folded the paper and stuck it into his pants pocket.

“Is everything alright, Binyamin?” Rechel asked.

“Yes, baruch Hashem.”

“I’m a bit worried about you.”

“Why?”

“You’ve been looking very uptight lately.”

“No, not uptight,” he said carefully, as he watched her face. “It’s just that I’m not a kid anymore, and it happens to be that I think about things.”

“Like about what, for example?”

“Like about our lives here.”

“What’s there to think about? We are alive, baruch Hashem, and we live with miracles.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 53 of a new online serial novel, Nine A.M., by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

A note Katy handed to Naomi:

Dear Naomi,

I hope you won’t tell anyone what you saw and heard in my house.

Elky

Naomi folded the note and stuck it into her pocket, wondering about her dream last night. “Who gave you this note to give to me, Katy?” she asked. “Elky?”

“Yes.”

“And then she went on to the infirmary?”

“No, of course not, she went to her job. I saw her going up the path.” Katy loved providing information.

Naomi hoped Elky’s going to work meant that Mottel’s condition had improved. Where was Babbe this morning? In the infirmary? The kitchen? There was no way to know. Normally, she cooked here in the mornings, and only went to the infirmary in the afternoon. But when there were more seriously ill patients, she was there most of the day.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 52 of a new online serial novel, Nine A.M., by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

A note that David Elkovitz slipped under his Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, which he brought with him to the field early in the morning, for his learning session with Binyamin:

Don’t speak about the subject in Polish or Hungarian. Bernard showed up yesterday. My wife saw him, and as we know, he loves surprise visits to the camp. Let’s start learning, and we’ll switch to Lashon Kodesh.

Both of them drew on sifrei kodesh for their grasp of the language, but Elkovitz’s fluency was very weak. They quickly discovered that it was difficult, if not impossible, to communicate this way.

“Lo re’isiv—I did not see him.” Binyamin glanced over his shoulder into the fading moonlight that was clearing way for the soon-to-be rising sun.

“But I did see him.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 51 of a new online serial novel, Nine A.M., by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

In exchange for this paper, products and merchandise with the value of
50 Reich marks
Will be provided
Provision of the goods is conditional on the document being whole and original, stamped by the lager administration, and signed by an authorized figure.

Naomi’s eyes were fixed on the single voucher that fluttered down from the closet, right next to her. She’d never held a voucher for such a huge sum of money. Fifty marks!

“Elky…” She forced herself to look away from the small rectangle on the floor. “Elky, h-how are you doing?”

“Not good,” Elky said, breathing heavily, in an apparent attempt to stem her sobs. “But why did you come into my house without being let in?”

“She’s not in your house; she’s standing outside,” Dror clarified. “We opened the door because you didn’t answer when we knocked. Do you have a sugar cube? If you have so much money”—he hadn’t missed the sight of those vouchers either—“then you probably buy sweets all day, right?”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 50 of a new online serial novel, Nine A.M., by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

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In chalk, on the wooden wall in the room adjacent to the kennels:

Wire is a very useful material –

Make your mother happy with a nice gift for hanging clothes, which will amuse even the little children!

Make a doll figure from the wire, following the sample piece.

Be careful not to leave sharp edges exposed, because they can damage the fabrics of the clothes!

“Thanks,” Yanku murmured at the end of the lesson, as he escorted Binyamin out of the room. The children stood behind them, arguing about who would be the best person to ask for remnants of wire. Yanku’s expression all but screamed, “Please leave as fast as possible, and don’t try to question me again!” Binyamin didn’t argue. He didn’t have a spare minute in any case. He had to be back at the factory before the end of his break.

“Thanks for the opportunity, Yanku,” he said. “Should I come back tomorrow?”

“I want to make sure that we won’t be missing these few minutes at the end of the day,” the younger boy responded. “I’ll check what we’ve managed to finish by the end of today, and I’ll send you a message.”

“Great. See you.”

Yanku sufficed with a nod, and Binyamin hurried up the path to the factory. He wondered if Yanku knew anything solid about Tatte’s mysterious death, or if he’d just heard something and was quick to draw conclusions.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 49 of a new online serial novel, Nine A.M., by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

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A paper hanging on the wall of the rabbit cage:

Attention kennel children!

Anywun who finishes his choors by eleven in the morning can kum to a short, intristing shiur in the back room. It will be given by Binyamin Schvirtz.

It’s worth hurrying; he’s kuming for a very short time.

Yanku

“We need to talk, Yanku,” Binyamin said after he finished reading the note. He glanced into the back room, where about ten boys of various ages were waiting for him.

“About my spelling mistakes?” The boy scowled. “Everyone tells me about them. You want a pen to fix them?”

“No, that’s not the issue at all. Our conversation yesterday, about my father’s matzeivah, was too short.”

Yanku glanced around worriedly. “The boys are waiting for you, in case you didn’t notice. You promised a shiur. And I promised it would be interesting.”

“It will be very interesting,” Binyamin reassured him. “But listen, I spoke to my sister the other day. She found out that I wanted to clean something off our father’s headstone, and she wanted to know what it was about. So I told her that when I scraped off the ink, someone was watching me, and then I spoke to him.”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 48 of a new online serial novel, Nine A.M., by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

A note, written in the secret code that Binyamin and Naomi had made up together years earlier, was waiting for Binyamin at home at the end of the workday.

________________________________________________________________

 “You just got here, Binyamin.” Rechel was worried. “Again you’re taking extra hours of work? Where are you going now?”

Binyamin lowered his gaze. “Naomi asked me to come,” he said quietly.

“Naomi? What does she want?”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 47 of a new online serial novel, Nine A.M., by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

On the paprika label, in tiny letters, in German:

This product was packaged with the highest standards of hygiene, quality, and freshness. But there is the rare possibility of insects getting into the product after it leaves the factory. Checking is necessary.

“Naomi?” Chani, her mother-in-law, noticed her strange position.

“Yes,” Naomi said as she slowly put the glass jar down on the shelf.

“Is everything okay? You…you weren’t offended by anything I said, right?” She fell silent because at that moment, her sons came back to the kitchen.

“What else should we take to the table, Mamme?” Eli asked, and before he finished the last word, the cloth napkins were placed in his hands, along with napkin rings and silver chargers.

“Everything should be folded very precisely!” Chani instructed, and the two boys scampered out again.

“Aren’t they tempted to sometimes taste the food?” Naomi asked, sounding as if she’d just woken up from an afternoon nap and was still groggy and confused.