Recap: Zevi answers the phone and there’s no one on the line. He missed seeing the Caller ID. It rings again and there is still no one there, and the Caller ID says “Unknown.” Jordie tells him to turn out the lights and lock the door. Zevi is scared and wants to know what is going on. Jordie suggests that, as a distraction, they read the journal that his grandmother gave them.
“Here, Akiva, Try this one on.”
“Whoa, Zeidy. It’s so soft. It’s real fur!”
“Yes, we only sell real fur. That’s a muskrat coat. It’ll keep you warm outside. You can wear it right now on the way to your bar mitzvah lesson.” He handed me a thick, warm sweater to wear underneath. “You need a lot of layers here. You better get going.”
“Thanks, Zeidy. The coat is so fancy!”
I slid on the heavy, green, wool sweater. It was a cardigan with deep pockets. Then, I put on the muskrat coat and I headed out the door into the chilled Alaskan air, but the coat really did keep me toasty.
Mr. Greenspan, Zeidy’s close friend, lived a block away, and he was going to drive me to the shul so I could practice with Rabbi Braver there. I still couldn’t believe I was actually in Anchorage and my bar mitzvah was in only one week!
I had flown to Alaska with my 17-year-old brother Betzalel a week early to spend time with Zeidy and to help Aunt Margie get ready for Pesach. Our parents had to stay longer in Seattle for work and were flying in right before Yom Tov.
Mr. Greenspan pulled up in his shiny new pick-up truck, and I slid inside.
“Nice car,” I said.
“It’s the easiest way to plow through the ice. Sometimes, though, even my truck won’t get through.”
“I don’t know how you live here all year round.”
“I got used to it. Like your Zeidy,” he said. “It’s not bad here in the summer. We get mild weather, then, in the 60s.” He smiled at me. “It’s special you came to Alaska. It means a lot to your Zeidy.”
“Yeah.” I smoothed the dark-colored fur on my new fur coat.
“Akiva, I have a little something for you.”
He handed me a sack. “There are seven silver dollars in there. Silver dollars will be worth a lot one day. You save ’em. I always give ’em for a bar mitzvah present.”
“Thank you, Mr. Greenspan. Wow, this is really an expensive gift. I really, really appreciate it!” I slammed the car door shut. Mr. Greenspan strode with me towards the shul. Apparently, he was going to learn there.
Before going into the shul, I opened the little sack and saw the gleaming silver dollars inside. What a day! I got a new fur jacket and a sack of silver dollars. This was the life! I was thinking of what I could buy with all this money. I really wanted to buy a guitar. I love music and have this dream of being a sought-after singer.
When I entered the shul, I saw Rabbi Braver sitting next to a boy who looked about my age.
He looked up when I walked in. “Hi, Akiva. This is Teddy Cohen. His family just moved to Anchorage, and Teddy and I just finished learning together. I’m ready to hear your reading now.” The Rabbi and Mr. Greenspan exchanged greetings.
I nodded at Teddy. He was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, and he was wearing one of the shul’s black satin yarmulkas. He wasn’t exactly dressed like me.
“Hi,” I said.
Teddy glanced at me and then he turned away.
Maybe he was shy. I tried to be friendly.
Everyone says I’m the most outgoing kid in our class, and that’s fine with me. I usually like meeting new people.
“I live in Seattle. I’m just visiting for Pesach and my bar mitzvah,” I said.
Teddy didn’t say anything.
Rabbi Braver rose.
Teddy stood, too, and headed to a seat in the back with the book he was studying.
Rabbi Braver turned to me. I pulled out my tikkun and began practicing my bar mitzvah leining. I didn’t like having someone else in the room, but Teddy was busy with his own practicing. Mr. Greenspan was learning in the smaller room next door, and then he was leaving to do some errands in town.
“You’re going to be sensational,” Rabbi Braver said when I finished. “You know it really well.”
“Thanks.” I had spent a lot of time practicing.
“It’s special to have a bar mitzvah during Pesach. We’ve never had that before. Your Zeidy is so excited.”
After an hour, Betzalel showed up at shul. “I came to get you.”
The Rabbi introduced Betzalel to Teddy Cohen. Then I thanked Rabbi Braver for the lesson and followed Betzalel outside. “Zeidy let you drive his jeep?”
“Zeidy was busy with some fur retailer on the phone, and it’s too cold at this time of day for you to walk home. Hey, nice fur jacket.”
I stepped inside the jeep. Betzalel drove slowly down the long winding road. There were no houses or any sign of life anywhere nearby. “This place feels so deserted,” I said.
“Well, compared to Seattle, it’s a lot less populated.”
He drove until we came to a more built-up area with houses and stores.
It was as we pulled up and parked that I suddenly realized something.
“Oh, no! I left the silver dollars in shul.”
“What?” Betzalel was walking towards the house.
“Please, I have to go back. I must have left my sack of silver dollars from Mr. Greenspan in the shul.”
“We can just call the Rabbi.”
“No, please, I want to go back and get it. It’s such a public place. People are in and out of the shul all day long.”
“Okay, okay.” Betzalel got back into the car and he drove me back to shul.
We pulled up, and I saw there were a few parked cars. I jumped out of the jeep and headed to the shul door.
I stepped inside and bee-lined to the table where’d we been sitting.
Teddy was gone. Mr. Greenspan had left a long time ago. There were a few men sitting in the back, learning.
I searched the table. I looked on the floor. I looked on every shelf. My little sack of silver dollars was gone!
To be continued…
Susie Garber is the author of an historical fiction novel, Flight of the Doves (Menucha Publishing, 2023), Please Be Polite (Menucha Publishers, 2022), A Bridge in Time (Menucha Publishing, 2021), Secrets in Disguise (Menucha Publishers, 2020), Denver Dreams (a novel, Jerusalem Publications, 2009), Memorable Characters…Magnificent Stories (Scholastic, 2002), Befriend (Menucha Publishers, 2013), The Road Less Traveled (Feldheim, 2015), fiction serials and features in Binah Magazine and Binyan Magazine, “Moon Song” in Binyan (2021-2022), and Alaskan Gold ( 2023-2024).
