Recap: Mr. Greenspan, Zeidy’s friend, drives Akiva to shul for his bar mitzvah lesson. He gives Akiva a bag with silver dollars in it. Akiva puts the little sack down while he practices his leining with the Rabbi. Later, his brother picks him up; and as they’re driving home, he realizes that he doesn’t have the gift from Mr. Greenspan. They head back to the shul to look for the little sack of silver dollars, but they can’t find it.
“I left it in the shul,” I said. I stooped down and looked under the bench. “Where could it be?”
Betzalel bent down and looked all around the floor.
“You’re sure you left it here?”
“Someone must have stolen it.”
“Let’s not jump to that conclusion. Maybe you left it on a different table.”
We searched all the tables and under siddurim and all over the floor.
“It’s gone! What should I do?”
“Look, it may turn up. Maybe someone took it home so he could find the owner. We could put up a sign.”
I shook my head. “No, I don’t want Mr. Greenspan to know that I lost seven silver dollars!” It was so irresponsible of me. I had been trying so hard lately to be organized and not lose things like I usually do, and now I’d lost such an expensive gift!
“It’s not your fault,” Betzalel tried to comfort me. “Anyone can forget something. I’m telling you, with Hashem’s help it will turn up.”
I started thinking of who had been in the shul earlier. That boy, Teddy, was in shul. He wasn’t exactly friendly. Maybe he took it. But there was nothing more to do, so we headed back to Zeidy’s house.
…
On Shabbos morning, we trekked in the cold to shul. There were a few boys there who were my age whom I met at the kiddush. Ariel Haber’s father was an Army chaplain and he was stationed in Anchorage. Dovid Cantor’s father was on shlichus for the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Alaska, and Yehoshua Klein’s family was visiting Alaska for Pesach vacation. I introduced myself, and we were having a nice time, when Mr. Greenspan approached and motioned me away from the group.
“I wanted to introduce you to my nephew,” he said. He motioned me over to a corner where his nephew was sitting, studying a sefer. He was a skinny boy with glasses. His suit was wrinkled, and his hair stuck up in a way that indicated it hadn’t been brushed or combed, and he desperately needed a haircut.
“This is Ernest,” Mr. Greenspan said. “He’s going to be staying in Alaska now, and I know you’ll make him feel at home.” He looked directly at me.
Why me? I didn’t want to be in charge of a chesed case. This boy looked like the real nerdy type. I was just making friends with all the guys in this place, and I didn’t want to be stuck with him if it meant the others would look down on me. I didn’t want to be mean, but I like being liked.
“Where are you from?” I asked him, trying to be polite.
“I’m from Los Angeles, but I’ll be living in Anchorage from now on.”
“Oh.”
I glanced back towards the group I’d left. They were all still talking and laughing.
Then Ernest spoke up again. “Did you know that Alaska has three million lakes and 27,000 glaciers? It has more volcanoes than any other state.”
“Oh,” I said. Who cares?
“I have lots of books about Alaska. If you want to come over after Shabbos, I can show them to you.”
“Uh, thanks,” I muttered. “Nice meeting you. See you around.”
I headed back to the kiddush table and prayed he wouldn’t follow me.
After shul, Zeidy put his arm around me. “So, next week will be your bar mitzvah. Are you nervous?”
I shook my head. I knew I’d practiced and was confident I would do fine. Betzalel joined us and we stayed for a few more minutes. Ariel ran over to me as we were leaving. “Dovid invited everyone to come to his house later. He has a ping pong table and cool games.”
I turned to Zeidy, and he said, “Sure. The Cantors live a few blocks away from us.”
As we headed outside, Zeidy stopped. “Do you want to run and invite Ernest? I know Mr. Greenspan would appreciate if you included him.”
“Uh, not right now,” I said. Not ever.
It felt a little mean, but I’d had my experience being the nice guy. It wasn’t long ago that there was a kid being made fun of by the other guys in our class and I’d stood up for him. Then, I became the one they made fun of. I wasn’t going that route again. No way!
On Shabbos afternoon, Betzalel walked with me as I headed to Dovid’s house.
“I’m going back to shul to learn with Zeidy. We’ll see you back at the house for seudah sh’lishis,” he said.
As I turned the corner, there was Ernest walking towards me. “I was just coming to your house to see if you’d like to come over. My uncle has a ton of board games, and I could show you my Alaska science books.”
Betzalel was watching me.
“Uh, thanks so much. I just have another plan right now.”
Ernest nodded and slunk away.
I felt really mean.
Betzalel shot me a look, but I ignored it and kept strolling towards Dovid’s house. Why did everyone expect me to be the one to deal with people like this? I needed a break from it. Alaska science books!
Dovid’s house was huge, and he had this great game room with a ping pong table and a pool table. I won twice at ping pong. Dovid’s mother invited us all to come back after Minchah and to stay for seudah sh’lishis, but I told her that I had to go back home to Zeidy and Betzalel.
The sun was still beaming high in the sky when I headed to shul for Minchah. I smiled. Dovid had invited me to come during the week and play ping pong with him. I couldn’t believe how many friends I’d just made, and so easily, too.
Betzalel greeted me at shul. Ernest waved to me. I half-waved back, wishing he would get the message that I didn’t want to be friends, and then turned away to daven.
It was still light when we walked home, even though it was almost 8:00 p.m. “In the summer, it stays light till midnight,” Betzalel told me.
Much later, when it was close to midnight, and we heard Havdalah, Zeidy announced a surprise. “I hired someone with a dogsled to take you around Mount McKinley National Park tomorrow. Not too many people get to go in March. I even rented snowshoes for you. Joe will pick you up in his jeep and drive you to the entrance of the park, and then you’ll board the dog sled.”
“Wow, thanks, Zeidy. That’s really keen,” I said. This sounded like an adventure that’s right up my alley!
“Are you coming too?” I asked him.
“I have to work. Too many orders coming in. But Joe will be your tour guide. He’s a ranger, and he knows all about the park. Be sure to pack sandwiches and drinks and dress with layers.”
“Do you think we’ll see any wild animals?” I asked, thinking it would be cool to see a grizzly bear or a moose – just not too close up.
“The bears hibernate this time of year and so do the Dall sheep, but the wolves should be out and there may be some birds.”
“Cool. I’ll bring my camera.”
If I’d known what lay ahead, I wouldn’t have been so excited about this trip into the Alaskan wilderness…
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).
