Recap: Star rushes outside and there are wolves out there, so Teddy runs out to rescue him. Then Joe ran out to rescue Teddy and Star. The wolves are howling, and Akiva fears the worst. Then there is a loud bellow and a moose came. The wolves went after the moose, so Teddy, Joe, and the dog are saved. The blizzard is going on, and Akiva worries if his parents will be able to fly in for his bar mitzvah.
After around 20 minutes of charging, Jordie’s phone buzzed. We all hovered over to read the text.
“Kam NOW!! URGENT. DON’T DELAY. KAM ALONE.”
They must be under lots of stress spelling “come” wrong, I thought. The text had been sent from the same unknown number that had called before.
“So, I’ll take it over there,” I said.
“I’ll come with you.”
“It said to come alone,” I said, hoping somehow that he would still come with me.
“I’ll follow behind.”
Jordie handed me the envelope.
I slid it under my shirt. I slid Nana’s book into my knapsack, in case we would have to wait at my house for something, and I flung the knapsack on my back.
“I’m nervous if this is legit.” Aunt Ellie frowned.
“It said, D,” Jordie said. “it must stand for Mr. Donaldson.”
“It must,” she said, “but something about that message feels wrong. I’m nervous about sending you.”
“Mrs. Krohn, I’m 19 and I’ve been assigned to do this,” Jordie said.
“We better go,” I said.
“Hashem should protect you.” Aunt Ellie stood in the back doorway, holding Ahuva, watching us leave.
“Be careful!” she said. “There’s a lady you have to avoid. She wears a black burka, and her right index finger has a mole on it. Her name was Akilah Ahmar. She’s a dangerous terrorist.”
This sounded really scary. A dangerous terrorist! We stuck to the wooded path, away from the street. I had the large envelope tucked inside my shirt. I noticed that my knees were shaking. I wished I could feel like I was a hero in a novel, smuggling a treasure, but I really wanted to just wake up and this would all be a scary dream.
We passed the backyard of one of my neighbors. Shaindy Neuman and her brother Lior were outside, playing ball. It was an ordinary day for them.
When we approached my block, I felt my heart thumping wildly. “I’m scared,” I whispered, embarrassed to admit it.
“It’s fine. The FBI will take it from here. Hashem is with us,” Jordie said.
Funny, I was the frum one, but I could learn about having emunah from Jordie.
We tiptoed towards the backyard of my house. There were no lights on.
“Go to the door and knock quietly,” Jordie whispered in my ear. “I’m hiding back here behind this tree.” He stood behind the large oak in our backyard.
I knocked, and a lady wearing a burka stood in the doorway. “You have it?” I hadn’t expected a lady wearing a burka to be in my house. Where was Mr. Donaldson, the spy?
Maybe she dressed this way to fool the real terrorist. Something in her tone of voice sounded familiar. When I glanced at her hand, I saw her right index finger had a mole on it.
I gasped. She definitely wasn’t Mr. Donaldson. My heart started thumping. “Uh, one minute,” I said. Should I run back and ask Jordie what to do? Just then I glimpsed a car. It was the same black car with tinted windows that had chased us.
“I felt around my shirt and then I opened my knapsack. “Oh no, I’m so sorry. I think I dropped it.” My voice squeaked with fear.
The lady’s face was covered by her burka, so only two dark eyes stared out at me. “Fool. Show me where you dropped it.”
“Uh, I might have lost it in the woods back there.”
She reached into her pocket and grabbed something.
“Omar, he’s here!”
I didn’t wait for Omar. I started running.
I raced away as fast as I could. I yelled to Jordie. “It’s a set up. We’re being chased.” Jordie was running behind me.
That lady was Alikah Ahmar. My whole body shook.
As if on cue, a gunshot rang out.
We kept running.
We were running side by side.
“Where should we go? They’re on our tail,” I said between heavy breaths.
There was no time to think where to go. I didn’t want the terrorists to follow us to Aunt Ellie.
I tried to remember where the closest police station was.
“Let’s loop around and head towards Briar Street,” I said.
The sun was already beating down as we huffed and puffed, running for our lives.
I was too scared to glance back to see if we were being followed.
Suddenly, I heard a car motor. Jordie motioned me to follow him far from the road.
We ran back into the woods. Shaindy and her brother were still outside playing.
Jordie ran close to me. “Give it to that girl. Quick. Tell her to take it inside.”
I slid the envelope out from under my shirt. “Shaindy, please take this inside your house. Someone is chasing us.”
Shaindy’s eyes widened. She took the envelope.
“Take it inside – quick,” Jordie said. “It’s very important. Give it to your mother.”
She nodded and ran inside with it.
“If they catch us, they won’t get it.” Jordie explained as we kept on running.
I realized how smart that was. Who would suspect an eight-year-old girl of having it? The words “if they catch us” rang in my ears. Those were terrorists. I prayed hard. “Please, Hashem, save us. Don’t let them catch us. Please bring us to safety!”
Jordie headed into the thickest wooded area. A few deer scrambled away. “Let’s climb that tree.”
Jordie shimmied himself up. I followed him. The branches were thick and covered us completely.
We didn’t see anyone following us. I tried to catch my breath.
Jordie pulled out his phone and started dialing Aunt Ellie. “I’m telling her to call the police and giving her a description of where we are. This whole thing with the papers is top secret for Israeli intelligence, and I was told not to involve the police except if there was no choice. Right now, there is no choice.”
“So how long do we have to stay up here?” My legs were aching from the crazy run, and I was thirsty.
“We can’t go down till the police come. I didn’t want to involve them. My parents try not to involve the police to avoid unnecessary publicity. Their work is very secretive and sensitive. But it’s too dangerous now. Something went wrong with that FBI spy.”
Jordie pulled Nana’s book from his knapsack. It was a good thing he’d brought it. We both leaned close from our perches on the branches and read.
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).
