Recap: Daniel and his father are staying on campus for the year, as his father has a research grant. Daniel walks around campus and meets a boy named Yisroel Meir, who is putting up flyers about a Friday night Shabbos program. Yisroel Meir gives him a tour of the campus and Daniel helps put up the flyers. Yisroel Meir invites Daniel to come to his house for the Friday night program. Daniel wants to go and hopes his father will agree. They walk past the college library and see that someone has scrawled an “X” over the flyer they put up and has also written “Free Palestine” on it.
“It was so mean,” I told my father. “They put a big black “X” on the sign just because it had something Jewish on it. And they stuck up this flag.”
“Things are heated since the war in Israel,” my father said.
“Yisroel Meir just took down the flag and put up another flyer.”
Dad looked up from the book he was reading. “Sounds like a brave kid.”
“He’s really nice. He’s going into eighth grade. He gave me one of the flyers and he invited us to come. The dinner’s at his house.”
Just then, Dad’s phone rang.
“Gotta take that.”
When he finished the phone call, I tried again.
“Dad, he seemed really nice. I think we should go.”
Dad was busy jotting something in his notepad. “Sorry, Danny. I just had to write that down. So, you want to go to this boy’s house for what?”
I handed him the flyer that Yisroel Meir had given me.
“You know we don’t have a car here. That’s a good walk from here. You sure you can do it?”
“Yes! I really want to go.”
“They’re religious. Did you explain we’re not?”
I nodded. “He doesn’t care about that.”
“You’ll need to wear a dressier shirt and pants.”
I sifted through the suitcase. We’d only arrived yesterday and neither Dad nor I had started to unpack. The campus apartment was furnished with two bedrooms, and it faced a scenic view of the Mason Mountains.
I pulled out a bunch of T-shirts and some books. Finally, I fished out a white button-down shirt and a pair of dress pants.
Dad put on his suit and a blue tie. “I haven’t gone to anything religious since – well, since I was around your age.” Dad pulled out his phone. “I wanted to tell you I found out there’s a good music school here and I can sign you up for any instrument lesson you’d like.”
“Uh, okay,” I said.
I really didn’t want to try music lessons again. It just wasn’t my talent.
“Great!”
Dad played three instruments, and he was always a straight “A” student. I had a reading problem, so I never earned anything above a “C” – and music lessons had never worked before.
I wished I had some talent that would make Dad proud, but I didn’t seem to have any.
“I have a meeting tonight. It’s important. Sorry, I can’t go with you.”
I felt a sinking feeling inside. It was a lonely feeling I get sometimes.
“I really want to go to the Friday night thing,” I said.
“You can still go. I’ll draw you a map so you can see which way to go.”
I wanted to go with Dad, but at least this way I could still spend time with the boy I hoped would be my new friend.
“Dad, when do I have to start school?”
“I enrolled you in the public school near here. You start Monday.”
My neck muscles tightened. It was exciting coming to a new place, but the part I didn’t like was going to a new school. I had been through being the new boy so many times. I never stayed in one place long enough to have good friends. At least this time we were here for a whole year. Maybe this boy I met would be in the same school and he’d want to be my friend.
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).
