Recap: Mr. Bowers is home and Hope finds out that Mrs. Bowers is his second wife, and that his first wife – Bonnie’s mother – passed away. She was Hope’s mother’s second cousin. Hope asks Mr. Bowers if she can go to her friend’s house for dinner and he says yes. Mrs. Bowers tells her to take Bonnie. Hope is happy to be able to go to the Jacobsons for Friday night dinner.
Rivkah’s sisters were all busy getting ready for Shabbos. Rivkah beckoned us in. “Come on in. Bonnie, you can go help D’vori tear the toilet paper.” She led Bonnie into a large room filled with toys and books.
“How can I help?” I asked.
“You’re the guest.”
“I don’t mind,” I said. I didn’t want to sit around and watch everyone else working.
Elisheva was balancing on a ladder, dusting the chandelier. Rivkah wore her hair twisted in a bun. I assumed she did that to be different from her twin. She was carrying tall crystal wine glasses to the table, and Sarah was putting out plates, as well as forks, knives, and spoons. Shani was polishing a silver candelabrum. “That’s the longest table I’ve ever seen.”
“We have guests along with our family, so we need a long table,” Rivkah said.
“Come, you can help me peel potatoes, if you really don’t mind.”
I thought of Sarah peeling vegetables in our kitchen. I never would have dreamed I’d be doing this now.
Bonnie sat on a stool and watched all the feverish preparations going on in the kitchen. Heavenly smells wafted by of chicken soup and apple pie.
The potatoes we peeled all ended up in a food processor. Rivkah mixed them into a large potato kugel and slid it into the oven. “I’m going upstairs to get ready for Shabbos. You can come hang out in my bedroom,” Rivkah offered. We followed her upstairs. “I’m just going to take a shower.”
Rivkah shared her room with two younger sisters.
Bonnie and D’vorah were playing house. Bonnie came into the room. She held up a doll that was wrapped in a baby blanket. “This is our baby,” she said. “I’m the mommy.”
She skipped out of the room. I examined the bookshelf and pulled out a book called KidSpeak and started reading.
An hour later, the whole busy atmosphere in the house had transformed into a tranquil quiet. The girls all gathered around their mother as she lit Shabbos candles. The candlelight reflected a sparkle in Rivkah’s mother’s eyes. The older girls took prayer books and started to pray.
Rivkah showed me the Friday night service. I couldn’t read any Hebrew, but I read the English translations.
A while later, Rivkah’s father, Rabbi Jacobson, came home with a family.
To my surprise, the little boy I’d met in the Five and Dime was there with his big sister and their father. “This is Mr. Brown and his children, Henry and Louise Brown,” Rivkah introduced them.
“Hi,” I said. “Nice to meet you.”
Henry glanced towards me but he didn’t seem to remember who I was, so I decided not to say anything. I didn’t want to remind him of those horrible men that tripped him.
A few other guests came after that. There was a young couple with a newborn baby and two girls who were students of Rabbi Jacobson. The couple and the girls seemed to be in the same situation as me. None of them knew what to expect and they didn’t seem to know much about Judaism either.
I helped Rivkah and her sisters serve. Bonnie and D’vorah helped bring things to the table, too. Rivkah’s father, Rabbi Jacobson, blessed each of the children and then he offered a blessing to the guests.
Mr. Brown cleared his throat. “With the rabbi’s permission, I would like to share a d’var Torah. It’s a story with a beautiful message.”
Rabbi Jacobson smiled. “Yes, please, Nat, share it.”
He began. “There was a rabbi who lived in Germany during the 1940s. He would always greet everyone with a friendly hello and a smile. He would greet Jews and non-Jews alike. There was a non-Jewish farmer whom he passed every day, and he would always stop and say, ‘Good morning, Herr Muller.’ The Holocaust began and the rabbi was in the office of the SS awaiting his fate. The voice of the person directing people to the right or to the left – life or death – sounded familiar. When it got up to his turn, he heard himself say, ‘Good morning, Herr Muller.’ The man replied, ‘Good morning, Herr Rabbiner.’ He directed him to the right, to life.
“So, we see how important a simple greeting can be. It can be the difference between life and death.”
Rabbi Jacobson nodded. “Yasher koach!”
He led everyone in lively singing. I didn’t understand the words, but the melodies touched my heart and I clapped along. I loved the melodies. Bonnie climbed into my lap and she clapped her hands in rhythm. Then she and D’vori led Henry to the playroom and all three of them played together, while the adults talked and ate dessert. The children hurried back for pieces of chocolate cake and then promptly rushed back to play.
“The food is all delicious,” I told Rivkah’s mother.
“It’s in honor of the guests,” she said.
I was sad when the evening ended. “Thanks so much,” I said to Rivkah’s parents.
“You are welcome to come again soon,” her mother said.
Rivkah walked me and Bonnie outside and accompanied us part of the way home. “I’m so glad you could come tonight.”
“It was so beautiful,” I said. I gazed up at the starry sky, and for the first time since I’d had to leave my home, I felt peaceful and happy inside.
When we got home, Mr. Bowers was in the living room and the television was blasting. I was about to take Bonnie upstairs when I heard a news reporter say, “Three boys, three civil rights workers, have been missing since June 21. We highly suspect that the KKK is involved. Two of those boys who are missing were from New York and one is from Mississippi.”
The announcer added another chilling fact. Two of the three civil rights workers are Jewish.
My neck muscles tightened. I stood still and watched the screen from the hallway. The camera zoomed in on a group of men in white hoods standing in some sort of formation. The announcer said, “These men may well be responsible for the disappearance of these three young men. Anyone with information, please contact the following number.”
To be continued…
Susie Garber is the author of the newly released historical fiction novel, Flight of the Doves (Menucha Publishers, 2023), Please Be Polite (Menucha Publishers, 2022), A Bridge in Time (Menucha Publishers, 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, and “Moon Song” in Binyan (2021-2022).
