Recap: As instructed by Mr. Bowers, Hope goes to the beauty shop to get a haircut so that the KKK people trying to find her won’t recognize her. She goes to the Jacobsons and asks about getting a Hebrew name. She likes the name Tikvah, which means hope.
When I got home, Mrs. Bowers stared at me. “You cut your hair? Why did you?”
I shrugged.
“Well, you were gone so long – and Bonnie was bothering me. She needs to go out. You need to remember your responsibility here. Going to a beauty salon when I need help. So self-centered you are!”
I wanted to scream, “I’m not self-centered, you are,” but I held my tongue.
I was allowed to get my hair cut. I didn’t even want to get it cut. I had no choice.
She turned her attention back to the blaring TV. “Take her out now,” she called to me.
As I stepped towards the playroom, a news flash caught my attention. The newscaster announced, “They believe now that the missing civil rights workers were kidnapped by the KKK. We still don’t know if they are alive. Hope is running out. The FBI is in Mississippi investigating. And there is speculation about the sudden departure and liquidation of Henner Real Estate in South Carolina. Was Henner threatened?”
I gasped.
Mrs. Bowers called to me. “Isn’t that your father’s company?”
“I’m not sure,” I lied. I didn’t want to say anything my parents didn’t want me to reveal. It was a matter of life and death, Mommy had told me.
I stood in the doorway not wanting to hear more but unable to tear myself away.
“The speculation is growing, since the prosperous business was just abandoned so hurriedly. In Cuba…” The voice of the newscaster droned on about some other news.
I felt my stomach clench. The kidnappers of those three civil rights workers were looking for my family. They were looking for me. What should I do? I needed to ask my father, but I had no way of calling him. I would write a letter. He had to know there was danger here. He had to rescue me.
There was a knock on the door. “Get the door, Hope.”
I strode towards the door, moving on automatic. Rivkah was there with D’vori, along with Louise and Henry.
“Can you bring Bonnie and come to the park now?” Rivkah asked.
Mrs. Bowers stepped into the foyer. “Who is that?”
“I’m Rivkah Jacobson. This is my little sister D’vori and these are our friends Henry and Louise Brown.”
She pulled me aside before I got to the door. “Wait there a minute, please,” she said. She closed the door and turned towards me. “I don’t want those black people coming here. Do you understand me?” she hissed.
I nodded. How cruel! Louise and Henry were my friends. Why was she judging them by their skin color?
“May I take Bonnie to the park now?”
Mrs. Bowers strode back in front of the television and opened a bottle of red nail polish. She began polishing her nails. “Take her but don’t let those two blacks come back here.”
Bonnie skipped out the door. Rivkah smiled at me and took my hand, as we all headed together to the park.
I glanced toward Henry and Louise. I hoped they hadn’t heard Mrs. Bowers’ prejudiced remarks.
“I love your new hairdo,” Rivka said. “I think I might want to get my hair cut like yours. It’s so becoming.”
“Thanks. I never had my hair this short. I have a new name, too.”
“Yes, my parents told me. I think it’s a beautiful name, Tikvah. May I call you it from now on.”
“Yes!”
We spent a long time at the park. Henry played with Bonnie and D’vori and Louise joined us on a bench. Soon we were the only ones still there. The sun was starting to set.
Just then a car pulled up near the playground. I glimpsed something that made me shake. The car was a white Cadillac. I glanced at the license plate and my blood ran cold. Now I knew what that expression meant. I felt frozen in total terror. That was my family’s car.
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).
