Recap: Zeidy surprises Akiva and Betzalel with a special tour in Denali National Park. A man named Joe takes them on a dogsled. Teddy comes with them. They were riding through the park when it started snowing harder and harder. One of the harnesses broke and Joe had to leave them so he could go get a new one. Akiva is scared of being left alone in this white wilderness.
It was getting late, and I was thinking of going to bed when I heard a dripping noise in the bathroom. I ran over and discovered that the showerhead was dripping steadily. I tried turning the knobs but they were fully in the off position.
Jordie came in and noticed the problem. “Do you have a wrench?” he asked.
I got one from my father’s toolchest. I watched as he somehow figured out how to stop the dripping showerhead.
“How did you know how to do that?”
“Oh, I’ve learned lots of stuff like that.”
He seemed to know how to do so many things and he acted like it was nothing.
My eyes were closing. “I’m going to bed now,” I said.
“Me, too. I’ll turn out the lights,” Jordie said.
“You can leave some lights on. It’s okay,” I said.
Ima usually left the outside light on.
“I’ll close them all,” he said.
I headed upstairs. The house felt very dark with all the lights off. I wanted him to leave some on, but I didn’t want him to know that I was scared of the dark.
We were almost in bed when I remembered that I hadn’t davened Maariv. It was too late to find a minyan now, and I wasn’t sure I would want to go outside this late anyway. “Uh, I have to daven Maariv,” I said.
“What’s that?”
“The evening prayer.”
“Can you show me what it is?”
I handed him a siddur with English.
I wasn’t sure why it was annoying to me, but I did feel annoyed. He kept asking which prayers to say, and it took much longer for me to daven.
When we were in bed and the lights were out, I reached over and turned on my nightlight.
“Can you turn it off?” he asked.
“I want it on,” I said.
Jordie didn’t say anything, but I could guess he thought I was a “scaredy cat” or something.
I’ve always slept with a small night light. I just like it that way.
That night, the house sounds kept me up. I heard creaking and squeaking and I was sure someone was downstairs.
Jordie was breathing evenly. He was already asleep.
I tossed and turned and finally sat up in bed and reached for my T’hilim. I didn’t want to be up all night scared. I kept thinking of that speeding black car before, and the heavy breathing on the phone. My imagination was jumping all over. Should I go downstairs and call Rafi?
I glanced at the clock on my dresser. It said 12 o’clock. He was probably sound asleep. If I was alone in my room, I would have run my trains and built some track to distract myself, but I couldn’t do that now.
I finally got up, grabbed my flashlight that I keep by my bed, and tiptoed towards the door. Maybe if I went downstairs and got a drink of water, I’d be able to fall asleep.
I headed downstairs to the kitchen, using my flashlight to light up the room. The house felt spooky at night. I heard a loud scratching noise by the back door.
I was about to turn around and run back upstairs when I bumped right into Jordie.
“Ah!” I screamed. “Sorry, I didn’t expect to see you.”
“That sounds like a cat. Let’s go see,” Jordie said.
Before I could stop him, he had opened the back door and let a mangy looking cat in.
I wasn’t a big animal lover, and my parents would not want this cat in the house, but it did look so pitiful and Jordie seemed to know what to do.
“Hey, kitty. You must be hungry.” Jordie turned to me. “Do you have any fish or chicken in the fridge?”
I pulled out some left-over chicken from supper. Jordie broke it into tiny pieces and fed it to the cat.
The cat purred.
“Do you mind if we keep the cat in the kitchen tonight? We could look for the owner tomorrow.”
I shrugged. It seemed like Jordie knew how to fix things. He was so confident. I just wished I was as confident as Jordie and not afraid of anything.
Jordie made a little bed with rolled-up newspapers in the corner of the kitchen for the cat. Then he closed both doors to the kitchen and we headed upstairs.
I took a cup of water upstairs with me and then I lay back down and must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, sunlight was streaming through the window and my alarm was blaring.
Jordie was already out of bed and dressed. “Do we have to go to shul?”
I glanced at the clock and leaped out of bed. “Yes, and I don’t want to be late. Sorry. I’ll get dressed fast.”
I had to go to shul and then be at my lifeguarding aid job by 8:30.
As we crossed the street towards shul, a lady wearing a heavy black burka approached me.
Only her eyes showed through the heavy headpiece. She asked in a soft voice, “Excuse me, sir. I misplaced my phone and I need to call my daughter. Do you have a phone I could use for a minute?”
We were almost late for shul, but she had said just a minute. I didn’t want to speak with a stranger. I wasn’t sure what to do. Then I thought maybe I could make a kiddush Hashem. “Okay.” I handed her the phone that my parents left with us while they were away. While she was calling, I took out my siddur and started to say Brachos.
She thanked me and handed it back.
In shul, Jordie needed help again with which prayers to say. “Look, I got up too late for the early minyan, so I have to go straight to work,” I told him when we were finished davening. “You can go back to the house and have breakfast.”
“Nah, I’ll come with you.”
I didn’t want him to come with me, but I didn’t know how to say that without sounding mean. I just didn’t want to have to help him with the t’filos. It made it so hard for me to concentrate on my own. Truthfully, I just found it annoying to have to keep stopping to help him.
We strode down the block to the pool where I had the job helping the lifeguard. Mark, the head lifeguard, asked Jordie who he was.
“You can stay with Zevi but don’t go to any of the bunks.”
They were very strict here about security, and I guessed he didn’t really know who Jordie was so he was being careful.
“Yes, sir.” Jordie looked annoyed at being treated that way but he didn’t say anything.
He followed me to the locker room. “I have my lifesaving certificate,” he said.
It figured he had something like that. He seemed to be good at so many things.
“Usually, there are just a few older men who swim here in the morning before day camp starts. It’s never crowded,” I said. I explained that the local shul had worked out a deal with the camp for male members to use the pool in the early morning.
I climbed up onto the lifeguard seat next to Mark. Jordie sat on a chair next to us.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a young father with two toddlers. They were running along the side of the pool. Mark blew his whistle. “No running,” he yelled.
There was an elderly man named Mr. Forbes floating on his back in the deep end. I glanced at him.
Mark turned to me for a second. “Keep an eye on Mr. Forbes,” he said, pointing towards him. He’s not been well lately.”
Suddenly, Jordie dove into the pool.
“Hey!”
In seconds, he pulled one of the toddlers out of the deep end and set him gently on the side of the pool. The other toddler was crying, and the father was beside himself. “Dovie, are you okay?”
I felt like my heart was in my throat. My whole body was shaking. That little boy had almost drowned!
The little boy was coughing and sputtering.
The father hugged his son tightly.
“I can’t thank you enough,” he said to Jordie.
The father took the two boys’ hands and marched them away from the pool.
I was too shocked to speak. Mark or I should have been the one to save that boy. Jordie had jumped in even before either of us knew he was drowning.
I felt embarrassed and upset at myself. Mark thanked Jordie. He apologized to me. “I shouldn’t have turned away even for a second. My mistake!”
Baruch Hashem that Jordie came today.
“That was a close call,” Jordie said.
“Yeh,” I mumbled.
“Uh, I think I’ll head back to the house,” Jordie said. “I have to change into some dry clothes.”
I handed him the key.
He could tell that I wasn’t happy with him. It wasn’t that I didn’t like him. It was just that I felt so inadequate compared to him. I felt like such a low person. What was with me. Jordie was a hero. Why couldn’t I like him and treat him more nicely? It was just that he was so good at so many things. Was I jealous of him?
When I came home later, I found Jordie sitting on the couch looking at Nana’s book. I’d had some time to think and decided I better try to be nicer to him.
“Thanks for what you did before.”
“It’s okay. I’m glad that little boy is all right. He reminds me of my little brother.”
“You have a little brother?”
Jordie looked away and didn’t answer.
I forgot. I wasn’t supposed to ask him about his family. It was so strange.
I changed the subject. “Did you read ahead in Nana’s notes?” I asked.
“I read a little, but I was waiting for you.”
“Did they find Teddy? Was Akiva safe from wolves, and did his brother come back to him?
I sat beside him and turned the page.
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).
