Recap: Ernie comes by to see the silver dollars, and Akiva has to think fast. He says they’re too busy with Pesach prep to go look at them now. Ernie invites Betzalel and Akiva’s cousin to come skate on the lake, as his uncle bought new ice hockey sticks. Akiva wishes he could go, but his broken leg stops that idea. He feels the urgency to somehow find those lost silver dollars.
The next morning, everyone was frantically vacuum-cleaning and finishing last-minute preparations for the Seder. Aunt Margie had set the table with her best Pesach china. The charoses was ready. The lovely scent of apples and cinnamon filled the air. I had measured out the bags of maror. Betzalel had roasted the shank bone.
The house was sparkling. I’d already called my parents to wish them a good Yom Tov. They wished me the best of luck on my bar mitzvah parshah. “Make sure you do it really well and be prepared to read for us when we come,” Ima said.
It wouldn’t be the same. Why was this happening! “Reading after my bar mitzvah isn’t the same,” I complained. It wasn’t the same at all!
Ima wished me a Good Shabbos and Yom Tov, and we hung up.
Betzalel stepped in the room. “I wish you could play ice hockey with us. That lake is so keen. Ernie showed me his coin collection. It’s really something. He has all the silver dollars his uncle gifted him since he was one year old.”
“Let’s not rub it in. I get it that Ernie is so responsible and I’m––”
“Hey, don’t be so sensitive, Akiva. I didn’t mean anything at all. I was just telling you.”
I sighed. “I guess I’m just nervous about the bar mitzvah and I really wish Aba and Ima were here.”
Betzalel patted my shoulder. “I’m taking Estee back to the lake. We’ll be back in an hour or so.”
“Have fun,” I said wishing I could go play ice hockey with them.
At 3:00 p.m. I went downstairs to look for a snack. Aunt Margie was stirring the chicken soup.
“There’s not much for you to eat now. Would you like some fruit?”
I took an apple upstairs and went back to practicing.
At 4:30, Betzalel and Estee swept into the house. I could hear their excited chatter from upstairs.
“That was so fun!” Estee said.
“You two better go shower and tell Akiva to shower,” Aunt Margie said. “Oh-no!”
“What’s wrong?” I heard Betzalel ask my aunt.
“I forgot about the matzos. I left them to cool last night after they were baked. They’re still in the shul. I was going to pick them up this morning, “ she said.
“Do you want me to go get them?” Betzalel asked.
“No, you go get showered and ready for Yom Tov. I’ll run over to the shul. Estee, you put on that pretty pink dress that Zeidy bought you.”
My foot was starting to throb. I hobbled down the stairs to get some aspirin.
The soup was on high. I adjusted the burner. Estee and Betzalel were upstairs.
Showering for me was a bit of an ordeal so I was postponing it as long as possible.
I hobbled over to the window to look outside. The evergreens in the front yard were caked with snow like white frosting. I noticed one of those hearty murres that Aunt Margie had pointed out. They stick it out during the Alaskan winter when most birds leave. Zeidy told us all about murres. The murre lives offshore but somehow it made it to my Zeidy’s backyard.
I passed the grandfather clock in the living room, which had just gonged the hour. It was five p.m. Estee came downstairs. She went into the living room to play the piano.
Just then, I heard a loud scratching noise by the front door. “Scratch scritch! Woof-Woof!”
I peered out the window over the door and I couldn’t believe what I saw. Star was sitting there, his tail thumping.
“Betzalel, come see who’s here.” I yelled over the loud barking and Estee’s piano playing.
I opened the door and Star galloped into the house and rubbed against me affectionately.
I patted his head. “Hey, old boy. How did you get here? Where’s Joe?”
Betzalel rushed into the room. “How’d that dog get here?”
Estee left the piano and ran into the living room. She saw the giant husky and backed away.
“Help, it’s a wolf.”
“No, this is not a wolf. He’s a good dog.”
“You better call Joe,” Betzalel said.
I called Zeidy to get the number, but he didn’t answer.
I told Star to sit and I limped up the stairs to take a shower. Star trotted right behind me.
“You’re not coming in the shower with me, Boy.” I closed the door to the bathroom. I could hear Star scratching at the door.
It was amazing that this dog had followed his nose all the way to me. He must be attached to me, I mused.
Keeping the cast from getting wet was a huge challenge. I had to keep a plastic bag over it.
I finished dressing and opened my bedroom door. Star rushed into the room. I patted him and he licked my cheek.
I headed back downstairs. Estee was still playing the piano and Betzalel was outside shoveling the walk. I opened the door and hobbled outside to watch Betzalel.
Star followed me outside. I was watching Betzalel pile snow neatly on the sides of the front walk. All of a sudden, Star started growling.
“Hey, easy boy,” I said.
“Did you reach Joe?” Betzalel called.
“I don’t have the number. Zeidy wasn’t home.”
“Try Zeidy again. The dog must want to go home.”
Star began pacing back and forth barking and whining.
“He’s messing my work up. Get him out of here, please.”
“Come on Star. Let’s go inside.”
He started barking and digging at the ground and then pacing fast back and forth and back and forth on the front walk.
What was with Star? He was acting so strangely.
“Come on, Boy. You’re messing up the shoveling.” I kept coaxing him to follow me inside.
“Maybe get some food or something to get him to go back inside,” Betzalel said.
I limped inside on my crutches and looked around the kitchen. I hoped my aunt wouldn’t mind. I took a spoon and took out a piece of chicken.
It was hot. I stuck it in a napkin and hobbled back outside.
I put the chicken near Star’s nose, and he followed me into the house.
Once inside. I closed the glass door behind us. He gobbled the chicken but then he started scratching at the door and pacing and barking.
“You miss your master,” I said.
Star barked and barked and pawed at the ground.
“What is it, Boy? What’s wrong?”
The grandfather clock gonged 5:30. Star began pacing more quickly, and he was whining and growling. He scratched at the door, barking frantically, and then pawed at the floor.
All of a sudden, the house started moving. It was like I was on a boat tossed at sea.
I grabbed at the nearest wall. There was a low rumble that grew louder and louder.
“Help! The dishes are sliding out of the cupboards.” Estee yelled from the kitchen.
I was close to the door but I couldn’t move to get out of the house. “Betzalel!” I screamed. “Help! The house is moving!”
“Duck under the table!” Betzalel yelled from outside. “It’s an earthquake!”
Star was barking and barking.”
An Earthquake! My stomach tied into 50 knots. My heart was pounding. Were we all going to die?
“The whole cabinet fell” Estee screamed from the kitchen.
I wanted to run out of the house to Betzalel, but the house was shaking so much. Bookshelves tumbled to the ground.
Somehow holding onto the howling Star, I made it a few steps closer to the glass door. Outside, right near Betzalel, there was a huge fissure that was widening right in front of the spot where he was standing.
“Betzalel, be careful. The ground is opening!” I yelled to him over the loud rumbling noises.
The dining room table was still standing. I crawled towards it and huddled underneath. Estee tried to come towards me from the kitchen. There was a huge crack in the floor that was growing wider. She froze and pointed.
“Just jump over it,” I said. “Don’t fall in.”
“I can’t!” she was crying hysterically. “The house is falling down!”
“Estee, listen to me. Get down and crawl towards me.”
“I’m too scared!”
“Come on. Get down on your hands and knees. You have to get out of the kitchen.”
“I know,” she yelled. “But I can’t. I’m too scared.”
Please, Hashem, help Estee. I couldn’t get to her. There were too many cracks that were widening in the floor and so many things tumbling down. My crutches had flown across the room. I was stuck.
I closed my eyes and said T’hilim.
When I opened my eyes, I saw Estee was down on the floor inching towards me.
The floor creaked and opened wider.
“You can do it!” I yelled. “Quick, before the floor widens too much.”
Somehow, she managed to scurry over the huge crack towards me.
We were both shaking. “Akiva, I’m scared!”
I was petrified, but I was the big almost-13-year-old cousin. I had to be the strong one. “Quakes don’t last forever. It’ll stop.” I wanted to believe it would.
“I wish Ima was here, ” Estee cried.
I wished her mother was here, too. Was Auntie Margie all right? There was no way to know. If only she hadn’t gone to shul to get more matzos.
Betzalel yelled from outside. “Stay under the table! Akiva, Estee, stay there. Don’t move.”
“Come in with us,” I called.
“I can’t. There’s like this huge gap. The whole ground is opening in front of me.”
Oh, no. Hashem, please save Betzalel.
Just then, there was a loud, creaking noise. Was the house collapsing? The rumbling noises mixed with screaming sirens. I felt like I was in a very bad dream, only it was real.
Star was growling and crying. He was a few feet away from me and I wanted to pull him close, but I literally couldn’t move. Everything was moving instead.
There was a loud thud, as the grandfather clock crashed to the floor with a gonging that went on and on.
“When will it stop?” There was a loud roaring sound and all the dishes tumbled off the table and crashed onto the floor.
Star barked and whined. “All the Pesach dishes are broken!” Estee cried.
I heard a loud, crackling noise. One of the lamps in the kitchen sparked and then I saw a flame shoot up to the ceiling.
The house was on fire!
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).
