Recap: Zevi and Jordie are hiding in a room in Buckingham Palace because they were being followed. They open up Nana’s journal. The last thing they read in the journal was that Akiva and Estee were trapped in the house during the earthquake and it caught on fire.
“Estee, we have to get out of here.” The flames crackled and shot to the ceiling.
Star growled and pawed at the floor.
I tried to think of what to do. With only one working leg, it was hard to move, and the floor was full of huge fissures.
“Come on. Follow me,” I said.
Big billows of smoke enveloped the room. We were both coughing. We couldn’t see where we were going.
Hashem, please help us. How would we get out? I couldn’t see where the door was and moving was so hard with my bum ankle.
Sweat broke out on my forehead. My eyes were tearing.
I was crawling forward with Estee right behind. We bumped right into a wall of smoke.
“I can’t breathe,” Estee choked.
I was coughing like crazy.
I said Sh’ma. I didn’t think we were going to make it out.
Just then, Star rubbed against me. His mouth was on my shirt and he was pulling me.
“Estee, grab onto Star’s tail.”
Star kept moving through the smoke, pulling me along, with Estee holding onto his tail.
We inched along. Star kept going. It felt like this trip to the front door would never end.
Finally, it was a miracle: We were at the front door. Star growled and pawed at the door. We were enveloped in a cloud of smoke. My clothing was sticking to me. I was so hot. I reached out and found the doorknob. Star pulled us outside into the fresh Alaskan air.
Betzalel rushed over. Estee and I were coughing. Star stood near us.
“You okay?” Betzalel asked.
A fire engine was there. Firemen were uncoiling hoses and heading towards the house.
Aune Margie and Zeidy pulled up in a jeep. Aunt Margie jumped out and rushed over to us. She ran and enveloped Estee in a hug. “Akiva, are you okay? How did you get out of there?”
I took a breath. My voice was hoarse from the smoke. “Baruch Hashem. It was such hashgachah pratis that Star was here. It was Star. He saved us. I couldn’t see to get out the door.”
Zeidy hugged me and Betzalel. “So sorry this happened, boys. I heard on the news that this is the biggest earthquake to hit our country in American history. It was 9.2 on the Richter scale.”
“We were in that kind of an earthquake?” my voice squeaked.
A fireman came over to check Estee and me. He handed me a cup of water.
“I’ve been trying to reach your parents, Akiva, but there’s no power or phone service. When I can, we’ll try to send a telegram. They must be so worried,” Zeidy said.
I’d never seen Zeidy look concerned or worried. This was the first time ever he wasn’t smiling broadly.
“What about the Sedarim?” Betzalel asked.
“My bar mitzvah!”
Zeidy nodded. “Well, my house is standing so we’ll do the Sedarim there best we can by candlelight, with cold food and no heat. As far as your bar mitzvah, Akiva, you’re a man now. You know, sometimes life doesn’t turn out the way we thought it would, but we do know everything Hashem does is for the best, even if we can’t see it or understand it at the time.”
I tried to accept that, but it was still so painful. I’d practiced and I’d looked forward to my bar mitzvah. I wanted my parents to be here. It just wasn’t right!
“Now, they’re expecting aftershocks, and the power won’t get back on anytime soon, so as soon as I can get through, I’m booking flights for Chol HaMoed for us to all go to Seattle. You’ll celebrate your bar mitzvah there, son.”
I wouldn’t be able to read the parshah during Chol Hamoed. This was not a good conciliation at all! I wanted to lein my bar mitzvah parshah. I’m not going to read anything on Chol HaMoed. No way!
Star stayed right near me. The firemen brought him water and said he was a hero dog.
“How’d Joe’s dog end up here?” One of the firemen asked.
I told him how we found him by the door the other day. “I think he followed me here,” I said.
The fireman patted Star’s head. “You’re some dog.”
Another fireman came over to us. “We’ve got the flames under control, but we had to break some windows. This place is not going to be habitable for a while. Do you have another place to go?”
Aunt Margie told him she did. She had tears in her eyes.
“I’m sorry about your house, Aunt Margie.”
“I’m just so grateful that you and Estee and Betzalel are okay. That was the strongest earthquake I’ve ever experienced. We get tremors and quakes here, but never anything like this!”
I kept breathing the air and thanked Hashem for being able to breathe with no smoke, and I thanked Him for saving us.
“Come get in the jeep.” Zeidy and Betzalel acted as my crutches and helped me to hobble to the jeep.
I told Zeidy that my crutches had flown out of my hands when the earthquake struck.
“It was really something!” he said.
Zeidy thanked the firemen for their heroic work.
“There are so many fires now, sir. It’s beyond belief. G-d is helping us.”
“That’s for sure,” Zeidy replied. “What about the dog?” Zeidy pointed to Star.
“We’ll keep Star here and then we’ll bring him back to the ranger station. Then when we can we’ll take him back to his owner,” one of the fireman said.
I felt a lump in my throat. It was hard to say goodbye to Star. I leaned over and whispered in his ear.
“Thanks, Star. You’re the best.” I rubbed him behind the ears and then I slid into the back set dragging my bum ankle behind me.
As we drove away, I kept my eye on Star who was sitting there watching us leave.
As we drove back to Zeidy’s house, it was incredible to see the destruction from the earthquake. Power lines were down everywhere. Cars were overturned. Pavements stood straight up, houses were crushed or severely damaged. The roads were filled with pieces of metal and wood from the damaged homes and buildings and cars. Sirens blared and we still felt the aftershock tremor even during that short ride to Zeidy’s house.
When we got there, we were met by Mr. Greenspan. “You have my nephew with you?” He asked.
Zeidy opened the car door and stepped out. “No.” Zeidy turned to us. “Boys, did you see Mr. Greenspan’s nephew?”
We both shook our heads, and I had a terrible sinking feeling in my stomach. Ernest was missing?
Mr. Greenspan looked frantic. “You sure? He was heading to your place to ask you boys to go to Minchah with him.”
Aunt Margie put her arm tighter around Estee. “What time was that?”
We all stepped out of the car. I leaned against Betzalel and limped out.
Mr. Greenspan’s forehead creased. “Say around 5:20 or so. He wanted to go with you.” He glanced at me and Betzalel.
I felt terrible. He’d been trying so hard to be friends and I kept repelling him, and now what? Where was he? Was he still alive?
“The earthquake hit at around 5:30. That’s what all the news reports are saying. He must have had to take shelter before he reached my house,” Aunt Margie said.
“Where could he be?” Mr. Greenspan’s voice rose. “If anything happened to my nephew, I’d never forgive myself. You know he just lost his mother, my sister, a month ago and his father couldn’t handle a boy home with his business and all, so that’s why I agreed for him to come live with me. Now what?” Mr. Greenspan’s voice was hoarse and his eyes were red.
“Hashem is good. We’re going to find him,” Aunt Margie said.
“Let’s drive back along the route you think he would have walked to our house.”
Just then, there was another aftershock. The ground trembled and Estee screamed.
I clung to Betzalel’s arm.
Zeidy took charge. “You all go into the house. Beryl and I will drive back and look for him and we’ll alert the fire department.”
We went into Zeidy’s house. It was cold and there were no lights. “It’s almost Yom Tov,” Aunt Margie said.
She put us all to work getting things ready. She lit a fire in the fireplace to warm things up. All I could think of was Ernest out in that trembling world with night coming. Was he all right? I davened a special prayer and promised that if he was all right, I would be his friend. I’d done such a terrible thing being so mean to him when he was just looking for friends and I hadn’t known about his mother. He was like an orphan. I should have been warm and caring, not cold and distant.
Zeidy’s Pesach dishes had miraculously escaped damage. Everyone bustled around, getting ready. I couldn’t do anything that required walking around, but Aunt Margie put me to work checking the maror.
No one said much. We were all thinking about Ernest and praying he was okay.
When the sun was starting to set, Aunt Margie lit candles. Zeidy and Mr. Greenspan hadn’t returned.
Please Hashem, let Ernest be okay!
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).
