Recap (Journal 1973): Aida tries staying at her aunt’s house, but it’s too crowded, so she goes back home. Vanna appears and asks to come in. She’s all upset. Her aunt caught her giving a note at the prison and she locked her in the basement with no food or drink. She escaped and came to Aida for help.

Recap (1974): A strange envelope with Arabic writing on it arrives at Aliza’s house. Her mother says not to open it and secrets it away. Aliza opens the journal to distract herself from her worry about the strange envelope.

 

“Mommy, what is it?”

Mommy was pale. She called Yeshaya and told him about it.

“It came today. Yes.”

She turned towards me. “Aliza, what time was it delivered?”

“I don’t want to get them involved. Yes, I’ll call my contact. What do you think?”

Ima was on the phone a long time with Yeshaya and then she hung up.

“Ima, what is it? What are you worried about?”

“I’m worried that this package is addressed to my children, and I don’t know who sent it, and it has Arabic writing. I have to make another call now, sweetie.”

She went into her office and closed the door behind her.

I hated not knowing what was going on. Dovid was busy learning and didn’t seem perturbed.

“Dovid, what do you think it is?”

Dovid just shrugged without looking up from his gemara.

A little while later, Yeshaya came to the door. Ima answered and showed him the package.

“You shouldn’t have brought it into the house. What if it has an explosive?”

Ima gasped. “Do you think it does?”

“Probably not. When are the agents coming?”

“What agents?” I asked.

“CSIS – Canadian Security Intelligence Service,” Yeshaya said.

Just then, a car with heavily tinted windows pulled up. Two men in suits alighted from the car.

They each held up their wallets with their IDs, and Yeshaya ushered them into the house.

“I feel like I’m in a spy movie, “ I whispered to Dovid, who was just now looking up to see who came in the door.

Zevi ran into the room and Mommy shooed him upstairs.

Mommy and Yeshaya ushered the agents into the living room.

The taller, huskier one asked to see the suspicious package. He put on rubber gloves and they both examined it with some sort of device.

Mommy and Yeshaya stood a ways back, watching.

“It’s not an explosive,” the tall, thin man with glasses said. “I’m Henry Spector, and this is my partner, Jeff Shorts.”

“Nice to meet you,” Mommy said. Her forehead was creased with worry lines.

The husky man, Henry, photographed the package in all different angels. Then the thin man, Jeff, carefully opened the package without tearing any of the Arabic lettering.

He opened it, and there were two lined sheets of paper inside, rolled up with a string. He untied it and there was Arabic writing.

“What does it say?” Mommy asked.

“Henry knows Arabic. Give him a few minutes.”

Henry read the letter to himself. When he was finished, he glanced towards Jeff. Then he turned to Mommy and Yeshaya.

“It’s from the terrorist group we are tracking in Syria. It is a bunch of threats. Nothing we haven’t heard before.”

“What kind of threats and why was it addressed to my children? I want to know what it says.”

Henry nodded.

Dear Children of Miss Beth:

Tell your mother to stop her adversarial activities. We do not tolerate this sort of thing in our country. We are very strict with our women and children.

Tell her to stop, or we will have to take actions against her children.

The Secret Serpent

There is a seal here from their group.”

Mommy collapsed onto the couch in tears. “I can’t believe this!”

Yeshaya tried to calm her.

Jeff glanced toward us. “How many children are there?”

Mommy pointed at me and Dovid.

“There’s another boy upstairs,” she said.

“Okay, don’t worry. We will send personal guards for each of the children. They should never go out without the guard nearby.”

She thanked them. They took the awful envelope with the awful letter and left.

I didn’t want a guard following me around. I didn’t like this at all.

“Mommy, I don’t want any guard.”

“Aliza, it is necessary for now. It won’t be forever.”

I wanted to be a normal, regular girl – not someone with a guard following her around and a terrorist group targeting her family.

Why did I have to have all this happening to me?…

 

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).