Recap: Daniel’s father is being held in the library with Jewish students by Palestinian protestors. The police were called and negotiations are going on.
There was a long silence. The protestors stood there silently. I saw Ahmed with his red keffiyeh flying, standing in conversation with someone in the background.
The police were all huddled together.
“Why is it taking so long?” I whispered to Yisroel Meir.
“Keep davening,” he said.
I said my own desperate prayers. “Hashem, I don’t have a mother. Please don’t take away my father.”
I wondered how Dad was. He must be worried. He would worry about me, not himself. I wiped away a tear and stared at the screen.
One of the officers broke away from the huddle and approached Ahmed. He held his cell phone toward him.
“The president of the University is on the phone,” the officer said.
Ahmed grabbed the cell phone and held it to his ear.
“We want complete boycott of all Israeli products. Everything!”
“No, we want it in writing. Promises mean nothing.” He spat on the ground.
“Yes, come now with a lawyer and a contract.”
“They’re doing it,” I whispered.
“Let’s wait and see,” Yisroel Meir said.
The police stood around talking, and the protestors also stood around, huddled in a group.
A car pulled up, and a man wearing a suit slid out of the car. Another man followed him.
“They must be the president and his lawyer,” I whispered.
The second man opened an attaché case. “Here is a brief contract we drew up.” He showed it to Ahmed.
Then he handed him a pen.
Ahmed started to sign.
“No, stop!” A man stepped forward. The voice was the same as that of the man who had been in the shadows.
I gasped.
“Yisroel Meir, look.” I pointed.
Tasir stood between the lawyer and Ahmed.
“This isn’t good enough. I want to know that it will go into effect immediately. You have to prove that. We don’t want those Zionist oppressors to do business with anyone here!”
I clenched my fist. “What a faker. He acted nice to us when he needed our help, and now we see his true colors.”
Rabbi Diamond shook his head. “So sorry to see this deception. He is so misguided.”
The lawyer’s face reddened. “I drew up this contract for you. I was forced out of bed in the middle of the night. You have no right—”
“We keep them hostage!” Tasir said.
So, he was the one giving orders. And we helped him. I shuddered, thinking of how we’d brought him to Rabbi Diamond’s house and believed he was someone we could trust.
“My father is going to get killed.” Tears exploded, streaming down my cheek.
Rabbi Diamond put his arm on my shoulder. “No, Daniel. Don’t despair. Hashem is with us. Hashem can bring a y’shuah in the blink of an eye.”
Just then, there was a pounding sound that grew louder. A stampede of horses galloped over to the library. The National Guard had arrived with rifles.
They pointed them at the protestors.
“Let us through,” the head officer screamed, “or we fire at you. Now!”
To be continued…
Susie Garber is the author of a newly released historical fiction novel, Captured (Menucha Publishers, 2025), as well as historical fiction novels Please Be Patient (Menucha, 2024), Flight of the Doves (Menucha, 2023), Please Be Polite (Menucha, 2022), A Bridge in Time (Menucha, 2021), Secrets in Disguise (Menucha, 2020), Denver Dreams, a novel (Jerusalem Publications, 2009), Memorable Characters…Magnificent Stories (Scholastic, 2002), Befriend (Menucha, 2013), The Road Less Traveled (Feldheim, 2015), fiction serials, and features in Binah Magazine and Binyan Magazine, and “Moon Song” in Binyan (2021–2022) and Alaskan Gold (2023–2024).
