Recap: Rikki is knocked over on the skating rink during the skatathon and has to be taken to the emergency room.
A siren blared. Everyone in the rink was staring at Rikki. Two men came and guided her onto a stretcher. “Ouch! My leg is killing me,” Rikki said.
Her father strolled beside her on one side of the stretcher and I was walking beside her on the other side, still squeezing her hand.
“Can Evie come?’ she asked her father.
He nodded. He looked worried.
I sat beside her in the ambulance and kept talking to distract her.
Her father spoke with the drivers.
“We’re going to the nearest ER,” the driver said.
“One minute. Please wait. I need to make an important call about where to go.” Her father made a call to his rav and then he said, “No, take us to Sinai General.”
“That’s a longer trip,” the driver said. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” he said. Our rav must have told him where we should go.
“Aba, can you call Ima and tell her what happened?”
“I’ll try to reach her,” he said. “It’s a big time difference.”
When we arrived at the hospital the driver gently lowered the stretcher and then they wheeled her into the entrance of the ER.
I was right beside her and her father was behind. We had to wait a long time for x-rays. We played geography. I always loved that game. I was stumped with a “K.” We’d already done Kansas, Kentucky, Kalamazoo, and Korea.
Rikki offered to help me with an unusual “K” place.
“No way. I can do it.“
Just then, a nurse appeared, and they whisked her off for x-rays.
A while later, a doctor came out to speak to us. I was still stuck on the letter “K.”
“You have a hip fracture. There’s a clear break on the left hip. You need immediate emergency surgery.”
“Surgery?” Rikki and I looked at each other.
“Maybe it could just heal on its own,” she asked, hopefully.
“I’ll get you a free second opinion.”
A doctor who did emergency trauma surgery for a sports team, Dr. McKenan, strode into the room. He studied the x-ray. “Definite fracture. You need surgery.”
“What if we opt out?” her father asked.
The doctor stared at him. “High mortality rate with a hip fracture.”
“Okay, okay,” he said.
“Your daughter will be admitted, and I’ll perform the surgery tomorrow morning.”
“Evie, I’m scared.”
I squeezed her hand.
“Hey, I don’t blame you, but it’ll be over before you know it.”
“Please daven for me,” she said.
“If only Ima was here. I’d feel much better if she was here!” she said.
Just then, there was a knock and Sarit strode into the room.
“How kind of you to come,” Rabbi Berson said.
“Of course. How are you feeling?”
“Not so good. Rikki said,” I faint at the sight of blood. I hate shots and needles. I don’t know how I’m going to go through with this!”
“That kid should pay for what he did,” Sarit said.
“That’s not our way.” Rabbi Berson shook his head.
“I have to go daven Minchah now,” Rabbi Berson said. “I’ll be back. There’s a shul nearby. You’re in good hands with Evie and Sarit.”
Rikki looked like she didn’t want her father to leave but she knew he had to go to daven.
I tried to distract her by starting up the geography game again. “Karakoram Mountain Range in Pakistan,” I said.
“No fair,” Rikki said. “Who ever heard of that?”
“Your father goes to daven three times a day?” Sarit asked.
“Yeh. You want to play?” I asked her.
She nodded. “Uh may I borrow your phone? I need to make a call in a few minutes. I left mine at home.”
I handed Sarit my phone.
I started the game. “Israel,” I said.
“Lebanon,” Sarit said.
“New York,” Rikki said and winced in pain.
Just then, a nurse came and said she was wheeling Rikki to her room as she was admitted.
Sarit and I followed behind her.
“Any news of your dog?” Sarit asked me as we walked along the long hospital corridor.
A wave a sadness swept over me. I thought of sweet Junie. “I miss that little dog,” I said.
When we reached the room, the nurse told us to wait a bit outside of the room.
“Is Rikki’s mother coming? When do you think she’ll come?
“Her father said she should be on an El Al Flight landing in Kennedy Airport tonight,” I said.
Just then, the nurse came out and said we could come into the room.
Sarit started walking away. “I have to go now. I’ll be back later.”
I thought she wanted to stay and visit. I shrugged.
Rikki was sitting up. “I hate being here,” she said. “Please pray for me to get all better.”
“Of course,” I said.
“Where’s Sarit?”
“She left.”
“It was kind of her to come,” Rikki said.
Just then Rabbi Berson returned and was talking with the nurse.
I decided to leave and give them some privacy.
I strolled back towards Aunt Ruthie’s house. The light outside had a strange yellowish greenish tinge.
I reached Aunt Ruthie’s house and Maggie opened the door. “I’m so glad you’re back. There’s something important I have to show you.”
“What is it?”
Maggie’s eyes were wide. “Look at this picture on the front page of the paper.”
I gasped.
There was a photograph of a girl who looked like…who really looked like Sarit. A caption said, “Wanted daughter of terrorist in terrorist plot! Looking to retrieve high level Mossad agent’s information.”
Sarit’s name was listed as Shekera Abdullah.
Shekera. Why did that sound familiar.
I closed my eyes and thought. “Oh wow. That was the name on the ID she dropped when we were doing dishes. I recalled Shekera A.”
A terrible thought hit me like a severe punch.
“Maggie, I gave Sarit, I mean Shekera, the information about Rikki’s mother’s flight.”
Maggie gasped. “You better call those FBI agents right now.”
I swallowed. I reached into my pocket for my phone. It wasn’t in my pocket. My heart pounded. My heart sank. “I lent my phone to Sarit in the hospital. She didn’t give it back.”
“Maggie, we have to call the police. Do you have a phone? Where’s my aunt?”
“She went to the shoe store with Emmie.”
Just then there was an explosion of thunder. Rain hammered against the windows.
Maggie handed me her phone.
My hand shook as I tried punching the number I’d memorized from Herb. Nothing happened. My hand was shaking so badly. I tried it again. “Maggie, it’s not working.”
“Oh, no, I think my phone is dead. I have to charge it.”
“Hurry we’re running out of time.”
Maggie plugged it in to charge.
I stood over it waiting for it to say one percent.
Just then, there was an explosion of the thunder. The lights flickered.
Then the room went dark.
“The lights are out!” I yelled. The storm had tripped the electricity.
Now what? “I have to get to the police station,” I said.
I opened the front door. The wind whipped through the trees and rain blew in sharp sheets. It was impossible to step outside in this storm. With a terrible sinking feeling I realized that there was no way I could safely walk outside in this.
“You can’t go out in this,” Maggie said.
I stared out the window in disbelief. It felt like we were marooned out in the middle of the ocean.
I thought of what Rikki or Rabbi Berson would do and then I started talking to Hashem. Please help us. We have to save Rikki’s mother from that vicious terrorist. I recalled his holding a gun to my back. He would not worry about killing to get what he wanted.
“I’m sure the planes can’t land in this,” Maggie said. “That should give us some time.”
“Listen,” I said.
Scritch. Scratch!
“What’s that?” I asked.
We both followed the sound to the back door.
It was louder.
Scritch scratch. There was a loud piercing animal shriek.
I peeked out the window at the top of the door.
“Maggie, look!” I yelled.
To be continued…
Susie Garber is the author of 11 popular Jewish books, including her newly released historical fiction novel The Blizzard (Menucha 2026) and recently published novel Captured (Menucha 2025). She is also the current news editor of Binyan Magazine.