Recap: Libby goes to speak to someone to help her get over her fear of flying. Marnie is speaking to her mother again, and Libby dreads when the girls will go back to their family.
“My mother wants to speak to you, Tante,” Marnie said.
I took the phone from her.
“How are you?” I asked. “Yes, baruch Hashem, the girls are doing well. My grandmother is here, and they love visiting with her. Of course, my husband will be sure they stay right with him in Manhattan. Thank you. Yes, you, too. K’sivah v’chasimah tovah.”
As I hung up, I felt a wave of dizziness. It was so hard to reconcile with the fact that one day the girls were going back to their mother.
“You okay, Tante?” Marnie asked when I had reappeared. “I’m fine. Thank you.”
I’d felt this way this morning. I must be fighting a stomach bug or maybe it was nerves about everyone flying.
That night, I helped the girls finish packing. Avi was taking them in a cab since the flight was very early and Grandma needed me to drive her to the doctor’s appointment tomorrow.
I kissed the girls goodnight and tiptoed out of the room.
…
We watched them disappear into the airport. Avi and the two girls turned back and waved to me and Grandma.
My stomach clenched when I thought about getting onto one of those airplanes. I gazed out the window at one that was taking off.
Grandma motioned to me. “We better get to the doctor, dear.”
We headed out of the airport, and I drove Grandma to the eye doctor. “You can go home, and I’ll call you when the operation is over,” she said.
“No, I’ll stay in the office. I have my T’hilim.”
“Thank you, Libby, for doing this.”
I was the only one in the ophthalmologist’s waiting room. There were various magazines on the glass coffee table. There were pamphlets about various eye diseases. I didn’t want to read those. I was sure if I read them, I would start having the symptoms. I noticed prints of Monet paintings on the wall. I recognized the “Water Lilies” painting. The beautiful colorful paintings were a reminder of the valuable gift of sight. I kept wondering if Avi and the girls had landed. How was their flight going? I was davening: Please bring them safely to New York with no bumps in the ride. I started reciting T’hilim and asked Hashem to heal my grandmother’s eye. “Please partner with the doctor and help him to help her see better.”
There was a wall clock that ticked loudly, reminding me how many minutes I’d been sitting here waiting.
Finally, grandma came back out, and we left the office.
“Are you okay?” I asked as we entered the elevator.
She had a bandage over her right eye.
“Yes, Libby. Thank you.”
…
Avi called later that night.
“We landed, Libby. It was a smooth flight.”
“I’m so glad. I was davening for that. How were the girls?”
“Great. Sabrina wants to talk to you.
Sabrina got on the phone. “It was so fun. We saw clouds and we were so high up.”
“That’s great dear,” I said, feeling queasy at the thought of it. “Please put Uncle Avi back on.”
There was a pause, and then Avi came back on the phone.
“So, I’m planning to take the girls to the Empire State Building tomorrow, and then I want to show them around Manhattan. I wish you were here.”
“Me, too, but I’m glad I can be here for Grandma Bea.”
“I am supposed to meet the donor at the World Trade Center on Tuesday. He has a big check for the yeshivah, and the Rosh Yeshivah wanted me to meet him in person.”
“That’s good,” I said.
“I’ll take them with me. It is the tallest building in the world. They’re going to the top with me.”
“His office is on the top floor?”
“Yep.”
I wasn’t sure I would want to take an elevator in that building.
“And you’re flying in the next day, September 12.”
Me flying! I swallowed.
After we hung up, Grandma went to lie down in the girls’ room, and I headed to the store to buy some groceries for the next few days.
When I came back home, carrying grocery bags, Grandma was sitting up in the living room. “I answered your phone. A woman named Mrs. Tilney called from Israel.”
“Grandma, you’re supposed to be resting.”
“I know. I am resting.”
I suddenly felt dizzy again. Ruth Tilney was calling. She wasn’t even working for the flight school anymore. Why was she still calling me?
To be continued…
Susie Garber is the author of the newly released historical fiction novel, Flight of the Doves (Menucha Publishers, 2023), Please Be Polite (Menucha Publishers, 2022), A Bridge in Time (Menucha Publishers, 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, and “Moon Song” in Binyan (2021-2022).
