THE OUTSIDE BUBBLE

Recap of Chapter 68

Dov asks a she’eilah, and the answer he receives is that they should send Martin to Michoel in America with Yosef’s passport. Hinda calls the office to tell Michoel this, and she tries to hint to him that the boy who will be coming will be different from Yosef.

Dr. Jerry lets on to Michoel that they are located near the city of Charleston, but doesn’t give more information than that.

Chani and Penina and their families both come to Hinda and Dov for Shabbos.

Chapter Sixty Nine

“Hi, Yosef. I came to say goodbye.” Martin approached the young man seated in front of the screen in the hospital’s computer room; he seemed to be reading an article on the parshah.

“Huh?” Yosef turned around. “Oh, it’s you… Are you going back to Canada?”

“Yes, the time has come. I’ve been driving… your mother and her husband crazy for too long. They are probably happy to be getting rid of me.”

“I don’t think so,” Yosef said carefully. “Dov is nice because he likes to be, not because he has to be.”

“Yes, I noticed.”

Yosef slowly scratched his left hand for a few long seconds. “Uh…” he murmured, “Um…what did I want to tell you for a long time…? Oh, wait, we went somewhere together recently, right? Where did we go?”

“To renew your passport,” Martin reminded him cautiously. “Oh, right. I’m…sorry for the ruckus I made. What ended up happening?”

Martin took a chair from the next desk and sat down. “Your passport didn’t come out good.”

“Why?”

“Because you didn’t want them to use your picture.”

Now Yosef rubbed the back of his neck. “Right,” he said heavily, as he moved the mouse around on the pad in a circular motion. “Right. Are you going to your house?”

“Well, I don’t have a house, but I’ll figure it out.”

“Maybe you should go to America. We have cousins there; they can help you.”

“Your mother suggested that too.” Martin smiled. “Weisskopf is the name, right?”

“I don’t remember. Maybe. I would go to help Michoel, but…” He turned his head back to the computer. “I am not up to it. It’s too much for me to travel right now.”

Martin nodded neutrally. Dov and Hinda had asked him not to tell Yosef a thing about his plans. Now, looking at the back of Yosef’s head bent over the computer, he waited another three minutes and then said, "Take care, Yosef, and stay well!”. He patted Yosef’s shoulder and stood up.

“Thank you…” Yosef said, without turning his head. But when Martin was at the door of the computer room, Yosef suddenly turned around. “Martin!” he called.

“Yes?”

“If you’re going to America anyway, maybe you should go check up on what’s doing with my uncle?”

“That’s a nice idea.”

“And tell him that I sent you instead of me.”

Martin smiled and waved. ***

His phone rang while he was on the bus back to Haifa. “Is this Martin Posner? Yaron Kornblit here.”

“Oh,” Martin replied. "Yes, it's me."

“I wanted to wish you a safe trip. You’re leaving by the end of this week, right?”

“Yes.”

“To Greater Sudbury?”

“No, to New York.”

“Why there?”