Righteous Indignation
Chapter Ten
June 14, 2011; Brooklyn N.Y.
The Baums were at the Steiner's for the Friday night seudah. Moe couldn't take his eyes off of Chani. She was beautiful. He tried not to be obvious, and continued schmoozing with Yehoshua, while casting surreptitious glances at Chani.
After the soup, Yehoshua excused himself, and headed to the bathroom. At the same time, Esther got up to clear the empty soup bowls.
It was just Moe and Chani left at the table. Moe shyly glanced at chani, she met his eyes with a glance of her own. They looked at each other. Moe felt frozen.
Chani looked at him and winked, a flush slowly creeping up her pretty face. "What's up?" She asked.
Moe was taken aback, he wasn't expecting that. He smiled, his face red. She likes me back! He thought excitedly.
Esther suddenly walked back into the dining room, carrying a dish piled high with steaming BBQ chicken.
He guiltily turned away from Chani, and started to sing "ka ribon alam..." A weird feeling in his chest.
* * *
June 16, 2011; Langley, Virginia.
The phone rang in Langley, Virginia. The man in the dark designer suit, picked it up on the first ring. He didn't say anything. He listened for a moment, then hung up.
He immediately punched in a few numbers, waited a moment and said "We are closing in, the location is set. Brief the team, it shouldn't be more than a few weeks." Without waiting for a response, he abruptly hung up. Confident his directive will be adhered to.
He leaned back and breathed a sigh of relief. They were finally getting somewhere. After years of confusion whether this organization existed, the fears were confirmed.
The C.I.A. was ready. The C.I.A. was always ready.
* * *
June 18, 2011; Brooklyn N.Y.
It was dark and eerily quiet. She was all alone. A sharp, cold, howling wind blew roughly against her cheeks. An ominous sense of impending doom started to envelop her. Panic started rising. She shivered. Someone started chasing her. Must get away, she thought. She tried to run. Her legs wouldn't move. Her fearful eyes darted all over looking for someone to save her. Raw fear paralyzed her. No one was there.
She was all alone. All alone. All alone.
She started to scream...
Esther abruptly opened her eyes. She woke up in a cold sweat. The fear was so real. She futilely tried to shake off the cobwebs of sleep. She was confused. The house was dark and quiet. Glancing at her wristwatch, she saw it was 3:20 am. Why was she sleeping on the couch?
As her foggy sleep deprived brain started to clear, the dark dreaded feeling started to set back into her stomach. Water. She needed water. She felt parched. She stumbled off the couch, groggily making her way to the refrigerator. She grabbed a cold bottle of Poland Spring water, and sat down at the kitchen table.
She aggressively twisted off the cap, mumbled a bracha, and thirstily gulped down a few mouthfulls. Satisfied, she set the half empty bottle down. She felt drained. Entirely and utterly devoid of energy.
Her mind started to wander back to the days horrifying events...
* * *
"Moe, I need the car today. My ride to work cancelled on me."
"Your sure there's no other option?" He responded. "You know I hate not having the car."
"I know, but you're just going to have to manage for one day. I'll drop you off at yeshiva and I'll pick you up after second seder. I can prepare you lunch to take along, if you don't want to eat the yeshiva lunch." Esther offered.
"Ok." Said Moe resigned to losing his car. "We need to leave in ten minutes, you'll be ready?" "Sure", replied Esther, "I just need to put on my sheitel and throw on some lipstick. I'll be right there".
True to her word, Esther was ready on time, and she dropped Moe off, with a few minutes still to go before seder. She pulled out of the parking lot, and headed towards work.
Esther hummed to herself as she drove. She was in a pretty good mood this morning. She wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because she expected Moe to put up a bigger fight for the car. She was prepared for him huffing and puffing, but he seemed ok.
Esther pulled onto Avenue L, just as she felt her phone vibrate. Picking up her phone, she flipped it open to read the text message. Suddenly, she saw flashing lights in her rearview mirror, and horrified, she realized she was being pulled over. She fearfully turned on her right blinker, and slowing down, pulled over to the side of the road.
When the officer appeared at the window, Esther obligingly rolled it down. "License and registration, Ma'am", said the stern faced cop in a no nonsense tone.
She dutifully reached into her purse and removed her license. She leaned over and clicked open the glove compartment, looking for the registration card. As she ruffled through the contents with shaking fingers, she felt something hard among the documents. Interesting, she thought to herself, I wonder what that is.
Oh, "here it is" she said, victoriously holding the registration aloft. She handed it to the officer. She nervously tapped her fingers against the steering wheel, as she waited for the police officer to return. She never got pulled over before. She was terrified.
The cop returned, and said "Ma'am, you were driving while on your phone, but I'm going to let you off the hook, because you got a clean driving record. Consider this a warning. G'day". He handed her the papers and returned to his vehicle.
Esther exhaled in relief, "Thank you Hashem" she said. She placed her license back in her pocketbook, and returned the registration to the glove compartment. Before she shut it, she remembered that there was something she wanted to check. She groped around, seeking the curiously hard object. Her hand closed around it, and she pulled it out.
A cell phone. Actually a smartphone. Interesting, I wonder who's this is and what it's doing here, she innocently mused to herself. She decided to turn it on. As it was powering on, she resumed her drive to work.
She pulled into a parking spot, and picked up the phone. She was real curious. She clicked on the contacts, it was empty. Suddenly, Esther started to get suspicious. She started browsing through it, and realized it had service. She clicked on the browser, and selected the browsing history. She gasped.
Esther felt her throat constrict, icy tentacles squeezing her airways. Her heart started pounding. Curiosity got the better of her, she scrolled down. Then she clicked on one of the searches. The results appeared on the screen. She pressed play.
She couldn't believe her eyes. She was utterly appalled. She felt the bile rise in her throat, and felt like she was going to puke. She quickly rolled down the window for some fresh air. It didn't help.
How, how, how...she couldn't formulate a coherent thought. Her mind was racing. She felt her ears getting hot, a migraine headache starting to set in.
The tears started to flow. Big, hot, salty tears started to course down her cheeks. She started to sob uncontrollably, her shoulders heaving against her will. She felt such a deep sense of betrayal and despair. She never felt so hurt in her life. She felt like somebody stuck a sharp dagger into her chest, and ripped out of her heart. Her life was over. Completely over.
Esther sat behind the wheel of her car, for the next three hours, in a daze. Incoherent thoughts streaming through her painfilled brain. She didn't know what to do, where to go, or who to turn to. She was drowning, every breath a torturous struggle.
She was all alone. All alone. All alone.
To be continued...
Warning: Spoiler!