Recap: Daniel and Yisroel Meir discover that Tasir was lying to them and is in cahoots with the wicked Ahmed. The police are trying to negotiate with Ahmed to get the Jewish students and professors out of the library safely. Daniel and Yisroel Meir are watching the whole situation on a screen at the police station. Daniel is deeply worried about his father, who is being held hostage there.
There was the sound of screaming and rifles firing, and then the screen went black.
“We’re sending more officers for backup,” yelled the officer who had brought us to the computer screen.
Rabbi Diamond ushered us out of the room. “Let’s go walk to the library. I think you should be there when your father comes out.”
“He’s coming out? How do you know?”
“I just know.”
I glanced at the clock. It was 2 a.m. We’d been up all night, and yet I wasn’t tired. I was too wound up and upset to think of anything but my father.
By the time we arrived on campus, the National Guard had set up blockades everywhere.
There were searchlights so bright it could have been midday.
Rabbi Diamond spoke to one of the guards. “Please let us through. Daniel’s father is in the library. He needs to be there to see his father.”
The guard motioned for us to wait.
My heart was going to explode. I had to see Dad. What if the guard wouldn’t let us in?
We heard more shouting and a loud explosion of gunfire.
“Go over there,” the guard yelled at us. “It’s not safe to stay here. Just the relative. You two go farther.”
Rabbi Diamond led me and Yisroel Meir over to a building across from the library and outside the barricaded area.
“We’ll be over there,” Rabbi Diamond said. He and Yisroel Meir strode across the path to a bench.
It was so kind of them to stay here with me.
There was another burst of gunfire.
I held my ears. I couldn’t stop crying.
Would Dad get out alive? When would the shooting and all the shouting stop?
Why was this happening?
I must’ve sat there for what seemed like forever.
A car pulled up. I recognized it immediately.
Aunt Shira jumped out of the car and rushed over to me.
“We heard what was going on in the news. We came to see where Steve is, and then I saw you standing there.”
She wrapped her arms around me.
“I’m so scared!” I said.
“Me, too,” Aunt Shira said.
The whole scene felt like a dream. Then, it was over. The protestors were led away in handcuffs. We saw Tasir with his head down, being shoved into a police car. I wanted to punch that guy.
Police led people out of the library. Family members of students joyfully embraced their loved ones.
I spotted Dad. He looked shell-shocked.
“Dad!” I waved at him.
He stumbled toward me.
“Danny! How’d you get here?”
I flew into his arms and cried on his shoulder.
“It’s okay. I’m okay,” he said.
Rabbi Diamond and Yisroel Meir stood to the side.
After a long time, I pulled away. “I’m glad you’re all right.”
Dad looked up and met Rabbi Diamond’s eyes. Dad grabbed at a pole that was near us.
Rabbi Diamond’s face drained of color.
“Shmuel?”
I’d never heard my dad called Shmuel. What was going on?
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).
