I’m annoyed that they keep talking about this letter; my skin crawls just at the thought of Aunt Chana seeing it

Sunday brings another meeting. Uncle Yossi is back, and Aunt Chana and Uncle Chaim. The two men sit at the head of the table, on either side of Zeidy, and they’re mostly quiet, aside from the occasional phone call or beeping of a message coming in.

Aunt Chana is sitting with me and Yaakov, and she’s determined to pursue any clue we can possibly think of.

“Did your parents ever say anything about emergency? A plan? A number to call? Anything?” she keeps asking us.

“I don’t think they ever thought something like this would happen,” I say, a little helplessly.

“Well, it sounds like Ima had some idea. She left that note on the fridge. About a letter to Ashira,” Yaakov says, looking at me meaningfully. “I think we need to check out any clue that we can right now.”

“I told you, I looked at it, there’s nothing remotely clue-like about it, except maybe this random line on the last page about the key being close to our own hearts or something,” I say. I’m annoyed that they keep talking about this letter; my skin crawls just at the thought of Aunt Chana seeing it.

“Maybe a fresh pair of eyes—” Yaakov starts saying, but Aunt Chana holds up a hand.

“Just a minute. Ashira, can we at least look at this last page? Maybe just show us the relevant section? About a key, or whatever… you never know. Maybe it was some kind of clue.”