“Do you think we’ll make the flight?” said Yanky. “How long do you reckon it would it take for us to walk and then swim to Gibraltar?”

T

here was chaos on the road outside school where the bus was waiting to take Camp Yeshivas Ohavei Torah to the airport for their flight to Gibraltar. It was raining heavily, and the boys’ suitcases were getting soaked. Danny’s mother had brought him in their old minivan with the broken windshield wipers. His grandmother had come along as well, which was slightly embarrassing, but it meant so much to her and he really couldn’t say no. She could never get over having such a clever grandson who could study those heavy books filled with Hebrew and Arabic, as she insisted on calling it. She climbed out of the car with her cane, despite the rain, and pressed a £10 note into Danny’s hand.

“Make sure you spend it wisely,” she said, which was really exceedingly embarrassing, and Danny couldn’t help going very red and wishing she had given it to him at home.

Mrs. Halpern wished Danny goodbye and escorted her mother back to the car.

A resounding clap on the back announced the appearance of Yanky.

“Do you have to do that?” said Danny. “I can barely breathe now.”

“Do you think we’ll make the flight?” said Yanky. “How long do you reckon it would it take for us to walk and then swim to Gibraltar?”

There was no time to consider this possibility, for at that moment Yehoshua Blau’s flimsy suitcase fell apart as it was loaded onto the bus. Yehoshua was several years younger than Danny and was almost in tears at the sight of his belongings strewn over the sidewalk, and to make matters worse, his precious cufflinks, which for some reason he had been carrying in the pocket of his pants, had disappeared.