A Life Worth Living Read Online Free PDF Page B

could paint my room?”
    “That’s sounds like a great idea!” Mrs. Kupfer gave her a relieved look. “While you’re at it, you could paint the whole house. We could use some color to brighten up this place a bit. I’m sure if Rafi helped, it wouldn’t take any time at all.”
    “Oh, you know what would be a good idea?” Henny added. “We’ll have to go into Jerusalem tomorrow to get your teudot zehut , that’s your Israeli IDs. We can stop into a Tambour after we’re done. Tambour is an Israeli chain of hardware stores,” she explained to Gaby. “We should leave around nine,” she told Mrs. Kupfer.
    “I’m pretty sure I’ll be free,” Gaby said to no one in particular. She headed back to her room to start unpacking, feeling somewhat more positive now that she thought up the painting idea.
    Later that night, after all nine of the suitcases were unpacked, and dinner was delivered by a warm, bubbly neighbor who spoke only Hebrew, but managed to kiss all three of them multiple times, Gaby took a shower with leftover pink Suave shampoo and a white bar of Ivory soap and got into bed. She pulled her comforter over her head and took a deep breath. It still smelled like home, although she never considered their old apartment on East 16th street to be her real home. It was hard to remember the last time she had felt at home somewhere.
    She stroked the comforter with her hand and reflected on the crazy fact that only a few hours earlier she had been sleeping on the same couch with Benny, and now…he couldn’t be further away. Maybe Henny would let her use the computer tomorrow. Then she could send him a message and see what was up.
     
     

Chapter Four
     
     
     
     
    Gaby swiped one more coat of paint on the windowsill and sat back down to take a look. She had done a pretty good job, if she said so herself. The walls were painted a pretty mauve color, and the windows, moldings, and ceiling were all in French vanilla. The contrast was pretty and feminine, and the fluted metal ceiling fixture that Henny had found for her in a neighbor’s shed was just eighties-style enough to be cool.
    “…tell me what you want from me…” One Republic sang in the background on her American phone. It was useless for accessing data or making phone calls, but she was still able to play her stored music.
    Gaby stretched and looked at the time on her phone. She had been painting for over five hours. It was time to get out of the house.
    She went to check on Rafi, but he wasn’t in his room. Knocking on her mother’s door to find out where Rafi had gone, she found Mrs. Kupfer sitting in bed, hunched over a large black laptop.
    “Mommy! Oh my God! Where did you get that laptop from?”
    Mrs. Kupfer looked up guiltily. “It doesn’t have internet access.”
    “Okay, but where did you get it from?”
    “Shimmy is letting me work some hours from here. I will go to Henny when I need to e-mail him files.” Shimmy was Mrs. Kupfer’s boss in New York. Gaby had thought her mother had quit her bookkeeping job, but apparently she had not.
    “Wow, that’s nice of him.” Gaby sat down at the edge of her mother’s bed. “What hours will you be working for him?”
    “Every evening from five to ten.”
    Gaby calculated quickly. Together with her day job at the daycare center, her mother would basically be working around the clock. “How are you going to manage working so many hours?”
    “Well, the arrangement is tentative, but hopefully it’ll work out. I’ll need you two to help out around here.”
    As usual. “Are you’re really not gonna get Internet? That doesn’t seem so efficient.”
    Her mother took a deep breath and placed a conciliatory hand on Gaby’s arm. “Listen, Gaby, I will most likely will get an Internet connection next week, but you can’t use this laptop. It’s for work only.”
    “I don’t believe you! Why do you have to be so mean? What do you think I’m gonna do with it already?” Gaby stormed