New Ongoing Story, please add your continuations.

Baruch was not amused. “Tell me, doctor”, he said firmly, “with all these other surprises, is the restaurant still kosher? You know my job, so I guess by having you here, I blew my cover. Also, would you please just tell me if my hand is broken? I am in a lot of pain right now!”
“Of course the restaurant is kosher!” replied the doctor. “The beets are 100% real beets, not potato slices dyed with indigo and carmine. This is a real restaurant, not a front for some secret drug business!”
And when Baruch inspected the kitchen, he found out that what the doctor had said was partly true. There was nothing non-kosher in the kitchen–the beets were sweet potatoes soaked in a concentrated solution of cherry juice and beet juice, but there was no evidence that anything else was going on. Also, Baruch’s left hand was painfully swollen and was getting harder and harder to ignore.

The nothingness was only there for Baruch, and after an amount of time that was, to him, both eternal and nonexistent, he came to in a hospital, with a cast on his arm and an antibiotic drip.

When the doctor heard Baruch’s concerns about the measles, he declared that Baruch’s “conversion to nothingness” was purely psychological. Then he gave him an immunity booster pill, which was a placebo, but hey, it worked.
Unfortunately, it had the side effect of making him hallucinate Chinese men.
When his wife, Aliza, found out, she was concerned about his physical and psychological health. The question was whether he was suffering from a true psychological disorder, or being drugged?

Luckily, their phones were a link to 2018, and they were pretty sure that they would easily get back after completing an adventure in the year 1941.
After they drove down the road, having decided to look for a rattlesnake in the year 1941, Annie’s phone rang. It was Aliza.
“Hello!” Annie greeted her sister. “How are you?”
“I’m mostly fine, how are you?” Aliza replied.
“I’m actually in the year 1941, but my cell phone has the ability to reach you in 2018!” answered Annie. “I just hope I can keep using my car charger, and that nobody in 1941 Nevada notices the anachronism that I’m driving.”
“That’s super weird, and your sudden time travel raises a lot of WWII related moral obligations, but I actually have a question about business.” Aliza responded.
“If I can,” Annie replied, “But I don’t know if I’ll be able to answer. Should I put you on speaker phone so my husband can hear?”
“Might as well.”
Annie put Aliza on speaker phone.
Aliza recounted her problem. “Lately, my husband has been having some medical issues, both physical and psychological. It started when he broke his hand, and he fell unconscious. Now he says that he has stared into the void, and he had a vivid dream about being stared at by Chinese men, and he thought it was real, but if it were real, how would he know the man were Chinese? In my experience as a psychiatric nurse practitioner, I have never heard of a similar case to this where drugs weren’t involved.”
“That’s not a business question!” Annie exclaimed.
“The business question is this,” Aliza answered. “I believe that I can have Baruch tested for all possible drugs, even those that are currently being secretly tested by the Mossad. However, it will cost at least five thousand dollars. How can I put together that kind of money quickly and in a way that Baruch will be okay with?”
Annie’s husband spoke up. “I’m sure I can answer your business question if you give me more details. Business is my middle name! What kind of assets do you have?”
“As Annie already knows,” Aliza said softly, “Baruch and I are not poor, but we live a kollel lifestyle. That is to say, he and I both own considerable illiquid assets. We live this way on purpose, because we don’t want the struggles of being too rich.”
“In that case,” he replied, “We would gladly help out with a loan. Unfortunately, we are in the year 1941, and we cannot give you the loan directly. I’ll still help out, though. If Annie agrees, when we hang up the phone, we’ll call our older children and ask them to buy some of your stocks with the emergency funds that we left them in case of sudden time travel.”
“I agree!” exclaimed Annie.
“Thanks, Biz!” said Aliza. “Thank you, Annie, as well.”
“73. Goodbye, Aliza!” Annie and Biz said in unison, as they had rehearsed many times before in order to save time when making conference calls.
“Bye, thanks again!” Aliza answered.
Then Annie and Biz called their children to tell them to buy the stocks. The children immediately agreed and followed through. The baby started crying. As Annie rocked the baby, Biz tried to use his smartphone to send an email to his boss, who would be upset if he didn’t come to work without explanation.
John,

I had no intention of skipping work, but unfortunately, I may not be able to come to work for a while. I don’t know when I will be back. I am in my car, and the year for me is 1941. I hope to return, but if I do, how much time will have passed? There is no telling. I hope that when I return, I can resume my position. Please respond to this email because I need the confirmation that I am able to send and receive email to the future.
Sincerely,
Washington Business Sakanah

Biz just sat there for a while, his car still parked on the side of the road. He realized that they would need a place to stay. He was also nervous that his boss wouldn’t get his email, or that he wouldn’t believe it, so he took a picture to send to the future as well.

Characters:

Baruch: Male, mashgiach, prefers when his watch is in proper working order. A broken hand caused him some strange psychological symptoms, or is something else at play?
Dr. Panner: Male, works as a doctor, but also works secretly at the restaurant at which Baruch is an undercover mashgiach.
Two Chinese men: Might be a hallucination.
The doctor: Is an unnamed doctor who appears in the story. May or may not be the same person as Dr. Panner, but I’m assuming that not, because Baruch is suspicious of Dr. Panner.
Aliza: Female. Happily married to Baruch, but concerned about his health. Works as a psychiatric nurse practitioner. Owns considerable illiquid assets.
Annie Sakanah: Female, Aliza’s sister, who lives on a ranch. Married to Biz. Has guns and a pet snake, and is the type of person who likes guns and snakes. Can treat a bullet wound while driving a car. Loving mother and wife, and a generally nice person.
Washington Business Sakanah: Male, Annie’s husband. Nice guy who can help anyone with a business related question, typically referred to as Biz. Has only one gun of his own. Caretaker to the snake. One-quarter Japanese, but unfortunately racist against Japanese people. Got involved in a messy mayoral race with O’Keefle, and had to do some mind control on a crony for the good of the town.
The baby: Annie’s and Biz’s baby, who doesn’t have a name because they couldn’t agree on one.
The other children: Annie and Biz have an unspecified number of children. They buy a stock from Aliza.
O’Keefle: Male, half Irish, Chinese, all mean. Running in a race against Biz, and playing dirty.
O’Keefle’s crony: A crony of O’Keefle who once threatened Aliza. Controlled by Biz using drugs.
Biz’s mother: Half Japanese, engages in Multi-Level Marketing and other despicable practices.
Biz’s Grandmother: One of Annie’s best friends, a Japanese woman who never told her grandson that she is Japanese.

And now, readers, I am sure you have been wondering where Baruch has been all this time. Don’t worry, our friend has not been having many adventures without us. He has only been resting at home, with his dear wife, Aliza. Yes, I am addressing you directly. It’s not condescending, it’s endearing.

Aliza cares very much for her dear husband, and she wants to make sure that he remains in good health. So she has insisted that he remain home to recuperate from his nasty arm injury and mysterious psychological ailment. She also asked him for some of his blood, and he allowed her to take some of it without insisting on being told why. She had it tested, and she indeed found traces of some questionable substances! What a successful venture that was.

Now, Baruch was feeling much better, and whatever drugs were in his system, they had all gone. Reader, I’m sure you want to get to the bottom of the mystery and know both the type of drug and the source, but for now, let’s focus on Baruch’s life after the drugs left his system. Baruch finally felt well enough to see his old friend, Marcus Trilby, a man who had been in his class and was now a detective.

Where did #1641232 go?

Went to spam. It’s back now

When Marcus walked into Baruch’s apartment, the two of them shook hands and immediately, they performed an original musical number about their reunion. The song, which they had never rehearsed, touched on all the events and emotions of their friendship, in which they had been close, but ultimately found that they had less and less time for each other. As the song (and equally remarkable choreography) ended, Aliza brought them both some coffee. They sat down at the kitchen table.

“That was amazing!” Marcus exclaimed.
“Yes, it was!” Baruch replied. “I think I’m ready to get this cast off!”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t ask about your cast. What happened?”
“I broke my hand. I don’t remember how.”
“I have ways of making you remember…” Marcus said ominously.
“I’m not worried.” Baruch replied. “Remember that time in summer camp?”

Marcus did indeed remember that time in summer camp. They spent a couple of minutes reminiscing, and as they reconnected, the melody of the song they had performed together played softly on xylophones. Aliza sat in the kitchen, knitting a scarf. The scarf was long enough already, and it kept getting longer. When it was approximately the right length for an elephant, she politely told Baruch that she was leaving to have tea with Marcus’s wife.

With Aliza gone, Baruch was able to speak plainly. “She is a wonderful person, and I am very happy to be married to her,” Baruch said, “but you know how women are.”
“Whatever could you mean by that?” Marcus responded. “I’ll have you know that my own wife is a woman, as is my mother, and half of my ancestors going back to the beginning of time. If whatever you just said is offensive, I take it personally!”
“I just mean that women are emotional, and not in a bad way, but sometimes when their suspicions about their husbands being given top-secret mind altering drugs by an unknown culprit are confirmed, they get a little worried. She wants to investigate further, and maybe hire a bodyguard.”
“I would really like some more background on that!” Marcus exclaimed.
Baruch told him everything.

Meanwhile, Annie and Biz were at the zoo, looking at the rattlesnakes.
“See, Biz?” she pointed. “You can identify the snakes by their features. Now let’s go hunt one!”
They left the zoo and headed out to go rattlesnake hunting.

“Relax!” said the rattlesnake, bored. “You act like you’ve been bitten by a venomous snake!”
“Rattlesnakes are venomous!” shouted Annie as she treated Biz with antivenin.
“Oops!” said the snake. “I’m sorry that I bit him then.”
As Annie rushed Biz to the hospital, which fortunately was nearby, she realized that they should probably have worn protective gear and learned the proper way to catch a snake. She was confident that Biz would be okay, but what if it had been someone else, someone smaller?

Instead of calling Aliza, the cell phone transported them back to their own time. Annie was about to call her sister again when she realized that Biz’s hand was a bigger problem. There was only one thing to do now: get Biz a robotic hand. Fortunately, she knew a guy.

Biz and Annie went down some dark alley into a small, plain room. There, a tall man sat playing poker with some robots. “I can guess what you’re here after,” said the man, “and I would gladly give it to you. For a price.”
“What price?” asked Biz.
“Oh, I require only the basic necessities of life, which you possess in abundance. I’m sure you have lakes full of it back at home, so there won’t be any trouble, will there?” answered the man.
“What do you want?” asked Biz.
“I’m sorry, was I not making myself clear? Or do you not want to make a deal? If so, don’t keep it bottled up.” the man answered again.
Biz was genuinely confused. The man, seeing his confusion, kept going.
“I see that you don’t think I was being very transparent, but that’s no reason to fall silent, let’s keep this conversation flowing.”
Biz was about to speak when Annie interrupted. “Enough!” she exclaimed. “Biz, he wants distilled water.”

The man nodded and began to show them some advanced robotics when Annie looked at Biz’s hand and observed that it had grown back. She whispered into his ear, “How did that happen with your hand?”

They excused themselves. “Annie, do you remember what I told you about my childhood?” Biz asked.
“Yes,” Annie replied. “You were raised by a couple of mad scientists who were later arrested for illegal experimentation on humans.”
“Well, there’s something else I might have forgotten to mention,” Biz replied. “I may have a teensy weensy bit of starfish DNA.”