Leon Uris (99 page)

“Are we the first here?”

“Dov has arrived. Come in already, come in ... come in.”

Dov met them at the door. He shook Sutherland’s hand and embraced Kitty warmly. She held him off at arm’s length. “
Major
Dov Landau! You get better-looking every time I see you.”

Dov blushed.

Sutherland was examining Sarah’s roses in the living room with a trace of envy.

“Where is everybody?” Kitty asked.

“Jordana went to Haifa last night. She said she would be back early,” Sarah said.

“Karen wrote me that she would leave Nahal Midbar the day before,” Dov said. “That would be yesterday. She’s allowing plenty of time to get here. She may have stayed over at Haifa last night. Anyhow, she may have to hitch a ride beyond Safed.”

“Don’t fret,” Sutherland said. “She’ll be here in time for the Seder.”

Kitty was disappointed that Karen had not arrived but made no point of it before the others. Transportation was terrible, especially on a holiday. “Is there anything I can help you with?” she asked Sarah.

“You can sit down and take life easy. Already there have been a dozen calls for you from the
moshav
office. Your children all over the Huleh know you are coming. They said they would be dropping in during the day before the Seder.” Sarah rushed off to her kitchen.

Kitty turned to Dov. “I hear some very good reports about you, Dov.”

The boy shrugged.

“Don’t be modest. I understand you’re planning a Jordan water project.”

“If the Syrians let us, which they won’t. Funny, Syria and Jordan stand to benefit from it ten times more than we do. But so long as it puts an extra ounce of water into Israel, they are against it.”

“What is the problem?” Sutherland asked.

“We have to change the course of the Jordan a few kilometers. The Arabs say we are doing it for defensive reasons, even though we welcome their observers. Oh well, we will work it out.”

Dov took a deep breath. He was obviously preoccupied and Sutherland sensed that Dov wanted to talk privately to Kitty, so he drifted to the far end of the room and absorbed himself in the shelves of books.

“Kitty,” Dov said. “I wanted to talk to you about Karen before she gets here.”

“Yes, Dov, of course.”

“She is very stubborn.”

“I know. I was at Nahal Midbar a few weeks ago. We had a long talk.”

“Did she tell you that I have a chance to study in America?”

“She didn’t tell me but I knew, anyhow. You see, I’ve been in Israel so long I’ve developed my own spy system.”

“I don’t know what to do. She is loyal to her
kibbutz
. I am afraid she will refuse to leave. I ... I just can’t leave her for two years.”

“I’ll work on her,” Kitty smiled. “She is weakening by the moment. You’ll see, Dov. Everything is going to work out fine.”

The front door was flung open and Jordana, her red hair flowing, held open her arms.

“
Shalom
, everybody,” she called.

Kitty embraced her.

“
Ema
!” Jordana called. “Come here. I have a surprise for you!”

Sarah rushed in from the kitchen just as Ari walked through the door.

“Ari!”

She reached for her handkerchief and simultaneously burst into happy tears and embraced him. “Ari! Oh, Jordana, you are a devil with red hair! Why didn’t you tell me Ari was coming!”

“Well, I figured that you might have made enough for an extra mouth at the table,” he said, hugging his mother.

“You devils!” Sarah said, shaking her finger at them, and dabbing at her eyes. “Let me look at you, son. Ari, you look tired. You are working too hard.”

They embraced again and laughed.

Then Ari saw Kitty Fremont.

The room turned awkwardly quiet as both of them stared long and hard. Jordana, who had carefully arranged the meeting, looked from one to the other.

Kitty stood up slowly and nodded her head. “
Shalom
, Ari,” she said softly.

“
Shalom
,” he whispered.

“Make yourselves at home,” Jordana said, grabbing her mother’s arm quickly and leading her back to the kitchen.

Dov shook Ari’s hand. “
Shalom
, Brigadier Ben Canaan,” he said. Kitty watched Dov. The young man’s eyes brimmed with admiration, seeing Ari as the almost legendary leader of “the Beasts.”

“
Shalom
, Dov. You are looking fine. I hear you are going to bring water down to us in the desert.”

“We will try very hard, Brigadier.”

Sutherland and Ari shook hands.

“I received your letter, Sutherland, and I will be delighted to have you visit us at Elath any time.”

“I am terribly keen to see the Negev first hand. Perhaps we can arrange a time.”

“Fine. And how does your garden grow?”

“Well, I must say, your mother’s roses are the first I’ve found to envy. I say, old boy, I’m not letting you get back to Elath without spending an afternoon at my villa.”

“I shall try.”

Again an awkward silence fell as Bruce Sutherland looked from Ari to Kitty. She had not taken her eyes from Ari. Sutherland walked over to Dov quickly and led him from the room. “Now, Major Landau, you’ve got to tell me just how you chaps plan to drop the Huleh Lake into the Sea of Galilee. That’s a bit of doing ...”

Ari and Kitty were alone.

“You look well,” Kitty said at last.

“And you.”

And there was silence between them once more.

“I ... uh ... how is little Karen? Is she coming?”

“Yes, she will be here. We are expecting her at any time.”

“Would you ... would you like to take a walk? It is quite fresh outside.”

“Yes, why don’t we?” Kitty said.

They walked wordlessly past the fence and along the edge of the fields and past the olive orchard, until they came to the Jordan River. The rebirth of springtime was in the smell and the sight of everything. Ari lit two cigarettes and handed Kitty one.

She was even more beautiful than the memory he held of her.

Kitty became aware of Ari’s fixed gaze.

“I ... am really quite ashamed of myself. I have never been to Elath. The commander at Beersheba has offered to fly me down a half dozen times. I should see it, I suppose.”

“The water and the mountains are quite beautiful.”

“Is the town growing?”

“It would be the fastest-growing town in the world if we could break the blockade and open her as a port to the Orient.”

“Ari,” Kitty said seriously, “what is the situation down there?”

“What it has always been ... as it will always be.”

“The
fedayeen
gangs are getting worse, aren’t they?”

“Those poor devils aren’t our real worry. They’re massing to overrun the entire Middle East from Sinai. We’re going to have to hit them first if we expect to survive.” Ari smiled. “My boys tell me we should cross the border and find Mount Sinai and give the Ten Commandments back to God ... it’s all caused us enough trouble.”

Kitty stared at the bubbling stream for a long time. She sighed unevenly. “I am sick with worry over Karen. She is on the Gaza Strip ... Nahal Midbar.”

“Nasty place,” Ari muttered. “But they are tough youngsters. They’ll make out.”

Yes, that is the way that Ari would answer, Kitty thought.

“I hear you are returning to America.”

Kitty nodded.

“You’ve become a woman of renown.”

“More of a curiosity,” Kitty said.

“You’re modest.”

“I’m sure Israel will survive without me.”

“Why are you leaving?”

“You saw Dov ... Major Dov Landau now. He’s a fine young man. Karen is being left in good hands. I don’t know ... maybe I just don’t want to wear out my welcome. Maybe I still don’t fully belong here. Maybe I’m homesick. There are lots of reasons and no reasons. Anyhow, I just want a year to take off and spend the time thinking ... just thinking.”

“Perhaps you are doing a wise thing. It is good for a person to think without the pressures imposed by daily living. It was a luxury my father was denied until his last two years.”

Suddenly they seemed to run out of words to say.

“We had better start back for the house,” Kitty said. “I want to be there when Karen arrives. Besides, I am expecting visits from some of my children.”

“Kitty ... a moment, please.”

“Yes?”

“Let me say that I am grateful for the friendship you have given Jordana. You have been good for her. I have been worried about this restlessness of hers.”

“She is a very unhappy girl. No one can ever really know how much she loved that boy.”

“When will it end?”

“I don’t know, Ari. But I have lived here so long that I have become a cockeyed optimist. There will be happiness again for Jordana, someday.”

The unspoken question—the unasked words—hung between them. Would there be happiness for her ... and for him, someday, too?

“We had better go back,” Kitty said.

All through the morning and afternoon Kitty’s children came from Gan Dafna and from a dozen Huleh settlements to see her. The people of Yad El came to see Ari. There was a constant flow of traffic through the Ben Canaan house. They all remembered the first time they had seen Kitty, aloof and awkward. Now she spoke to them in their language and they all looked up to her in admiration.

Many of her children had traveled a long distance to spend a few minutes with her. Some showed off new husbands or wives. Almost all of them were in the uniform of the army of Israel.

As the afternoon passed, Kitty became concerned at the failure of Karen to appear. Several times Dov went out to the main road to look for a sign of her.

By late afternoon all the visitors had left to get ready for their own Seders.

“Where the devil is that girl?” Kitty snapped, expressing her worry in annoyance.

“She’s probably just a little way off,” Dov said.

“The least she could have done was to phone and let us know she was delayed. It isn’t like Karen to be thoughtless,” Kitty said.

“Come now, Kitty,” Sutherland said, “you know it would take an act of Parliament to put a phone call through today.”

Ari saw Kitty’s discomfort. “Look ... I’ll run down to the
moshav
office and put in a priority call to her
kibbutz
. Perhaps they know where she planned to stay en route and we can track her down.”

“I would appreciate that very much,” Kitty said.

Not long after Ari had left Sarah came in and announced that the Seder table was ready for everyone’s inspection. This was her moment of triumph after a month of labor. She opened the door to the dining room and the guests self-consciously tiptoed in with a chorus of “ohs” and “ahs.” It was a table indeed fit for a Feast of Liberation.

All the silver and dishes glistened. They were used only once a year, on this holiday. The silver candlesticks shone in the center of the table. Next to the candlesticks sat a huge ornate sterling-silver goblet which was called “Elijah’s cup.” It was set there and filled with wine to welcome the prophet. When he came to drink from the cup he came as the forerunner of the Messiah.

Special wine and silver goblets were at each place, to be filled four times during the Seder for the four promises of God: to bring forth, deliver, redeem, and take the Children of Israel. The wine symbolizing joy would also be sipped during the recounting of the Ten Plagues against Pharaoh, and when the Song of Miriam, of the closing of the Red Sea on Pharaoh’s army, was sung.

At the head seat there was a pillow, so that the teller of the story of the Exodus might relax. In ancient times only free men relaxed, while slaves were made to sit rigid.

And in the center near the candlesticks sat the gold Seder dish holding the symbolic foods. There was matzos, the unleavened bread to remind them that the Children of Israel had to leave Egypt so quickly their bread was unleavened. There was an egg to symbolize the freewill offering, and water cress for the coming of spring, and the shank of lamb bone to recall the offerings to God in the Great Temple. There was a mixture of nuts and diced apples and
maror
, bitter herbs. The first symbolized the mortar the Egyptians forced them to mix for brick building, and the herbs recalled the bitterness of bondage.

Sarah shooed them all out and they returned to the living room. As they entered, it was Jordana who saw Ari first. He leaned in the doorframe, pale and with a dazed expression in his eyes. Now they all stared at him. He tried to speak but couldn’t, and as a moment passed they all knew at once.

“Karen! Where is she!” Kitty demanded.

Ari’s jaws trembled and he lowered his head.

“Where is she!”

“Karen is dead. She was murdered last night by a gang of
fedayeen
from Gaza.” Kitty let out an anguished shriek and slumped to the floor.

Kitty blinked her eyes open. Bruce and Jordana knelt near her. The remembrance hit her and her eyes bulged and she turned and sobbed, “My baby ... my baby ...”

She sat up slowly. Jordana and Sutherland were in a stupor of shock. They looked haggard and numb with grief.

“Karen is dead ... Karen is dead ...”

“If I could only have died for her,” Jordana cried.

Kitty struggled to her feet.

“Lie down, dear ... please, lie down,” Sutherland said.

“No,” Kitty said, “no ...” She fought clear of Sutherland. “I must see Dov. I must go to him.”

She staggered out and found Dov sitting in the corner of another room, hollow-eyed and his face contorted with pain. She rushed to him and took him in her arms.

“Dov ... my poor Dov,” Kitty cried.

Dov buried his head in her bosom and sobbed heartbrokenly. Kitty rocked him and they cried together, until darkness fell upon the Ben Canaan cottage and no one had any tears left.

“I’ll stay with you, Dov ... I’ll take care of you,” Kitty said. “We will get through this, Dov.”

The young man stood up shakily. “I will be all right, Kitty,” he said. “I’m going on. I’ll make her proud of me.”

“I beg you, Dov. Don’t go back to the way you were because of this.”

“No,” he said. “I thought about it. I cannot hate them, because Karen could not hate them. She could not hate a living thing. We ... she said we can never win by hating them ...”