Eagle in the Sky - Smith Wilbur - Страница 29

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the wall, and he began to repeat after the shamash: Hear, 0 Israel, the

Lord our God, the Lord is one His voice grew surer as he remembered the

words from long ago, and he looked up at the wall of massive stone

blocks that towered high above him.  Thousands of previous worshippers

had written down their prayers on scraps of paper and wedged them into

the joints between the blocks, and around him rose the plaintive voices

of spoken prayer.  It seemed to David that in his imagination a golden

beam of prayer rose from this holy place towards the heavens.

Afterwards they left the enclosure and climbed the stairs into the

Jewish quarter, and the good feeling remained with David, glowing warmly

in his belly.

That evening they sat together on the terrace drinking Goldstar beer and

splitting sunflower seeds for the nutty kernels, and naturally the talk

turned to God and religion.

Joe said, I'm an Israeli and then a Jew.  First my country, and a long

way behind that comes my religion.  But David remembered the expression

on his face as he prayed against the wailing wall.

The talk lasted until late, and David glimpsed the vast body of his

religious heritage.

I would like to learn a little more about it all, he admitted, and Debra

said nothing but when she packed for him to go on base that night she

placed a copy of Herman Wouk's This is my God on top of his clean

uniforms.

He read it and when next he returned to Malik Street, he asked for more.

She picked them for him, English works at first but then Hebrew, as his

grip upon the language became stronger.  They were not religious works

only, but histories and historical novels that excited his interest in

this ancient centre of civilization which for three thousand years had

been a crossroads and a battleground.

He read anything and everything that she put into his case, from

josephus Flavius to Leon Uris.

This led to a desire to see and inspect the ground.  It became so that

much of the time that they were free together was spent in these

explorations.  They began with the hill-top fortress of Herod at Masada

where the zealots had killed each other rather than submit to Rome, and

from there they moved off the tourist beat to the lesser-known

historical sites.

In those long sunlit days they might eat their basket lunch sitting on

the ruins of a Roman aqueduct and watching a falcon working the thermals

that rose off the floor of the desert, after they had searched the bed

of a dry wadi for coins and arrowheads brought down by the last rains.

Around them rose the tall cliffs of orange and golden stone, and the

light was so clean and stark that it seemed they could see for ever, and

the silence so vast that they were the only living things in the world.

They were the happiest days that David had ever known, and they gave

point and meaning to the weary hours of squadron standby, and when the

day had ended there was always the house on Malik Street with its warmth

and laughter and love.

Joe and David arranged leave of absence from the base for the wedding.

It was a time of quiet, and le Dauphin let them go without protest, for

he would be a guest.

They drove up to Jerusalem the day before and were immediately

conscripted to assist with the arrangements.  David laboured mightily as

a taxi-driver and trucker.  The Mercedes transported everything from

flowers to musical instruments and distant relatives.

The Brig's garden was decorated with palm leaves and coloured bunting.

In the centre stood the huppah, a canopy worked with religious symbols

in blue and gold, the Star of David and the grapes and ears of wheat,

the pomegranates and all the other symbols of fertility.

Beneath it, the marriage ceremony would take place.

Trestle tables covered with gay cloths and set with bowls of flowers and

dishes of fruit were arranged beneath the olive trees.  There were

places for three hundred guests, an open space for the dancing, a raised

timber stand hung with flags for the band.

The catering was contracted out to a professional firm and the menu had

been carefully decided upon by the chef and the women.  It would have

two high points an enormous stuffed tuna, again a symbol of fertility,

and a lamb dish in the bedouin style served upon enormous copper

salvers.

on the Sunday of the wedding, David drove Debra to the home of the chief

surgeon of Hadassah Hospital.

Hannah was one of his theatre sisters and he had insisted that she use

his home to prepare for the wedding.  Debra was to assist her, and David

left them and drove on to Em Karem.  The lane leading to the house was

cordoned off and thick with secret service men and paratroopers.

While he watched Joe dressing, losing and finding the ring, and sweating

with nerves, David lay on Joe's bed and gave him bad advice.  They could

hear the guests gathering in the garden below, and David stood up and

went to the window.  He watched an airforce colonel being carefully

scrutinized and searched at the gates, but taking it all in good part.

They are being pretty thorough, David remarked.

Hannah has asked to have as few as possible of the guards in the garden.

So they are being damned careful about who they let in.  Joe had at last

completed dressing and already he was beginning to sweat through the

armpits of his uniform.  How do I look?  he asked anxiously.  God, you

handsome beast, David told him.

Piss off, Morgan, Joe grinned at him, crammed his cap on to his head and

glanced at his watch.  Let's go, .  he said.

The Chief Rabbi of the army was waiting with the Brig and the others in

the Brig's study.  The Rabbi was the mild-mannered man who had

personally liberated the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the war of 67. During

the advance on Hebron, he had driven a jeep through the disintegrating

Arab lines, shot open the door to the tomb with a submachine-gun and

chased the Arab guards screaming over the rear wall.

Joe sat at the Brig's desk and signed the ketubbah, the marriage

contract, then the Rabbi handed him a silken cloth which Joe lifted in a

formal act of acquisition to a chorus of congratulatory Mazal toys from

the witnesses.

The bridegroom's party trooped out into the crowded garden now to await

the arrival of the bride, and she came accompanied by the chief surgeon

standing in for her dead father, and a party of festively dressed women,

including Debra and her mother.  They all carried lighted candles.

To David, Hannah had never been particularly attractive, she was too

tall and severe in body and expression; however, in her white bridal

dress and veil she was transformed.

She seemed to float cloudlike upon the billowing white skirts, and her

face was softened by the veil and by the inner happiness that seemed to

glow through her green eyes.  Red-gold hair framed her cheeks, and the

freckles were disguised under make-up applied by Debra's cunning hand.

She had used it to mute the rather harsh lines of Hannah's bony nose,

and the result was that Hannah was as near to beautiful as she would

ever come.

Joe, looking big and handsome in his airforce tans, went forward eagerly

to meet her at the gate to the garden and to lower the veil over her

face in the ceremony of bedeken dikafle.

Joe moved to the chuppah canopy where the Rabbi waited with a taffit

over his shoulders.  After Joe the women led Hannah, each of them still

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