Eagle in the Sky - Smith Wilbur - Страница 50

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It was only the personal intervention of the Prime Minister and of

Major-General Mordecai that saved you from that.  In my view, instead of

bemoaning your fate, you should consider yourself highly fortunate.  He

turned away and his footsteps cracked on the stone floor as he strode

from the room.

In the bleak impersonal lobby of the hospital, David was suddenly struck

by a reluctance to walk on out into the spring sunshine through the

glass swing doors.  He had heard that long-term prisoners felt this way

when the time came for their release.

Before he reached the doors he turned aside and went down to the

hospital synagogue.  In a corner of the quiet square hall he sat for a

long time.  The stained-glass windows, set high in the nave, filled the

air with shafts of coloured lights when the sun came through, and a

little of the peace and beauty of that place stayed with him and gave

him courage when at last he walked out into the square and boarded a bus

for Jerusalem.

He found a seat at the rear, and beside a window.  The bus pulled away

and ground slowly up the hill towards the city.

He became aware that he was being watched, and he lifted his head to

find that a woman with two young children had taken the seat in front of

him.  She was a poorly dressed, harassed-looking woman, prematurely aged

and she held the grubby young infant on her lap and fed it from the

plastic bottle.  However, the second child was an angelic little girl of

four or five years.  She had huge dark eyes and a head of thick curls.

She stood on the seat facing backwards, with one thumb thrust deeply

into her mouth.  She was watching David steadily over the back of the

seat, studying his face with that total absorption and candour of the

child.  David felt a sudden warmth of emotion for the child, a longing

for the comfort of human contact, of which he had been deprived all

these months.

He leaned forward in his seat, trying to smile, reaching out a gentle

hand to touch the child's arm.

She removed her thumb from her-, mouth and shrank away from him, turning

to her mother and clinging to her arm, hiding her face in the woman's

blouse.

At the next stop David stepped down from the bus and left the road to

climb the stony hillside.

The day was warm and drowsy, with the bee murmur and the smell of the

blossoms from the peach orchards.

He climbed the terraces and rested at the crest, for he found he was

breathless and shaky.  Months in hospital had left him unaccustomed to

walking far, but it was not that alone.  The episode with the child had

distressed him terribly.

He looked longingly towards the sky.  it was clear and brilliant blue,

with high silver cloud in the north.  He wished he could ascend beyond

those clouds.  He knew he would find peace up there.

A taxi dropped him off at the top of Malik Street.  The front door was

unlocked, swinging open before he could fit his key in the lock.

Puzzled and alqrrned he stepped into the living-room.

It was as he had left it so many months before, but somebody had cleaned

and swept, and there were fresh flowers in a vase upon the olive-wood

table, a huge bouquet of gaily coloured dahlias, yellow and scarlet.

David smelled food, hot and spicy and tantalizing after the bland

hospital fare.

Hello, he called.  Who is there?  Welcome home!  there was a familiar

bellow from behind the closed bathroom door.  I didn't expect you so

soon, and you've caught me with my skirts up and pants down.  There was

a scuffling sound and then the toilet flushed thunderously and the door

was flung open.  Ella Kadesh appeared majestically through it.  She wore

one of her huge kaftans, it was a blaze of primary colours.

Her hat was apple-green in colour, the brim pinned up at the side like

an Australian bush hat by an enormous jade brooch and a bunch of ostrich

feathers.

Her heavy arms were flung wide in a gesture of welcome, and the face was

split in a huge grin of anticipation.  She came towards him, and the

grin persisted long after the horror had dawned in her bright little

eyes.

Her steps slowed.  David?  Her voice was uncertain.  It is you, David?

Hello, Ella.  Oh God.  Oh, sweet holy name of God.  What have they done

to you, my beautiful young Mars Listen, you old bag, he said sharply, if

you start blubbering I'm going to throw you down the steps.  She made a

huge effort to control it, fighting back the tears that flooded into her

eyes, but her jowls wobbled and her voice was thick and nasal as she

enfolded him in her huge arms and hugged him to her bosom.

I've got a case of cold beers in the refrigerator, and I made a pot of

curry for us.  You'll love my curry, it's the thing I do best David ate

with enormous appetite, washing down the fiery food with cold beer, and

listened to Ella talk.

She spouted words like a fountain, using their flow to cover her pity

and embarrassment.

They would not let me visit you, but I telephoned every week and kept in

touch that way.  The sister and I got very friendly, she let me know you

were coming today.  So I drove up to make sure you had a welcome -She

tried to avoid looking directly at his face, but when she did the

shadows appeared in her eyes, even though she made a convincing effort

at gaiety.  When he finished eating at last, she asked, What will you do

now, David?  I would have liked to go back and fly.  It's the thing I

like to do best, but they have forced me to resign my commission.  I

disobeyed orders, Joe and I followed them across the border, and they

don't want me any more.

There was nearly open war, David.  It was a crazy thing that you and Joe

did.

David nodded.  I was mad.  I wasn't thinking straight after Debra Ellen

interrupted quickly.  Yes, I know.  Share another beer?

David nodded distractedly.  How is she, Ella?  It was the question he

had wanted to ask all along.

She is just fine, Davey.  She has begun the new book, and if anything

it's better than the first.  I think she will become a very important

writer Her eyes?  Is there any improvement?

Ella shook her head.  She has come to terms with that now.  It doesn't

seem to bother her any longer, just as you will come to accept what has

happened David was not listening.  Ella, in all that time, when I was in

hospital, every day I hoped, I knew it was useless, but I hoped to hear

from her.  A card, a word. She didn't know, Davey.  Didn't know?  David

demanded and leaned across the table to grip Ella's wrist.  What do you

mean?  After Joe, was killed, Debra's father was very angry.

He believed that you were responsible David nodded, the blank mask of

his face concealing his guilt.

Well, he told Debra that you had left Israel, and gone back to your

home.  We were all sworn to silence, and that's what Debra believes now.

David released Ella's wrist, picked up his beer glass and sipped at the

head of froth.

You still haven't answered my question, David.  What are you going to do

now?  I don't know, Ella.  I guess I'll have to think about that.

A harsh warm wind came off the hills and ruffled the surface of the

lake, darkening it to black and flecking it with white crests.  The

fishing boats along the curve of the shore tugged restlessly at their

mooring ropes, and the fishing nets upon their drying racks billowed

like bridal veils.

The wind caught Debra's hair and shook it out in a loose cloud.  It

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