Exodus - Leon Uris [110]
“I don’t know,” she murmured. “As much as I cannot walk into it ... I can’t seem to be able to walk away from it and I don’t know why ... I don’t know why.”
Later, Kitty spent over an hour with Karen in the hospital ward that had been set up on the second floor of the hotel. Karen had made a remarkable recovery. In fact, the doctors were amazed with the near magic effect the two words “Eretz Israel” had on all the children. It was more potent than any medicine. As Kitty sat with Karen she looked out over the faces of the children in the ward. Who were they? Where did they come from? Where were they going? What strange, strange people ... what a strange, strange obsession they carried.
There were long periods of silence between Kitty and Karen in which neither of them dared broach the subject of her coming on to Palestine. At last Karen fell asleep. Kitty stared down at the girl. How lovely she was ... how very lovely. She kissed Karen’s forehead and stroked her hair and Karen smiled in her sleep.
She walked out to the corridor where Dov Landau was pacing back and forth. They both halted, stared at each other, and Kitty passed on wordlessly.
The sun was setting as Kitty walked out to the quay. Across the street Zev Gilboa and Joab Yarkoni were supervising the loading of materials aboard the salvage tug. She looked about quickly to catch a glimpse of Ari. He was not in sight.
“Shalom, Kitty!” they called to her.
“Hi!” she called back.
She walked on down the quay toward the lighthouse. It was getting chilly. She put on her sweater. “I must know ... I must know ... I must ... I must” she repeated over and over to herself. Out on the edge of the sea wall sat young David Ben Ami. He seemed lost in thought, looking out over the water and flipping pebbles.
She came up alongside him and he looked up and smiled.
“Shalom, Kitty. You look rested.”
She sat beside him. For several moments they admired the sea.
“Thinking of home?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Jordana ... that’s her name, isn’t it ... Ari’s sister?”
David nodded.
“Will you see her?”
“If I am lucky we will have a little time.”
“David.”
“Yes.”
“What is going to become of the children?”
“We will take good care of them. They are our future.”
“Is there danger?”
“Yes, there is great danger.”
Kitty was quiet again for many moments ...
“Are you sailing with us?” David asked.
She felt her heart skip a beat. “Why do you ask?”
“It is beginning to seem natural to have you around. Besides, Ari mentioned something or other about it.”
“If ... if Ari is interested then why doesn’t he ask?”
David laughed. “Ari doesn’t ask for anything.”
“David,” she said abruptly, “you must help me. I am terribly puzzled. You seem to be the only one who understands a little ...”
“I will help you if I can.”
“ ... I haven’t been around many Jews in my life. You people bewilder me.”
“We bewilder ourselves even more,” David said.
“Can I say something honestly? I feel so much like an outsider ... “
“That is not at all strange, Kitty. Most people do. Even those few we call “friend,” even though they have a loyalty bordering on fanaticism. Some, I believe, feel guilty for all the crimes committed against us. Others want to be Jews ... although Lord only knows why. We are a confusing lot.”
“But a man like Ari Ben Canaan. Who is he? Who is he really? Is he a real person?”
“Ari is quite real. He is the product of a historic abortion.”
They began walking toward the hotel, for it was suppertime. “It is difficult to know where to begin,” David said. “I suppose to really tell the story of Ari Ben Canaan we must start with Simon Rabinsky in the Jewish Pale. The Pale was an area in southwest Russia that included the Ukraine. I suppose we’d have to start before the turn of the century. I think the year of the great happening was 1884.”
Chapter Two
ZHITOMIR, RUSSIA, 1884
Simon Rabinsky was a bootmaker. His wife’s name was Rachel. She was a good and a devout woman. Simon had two sons who were his greatest treasures.