Exodus - Leon Uris [215]
When the parade was done there was a final rousing cheer from the audience.
Dr. Lieberman’s secretary slipped alongside him and whispered into his ear.
“Excuse me, please,” he said, “I have an important phone call.”
“Hurry back,” Harriet Saltzman called after him.
The lights in the trees were turned off, plunging the place into darkness for a moment before a spotlight shone on the stage. The curtain opened and the tambour beat and a reed flute played an ancient melody. The children began to enact the Song of Ruth. It was done in pantomime against the plaintive sound background of the two instruments.
Their costumes were authentic. The dances were the slow and sensuous movements of the days of Ruth and Naomi. Then came performers who danced with wild leaps and a passion like that of the dancers Kitty saw on top of Tabor.
How they lived for the re-creation of their past, Kitty thought. How dedicated they were to regaining the glory of Israel.
Karen stepped onto the stage and commanded an instant expectant hush. Karen danced the part of Ruth. Her movements told the simple and beautiful story of the Moabite girl and her Hebrew mother-in-law who traveled to Beth Lehem—the House of Bread. The story of love and of one God had been retold at Shavuot since the days of the Maccabees.
Ruth had been a gentile in the land of the Jews. Yet Ruth was an ancestor of King David.
Kitty’s eyes were glued to Karen as she enacted Ruth’s words to Naomi that she would come to the land of the Hebrews with her.
“Whither thou goest I will go; and where thou lodgest I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people and thy God my God.”
Kitty was dismayed as never before. Could she get Karen away from this? Kitty Fremont was the stranger. She would always be a stranger. The gentile among the Hebrews, but she could not say as Ruth had said, “Thy people shall be my people.” Would this mean losing Karen?
Dr. Lieberman’s secretary tapped Kitty’s shoulder. “Would you come to Dr. Lieberman’s office at once?” she whispered.
Kitty excused herself and slipped from her seat. She walked up to the top of the theater and looked back for a moment to see the children dancing the dance of the reapers and to watch Karen go to sleep at the feet of “Boaz.” She turned and left the theater.
The path was dark and she had to be careful of trenches. Kitty turned her pocket flashlight on the ground. She crossed the center green and passed the statue of Dafna. Behind her she could hear the beat of the tambour and the cry of the flute. She walked quickly to the administration building, led by the single light.
She opened the door to Dr. Lieberman’s office.
“Good Lord,” she said, startled at the sight of him, “what’s the matter? You look as though ...”
“They have found Karen’s father,” he whispered.
Chapter Eight
BRUCE SUTHERLAND DROVE Kitty and Karen to Tel Aviv the next day. Kitty used the pretext that she had to do some overdue shopping and wanted to give Karen her first look at the big city. They arrived slightly before the noon hour and checked into the Gat Rimon Hotel on Hayarkon Street, on the Mediterranean. After lunch Sutherland excused himself and left. The shops were closed during the midday hours so Kitty and Karen romped along the sandy beach below the hotel, then cooled off from the heat with a refreshing swim.
At three o’clock Kitty ordered a taxi. They drove to Jaffa where one of the faculty at Gan Dafna had recommended some great buys in Arab and Persian brass- and copperware. Kitty wanted some things for the cottage. The taxi took them into a narrow, twisting street in the center of the Jaffa flea market. A row of shops were indentations in a Crusader wall. They stopped before one of the holes in the wall guarded by a fat individual sitting asleep in the doorway, with a red fez tipped over his eyes. Kitty and Karen studied the shop. It was five feet wide and not much deeper and a mess of hanging pots, pans, plates,