Exodus - Leon Uris [224]
From there Ari took her to the church which marked the place of the miracle of the multiplication of loaves and fishes a short distance from Capernaum. The floor of the church held a Byzantine mosaic depicting cormorants and herons and ducks and other wild birds which still inhabited the lake.
And then they moved on to the Mount of Beatitudes to a little chapel on the hill where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
These were His words spoken from this place. As she saw the Christian holy places the thought came to confuse her that Ari Ben Canaan and David Ben Ami and her own Karen seemed to live with a closeness to all this that she could never attain.
They sped past the sleeping Arab village of Migdal, the birthplace of Mary Magdalene, and then beneath the Horns of Hattin, which held the tomb of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses and the chief prophet of the Druses, but Kitty’s attention was distracted by her mental turmoil.
Then the car turned away from the plains of Hattin and into a flat field where a burst of scarlet hit their eyes. The field was a red carpet of wild flowers.
“How red it is,” Kitty said. “Stop the car for a moment, Ari.”
He pulled over to the side of the road and Kitty got out. She picked one of the flowers and as she looked at it her eyes narrowed. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” she whispered in a shaky voice.
“The ancient Maccabees lived in caves around here. It is the only place in the world this flower grows. It is called Blood of the Maccabees.”
Kitty examined the red bloom closely. It did look like little droplets of blood. She dropped the flower quickly and rubbed her hand on her skirt.
This land and everything about it was closing in on her! Even the wild flowers will not let you forget for a moment. It creeps into you from its very earth and its very air and it is damning and tormenting.
Kitty Fremont was frightened. She knew that she would have to leave Palestine at once: the more she resisted the place the harder it struck back at her. It was all around her and above her and beneath her and she felt stifled and crushed.
They entered Tiberias from the north through the modern Jewish suburb of Kiryat Shmuel—the Village of Samuel—and drove past another large Taggart fort and descended from the hills to the water level, into the Old City. The buildings were mostly of black basalt rock and the hills were filled with the graves and caves of ancient Hebrew greats.
Beyond the city they turned into the Galilean Hotel on the sea. It was very hot in the midday. Kitty nibbled her lunch of Galilee catfish and barely spoke a word. She wished she had not come.
“I haven’t yet shown you the holiest of the holy,” Ari said.
“Where is that?”
“Shoshanna kibbutz. That’s where I was born.”
Kitty smiled. She suspected that Ari knew she was disturbed and was trying to cheer her up. “And just where is this great shrine?”
“A few miles down the road where the Jordan River runs into the sea. Although I do hear I was almost born in the old Turkish police station in town here. This place is full of tourists in the winter. It’s a little late in the season. Anyhow, we have the whole lake to ourselves. Why don’t we take a swim?”
“That sounds like a really good idea,” Kitty said.
A long pier of basalt rock jutted out beyond the hotel for some forty yards into the lake. Ari was on the pier first after lunch. Kitty found herself looking at his body as she walked from the hotel. He waved to her. Ari had a lean build and looked hard and powerful.
“Hi,” she called. “Have you been in yet?”
“I’ve been waiting for you.”
“How deep is it from the end of the pier?”
“About