Exodus - Leon Uris [240]
She was ushered into a tiny cell. The door was closed behind her and a soldier stood near. He opened a slot in the wall measuring a few inches wide and a few inches high.
“You’ll talk to him through that slot there, girlie,” the guard said.
Karen nodded and looked into it. She could see the two cells on the other side of the wall. She saw Akiva in the first and Dov in the other, his scarlet dress. Dov lay on his back, staring at the ceiling. Karen could see a guard enter and unlock his cell door.
“Up, Landau,” the guard barked. “Somebody to see you. “
Dov picked up a book from the floor and opened it and read.
“You’ve got a visitor.”
Dov turned a page in the book.
“I said you’ve got a visitor.”
“I’m not in for any of your good-will ambassadors. Tell them I said to go ...”
“It ain’t one of ours. It’s one of yours. It’s a girl, Landau.”
Dov’s hands tightened on the book and his heart raced. “Tell her I’m busy.”
The guard shrugged and walked to the slot in the wall. “He says he don’t want to see nobody.”
“Dov!” Karen called. “Dov!”
Her voice echoed in the death cell. “Dov! It’s me, Karen!”
Akiva looked tensely to Dov’s cell. Dov gritted his teeth and turned another page.
“Dov! Dov! Dov!”
“Talk to her, boy,” Akiva shouted. “Don’t go to your grave in the silence my brother has condemned me to. Talk to her, boy.”
Dov set the book down and rolled off the cot. He motioned the guard to open his cell door. He walked to the slot and looked into it. He could see only her face.
Karen looked into his cold, blue, angry eyes.
“I don’t want no more tricks,” he said acidly. “If they sent you here to beg, just turn around and get out. I’m not asking for mercy from these bastards.”
“Don’t talk like that to me, Dov.”
“I know they sent you.”
“I swear no one asked me to come. I swear it.”
“Then what are you doing here?”
“I just wanted to see you once again.”
Dov clenched his teeth and kept his control. Why did she have to come? He nearly died with wanting to touch her cheek.
“How do you feel?”
“Fine ... just fine.”
There was a long silence.
“Dov ... did you really mean what you wrote to Kitty or did you say it just because ... “
“I meant it.”
“I wanted to know.”
“Well, you know now.”
“Yes, I know. Dov ... I ... I’ll be leaving Eretz Israel soon. I’m going to America.”
Dov shrugged.
“I guess I shouldn’t have come. I’m sorry I bothered you.”
“That’s all right. I know you was just trying to be nice. I would really like to see my girl but she’s a Maccabee and she can’t come. She’s my own age, you know.”
“I know.”
“Anyhow. You’re a nice kid, Karen ... and ... uh ... you uh ... get to America and forget about all this business here. And good luck.”
“I guess I had better go,” Karen whispered.
She stood up. Dov’s expression did not change.
“Karen!”
She turned quickly.
“Uh ... just to show that we are friends ... uh ... we could shake hands if the guard says it’s all right.”
Karen put her hand through the opening and Dov pressed it between his own and pressed his forehead against the wall and closed his eyes.
Karen grasped his hand and pulled it back to her side of the wall.
“No,” he said, “no ...” but he could not resist.
She kissed his hand and pressed it against her cheek and her lips and he felt the tears from her eyes. And then she was gone.
His cell door clanged behind him. Dov flopped on his bed. In all of his lifetime he could not remember shedding tears. But now nothing could stop them. He turned his back to the door so the guards and Akiva could not see his face and he wept softly from his heart.
Barak Ben Canaan was one of the Yishuv advisors who traveled with the UNSCOP as it inspected Palestine and made its various inquiries. The Yishuv showed its proud record of land reclamations, rehabilitation for the homeless—the progress of the kibbutzim and factories and the cities they had built. The UNSCOP delegates were impressed by the contrast