Exodus - Leon Uris [248]
“They will miss you.”
“I know. And I will miss them. I’ll try to get everything up to date in the next few days. There are a few special cases I’d like to go over with you personally.”
“Yes, of course.”
Kitty stood up to leave.
“Be sure to get to the dining room a half hour early tonight.”
“I would prefer it if they didn’t. I don’t think the occasion calls for a going-away party.”
The little hunchback held up his hands. “Everyone insisted. What could I do?”
Kitty walked to the door and opened it.
“How is Karen?”
“Pretty badly upset. She has been since she saw Dov at the prison. I had a bad night with her last night when we heard about the Acre jail raid. Maybe she will learn soon whether or not he escaped. That poor child has been through enough suffering for a lifetime. It may take a while, Dr. Lieberman, but I am going to make her very happy in America.”
“I wish it were in my heart to tell you that I think you are wrong for leaving us. I cannot say that.”
Kitty left his office and walked down the corridor thinking about the news that had electrified the world. The Maccabees had lost twenty men and women killed and another fifteen were captured. No one knew how many wounded were in hiding. Ben Moshe had been killed. It seemed like a high price to pay for two lives—until one considered that they were not just any two lives. The raid had been a crushing blow to what was left of British morale and British desire to remain in Palestine.
Kitty stopped before Jordana’s door. She hated the idea of confronting Jordana. She knocked.
“Yes?”
Kitty entered. Jordana looked up from her desk coldly.
“I was wondering, Jordana ... Do you happen to know if Dov Landau made his escape yesterday? I mean, with Karen’s attachment to the boy it would make her feel much better if ...”
“I don’t know.”
Kitty started to leave, then turned at the last second. “Was Ari on the raid?”
“Ari doesn’t give me a list of his raids.”
“I thought you might know.”
“How should I know? It was a Maccabee raid.”
“You people have ways of obtaining information about things you want to learn.”
“If I knew I wouldn’t tell you, Mrs. Fremont. You see, I want nothing to stand in the way of your catching your plane out of Palestine.”
“It would be much nicer if we could part friends but it doesn’t look as though you are even going to give me a chance for that.”
She turned quickly and left the office and walked out to the main door. Kitty could hear whooping and cheering coming from a football game on the athletic field. Out on the center green some of the younger children played tag and some of the older ones lay on the lawn studying.
The flowers never stopped blooming at Gan Dafna, Kitty reflected, and the air was forever filled with their scent.
Kitty walked down the steps of the administration building and crossed the green, past the trenches. She stopped by the statue of Dafna. This time she did not feel jealous of Ari’s dead sweetheart. She looked down on the Huleh as Dafna always looked down on it and she felt a sudden twinge of loneliness.
“Shalom, Giveret Kitty,” some youngsters called to her as they ran past. One of them ran up to her and threw his arms around her waist, and she mussed his hair and sent him along.
As she walked to the hospital she felt very depressed. Leaving Gan Dafna was going to be more difficult than she had thought.
In her office she began to go through her files, discarding some, sorting others.
It was strange, she thought; she had not felt this loss in leaving the orphanage in Salonika. Kitty never really tried to become a “friend” of the Jews at Gan Dafna. Why was it all catching up to her at this moment?
Perhaps it was because it was the end of an adventure. She would miss Ari Ben Canaan and she would think about him for a long time, maybe forever. But in time things would become sane and organized again and she would be able to give Karen all those things in life she wanted for the girl. There would be good times and wonderful vacations together and Karen would start her dancing lessons again. In time, the