Exodus - Leon Uris [253]
“All right,” she said, “I’m ready. Hold him down and let’s get going.”
One man held Ari’s head, two men held each arm, two held the good leg and one held the bad one. The eight Druses had Ari pinned solidly to the floor. Karen stood at the edge of the group with the flashlight, brandy, and the meager supplies at hand. Kitty got on her knees and knelt close to the wound. Karen turned the flashlight on it.
Kitty took a razor blade in her fingers and motioned the men to get ready. She pressed the blade against his thigh and lined up her stroke. With one quick hard motion she slit deeply into his flesh and opened it in a two-inch cut over the bullet hole. Ari shook violently. Mucus poured from his nose, and his eyes ran with tears of agony. The men strained to hold him.
Karen saw the blood leave Kitty’s lips and her eyes started to roll. She grabbed Kitty’s hair and pulled her face up and poured brandy down her throat. Kitty gagged a second and caught herself and took another drink. Ari’s eyes rolled back into his head. He fell into blessed unconsciousness.
Karen turned the light on the incision once again. With one hand Kitty held the skin apart. With her other thumb and third finger she dug into his flesh and felt around for the bullet. Her fingernail rubbed the hard object. With a final exertion of strength she gripped it and wiggled it loose from his leg.
She sat on the floor and held the bullet up and looked at it and began laughing. All the Druse men started laughing too. Kitty sobbed half hysterically.
“Mussa,” Karen said, “get him back on the bed quickly. Don’t let anything touch that wound.”
Karen helped Kitty to her feet and sat her down in a chair. She pried the bullet from her hands and wiped them clean. The girl moved over to Ari and poured sulfa powder into the wound and laid a bandage over the top of it lightly. Then she sponged Ari down. Kitty remained crumpled and sobbing.
Karen ordered everyone from the room and poured another drink for Kitty and left.
Kitty sipped the brandy and walked over to Ari and felt his pulse. She pried his eyes open and watched his color.
Yes ... he was going to come through all right ...
She laid her head on his chest. “Ari ... Ari ... Ari ... Ari ...” she whispered between sobs.
Chapter Eighteen
ARI REMAINED in excruciating pain. The medicines failed to arrive. Kitty was unable to leave him for a second. Several times she had to call Mussa for men to keep Ari from thrashing around and endangering the open wound.
Up the hill in the center of the village the dancing and chanting and hilarity continued. The bride, who had been hidden all day, was taken from seclusion. The groom, dressed in a cutaway coat and top hat, mounted a horse and rode to her through a flower-strewn lane flanked with rifle-bearing Druse men.
After the ceremony many of the Jewish visitors, with the children from Gan Dafna, lit a campfire and there were more songs and a hora. There was Hebraic dancing to the tambour and flute and the Druse dancers, too, took their turn in the center ring.
Karen remained constantly in the outside room. She came in to spell Kitty for intervals during the long night. Morning found both of them exhausted from the lack of sleep and the prolonged tension. Kitty sat at the edge of the bed and sprang up each time Ari groaned or moved.
By morning the medicines still had not arrived.
“You had better take the children back to Gan Dafna,” Kitty told Mussa. “Is there anyone else here who speaks English?”
“Yes, I will have him stay here.”
“Good. Can you get another bed set up or a couch or something for me to rest on? I’ll have to remain right here for some time.”
“It will be arranged.”
Kitty went into the next room where Karen dozed on