Mitla Pass - Leon Uris [57]
“What kind of crazy business is this!”
“There seems to be a lot of spite involved. Eisenhower is furious with Israel. Jerking the embassy people out like this seems to be more of a warning than anything.”
“What do you think?”
“I don’t think we’re in any danger, but it’s something I don’t want to be wrong about. What really disturbs me is how this must all sound over the news at home. I guess I’m thinking about your mother and my old man. If there’s one chance in a million of the girls getting hurt, we can’t take it.”
“You’re right, it would kill Mom on top of her stroke,” Val said slowly, allowing reality to take over her fright.
“Settled, then. Better start packing up for you and the girls.”
“What about you?”
Gideon shook his head. “There’s no way I can leave.”
“Why?” she asked. It was a devastating, all-encompassing, “WHY.”
“I can’t, you know I can’t. I’m ...”
“You’re what!”
“I’m a Jew ... I represented myself here as a fighter ... a Marine ...Of Men in Battle is their second bible. ... I can’t tuck my tail between my legs and jump ship with the women and children. It wouldn’t sit right.”
“To whom wouldn’t it sit right?”
“To myself among others. Who in the hell would ever believe a word I wrote in my book?”
“Fuck your book!” Val yelled.
“Whatever you say, whatever you think, is right. I’ve messed up, in spades. Even if I could make myself believe it was morally right to leave, we still have problems. We’ve got to salvage something out of this. You’re only going to be able to take a couple of suitcases.”
“Don’t give me that shit, Gideon! Your pals can pack and ship the rest of the stuff.”
“Baby, we are broke. I mean dead-ass busted. I’ve got to try to get some of the lease money back. Maybe, if I can sell the car to a foreigner on a passport-to-passport deal, I can raise a few thousand dollars. We’ve got three thousand in Israeli currency in the bank. It’s going to take some real manipulation to get it converted.”
“Dammit, let’s just leave,” she cried.
He didn’t hear her. She didn’t hear him. “I’ve got a dozen cables to get on the wire. I’ve got to pick up some writing assignments,” he mumbled.
“Let’s just go!”
“We’ve barely got hotel money for you in Europe.”
And then they stopped their soliloquies and stared at each other. “What about the rest of it, Gideon? Are you going to find the hottest combat unit in Israel and wing it out with them?”
No more needed to be said. The confrontation was spoken with eyes. What about Natasha Solomon?
Val accepted the reality as though the life had been squeezed from her body. “What about Grover?” she asked, barely speaking. “He’s sick.”
“I was told I couldn’t get him on the plane. I’ll take him in to Dr. Klement and do everything I can to bring him out with me, later. If not, I’ll find him a good home.”
Val looked around desperately as though she were waiting for the hypnotist to clap his hands and wake her from her nightmare. The girls were standing in the doorway, gaping in disbelief.
“How much did you hear?”
“We have to leave,” Penny said.
“Go to your room and lay out only the most essential things on the bed,” Valerie said with sudden firmness. “Dad will send everything to us later.”
“Grover!”
“I’ll do everything I can to get him to you as soon as he’s well.”
Roxy broke and wept.
“Roxanne,” Valerie said sternly, “we’ve got to tough it, so pull yourself together, girl. There’s a long night ahead.”
“Yes, Momma ...”
EACH ITEM of clothing was rolled up tightly and jammed down into a pair of Gideon’s Marine Corps seabags. It was amazing how much they were able to pack in.
Gideon told them that during the war, just before they went into combat they would wind a roll of toilet paper around a pencil and keep stretching it tighter so that five or six rolls could be compressed into a few inches in diameter.
The six o’clock news came on, with a chilling announcement that a blackout was now in effect. It was Grover Vandover who picked up on the growing tension as neighbors arrived, but the dog was feeling too low to protest with much more than a whimper.