The Haj - Leon Uris [149]
‘We have enough donkeys in our family to keep it company.’
My father began to realize that Hagar had reasons. ‘So only one donkey,’ he said.
‘One donkey and one milk goat,’ Hagar answered.
‘Why do we need a goat? Fatima’s milk is no good?’
‘Fatima’s milk is sour.’
‘It will get better now that we have found water.’
‘She is pregnant,’ Hagar said.
‘But one pregnant woman doesn’t need a goat.’
‘There are two pregnant women. Ramiza is also with child,’ Hagar said and climbed into the back of the truck.
6
JERICHO, ONE OF MAN’S oldest cities, had had an ancient glory second only to Jerusalem. At the eastern portal to the holy city, Jericho had known many kings, would-be kings, and their armies. Away from the eyes of Jerusalem, Jericho was a den of ancient conspiracies and murders and the first way station for defeated warriors in their flights to the desert.
Jericho, the lowest city in the world and one of the most torrid, melted into lethargy under the blare of the sun and evolved into a slow-motion hamlet of a few thousand souls.
These days it was more chaotic than Haj Ibrahim could have imagined. Everywhere one looked, people slept—in the streets and gutters, in the fields, all about the hills. There were thousands upon thousands of them in disarray and dismay. The nearby Allenby Bridge beckoned them to cross the river to Jordan. Some went, some stayed. The Allenby was a bridge of great uncertainty to the future, perhaps spanning a river of no return.
News of the war was equally distressing, but Ibrahim was not all that surprised. A second truce was in effect, but in reality the Arab armies had been stopped cold everywhere. The worst of it was that the Egyptians were in retreat in the Negev Desert.
Jordan’s Arab Legion alone had had a measure of success. It held the Latrun Police Fort, East Jerusalem, and areas of major Arab settlement on the West Bank of the river. Otherwise, the military disaster was universal. While others in Jericho fed themselves on rumors and illusions, Haj Ibrahim knew that any hope for Arab victory had been burst. He realized that the Arab Legion would never leave the safety of the Latrun Fort for an attack. Abdullah would be more than content, for the moment, to hang onto his gains. After all, his quarrel with the Jews had been more of an exercise in Islamic nepotism than genuine hatred. He had been dragged into the war because of his British-trained Legion. Why shouldn’t he sit tight in Latrun and claim the West Bank? But that meant that Tabah would be forever inside the new State of Israel.
After returning to the cave with a load of feed to sustain a donkey and a goat, Ibrahim and Sabri drove to East Jerusalem to sell the truck. They came up Jericho Road past the Garden of Gethsemane to where it ended at the Rockefeller Museum.
From here the Wadi el Joz road twisted and plunged into a gulley that eventually worked its way back uphill to the demilitarized zone on Mount Scopus. It was lined with catch-as-catch-can garages, a street notorious for black market dealing, prostitutes, and knives for hire. It had been on this very road that a convoy of Jewish doctors and nurses had been ambushed and slaughtered on their way up to Hadassah Hospital.
Haj Ibrahim was immediately wary of the street. It smelled dangerous. If he sold the truck and carried a large amount of money, he might never get out of the place alive. He ordered Sabri to turn around and retrace the route, then parked on a side road in the Valley of Kidron near the Tomb of Absalom.
‘Walk back to the Wadi el Joz and bring the buyers here one at a time, but do not tell them where you are bringing them or else you might be followed by a dozen cousins,’ Ibrahim instructed.
Ibrahim knew that the first round of potential buyers was most likely in the game to soften him up for the eventual buyer. Their mission was to knock down the price by deprecating the vehicle. Sabri returned with a Syrian officer, a deserter who had built up a thriving business purchasing weapons from other deserters. A fair part of his arsenal had been