The Haj - Leon Uris [159]
‘I’ll get some climbing gear,’ I said. I really hoped that by the time I returned she would have abandoned the idea. I made my way back to our cave painfully slowly. I rolled up a long line of rope and placed it across my shoulders, filled a canteen, grabbed a flashlight, and made my way back even slower.
Oh shit! Nada had not only not abandoned the climb, she was a good two hundred feet above, laughing and teasing Sabri, who was inching up, clutching at the rocks awkwardly. I begged my legs to stop shaking, said a prayer to Allah, and started up. Oh, the utmost horror of it! I glued my eyes to my hands as they seized protruding rocks. When my foot slipped, I made the mistake of looking down at it and the cliff plunged down at least a million feet ... or even more. ...
I was dying to scream out that I had had enough because it was occurring to me that we also had to climb down. Of course, I had to wait for someone else to quit first and I had an awful feeling that it wasn’t going to be Nada. Every time I caught a glimpse of her black dress, I could see her scampering upward with an agility that showed no fear.
‘Come on! Come on!’ she kept shouting. ‘It is beautiful up here!’
Please Allah, there was a small flat spot where they had stopped to rest. I prayed that by the time I got to them they would have reconsidered the rest of the climb because I was about to pee in my pants. When I reached them, Nada was standing over Sabri, trying to comfort him. He had become frozen with fear, unable to move up, down, or sideways. He could not even speak.
‘Phew,’ I uttered. I was deliriously happy that Sabri had quit first. ‘Well, no use going any higher,’ I said. ‘Don’t worry now, Sabri. It is no shame. We will help you down with the ropes.’ I put my arm about his shoulder, reeking with sympathy and at the same time covering my own quaking. Sabri was fortunate to have such an understanding friend as me.
‘Bad luck. We’ll try again. Huh, Sabri?’
He emitted a little peep like a chick that had just broken out of its egg. When I looked up, Nada was gone again. Uh oh. I got to my feet very cautiously and flattened myself against the wall as far back from the edge as possible, but made the mistake of looking down again. Oh God!
‘Nada!’ I shouted, ‘you come back! This is a command!’
‘Ishmael! Up here! Come! There is a large crack we can follow. It is much easier!’
I looked up. I looked down. I was dead either way.
‘Sabri, let’s finish it. Nada has found a way.’
‘I c-c-c-can’t,’ he blurted.
No use trying to force him. He was paralyzed, locked from head to toe. ‘Then stay here and don’t move. We will be back soon. All right?’
He managed to nod his head.
Things got easier because it was impossible for me to be more frightened than I was. Then I became downright bold as the cave opening loomed closer. Well, Nada wasn’t afraid. She must have been crazy. I had never really depended on a girl before, but nothing ever felt so good as her hand pulling me up over the edge.
‘Isn’t this fun!’ she panted.
‘It was easy,’ I said.
We stood before the opening hand in hand. One always approaches the opening of a cave the same way ... with caution. I flicked on the flashlight and prodded her to go in ahead of me. She tiptoed gingerly, waiting for bats to fly out, but there were none. I came up behind her and probed with the light around a huge room.
Nada shrieked and flung herself into my arms. There! In a corner! A pile of human bones.
‘It’s all right,’ I croaked. ‘They’re dead.’
Then we saw something sadder still. There was a huge jar which had broken to reveal the skeleton of a little baby with a small pitcher and some grain near its head.
‘I wonder who it was,’ she said.
We poked around. There were more children’s bones at a stone altar of some kind which still had fire marks on it. We didn’t know what it all meant, but with each moment our courage became greater and we dared look deeper. We probed three halls and each of them