He climbed the remaining stairs two at a time. Room 511 was down the hall, second from last. He unlocked Masada’s door and slipped inside.
The first thing he noticed was Professor Silver’s book on the night table. The rabbi had read it back when Silver had joined Temple Zion. It seemed like a long time ago, but he still remembered how the book unsettled him with its cool analysis of the world’s indifference to the Jews’ plight at the hands of the methodical Nazis.
A cream blouse hung in the open closet and a laundry bag rested on the floor, the thin strap of a bra peeking out. Rabbi Josh hesitated. First he stole her keys, then trespassing, and now voyeurism. Levy would quote the verse “Sins love company.”
But wasn’t she the sinner, trying to destroy Israel? And wasn’t he one of her intended victims? God specifically ordered, “He who rises to kill you, rise first and kill him.”
He held Masada’s laundry bag upside down and shook it violently.
They watched Colonel Ness park his minivan and roll the wheelchair onto a hydraulic tray that lowered him to the ground. “Apologies for my tardiness.” He steered off the loading tray, which folded back into the minivan.
“We were about to leave,” Masada said. They had waited at the address he had given Tara at a business park south of Jerusalem.
Ness propelled his wheelchair across the parking lot toward a three-story office building.
Tara asked, “What was that explosion?”
“A synagogue near the Zion Plaza. Suicide bomber from Hebron, dressed as an Orthodox Jew.”
Tara caught up with him. “How many hurt?”
“Don’t know yet.” He circled the building.
“Hold on.” Masada grabbed Tara’s arm. On a Sabbath morning, the area was deserted. “Aren’t we driving to the airport?”
Ness rolled down the path, around another corner and through a gate in a brick wall. In the middle of an enclosed courtyard, a small helicopter sat idle, its transparent bubble reflecting the sun. Ness lined up his wheelchair with the cockpit, opened the door, and hoisted himself into the pilot seat.
“I don’t think so.” Masada exhaled loudly. “Let’s do breakfast instead.”
Tara asked, “Where’s the pilot?”
“You’re looking at him.” Ness adjusted the headphones over his white hair. He gripped a stick that protruded from the floor between his stumps and moved it around. “A child could fly this thing.” He twisted a handle, which was attached by steel wires to a set of pedals.
Tara settled into the middle seat. “Come aboard. Be bold.”
“Be suicidal.” Masada forced her right leg to bend enough at the knee to get it through the door. “Does this thing have airbags?”
They put on safety harnesses and bulky headphones. Ness started the engine. The small craft shook and rattled as the rotors gained speed.
They began to rise, the earth distancing from their feet under the transparent floor.
“Hoo ha,” Tara cheered, her voice tinny through the headphones.
Colonel Ness exchanged a few sentences with air traffic control while lifting straight up and veered left over the office building, through a crevice between two hills, and higher into the open air, passing a cluster of apartment buildings, wide roads with sparse traffic, a large hotel on the right, and a green area that bordered an expansive cemetery. “Veterans,” he said, “mostly from the Yom Kippur War.” He pointed to a group of white, rectangular buildings around a mushroom-like structure. “The National Museum of Israel. The round building has the Dead Sea Scrolls. You should go see it. The ancient text proves how long Jewish life has existed here.”
Masada was getting used to the weightlessness of midair suspension. “It proves that Jewish hermits once hid in desert caves from the gentiles who actually ruled this land.”
Pushing forward on the stick, Ness said, “The scrolls talk extensively about the Jewish kingdom and life at the time of the temple.”
“Reminiscent fantasies,” Masada said, “about a brief, glorious past.”
“We’ve restored that glory.” Ness pointed to a large square structure. “The Knesset. Our legislature.” He turned slightly toward a group of massive office buildings on the next hill. “Government ministries.” Flying in a circle over an elaborate set of arches, he gestured at a glass-and-stone complex. “The Supreme Court, completing the three branches of government on equal elevation at the three points of a triangle.” He directed the chopper at the rising sun, passing over a forested valley and higher over the vast city. “There’s the King David Hotel.” Tilting the stick right to avoid communication antennas, he pointed again. “Hebrew Union College.”
“The Reform Movement’s seminary,” Masada said. “Is that where Rabbi Josh studied?”
Tara glanced at the colonel.
“Rabbi who?” He slowed the helicopter until it remained stationary in midair, the Old City spread in front of them. “After two thousand years, we returned to King David’s city and created a modern state with high technology and democratic institutions.”
“Hardly democratic,” Masada said. “You’ve got a quarter-million Arabs simmering in East Jerusalem and another-”
“I’m most proud,” Ness cut her off, “of how quickly we’ve achieved all this. In less than half a century we practically rebuilt David’s kingdom from scratch.”
“Another myth,” Masada said, raising her voice as he pulled up, the engine roaring. “King David ruled the whole middle east, with armies and slaves and huge trade. Israel today is a fraction of that kingdom, and even his empire didn’t last long after his death. Jews never ruled themselves here for an extended period of time.”
“King David’s kingdom lasted five centuries. If we are determined and united, we will thrive much longer.” Ness glanced at her over Tara’s head. “You’ve turned into a defeatist, Masada. Where’s your fighting spirit?”
“Don’t speak to me about fighting spirit-you of all people!” She glared at him. “My brother would be alive if you had any fighting spirit, and the Arab who killed him would have been dead for sure.”
Ness accelerated, the noise preventing further conversation. They flew over barren land, the desert sloping gently eastward into the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea.
Professor Silver got out of the taxi. It was hot, and the flat water of the Dead Sea idled at the edge of the unpaved parking area. A limp Israeli flag hung beside a gate topped with rolls of barbed wire. Sulfuric odors made him gag, and he recalled how Faddah had complained all those years ago.
Ezekiel put on a straw hat and went to the guard booth. It was attended by an armed man in short khakis, who was at least as old as Silver, yet tanned and alert. Ezekiel explained that the professor, an Oleh Hadash from America, was trying to find a relative who was involved in rescuing survivors from the 1982 accident on Mount Masada.
The kibbutznik let them in through the gate, handed them a map of the kibbutz, and pointed to an electric golf cart parked under a tree.
They drove by several squat buildings, including a library, a school, and a communal dining hall. Farther up, steel wagons, loaded with gray towels and off-white sheets, lined up along another structure. The electric cart hopped over ridges and cracks in the aging asphalt path. Higher on the hillside they passed modest cottages and a children’s playground. The view to the south was dominated by the sheer cliffs of Mount Masada, which stunned Silver with the improbability of their height.
Ezekiel slowed down, his hand waving grandly at the scene. “Beauty and history combined!”
Silver looked all the way up the cliffs. He remembered his son rolling through the air, over and over, screaming. A sob edged up his throat. He turned away, hiding his contorted face.
A helicopter appeared over Mount Masada, above the crumbling ruins at the edge, where the ancient fort clung to the rocks over the abyss.
“This guy’s too close,” Ezekiel commented. “He’ll clip the mountain.”
Choked up, Silv
er could not respond.
“Here we are.” Ezekiel stopped the cart. “Goodness, this is a big cemetery.”
Elizabeth wasn’t sure about the name. She considered The Palestinian Women’s Freedom League. But Freedom implied that Palestinian women were not free yet, which could insult some. Women of Palestine-Unite! She chuckled. Too old-fashioned. She liked her original idea: The Palestinian Women’s League. But with the abundance of groups, movements, and parties, an organization’s success depended on clarity of message.
The Palestinian Women’s Civil Rights League? The clerics would resent the Americanized phrase. She needed something more positive, hopeful, yet non-confrontational.
She glanced at the phone, willing it to ring. Once contact was established, she would no longer worry about the arrangements for her award ceremony.
Advancement! She tried it out loud. “I’m honored to announce the formation of The Palestinian Women’s Advancement League, dedicated to creating opportunities for the women of Palestine.”
Satisfied, she decided to brave the hotel lobby again. It occurred to her that a message might have been left at the front desk. With their strange Sabbath rules, the Jews might not ring her room.
The lobby was filled with talk of the explosion. A heavy odor of overcooked food hung in the air. The front desk was vacant, and a sign said: No registration or checkout until sunset.
“Can I help you?” A young woman in hotel uniform approached Elizabeth.
“Could you check if I received a message? My name is Elizabeth McPherson.”
The woman disappeared through a door marked Staff Only.
Rabbi Josh shook Masada’s laundry bag again, but nothing else fell from it. He poked the few clothing items. What was he hoping to find?
Voices in the hallway made him pause. Had the front desk clerk realized Masada’s key was missing?
The voices moved on.
In the closet he found a single blouse and Masada’s remarkably long pants. He went through the pockets, which were empty. Her clothes emitted her unique scent, and he thought of their last kiss.
He dropped her pants on the floor and slammed the closet door. The loud bang reminded him of Al’s gunshot, and he thought of the final flicker of life departing Raul’s eyes. Pain overwhelmed him, and he leaned against the wall, trying to fight back the tide of sorrow. But it was too much. He started crying, unable to hold back, the way Raul had cried over a broken toy or a scraped knee.
A few minutes later he calmed down. There was no point in fighting these abrupt bursts of crying. Having grieved for Linda, he had learned that peaks of sorrow, alternating with valleys of emptiness and eruptions of rage, were part of the mourning process that would continue until he accepted God’s judgment and the permanence of an abominable reality.
He looked around Masada’s room. The bed was not made, the indentation left by her body still visible. He removed the bedspread and felt around the sheets. Peeking under the mattress, he found nothing. The drawers in both nightstands were empty, as were the armoire and the vanity.
Three knocks sounded from the door.
He froze, uncertain what to do.
Another three knocks.
The clerk must have noticed!
Approaching the door, the rabbi understood. This was God’s response to his thievery. A divine thumb-down. Defeated, he reached for the door knob.
“King Herod’s private villa.” Colonel Ness controlled the hovering helicopter over the three-level palace. A narrow set of crumbling stairs led down to a circular balcony suspended on fabricated walls off the northern tip of Mount Masada. “He built it as a floating garden, watered regularly from the deep cistern carved into the rocks. It was a thing of beauty in this desert, and remained green even a hundred years later, when the Zealots came to hide here.”
The craft moved higher, over the casement wall of connecting rooms that surrounded the mountaintop at the edge of the cliff. Looking down through the transparent plastic floor, Masada recognized the place, She shut her eyes.
Ness held the craft above the room, right at the edge. “Right here, our lives changed forever.” Dust swirled in all directions, hiding everything but the roofless hostage room under their feet. “Masada lost her brother. I lost my legs. And we lost each other.”
Masada bit her lips.
He reached over and patted her thigh. “It’s good for you. Face your demons. It’s about time you-”
She slapped his hand away, and the chopper swayed in the air, banking sharply to the right, barely missing the cliff. The ruined citadel got away from them in a hurry as the chopper dropped into the gorge, then pulled up roughly and looped around between the rocky cliffs.
Tara hollered.
They ascended higher along the steep rocks opposite Mount Masada. Ness cleared a protrusion of boulders and eased down on a patch of flat dirt. He pressed a series of switches, and the rotors began to slow down.
Across the gulch, Herod’s citadel was in full view against the background of the Dead Sea. When the rotors stopped and the cloud of dust settled, Masada removed the harness and got out. She proceeded along the crest, out of view, and found a narrow crevice, where she bent over and convulsed, before sobbing burst out of her. She cried openly, with loud wails that didn’t sound like her. She cried like she had never cried before, and in the back of her mind, on a different level of consciousness, she was awed at being able to cry like this.
Finally the sobs subsided to sniffles. She wiped her face and stole a glance at the ruined fort across the deep gorge. She focused on the casement wall at the edge. Despite the distance, she could see the room, the low line of blocks that remained of the fallen outer wall. She remembered pulling the skinny Arab over it, into the void, and the other Arab yelling behind his mask, “Faddah! Faddah!”
She stood and looked at the distant bottom, where the young Arab had landed next to Srulie. Bending down, she touched the brace, feeling the outline of the bone in its sheath. “I miss you, Srulie.” She wiped her face. “Oh, God, how I miss you.” And as she said it, Masada realized that she missed even more the young woman who had landed on the mountaintop that night, filled with optimism and love, eager for an exciting future that never materialized.
The helicopter ended its aerobatics over Mount Masada, disappearing to the right, its sound dying down. Professor Silver looked at the vast cemetery and wondered how one kibbutz had produced so many dead people. The gravestones from August 1982 would be next to each other. He would write down the names and go to the office of the kibbutz to ask to meet the relatives. Someone would know where Faddah had been buried, maybe even the whereabouts of the woman soldier.
He noticed a single grave outside the cemetery. He looked again, focusing beside the blotch. He coughed, pounding his own chest until the pressure eased. Could this be it?
“You okay?” Ezekiel held his arm.
He nodded.
The driver pounded Silver’s back. “It’s the atmospheric pressure. You’re standing on the lowest dry land in the whole world.”
“I’ll walk around.” Silver coughed more. “Alone, please.”
“No problem. I’ll fetch us something to drink.” He drove the golf cart down the hillside toward the cottages and checkered plots of vegetables.
Silver followed the fence around the cemetery perimeter, through thorny shrubs and scattered rocks, and reached the isolated concrete slab. There was no name on it, only a crescent and a few numbers. He kneeled, removed his glasses, and gazed sideways. The writing was faded. A drop of sweat fell from the tip of his nose onto the dusty concrete, and he smeared it with his thumb, bringing out the numbers: 19.8.82. The date was written in the European style-day, month, and year. The anonymous corpse was buried here on August 19, 1982.
Faddah.
For years he had dreamt of finding Faddah’s grave, of breaking down and crying over his son. But now, his knees on a concrete slab that covered the boy’s remains, he felt relief, almost joy. It
was a new beginning, a chance to correct a terrible wrong.
Silver gazed up at Mount Masada. Had they carried Faddah’s broken body along the whitened shore of the Dead Sea? Had they walked the distance through the desert, or had they thrown him on the back of a tractor? Had they dropped him into a hole in the dirt and laughed at his delicate hands and smooth cheeks?
He looked over the cemetery fence at the manicured flowers adorning the Jews’ graves and seethed at how Faddah had spent decades in this unattended grave. “They’ll pay dearly, my son! The woman who killed you and all the other Jews! Do you hear, Faddah? Your papa won’t fail again!”
The sound of steps made Rabbi Josh pause. Whoever had knocked on the door was walking away! He let go of the knob.
When the hallway outside was quiet again, he turned to face Masada’s room again. On the floor near the bed, he noticed a crumpled napkin. It bore the logo of Maccabee Beer and a few handwritten lines: Find additional connections between Ness amp; Rabbi Josh. Family?School? Mutual friends? Find local past for rabbi. Schooled in Israel? Volunteered in IDF? Developed / maintained friendships?Find rabbi’s rewards. Israeli gov. pension? Apartment? Car?
Sheen-Donor?
Did Sheen give $$$ to rabbi, who then delivered it to Zonshine?
Rabbi Josh read the note again. It made no sense. He recalled Masada calling him Agent Frank. He had assumed she was trying to confuse him, divert attention from her own culpability, but the scribbles on the napkin implied she really believed he was an Israeli agent.
He sat on the bed, confused. Hadn’t Masada dominated Al with sexual favors? Hadn’t Silver heard them clearly? So why was this note implying that she was investigating him, that she was convinced he had used Al to bribe Mahoney on behalf of the Israelis!
The Masada Complex Page 29
