Ashes of the Red Heifer

by Shannon Baker

  David saluted Adi, threw Annie a kiss and sauntered to the door. Even that brief glimpse of David eased a slight amount of tension. Since Annie couldn’t follow him back to the shed, she concentrated on the vaccine.

  Just over an hour later she shoved her chair back from the work space. She took a case containing six vials of vaccine to the refrigerator. “Poke me with a fork, I’m done,” she said to Moshe.

  His head jerked up from his chest. She hadn’t noticed he’d dozed off while she worked. He might as well get some sleep; she couldn’t get out the door without waking him.

  He blinked and stood. “Is it good vaccine to save the cows?”

  She nodded. “Good vaccine to save Hassan, some sick people and the cows.”

  He opened the door and she walked outside into the night, no longer tempted to make a run for it. She didn’t want to be responsible for any more damage to David.

  Moshe touched her arm and pointed along the cliff to the south. His face held a pleading look. “Please. Quiet.”

  What was he up to? She walked softly in the direction he indicated and soon dipped behind a jut in the wall just passed the mess tent.

  Moshe touched her arm again and she stopped. He looked over his shoulder at the camp and pulled out keys, making sure they didn’t clink against each other. With one last glance to the sleeping camp, he turned to the cliff and flipped open a rock like the one hiding the lab door. Within seconds he opened a door and indicated Annie step inside. He quickly shut the door with a soft click.

  What opened before her dwarfed her lab and barn eaked from the cliff. She stared, unbelieving.

  The space was large enough it could have been a shopping mall. She stood on a stone floor but a few feet in front of her steps rose to a platform the rest of the mall seemed built upon. Four or five buildings circled an open courtyard, deserted now.

  It looked to Annie like a movie set of a village in old Israel. “What…”

  Moshe held his finger to his lips. He looked toward the courtyard and waited.

  In a few seconds a woman hurried out of one of the doors. She surveyed the other buildings then silently rushed to Moshe’s waiting arms. Their embrace was almost violent in its intensity; their love and longing apparent even in the dark.

  When the two pulled apart Annie saw the woman was the pretty dark-haired one from the mess tent. She bent her head close to Moshe’s ear and whispered in nearly inaudible Hebrew. Moshe nodded and indicated Annie.

  The woman’s gaze locked on Moshe’s eyes with a look of deep anguish. She hurried back across the courtyard to the door from where she’d appeared. In a few seconds she reappeared with a blanket wrapped bundle. From the way she held it Annie could tell it was a child, not quite two-years old. She handed the baby to Moshe. He bent his head close to the child and held it tight, placing a soft kiss on the child’s sleeping face. He looked at the woman, their eyes speaking of love and devotion punctuated when he put a hand to her cheek.

  He handed the child back to her and bent for another kiss on its forehead. He gave the woman a lingering kiss, ending with reluctance. Eyes still on the woman, he pointed Annie to the door.

  As quietly as possible Annie retraced her footsteps until she stood in the sand. The moon was starting to rise. Moshe followed her out and relocked the door.

  “What…” she started to ask again.

  Moshe pointed to the lab and she understood they should wait until they were back inside. When he’d shut the door to the lab Annie said, “Now tell me what that was.”

  Moshe’s eyes shone. “That is my wife, Hannah and our son, Jacob.”

  “Your wife? What is she doing locked up? What is that place?”

  Moshe took a deep breath. “There are rules and rituals that we need to follow with the Red Heifer sacrifice. It is different from all other sacrifices.”

  “How so?”

  “It is important that we must rebuild the Temple for almost all sacrifices except the Red Heifer. Most Jewish sacrifices take place in the Temple at the altar. After the animal has been killed, the blood is drained and only the flesh is burned. The Red Heifer sacrifice is performed outside the city, the only one where the blood is burned. The real mystery of the Red Heifer sacrifice is that the one performing it must be purified. So he’s clean when he starts. But by some means, he becomes unclean by the sacrifice.”

  The rules sounded arbitrary and senseless. But with religious rituals, that hardly seemed unusual. It wasn’t answering her question. “What does that have to do with your wife and son?”

  “Part of the ritual involves collecting the waters of sanctification to purify the priest.”

  “The one who becomes impure during the melodrama?” She couldn’t help injecting.

  He looked pained at her flippancy but nodded. “The water is collected by young boys who must be totally pure. In ancient times, to assure purity, pregnant women had to give birth in a compound. This place was built on stone, because it would be impossible to bury someone in stone so it would be free from the taint of death.”

  Oh my god. She sat down on a chair.

  Moshe continued. “To make sure there is no impurity from death, the whole place is built on wood with a hollow space between the stone. The children spend their early years living there. When they are eight they leave the compound to perform the ceremony.”

  Her stomach hurt with the knowledge. “So your wife and son are locked away in that cave until I can give you the perfect Red Heifer?”

  Moshe nodded.

  “You mean there have been places like this for two thousand years?”

  He shook his head. “I do not think so. Jews have been back in the Holy Land for only sixty years.” He looked uncomfortable. “Maybe it is as the Corporation believes. Maybe the time is right.”

  “That’s baloney.”

  He looked doubtful. “What if it isn’t?”

  “Do you believe this stuff?”

  Misery lined his face. “I am a Jew. Our whole being is focused toward the Temple. We yearn for it. Do you know why we shatter a glass at Jewish weddings? It symbolizes the destruction of the Temple. At the very happiest moment of a Jew’s life we remember the Temple.”

  With hands on her hips she stared at him.

  “I hope,” he said, giving her that cute grin.

  She swept her arm around the room, trying to indicate the whole crazy situation. “You hope that these vicious, murderous, fiends have the right combination and through their conspiracy, plots and cruelty they will force God’s hand to give them the Red Heifer so they can perform a ridiculous ritual and bring on the Messiah?”

  A fire burned deep in his eyes. “I hope the Temple will be rebuilt in my lifetime so I can worship God as he intended.”

  She felt her face flame in anger. “But first you’d have to destroy the Muslim’s holy place and start a war that could end up finishing the job Hitler started.”

  “It doesn’t have to be like that.”

  “It will be like that. Unless we stop it.”

  He rubbed his forehead. “I do not think we can stop it. But we can save my son.”

  She felt like throwing up. “How many more are there?”

  He searched her face. “Until today there were nine others. But one baby became ill and they were taken away.”

  That explained the scene Annie witnessed at lunch. “Where did they take them?”

  Moshe buried his face in his hands. “I do not know.”

  She waited a moment. Moshe let out a sob. “I swear I do not know but I am afraid.”

  Annie jumped up. “Afraid? Of what? What would they do?”

  Moshe took his hand away. His eyes were watery. He shook his head. “I can find out nothing,” he whispered.

  Annie sank into her chair, unable to respond. Moshe took a deep breath. “My Jacob. You see what a beautiful boy he is. Hannah says he has a runny nose and coughs a bit. I cannot risk what they will do. I must get them out.”

  Annie tried
to understand. “Why did you bring them here in the first place?”

  A single tear slipped from Moshe’s eye and trailed down his cheek. “The Corporation does not know we are married, does not know Jacob is mine. I…” he stopped at the catch in his throat. “I believed in God’s commandment to build the Temple. I felt he was calling me to help bring it about. I allowed The Corporation to use me. And because I believed I urged Hannah to come here. The Corporation only wanted single pregnant women. They didn’t want people with outside attachments. We hid our marriage and Hannah volunteered. What an honor it would be to have our son carry water for this great event.”

  Annie leaned over him and put her hand on his back. “Moshe. I’m so sorry.”

  He sat up and wiped at his eyes. “But now I’ve got to save them. And you must help me.”

  She let out an exasperated sigh. “I’ll do whatever I can but look at me, I’m a prisoner.”

  He stared at her a moment. “I will make it possible for you to escape. You can get away and tell the police. Bring them back here. Save my Hannah and Jacob.”

  “You can help me escape?”

  He looked at her desperately. “You will bring someone back?”

  “Of course.” She took a half second to consider it. “But I won’t leave without Hassan.”

  His face fell. “I cannot let him go.”

  She hated bargaining for his family but she loved people, too. “Then I won’t go.”

  They stared at each other for a moment.

  Moshe lowered his head and spoke to the ground. “I have watch until four this morning. At that time Adi comes on. He will check you to make sure all is well. After that, I know he takes a few moments alone in the latrine. He goes every morning and is gone from his post fifteen minutes at the most. I will loosen one of the boards at the back of your shack and the other shack. You will have only a short time to make your escape while Adi is gone. He probably won’t check you again until he comes for you at seven.”

  It didn’t make much sense. “He checks us and goes to the latrine after he’s already on duty? Why doesn’t he do that before?”

  Moshe scowled at her. “I don’t know. Perhaps he cannot make himself wake up any earlier. Does it matter why? He is regular, that is what counts.”

  Annie’s heart thundered. It didn’t seem like a foolproof plan. “Where will we go?”

  Moshe looked scared. “You must go up the cliff behind the shed. Once on the plateau head north. You will find a road there. A farmer or someone should travel that road early.”

  Anxiety twisted her gut. What choice did she have?

  Moshe took her hand. “Tell no one what you’ve seen tonight. No one. If you are caught and they know I sent you, they will kill me. If they find out about Hannah and Jacob they will kill them.”

  She felt his fear for them. Could she do this?

  Moshe squeezed her hand. He dazzled her with his youthful smile. “You will make this good. It will work out. You will see.”

  She wished she had his faith.

  FOURTEEN

  David stretched on his cot, head pointed to the ceiling, mouth open with deep throat snores echoing in the small shed.

  Moshe shut the door behind Annie, snapping the padlock closed. She heard him settle in a chair outside the door. Adi had left David without a guard outside. Apparently David wasn’t as much a flight risk as Annie.

  She wanted to wake David and tell him about their planned escape but decided against it. They wouldn’t leave until nearly dawn and she certainly wouldn’t sleep tonight. At least one of them should rest while it was possible.

  She lay on her cot relaxing as much as a mother cow surrounded by a wolf pack. Every nerve tingled with electricity as she waited for her chance to escape. She considered Hassan’s physical endurance. Would he have enough energy to climb the cliff? Had they beat him again so that he had other injuries that could slow them down? She longed to wake David just to feel his arms around her, to have him worry along with her. But that wouldn’t help anything.

  The night drifted away tick by agonizing tick until finally she heard approaching footsteps crunch on the sand. Adi’s voice sounded abrupt as he rattled off something in Hebrew.

  Moshe’s answer sounded sleepy.

  A key turned in the padlock and it scraped loose of the latch.

  “What’s going on?” David pulled himself to sit on his cot.

  Annie forced herself to stay lying on her cot. She faked a groggy voice. “I don’t know.”

  Adi stepped into the room swinging a flashlight from one cot to the other. Annie’s head pounded and sweat beads broke out along her forehead and along her back. How had Adi found out about their escape? Moshe wouldn’t tell him.

  “You,” Adi pointed to David. “Come with me.”

  David stood. “Why? What’s happening?”

  Annie sat up. She had to tell them David knew nothing of the plot. She couldn’t let them hurt him again.

  “Your company. They are looking for you.”

  David swiped his hands over his eyes and up his forehead. “PharmCo?”

  Adi prodded him with the gun. “You must call them. Tell them you are on holiday. Tell them whatever you need to make them believe you are not a missing person.”

  Why hadn’t she thought of that? Of course PharmCo would wonder what happened to their employee. No one would miss her. But David was accountable to PharmCo for a major research project. The Corporation had to be careful what happened to him.

  David reached for his shoes. He approached her cot and softly pushed her down. He bent close to her, his voice low and intimate. “Go back to sleep. I’ll be back.” He kissed her forehead, something no one had done since she was a child.

  He turned and walked out the door ahead of Adi.

  But he didn’t come back.

  Annie paced the shed from one wall to another for what seemed like hours. Finally she heard a squeak of a nail being pulled from wood. She hurried to the back wall and heard another nail pulled free. After several more nails worked loose the board was pulled away, leaving a narrow opening just wide enough for Annie’s thin frame to squeeze through.

  Moshe stood outside. He nodded to her and started to lean the board back in place.

  Annie put her hand up to stop him. “David isn’t back yet. I can’t go,” she whispered.

  Moshe looked alarmed. “You must go. Adi will be here shortly and there is no time.”

  “I can’t leave him.”

  “There will be no other chance.”

  She shook her head. Moshe’s panic was almost tangible. “For my son! For your friend. For you and my wife. You must!”

  He shoved the board in place, tapping a nail just enough to keep it from falling. His footsteps hurried away.

  If she were a praying woman she would have asked God to please bring David back in time. Instead, she strode from one corner to another, her stomach balling up and her head pounding out her silent words, come back, come back.

  When she heard footsteps she hurried to her cot and lay down on her side, eyes wide open. Adi and Moshe exchanged a few mumbled words and footsteps retreated. A beam of a flashlight shone through one of the largest cracks in the front wall focusing on her. She didn’t move.

  She waited, trying to remember to breathe, for what seemed like hours. It was probably a few minutes. Finally she heard Adi’s footsteps head off in the direction of the latrine. She jumped up and ran to the front of the shack and put her eye to the crack in time to see him disappear into the outhouse.

  Where was David? She couldn’t leave without him. They’d hurt him to punish her. But then, they had PharmCo to answer to. Maybe she could get back before they hurt him. If she didn’t leave they’d almost surely kill Hassan. If she succeeded in escaping she’d save David and Hassan. She had to try.

  She went to the back of the shed, slowly pushed the board open and took a tentative step into the dust.

  The camp slept.

  Sh
e moved as silently as possible toward the other shed, fearful of the open ground in between. The moon shone brightly leaving the back of the sheds in deep shadow. This meant the moon would light up the steep ravine Annie planned on climbing. Still, it made more sense to try to get to the top quickly, than it did to run down the valley floor.

  She made it to the back of Hassan’s shed and caught her breath in the shadow. Moshe should have loosened a board here just as he had on hers. It only took a couple of seconds to find it and she pulled. This shack was in worse shape than theirs and it took only seconds to yank the nails loose. Annie set the board aside and slipped through the opening.

  There were no cots or chairs in this room; only a figure wrapped in a blanket, huddled in the corner, his mop of dark hair the only thing visible. Annie hurried to him and knelt next to his head, putting her face close to his. “Hassan. Wake up.”

  He startled awake and flinched, bringing his arms up to protect his head.

  She put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s Annie.”

  He brought his arms down and she pulled him to sit up. Her voice barely more than an exhale, she said, “We’re going to make a run for it. But we have to go now.”

  Never taking his eyes from her face, he uncoiled himself and stood slowly. He was sore and bruised but looked ready to take his chances. He nodded at her.

  They slipped outside the shack, settling the board in its place. Annie pointed to the cliff and Hassan nodded his understanding of their direction. Annie left the shadow of the shack and sprinted as quietly as possible to the cliff side 150 feet away, hoping Adi wasn’t on his way back from the outhouse.

  She stopped in the shadow of a low overhang and turned to wave Hassan to her. He started to run, his footsteps sounding like cannon fire to Annie. He’d barely made it halfway when his feet seemed to tangle. The uneven ground was made even more unpredictable in the shadows from the moon. He slammed into the hard ground with an umph.

  Panicked, Annie swung her eyes to the latrine.

  Adi emerged from the door and started toward the shack. She couldn’t see his face but his pace didn’t indicate concern.