“You mean to say that you were willing to leave your wife and son to please someone you don’t really know, except that other people call him ‘his honor,’ and let him break up the family because my skirt was too short for that ‘respectable’ rabbi?” Amalia said dryly and turned her back to him.
The hurt of the last year was still fresh, stinging, but she wasn’t going to let Yoav upset her equilibrium. The most important thing right now was finding Yam. She zipped up her vest, refusing to look at Yoav.
“The legend says that only believers can find the gate,” Yoav said apologetically. “I think it’s talking about belief in love, not religious belief. The belief in being a good person, having good values.” Helplessly, he looked at Amalia who was now standing close to Ido.
“What does any of that have to do with the kids?” Theo asked as he cocked his rifle.
Yoav took a deep breath. “Look, if I understand it correctly, Yam is Jewish, Anise is Muslim, and Mor is Christian. They represent the three religions and are young enough to believe that the world could conceivably be a good place,” he said.
“Let’s leave legends for later,” Ido interrupted him. “If I have this right, the kids are looking for a gate.”
“Yes,” Yoav answered. “Next to the Gate of Mercy is another gate called the Gate of Repentance. If they’re following the legend, they’ll get there. And leave my wife alone,” he added, unable to control himself anymore.
The two men measured one another with their eyes, causing Amalia to lose her patience. “Great timing for a fight. Both of you are, are… absurd,” she concluded, and walked out.
Chapter 32
No matter where she looked, she saw clouds. In despair, she sat down on one of them. “I give up,” she said, sinking into the white cloud and helplessly looking at the white cottony expanse spreading as far as the eye could see. “God’s not here.”
“Maybe there is no God, and nobody is actually steering anything, and that’s why everything’s falling apart,” Yam proposed.
Far away among the clouds, they saw a familiar figure. Enochio, the angel, waved his wings urgently and waddled over to them as fast as he could. Rae waved back.
The angel didn’t look very merry at all. He was red-faced with anger. “Do you know what I had to get through to come here?” he yelled, taking out a crumpled hankie to wipe the sweat off his forehead.
“Tell me the truth, Enochio. Have you actually ever seen God?” Anise asked, ignoring about the angel’s state of mind.
Enochio looked at her, surprised. “Now that you mention it… I don’t think so,” he answered, and sank into his own thoughts. “Well, He’s always so busy, you know,” he added, apologizing.
“I think it’s because He doesn’t exist,” Anise burst out, angrily kicking a piece of cloud. She got up and started to run on the billowy surface, wanting to get far, far away from everyone.
“Wait, I can explain!” Enochio yelled at her receding figure, but Anise was too far away to hear. She ran without stopping, ran until she could no longer breathe. She didn’t know where she was going and didn’t much care. She could no longer bear it, not even for another second.
“Where are you off to?” Enochio shouted. “I want to try to explain.” But Anise disappeared into the fog.
“That’s what happens when she gets mad. She needs time to calm down,” Yam tried soothing the angel who was looking more distressed than ever.
Mor looked at Rae. “Let’s have a look around and see where we are,” he suggested. Rae jumped at the opportunity to get away from the tense atmosphere and leaped high into the air.
Yam sat down next to the frustrated angel. “Tell me the truth. You’ve never seen Him, right?”
Enochio nodded without looking in Yam’s eyes.
“Fine,” Yam sighed. “So maybe it’s time we talked about exiting the gate and going back to that ridiculous planet we call Earth.”
Anise continued walking in the white cloud wilderness. She didn’t know where she was going and didn’t care. As it was, everything looked the same. She angrily kicked at a large piece of cloud.
“Ouch!” a voice suddenly yelped. Startled, Anise jumped off to the side.
“Sorry,” she mumbled into empty space. Confused, she looked around but, except for the clouds, there was nothing there.
“I understand that you’re angry, but you don’t have to hurt others,” she heard the voice saying. And she froze in place.
“I didn’t mean to,” she mumbled, not any more enlightened than before.
“Haha! Gotcha! It didn’t hurt at all,” she heard the voice saying, followed by a peal of merry laughter.
Anise looked around again. This couldn’t possibly be coming from the cloud, she thought.
“Actually, it could. And it is,” the cloud said gaily.
It’s reading my mind and is invisible, she thought. It’s God. How could I have been so foolish?
“Yes, how can I help? And, by the way, you’re not foolish in the least,” said the voice. “Tell me, what would you like me to look like? I mean, how do you imagine me?” the voice asked, but Anise was still frozen in place, incapable of uttering a word.
“Do you see me now?” the cloud asked merrily and stretched.
“She doesn’t like scary stuff,” she heard Him mutter to Himself, looking like a dinosaur now hovering in front of her.
“Hmm. You’re right. Not appropriate,” she heard Him say again. The dinosaur changed shape and now a black-and-white bear was standing next to her. Anise thought it looked exactly like the teddy bear she slept with at home.
“Satisfied?” the bear asked sweetly while stretching. “Great. And do me a favor – try not to step on God anymore.”
Anise was still incapable of speech.
“I thought you love your teddy bear. You still sleep with it, right?” said God in a hurt tone of voice. “I’m sick of this. No matter what I
