“We can talk about it when we meet. I’ve already spoken to him; I had a feeling that’s what you were cal ing about.”
“We can talk about it when we meet. I’ve already spoken to him; I had a feeling that’s what you were cal ing about.”
“You spoke to him!”
“Yes, he’s expecting you.”
“I’m so confused.”
“We’l talk on the way there. I real y have to run—I have a situation here.”
“Okay.”
“Meet me at the train station at six in the morning, we’l get an early start. Bring water, your ID, of course, and a sandwich. It can take a bit of time. Bye.” She hung up.
“Wel ,” Rafi said.
“I’m so confused!” I repeated. “El a knows. It sounds as if she knew where Daniel was al along. Why didn’t she tel me? She’s spoken to him! She told him I’d cal ed her.”
“El a knows a lot of things no one else knows. Don’t forget she’s there al the time, she knows hundreds of people. Dana, maybe she’s the one who’s been picking up his mail.”
“But now I’m so angry with her. And yet she’s my only link …”
“Don’t blame her. She’s a journalist, she has to know how to keep some things secret. It’s Daniel who asked her not to tel you. You should be angry with him if anyone.”
“You’re not real y reading that newspaper, are you? Let’s talk.” We moved to the living room and sat at opposite ends of the sofa.
“No, I’m not angry with him,” I said. “Because he has a reason. El a didn’t have a reason.”
“What did Daniel say?”
“He said I could come.”
“How do you feel?”
“I’m so nervous, you can’t imagine. I feel a hundred things. I’m happy, I’m excited.”
“You’re afraid.”
“No. Yes. Not of him.”
“Are you afraid he’l reject you in person?”
“No, he won’t reject me, not when he sees me, when he sees how much I love him.”
“He’s forty-seven now, isn’t he?”
“Yes, that’s true. That’s true. I stil think of him as thirty-six, but he’s older, of course.”
“Are you afraid of what you’l feel?”
“No, I’l feel happy, I just want to see him and be with him, it’s a dream come true. I know what I’m afraid of. I’m afraid it’s a trick. I mean, why would he agree, just because I found him? Is it some kind of game? ‘You can’t see me until you find me?’”
“He probably figured there wasn’t anything he could do at this point. You’d found him, and now you’d have to see him.”
“I don’t believe this is happening. I’m afraid something wil ruin it. That’s what I’m afraid of. That he’l dodge me again.”
“There’s nowhere left for him to go.”
“I’l bring him the silk dressing gown I bought when he was in the hospital, just before he escaped. I’ve kept it for him, it’s stil in perfect condition. What else? Should I bring some photographs? No …I’l wait with those. I don’t want any distraction, I just want us. Maybe just the bird photo, it’s my favorite one.”
“What bird photo?”
“Remember the demo at Rmeid? On the anniversary of the kil ings?”
“Yes, I was there.”
“Remember how the police and army agreed to stay away? A moment of sanity! They were actual y able to see that if they just didn’t show up everything would go smoothly. Wel , I was right up front, and I saw some of these very religious Muslim guys in their green robes waving their green ags and I admit I was a bit scared. I gured— fundamentalists, who knew what they were up to. Suddenly they al got very excited. They began pointing and shouting and I thought, Oh no, the police are here after al , shit. They were real y agitated and I was sure violence was about to break out. And then I saw what they were pointing at. Birds! A whole ock of black birds, hundreds of birds in formation, sweeping across the white sky. I have a shot of that, of the birds and the guys in the robes pointing at the birds and get ing al excited. Maybe they thought the birds were the souls of the boys who were kil ed. The picture came out real y good, I’l show it to you later.
Maybe I’l just bring that one to show Daniel.”
“I wonder whether the army was worried that he’d crossed over.”
“Worried about what? He didn’t know anything, apart from how to fold uniforms. But I stil can’t believe that El a knew. She let me su er.
