December 6th, 2004. Tel Aviv
Mina landed at Ben Gurion Airport late that evening. If Mosul seemed security conscious it was a walk in the park in comparison. Luckily she had the invitation for an interview and a reservation at the Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel amp; Towers to explain her presence there and her route from Baghdad via Amman. She noticed how many policewomen guarded the airport. It was a change from Iraq to see women in uniform. They were fit and aggressive, much like their gun, the famous Desert Eagle. Half-asleep she hailed a cab under the starry winter sky.
When Mina arrived at the hotel she was duly impressed. Walking through the plush lobby, she felt for a moment like a high-flying businesswoman and wondered briefly if she was not in the wrong line of work. But she knew all too well that she was only thinking that way because of the stark contrast between the conditions of the last few days spent in a wartorn country and those here, in this luxurious five-star-hotel. As soon as she got to her room, she had a quick shower and then collapsed on the bed, still in her bathrobe.
The next morning, Mina woke up fully energised, ordered a light breakfast to be brought up to her room, she had a shower and did her stretching exercises. She followed a complex chain of yoga asanas she had learned from a young Indian yogi, who had since become quite a celebrity. She had worked with him every day for three months and remembered the first month, when she thought she would never be able to stretch into the positions he demonstrated. As he was as relentless as she was driven, eventually, by the end of the three months she had managed to stretch into every position in his programme. She would have pursued their work, but he had fallen in love with her and she had had to explain to him, as kindly as she could, that she was not interested in him in that way. Unfortunately, he had been very hurt and they parted on a bitter note.
After breakfast, she started preparing for the interview. It was her understanding that the grant had been practically offered to her, but you never quite knew with these things and it was not in her nature to go anywhere unprepared; she would express her gratitude for the offer, try to show off the little she knew about the Foundation’s goals and explain what her project encompassed. If the grant was as substantial as she thought it might be, she would need to add all the postfieldwork expenses: various expert opinions, chemical analyses, thermo-luminescence, 3D digital scanning, the whole works. She needed to put together a much more extensive budget than she had first planned when applying for the in-house grant at Columbia.
She did a couple of hours’ work and then decided to take a break and walk around Tel Aviv. Mina still had a day to get ready and loved discovering new cities. She went downstairs and picked up a few flyers and a map of the city in the lobby. She walked along the beach for a while thinking how disappointing it was she had not come during the summer, as she would have loved to swim in the Mediterranean. Instead, she headed resolutely into the city, following the directions on one of the leaflets to the best shopping areas. After some pleasurable window shopping on Dizengoff Street, she arrived at the crossroad with Gordon Street, where she saw a cafe with a large bay window and people sitting out on the terrace. She sat down and ordered a double espresso. It was brought to her promptly, along with a glass of water, by a charming and clearly gay waiter in an extremely tight t-shirt and designer sunglasses; in fact, all the customers looked somewhat flamboyant. She was surrounded by artists, media people and intellectuals — it was so different from Mosul. Mina felt almost reborn, back in a mini-New York. She looked on her map and found the Eretz Israel museum, but it was quite a hike from where she was, so she thought that she would take a taxi and surprise Liat. She hoped her friend was at work today and could spare some time.
‘Are you a tourist?’ a young man seated at the next table asked her in English. He said he’d be delighted to take her sightseeing. Mina thanked him and told him she was waiting for a friend. He did not insist. She really wasn’t interested in him, but she was impressed by the direct yet courteous way in which he had approached her. The truth was that she could not help thinking of Jack. Had she been too harsh with him? She kept replaying their last meeting on the military base, over and over again. As she often did when she felt lost, Mina took out her notebook. It was her preferred method for clarifying her thoughts and feelings — she would often make detailed lists of pros and cons. In Jack’s case, she had been brutally direct with him and had made it clear she did not want to see him again. And yet she had a nagging, irrational feeling that she might have been wrong. Even though he had lied to her, she had loved that magical evening with the villagers, and their walk up the hill in the desert. And above all, he had saved her life. Something told her she would be seeing him again, whether she liked it or not. More pressingly, she knew that she was in deep trouble with the department and needed to email Professor Almeini to clear things up. She would email him once she knew the result of the grant interview. She also had to try to find out what had happened to Hassan, but doing so would make her relive her ordeal at the hands of the three men in the flat.
Natasha was at Ben Gurion airport, waiting for Oberon Wheatley. She had spent the previous night checking and re-checking every aspect of security at the harbour. No-one could approach the yacht uninvited, nor leave it for that matter. Natasha could not help but admire how her boss gathered information on everyone. Mina Osman had arrived at her hotel just as he said she would. Wheatley suddenly appeared outside the main entrance, saw her, and walked straight to the car. She took his luggage, put it in the boot and together they drove off immediately to the harbour.
Oberon had bought his yacht from the famous Italian yacht designer Benetti, for an obscene amount of money. With its steel hull and aluminium superstructure, the 230ft Reverie moved at a maximum speed of 16 knots, weighed 1600 tons, had seven decks and an interior designed by John Munford. Oberon had had his eye on the boat for some time and once it became his, he had had his technicians transform it into much more than a dilettante’s pleasure vessel. One sensed that under the aristocratic veneer of absolute comfort and luxury, dark mahogany and top-quality marble, the yacht possessed every technological amenity that the modern world had to offer.
Oberon had not said a word to Natasha since his arrival making her feel exceedingly uncomfortable. He climbed to the upper deck, into the yacht’s saloon, sat down in his favourite Chesterfield armchair and nodded at the barman to make him his usual drink, a dirty martini. He waited silently until the man brought it to him then, taking a sip, he finally uttered his first word.
‘Natasha?’
‘Yes sir?’
‘Is everything set?’
‘Yes, sir. Miss Osman has checked into the hotel.’
‘Excellent. That’s my girl.’
He smiled at her.
The taxi dropped Mina at the entrance of the Eretz Israel Museum. From reading a leaflet she had picked up at the hotel she knew that it presented the history and culture of Israel through a number of varied exhibitions, including the ethnography, folklore, cultural history, traditional crafts and archaeology of the land. It was very much a model of avant-garde museography, Mina thought, and decided to take a quick tour before calling on Liat.
Although she thought the Planetarium was a tad gimmicky with its ‘Voyage through the Universe’ show, she really enjoyed the inner gardens. The entire museum was built like a beautiful shrine around an ancient mound, Tel Qasile. She soon realised that a proper visit of the museum would take hours, so she went to the main desk and asked to speak to Liat Hoffman. The lady at the front desk asked her to wait in the lobby, ‘Dr. Hoffman will be with you in a few minutes’. ‘Dr. Hoffman…!’ Mina thought, ‘well she didn’t waste any time’. Liat had only been studying for her Masters’ degree when they last spoke in New York. Mina felt slightly envious of her friend’s academic achievements, but the feeling quickly passed as Liat entered in the lobby. They rushed into each others arms and Liat gave her a long hug.
‘Mina, I’m so happy to see you! It’s been so long. When did you arrive?’
‘Last night. I thought I’d surprise you.’
‘You did,’ Liat laughed ‘OK. Let’s get out of here.’
‘Can you leave your office just like that?’ asked Mina.
‘It’s the first day of Chanukah today. Things are a little lax. You know, people leaving early to be with their family.’
‘Of course, Chanukah. I totally forgot. What about you?’
‘You know me… I enjoy lighting a candle from time to time, but I’m not really into religion.’
‘Oh. I thought Chanukah was all about fighting foreigners?’ replied Mina, with a glint in her eye.
‘Mina, Mina. Had you said, ‘Oh Liat, I thought it was a pagan festival of lights that you find everywhere from here to Timbuktu during the bleakest time of the winter season,’ I would have thought, ‘she hasn’t changed one bit.’ But political sarcasm?’
‘I’m sorry. I’ve been through the mill recently.’
‘Don’t worry. You’re in my town and I know it’s your first time in Tel Aviv, so I’m going to take you on a tour! We’ll get drunk and talk about all the boys we never slept with in New York.’ Mina giggled, she felt like a feisty graduate student all over again.
‘Oh God, Liat, I’m so happy to see you.’
The two women squeezed into Liat’s car, a ludicrously bright yellow reconditioned Fiat Cinquecento, and drove towards Yafo, in the south of Tel Aviv. Liat knew her audience well, so she began her history of Tel Aviv with its biblical origins. Mina learned that Yafo was mentioned in the Old Testament as a border city of the Territory of Dan; that timber from the fragrant cedar trees of Lebanon was shipped to Yafo to build the temple of Salomon in Jerusalem. Some scholars even thought that the city, also known as Joppa or Jaffa or even Yafo, was named after Japheth, one of the sons of Noah.
Noah again! Mina wondered if she would ever escape the Flood saga.
Liat parked the car and as they started walking she reminded Mina that before getting swallowed by a giant whale, the prophet Jonah had left his hometown Nineveh for Yafo where he had hired a ship to flee ‘from the presence of the Lord’. ‘You know why I’ve brought you to Yafo?’ asked Liat.
‘Yes, of course. You want to show me the origins of Tel Aviv and its Arab quarter.’
‘Nope. As usual you’re wrong. We are here because this is where we’ll get the best hummus in town.’
Mina remembered vividly how during their time in New York Liat talked relentlessly about hummus, and had been on a mission to find the finest hummus in the World.
‘So, your hummus quest ended here?’
Liat put on her most serious face and said ‘Yes. Why do you think I took the job at the museum, if not for the hummus?’
‘You’re mad.’
‘Of course I am, mad about hummus.’
They entered a tiny kebab joint, and the Arab owner’s face lit up when he recognised Liat. He smiled at her, flashing all his golden teeth and said in Hebrew:
‘Ah. My favourite customer. I’ve kept you the best of the best!’
‘Hi Ahmed. This is my good friend Mina, she’s only visiting Tel Aviv but what sort of visit would it be if she didn’t taste your falafel and hummus?’
‘Quite right. Take a seat and I’ll be with you in a minute.’ They sat down on mismatched plastic chairs.
‘Liat, this is the tackiest sandwich shop I’ve ever sat in.’
‘Yes. A true pearl in a sea of mud.’
‘Is that a political statement?’
‘No, a culinary one.’
‘Just checking.’
‘Thanks. I remember the last time we had a political discussion. I thought I was going to tear your eyes out.’
‘I was pretty close to slapping you.’
‘But we’re all grown up now, aren’t we?’
‘I don’t know. Are we?’ They laughed, then, without any warning, as was her habit, Liat launched into a monologue on the modern history of Tel Aviv. Mina smiled at her old friend, thinking that people don’t change much over time.
‘The name itself, Tel Aviv ‘ Liat began, ‘means ‘the hill of spring’. In a way, it is an apt description of a city that sprang from the desert. Although it began as a suburb of Yafo, an association called the ‘Ahuzat Bayit’ founded Tel Aviv in 1910 on sand dunes north of Yafo. A good example of the early socialist beginnings of Israel, the land was divided into parcels by drawing lots. Believe it or not, commercial enterprise was banned throughout the new city, it was practically communist! But the emigrants did not stick to these principles for long, or it might have become a hill of winter rather than one of spring. The book Alteneuland or Old New Land by Theodor Herzl, who is, after all, one of the founders of the Jewish emigration movement, was a tale of rebirth. In that sense, it’s pretty close to the Hebrew meaning of Tel Aviv. In the early 1950s, the two cities of Tel Aviv and Yafo merged into one to form Tel Aviv-Yafo’.
‘That’s what’s surprised me so far,’ interjected Mina, ‘the contrast between old Yafo and Tel Aviv’s high towers and modern buildings ‘.
‘Yes. The architecture of Tel Aviv is linked to the influx of German Jews after the modernist architectural movement was banned by the Nazis in the thirties. The immigrants built hundreds of Bauhaus constructions, all white or yellow, which gave rise to Tel Aviv’s nickname: the White City. Today Tel Aviv is the second largest city in Israel, and because of its odd Old New culture, its beaches and swanky cafes, it has a youthful and hip feel to it.’
‘You’re not referring to this snack-bar, I hope.’
‘Duh.’
The two women walked the old, narrow streets of Yafo, talking about the good old days. After a while they arrived at Tel Yafo, also known as ‘ancient Yafo’. The site dated back thousands of years and had been excavated by many archaeologists since the 1950s. The remains of a gate were found there with an inscription by the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II, dating back to the time he conquered the region. A replica of the gate lintels had been erected by archaeologists in their original location.
Mina was enraptured by the abundance of history in Israel, the rapid succession of events and the inexorable downfall of great empires. The Egyptian empire was countered by the Hittites from Anatolia in modern Turkey, but was not finally vanquished until Alexander the Great invaded it in the 4th century B.C.E. Then it was the turn of the Romans, who gave the names of Syria and Palestine to the region. Israel was the name of Jacob in the bible. In a way, it was both an ancient and a recent name. Crusaders followed, then the Ottoman Empire and finally the British took over, until they relinquished their Palestinian Mandate in favour of the creation of the new state of Israel in 1948. What a wonderful mess! Liat seemed to guess what Mina was thinking.
‘I’ve always thought of Israel as a palimpsest,’ said Liat.
‘I know exactly what you mean, the way history is written over and over again on the same parchment.’
‘Mina, I know I should wait patiently for you to tell me about Mosul, but I really want to know what’s going on.’
‘Things are in a terrible state. You wouldn’t believe the daily tragedy.’
Liat was about to say that things weren’t exactly rosy in Israel, but thought better than to comment.
‘Although I’ve never been in the line of fire, and luckily I was in the States last month when most of the carnage took place, I’ve witnessed the results. The bombed areas, the distraught families.’
Mina went on to describe the continuous fear that people wore on their face like a grimacing mask, and before long she had portrayed the destroyed monuments, the lootings and the little hope she had that anything would improve in the near future.
‘I narrowly escaped being shot myself.’ She bit her tongue.
‘What do you mean? On the street?’
‘Yes, on the street,’ Mina lied.
There was no way she would involve her friend in her ongoing troubles. Liat sensed there was something odd going on, but she let it drop. Mina would talk to her…, but not now.
‘So tell me more about this interview? Are you ready?’
‘I’ll tell you tomorrow, after I’ve made a fool of myself. I haven’t prepared for it enough really.’
‘What are you going to wear?’
‘I bought a few things in Amman.’
‘Your usual stuff?’ Liat asked, with a raised eyebrow.
‘I’m a bit short of cash until I get the grant money.’
‘Well, I’m not. I’m taking you shopping.’ She took Mina by the hand and they walked back to the car.
After a few solid hours of shopping, the two women were laden down with bags and walked into a bar. They were both happy and giggling like schoolgirls. They had missed each other sorely, but had not realised it until today.
‘I’d forgotten how tiring it was to shop with you. I’m exhausted,’ Mina said.
‘But happy?’ asked Liat.
‘Oh yes. Very happy.’
Mina dropped her bags and gave Liat a big hug. They sat down and as Mina looked at the drinks menu, she spotted the name of the bar. It was called Noa.
‘Is the name of this place really Noa?’
‘Yes, like the builder of the ark. Isn’t it funny?’
Mina didn’t respond. She could not help noticing these small signs, which were starting to stack up like an omen. Maybe her choice of studies and her recent adventures had more to them than a mere scholarly pursuit. Was she fated to track the history of Noah? Her rational mind usually fought against such superstitious ideas, but she could not shake the strange feeling she was part of a larger story here. She had thought she was following in the footsteps of Benjamin of Tudela. Maybe she should have checked first if he had been following someone else’s footsteps himself.
‘Are you alright Mina?’ Liat asked her brooding friend.
‘Yes of course. Let’s order some drinks pronto.’
‘What’s the rush?’ Liat asked, half-yawning.
‘Too much time spent in a non-wine-drinking country, that’s what!’
Two bottles of wine and some tasty nibbles later, Liat and Mina slumped back into one of the sofas. They propped their feet up on the coffee table in front of them and admired their newly bought Ferragamo high heels.
‘They’re lovely, Liat,’ Mina slurred.
‘Yes they are.’
‘If you don’t mind my asking…’
‘What?’ asked Liat.
‘With the fortune your parents left you, do you still need to work for a living?’
‘What you really mean is why am I working?’
‘Well, yeah.’
Liat thought about it for a moment, and then simply replied, ‘Because I enjoy it.’
‘Good answer!’ She could sense that Liat was about to ask her what she was hiding and the amount of alcohol she had drunk would make her an easy prey to thorough questioning. But Liat was as tipsy as her. Instead she asked her about Charlie.
‘It just didn’t work out,’ said Mina.
‘Liar. He wrote to me at the time. You dumped him when you decided to go off to Iraq.’
‘Alright. I did. So what?’
‘You were a great couple, you could have stayed together. You’re twenty-nine, you know! Time’s ticking. Didn’t you think you should have waited for him? I know he’d have waited for you.’
‘No. That was part of the problem. Charlie and I would never have stayed together. Do you remember Susan and her Italian boyfriend? Remember the hours she spent on the phone talking to him instead of being with him? Remember how she was never free but alone all the same? It was painful to watch. Long distance relationships? No thanks.’
Both girls went silent.
‘You seemed to get along.’
‘There was no passion, Liat. Not on my side anyway. I loved him, don’t get me wrong. But in the end, it was like having a good friend and living in the hope it would turn into something greater.’
Mina didn’t know if it was the alcohol or the talk about former lovers, but Jack’s image had entered her head and would not leave. ‘I hardly know him,’ she said softly.
‘What? Who are you talking about?’ Liat asked, her gossip antennae quivering.
‘No-one,’ replied Mina.
‘Yeah. Like I’m gonna let that one slip. C’mon, talk to Auntie Liat.’
‘OK. There is someone.’
‘What’s his name?’
‘Jack.’
‘American?’
‘Yes.’
‘Kind, supportive, does the dishes after dinner… or a bad boy?’
‘You’re being silly’, laughed Mina.
‘Fine. Where did you meet?’
‘In Mosul.’
‘Journalist, diplomat or military?’
‘Are those the only American men available there?’
‘Oh, let me guess; you found yourself the only American archaeologist mad enough to work in a war zone.’
Mina smiled, ‘I don’t want to talk about him.’
‘Liar.’
‘Not as much of a liar as he is.’
‘Bad boy then,’ concluded Liat.
‘I guess so.’
‘Any regrets?’
‘Yes. We never even kissed.’
Liat was about to laugh, but saw the genuine sadness on Mina’s face. She gave her a long hug instead.
Another bottle of wine later, in the early hours of the morning a very drunk Mina stumbled into the Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel amp; Towers.