Chapter 9 #4
“Nevertheless, I have told you of my wanderings, of … how I’ve been. It is a fact that I cannot recall the last time I prattled on so,” Jean said, with a courteous smile. “And you have yet to relate a single word of what happened to you. Did you find your good husband?”
“I found him, sure,” I said absentmindedly. “I thought I’d flipped, too, and afterward I convinced myself that I’d hallucinated while on mushrooms. After that, it was basically a nice weekend, hanging out …”
“Hanging out?” Jean said.
“Never mind,” I laughed. I peered at the sky again.
Was it 3:00 p.m.? Later than that? Out of habit, I glanced at the dead phone.
“I ought to be getting back,” I said. “They’ll be worried about me.
” Jean nodded sympathetically. “But I’d love to come back,” I added quickly.
“To meet you again.” A smile spread across Jean’s face.
“Tomorrow?” he asked. “Midday?”
I wanted to answer immediately, yes, yes, yes, but when I managed to focus for a moment, I remembered that Lily had a checkup and vaccine at the clinic tomorrow. And I had no idea how Halimi would take my disappearance today.
“I can’t tomorrow,” I said firmly. “I need to take my daughter to the doctor.”
“In the name of the Holy Mother, is she ailing?” Jean asked, alarmed.
“No, not in the least,” I reassured him. “Where I come from, the doctors check little children every few months, even when they’re healthy, just to make sure all is well.”
His eyes narrowed further. “And what do they do if all is not well?” he asked after thinking about this for a few seconds.
“It depends on what it is,” I said. “If there are problems with eyesight, then the eyes are tested and sometimes … little devices are prescribed, which can help. If there are developmental problems, all kinds of exercises are prescribed. Sometimes surgery is needed to correct the problem.”
Jean’s eyes widened in horror.
“Children are operated on in order to improve them?” he asked, full of dread.
“Not exactly, it sounds bad when you say it like that,” I said awkwardly.
“Usually these are minor surgeries, done under general anesthetic. They can prevent a lot of suffering and abnormal development in childhood. And they also lightly infect them with diseases, so they won’t be severely infected at a later date,” I added vaguely.
I couldn’t be bothered to elaborate. “Forget it,” I said after a few seconds.
“It’s too complicated.” His eyebrows rose up again, but he said nothing.
I returned the tobacco to the bag and removed the necklace from around my neck.
“Wherefore, tomorrow you are occupied. Would you be so kind as to visit the day after tomorrow?” Jean asked. He removed a pit from one of the dates, stuffed it with a walnut, and handed it to me. I thought about it for a minute.
“Perhaps it would be better to meet in a week’s time?” I suggested. “I can’t disappear for entire days from my family without getting in touch, not this often.”
“What do you mean, ‘without getting in touch’? Can you not send a servant to inform the count of whatever is necessary?”
I groaned. “First of all, I don’t have servants.
Aside from that, I already showed you this,” I said, taking the dead phone from my bag.
“This is a device that enables two people to speak to each other from far away as though they were sitting side by side. But for some reason, it doesn’t work here. ”
I held the phone out to him, and Brunette snarled savagely. “If you please, my lady, remove that thing from my sight,” Jean said, shuddering. “It arouses within me an incomprehensible fear.”
I thrust the cell phone back into the bag and chewed on Jean’s stuffed date dejectedly. I felt as if I’d revealed to him some shameful characteristic or repulsive physical flaw. Jean shifted his pose and drew closer.
“Do not be discouraged, Lady édith,” Jean said softly and took my hand. “Verily there lies between us a chasm of foreignness, yet I sense a sturdy bridge stretched over it.”
I looked up at him and smiled. “No wonder Thibaut chose you as his partner in poetry writing,” I lauded him. Jean chuckled, lifted my hand to his lips, and kissed it. I giggled like an idiot.
“If you did not insist you were a wife and mother, I would think you were a shy virgin, my lady,” he said. The truth is, I felt something like that, sitting beside him. It was invigorating.
“Next week then,” he said, placing his hand on my leg and then removing it with a light caress.
“At the same time and in the same place. I know not if my pursuits will distance me from Chateau Pèlerin in the meanwhile, but I swear to you that wherever I may be, I will make every effort to honor our appointment.”
“I will too,” I said quietly. Brunette thrust her muzzle into my armpit. “But maybe Sunday’s a better day?” I added after some thought. On Sundays, Halimi went to Tel Aviv for editorial meetings and to record his show. “Do you need to pray or something like that on Sundays?”
“As much as I am able, I go to Mass on Sundays,” Jean said gravely, “and due to the large number of Templars in Chateau Pèlerin and their religious fervency, Mass takes place several times a day in the castle’s church, and twice in the town church.
I can attend the evening Mass. And you? Do you not attend church? ”
I began snickering but then sobered up. Aside from the fact that I’m not religious, I thought, was this even the time to reveal to Jean that I was Jewish, presuming he had not figured it out?
I remembered that the Crusaders were not particularly enamored of the Jews.
It was hard for me to imagine the relaxed Jean d’Ibelin butchering and pillaging Jewish communities, but I preferred not to tempt fate by telling him now and probably never would.
“I pray at home,” I mumbled noncommittally.
“Do you have your own chapel?” Jean asked with admiration. “No servants, but with a private chapelle,” he added. “I would like to visit your earldom someday, my lady.”
I really must go, I thought to myself, but it was as if I were glued to the tree, completely aware of his arm now pressing against mine. Just a bit more, and I’d take off. “So, you actually live there, in the fortress?”
Jean guffawed. He, too, looked as if he were glued to the tree, his body leaning toward me.
“In the name of all saints, no. I have been accompanying Thibaut since last autumn. From Acre to Ashkelon and then back to the north. For the past few months, he has been leading a pilgrimage for the redemption of the Holy Land and our conquered territories, and now he is exploring”—Jean paused, sizing me up with his gaze—“various possibilities,” he continued.
“It is of no matter at this time. Inasmuch as Chateau Pèlerin of the Templars in the Holy Land is large enough to accommodate the troops and their supplies, many of his fighters encamped here, in the meanwhile …” He meant to add something else but stopped.
“But we will meet in a week, is that so?” he asked serenely. “We will continue then, yes?”
“Very well,” I answered. It was time for me to head back home, and we had not even gone riding together. I would plan things better next week, I promised myself.
I stood up and stretched. In a few minutes, I would be back home with Lily and Robin Hood, and Halimi jabbering away on the phone in the background, and then we’d watch a talk show together, and then dinner, a bath for Lily, and then, after she was asleep, a joint and a movie on Netflix …
it all seemed so indistinct. A terrible thought crossed my mind, that if I stayed there even a moment more—my life not only would appear unrealistic but would utterly lose its materiality.
“So … see you next week,” I said to Jean, tossing my hair back. Don’t be so gloomy, I thought to myself. It’ll be nice to go home.
It was getting chilly. Jean began folding the mat carefully, packing the hookah, the bowl of nuts, the ceramic bottle, and the two small cups in his velvet bag. He hitched the water canteen to his belt, placed his banjo in the shoulder bag, and extinguished the bonfire by scattering soil over it.
“You’re so organized,” I grinned. He loaded the baggage onto his horse and untied it. Then, he turned to me.
“Next week,” he repeated.
“Next week,” I confirmed.
“Adieu, my lady,” he said and kissed my hand again.
“Adieu, good sir,” I bowed back.
He mounted his horse, gave me a wink, and clicked his tongue.
The horse turned southward and galloped away with its rider, accompanied by Brunette, running along beside them.
I wondered if Jean had purposely avoided seeing me disappear into the spring.
I fingered the ten-agorot coin and plunged my head and hands into the water.