the lustre and plabticity of her skin, at the subtlety of colouring
where the sun had darkened it from soft cream to burned honey, and at
the contrast of her dusky rose-tipped breasts and the dark thick bush of
curls at the base of her softly curving stomach.
She leaned over him, still shyly, and touched his cheek with one finger,
running down his throat on to his chest where the gold star lay upon the
hard muscle. You are beautiful, she whispered, and she saw it was true.
For he was tall and straight with muscled shoulders and lean flanks and
belly. The planes of his face were pure and perfect, perhaps its only
fault lying in its very perfection. It was almost unreal, as though she
were lying with some angel or god from out of mythology.
She twisted her legs up on to the bed, stretching out beside him upon
the lace cover, and they lay on their sides facing each other, not
touching but so close that she could feel the warmth of his belly upon
her own like a soft desert wind, and his breath stirred the dark soft
hair upon her cheek.
She sighed then, with happiness and contentment, like a traveller
reaching the end of a long lonely journey.
I love you, she said for the first time, and reaching out she took his
head, her fingers twining in the thick springing hair at the nape of his
neck, and drew it tenderly to her breast.
Long afterwards the chill of night oozed into the room, and they came
half-awake and crept together beneath the covers.
As they began drifting back into sleep she murmured sleepily, I'm so
glad that surgery won't be necessary, after all, and he chuckled softly.
Wasn't it better finding out for yourself? Much better, lover. Much,
much better, she admitted.
Debra spent one entire evening explaining to David that a
high-performance sports car was not a necessity for travel between his
base and the house on Malik Street, for she knew her man's tastes by
then. She pointed out that this was a country of young pioneers, and
that extravagance and ostentation were out of place. David agreed
vehemently, secure in the knowledge that Aaron Cohen and his minions
were scouring the country for him.
Debra suggested a Japanese compact similar to joe's, and David told her
that he would certainly give that his serious consideration.
Aaron Cohen's henchman tracked down a Mercedes Benz 3 5 0 SL belonging
to the German Charg6 d'Affaires inTel Aviv. This gentleman was
returning to Berlin and wished to dispose of his auto, for a suitable
consideration in negotiable cash. A single phone call was sufficient to
arrange payment through the Credit Suisse in Zurich.
It was golden bronze in colour, with a little under twenty thousand
kilometres on the clock, and it had clearly been maintained with the
loving care of an enthusiast.
Debra, returning on her motor scooter from the University, found this
glorious machine parked at the top end of Malik Street, where a heavy
chain denied access by all motor-driven vehicles to the village.
She took one look at it, and knew beyond all reasonable doubt who it
belonged to She was really quite angry when she stormed on to the
terrace, but she pretended to be angrier than that. David Morgan, you
really are absolutely impossible. 'You catch on fast, David agreed
amiably; he was sunbathing on the terrace. "How much did you pay for
it?"
"Ask me another question, doll. That one is becoming monotonous." "You
are really," Debra paused and searched frantically for a word of
sufficient force. She found it and delivered it with relish.
"Decadent!"
"You don't know the meaning of the word," David told her gently as he
rose from the cushions in the sun and drifted lazily in her direction.
Though she had been his lover for only a mere three days she recognized
the look in his eye and she began backing away.
I will teach you the meaning, he said. I am about to give you a
practical demonstration of decadence in such a sensitive spot that you
are likely to remember it for a long time. She ducked behind the olive
tree as he lunged, and her books spilled across the terrace. Leave me!
Hands off, you beast.
He feinted right, and caught her as she fell for it. He picked her up
easily across his chest.
David Morgan, I warn you, I shall scream if you don't put me down this
instant. Let's hear it. Go ahead! and she did, but in a ladylike
fashion so as not to alarm the neighbours.
Joe, on the other hand, was delighted with the 350.
The four of them took it on a trial run down the twisting road through
the Wilderness of Judaea to the shores of the Dead Sea. The road
challenged the car's suspension and David's driving skill, and they
whooped with excitement through the bends. Even Debra was able to
overcome her initial disapproval, and finally admitted it was beautiful,
but still decadent.
They swam in the cool green waters of the oasis of Em Gedi where they
formed a deep rock pool before overflowing and running down into the
thick saline water of the sea itself.
Hannah had brought her camera and she photographed Debra and David
sitting together on the rocks beside the pool.
They were in their bathing costumes, Debra's brief bikini showing off
her fine young body as she half-turned to laugh into David's face. He
smiled back at her, his face in profile and the dark sweep of his hair
falling on to his forehead. The desert light picked out the pure
features and the boldly stated facets of his beauty.
Hannah had a print of the photograph made for each of them, and later
those squares of glossy photographic paper were all they had left of it,
all that remained of the joy and the laughter of those days, like a
lovely flower taken from the growing tree of life and pressed and dried,
flattened and desiccated, deprived of its colour and perfume.
But the future threw no shadow over their happiness on that bright day,
and with Joe driving this time they ran back for Jerusalem. Debra
insisted that they stop for a group of tank corp boys hitch-hiking home
on leave, and although David protested it was impossible, they squeezed
three of them into the small cab. It was Debra's sop to her feelings of
guilt, and she sat in the back seat with her arms around David's neck
and they all sang the song that was that year a favourite with the young
people of Israel, Let there be peace.
In the last few days while David waited to enter the airforce, he loafed
shamelessly, frittering the time away in small chores like having his
uniforms tailored. He resisted Debra's suggestion that if regulation
issue were good enough for her father, a general officer, then they
might be good enough for David. Aaron Cohen supplied him with an
introduction to his own tailor. Aaron was beginning to develop a fine
respect for David's style.
Debra had arranged membership for David at the University Athletic Club,
and he worked out in the first class modern gym every day, and finished
with twenty lengths of the Olympic-size swimming pool to keep himself in
shape.
However, at other times, David merely lay sunbathing on the terrace, or
fiddled with electrical plugs or other small tasks Debra had asked him
to see to about the house.
As he moved through the cool and pleasant rooms, he would find an item
belonging to Debra, a book or a brooch perhaps, and he would pick it up
and fondle it briefly. Once a robe of hers thrown carelessly across the
foot of the bed and redolent of her particular perfume gave him a