Amulet, p.17
Amulet, page 17
At this, Alex chuckled under her breath. Val looked at her and agreed with a smile of his own.
“Another candidate is the Arab town of Kafr Kanna in Israel, which is about seven kilometers northeast of Nazareth. Still, another potential location is the old and now-ruined town of Khirbet Kana, also in Israel, which overlooks the Beit Netofa Valley from the north and is about nine kilometers north of Kafr Kanna. Khirbet Kana has long been recognized as the true location of the wedding at Cana, and recent archaeological discoveries have supported this theory.
“The fourth candidate is a city just north of Kafr Kanna that was more recently excavated by a female Israeli archaeologist, a place called Karm er-Rasm. Although she is convinced this site is the true Cana, most scholars do not agree with her.
“Finally, we have our last candidate, Ain Qana in Israel, which means ‘the spring of Cana,’ located a couple of kilometers north of Nazareth.”
When Ben paused, Alex asked the million-dollar question, “So which Cana are we going to?”
“An excellent question, young lady. We will be visiting Kafr Kanna, also known as Cana of Galilee. I will take you to the center of the city where the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George was built in the late 19th century at the place where some believe Jesus performed his miracle. At the very least, it will be interesting for you to see an Arab village, and even if it is not the exact spot where the miracle at the wedding occurred, it is close enough.”
Parking was not readily available at the center of the village, but that didn’t seem to bother Ben. He simply turned on his flashers and stopped the car by the side of a busy road. Alex looked at Val with wide eyes, as though saying, “We’re not supposed to be parked here,” and he shrugged, chuckling quietly at her reaction.
The two of them walked along the road Ben indicated, up an incline, to a stone plaza between the entrance to two churches, which were situated along adjacent sides of the busy plaza.
Alex leaned closer to Val. Distracted by her nearness and an overwhelming urge to turn his head and kiss her, Val focused his efforts on staring down at the cobblestone path as she spoke. “I thought Ben only mentioned one church, a Greek Orthodox Church. This looks like two churches, doesn’t it?”
The church straight ahead of them was a pale-yellow stone structure with three arches at the entrance. Above the entrance were more arches, with a statue of Jesus under the middle arch and angels on either side. On the roof were perched two more angels and another statue, which looked like Mary.
Putting some space between himself and temptation, Val turned to a European-looking man who happened to be walking past and asked if the man knew what they were looking at. Luckily, the man understood English and quickly answered that the church with the arches was the Catholic Wedding Church, and the church on their right with a green dome was the Orthodox Church of St. George.
“Something for everybody,” quipped Alex when the man had gone on his way.
After they had toured the churches, they followed a path behind the seminary that was connected to the rear of the Orthodox church. At the end of the path, they found a hidden garden, which was a welcome surprise. They spent a few minutes wandering amongst the different blooms before continuing to some shops selling more souvenirs.
“Look at this,” Alex called quietly to Val, who was a few steps away from her. They were in one of the shops, and Alex was holding up a bottle of wine labeled “Cana Wedding Wine.”
The shopkeeper, an old Arab woman who had been watching them from behind the counter, came over with a small tray and two plastic shot glasses filled with wine.
“You try some?” she asked in broken English.
“Thank you,” replied Alex, taking one. Val did the same.
The wine was a little sweet for Val’s taste, but Alex seemed to enjoy it, and the old woman looked like she could use a sale. Val put his empty cup back on the old woman’s tray and turned to Alex. “Should we get a bottle of this stuff?”
“Sure,” she answered, without any mention of who would pay or splitting the cost.
In the warmth of Alex’s simple acquiescence, Val didn’t feel like bargaining with the old lady and paid her the price that was marked on the bottle, considering the over-priced purchase an act of charity.
As they headed back to the mini-van, or the spot where Val hoped Ben was still waiting with the mini-van, Alex asked Val if he knew what time it was. Val glanced at his watch. “It’s almost three-thirty. Are you hungry?”
She laughed shyly. “Am I that predictable?”
“No,” he smiled, “I’m hungry, too. I saw a food vendor across the street from where Ben parked the van. Let’s see if we can grab something there and eat it in the van on our way to the last stop.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Val was relieved to see the van in the same location they had left it an hour ago. They told Ben about their plan to get something to eat, then jaywalked across two lanes of traffic to the hole-in-the-wall restaurant Val had noticed earlier.
The smell of fresh bread made his stomach growl in more urgent demand, and he watched as a teenager removed large, freshly-baked loaves of pita bread from the huge clay wood-fired oven in the wall behind the counter where they would be placing their order.
Val ordered two of the large loaves with labaneh yogurt spread and a thyme and sesame seed topping, along with a small bag of black olives. Back at the van, Ben had arranged a homemade wooden table between the two bucket seats and handed Val and Alex each a bottle of water as they stepped into the vehicle. When they were seated and buckled in, Ben started the van and pulled out into traffic.
Val watched as Alex opened the wrapper for her sandwich, folded the round loaf in half, then tore it down the middle. She placed one of the halves onto a paper towel and said, “Are you hungry, Ben? There’s some here for you, if you are.”
Val was annoyed with himself for having forgotten about Ben and, at the same time, touched by Alex’s thoughtfulness. She was a very caring person, always thinking of others and their feelings, but never made a big show of it.
As Ben reached a hand back, taking her up on her offer, Val wondered if it were possible for a person to be too caring, too empathetic. After all, here she was now, hungry, with only half a sandwich to eat.
Val tore off a quarter of his sandwich and quietly placed it on Alex’s wrapper, which she had laid out on the makeshift wooden table.
“You don’t have to…”
“Just take it,” Val said, a little more gruffly than he had intended. “It’s a big sandwich, I can’t eat it all.”
Alex nodded, smiling, and he knew she appreciated the gesture.
“So, what’s next on our whirlwind tour, Ben?” Alex asked, turning her attention to the driver who was unaware of the exchange between Val and Alex.
“Next, we go to Mount Precipice, our last stop today. It is only a short drive from here, about half an hour. Mount Precipice is located about two kilometers south of Nazareth, the hometown of Jesus. It is believed to be the site of the Rejection of Jesus by his people, who did not accept Him as Messiah and tried to push him from the mountain.”
Ben took another bite of the bread before continuing. “You may recall the following from the Gospel of Luke, where Luke describes what happened when Jesus addressed the people in the synagogue and told them that the scripture he had been reading to them had just been fulfilled in their presence. Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.’”
“How does he remember all this stuff?” Alex asked Val under her breath, causing him to chuckle softly.
Ben paused, and Alex straightened up, as though she had just been caught passing notes in class. But Ben simply took a long breath, then continued. “Luke tells us that ‘All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.’ This hill that Luke describes is believed to be Mount Precipice.”
Alex nodded quietly, obviously trying to behave herself.
“I was uncertain when you added Cana to the stops for today, Mr. Val, that we would be able to make it to Mount Precipice before sundown. But it looks like we will make it after all.”
As the driver uttered the words, Val instinctively glanced at Alex to see if the full meaning of what the driver divulged had registered with her, but her expression remained the same, and he wasn’t sure one way or the other.
“What time is sunset?” Alex asked.
“Today, the sun sets at four forty-five. We will be there about twenty minutes before, which should give us time to go up the mountain and see the buildings of Nazareth in the last of the day’s light.”
When they pulled into the parking lot at the base of the mountain half an hour later, the desert air was cooling down significantly, and Val and Alex both put on their fleeces as they stepped out of the van.
Ben led them up the mountain slowly, showing his age more with each step, and Val understood now why he had not accompanied them on any of their other on-foot sightseeing. At the top of the mountain, Ben pointed out the city of Nazareth down below, with its own religious and historical sites that they would not have time to visit, as well as some of the other significant landmarks they could see from their vantage point, including Mount Tabor in the distance, which was believed to be the site of the Transfiguration of Jesus (according to Ben).
With the history lesson over, Ben motioned for the two of them to find a spot to watch the sunset, while he began to make his way back down to the van. “The climb down is more difficult for me,” he explained, “and I have seen the sun set over this land many times.”
When Ben was out of earshot, Alex leaned over to speak to Val. “Poor Ben. He doesn’t seem to be doing very well. I guess I didn’t realize that earlier in the day.”
“Neither did I,” replied Val.
They found a spot near the edge of the hill and stood near each other in silence as the sky turned all manner of beautiful colors to honor the setting sun. Val wasn’t sure if he had swayed, or perhaps it had been her, but their shoulders touched at one point, then remained there in contact, passing warmth between their two bodies.
“Are you cold?” he whispered, finally, as the sun kissed the earth.
“Yes,” she whispered back, which made him wonder if she were challenging him to do something about it.
Val wanted very much to wrap his arms around her in reply, but then she added, “I don’t mind the cold right now, though. It makes the night more memorable, somehow.”
They stood there, shoulders touching, for a while after the sun had dipped out of sight. As darkness fell around them, Val realized how much he had enjoyed the last few days with Alex. It pained him to think about going back to the stark contrast of his everyday life. Waking up alone in his condo. Eating breakfast and lunch, and sometimes dinner, alone at his desk. Arriving at work before the sun rose in the morning and leaving after the sun had set on most days. How could he go back to that solitary existence?
It was true, he would see Alex at work for at least a couple more weeks, but then she would be gone, and he would have no one.
“Should we head back?”
Alex was looking at him, a concerned expression on her face. Val shook off his gloom and smiled at her. “Yes. Hopefully Ben made it back to the van all right.”
It was another hour and a half drive to get back to the hotel from Mount Precipice, but, at Ben’s suggestion, they stopped at a roadside restaurant half an hour outside Herzliya to have dessert and tea instead of dinner after their late lunch.
By the time Ben dropped them off at the hotel, it was almost eight o’clock. Val didn’t want the evening to be over just yet, but he realized he had spent almost twelve hours straight with Alex. He didn’t want to overstay his welcome.
As they walked through the hotel lobby on the way to the elevators, Alex slowed down and touched his arm. “Val?”
Val stopped and turned to look at her.
“Do you think they would give us wine glasses at the bar? I’d hate to get stuck in customs because we were trying to smuggle a single bottle of wine in our luggage.” The corners of her mouth turned up in a sweetly devilish smile as she patted the bag she was holding with the bottle of wine they had bought from Cana.
Relieved that he wouldn’t have to say goodnight to Alex just yet, Val grinned unabashedly. “I’m pretty sure they can find a way to accommodate us.”
****
A few minutes later, Alex was sitting comfortably beside Val on one of the couches in the lobby, sipping the wine he had poured out into the two glasses the bartender had provided.
“I can’t believe it’s back to reality tomorrow,” she said as Val poured her a second glass. Though she didn’t say it, the thought of their adventure ending the next day had prompted her to suggest prolonging the evening. Their day together had been perfect in every way, and Alex just wasn’t ready for it to end.
“Well,” replied Val, touching the rim of his glass with an outstretched finger, “first it will be an incredibly long flight, then a long layover in Newark, then another shorter flight, and then back to reality.”
Alex laughed. “True. Nothing like a full day of arduous travel to help you transition back to the real world.”
The real world. It seemed so far away in that moment. Her car, her townhouse. Billy. She hadn’t thought about Billy all day, and now, sitting with Val and reminiscing about their sightseeing, Alex wasn’t sure she wanted to think about him—at least, not quite yet. She wanted to linger just a little while longer in this dream-like place of new sights, sounds, and tastes—this world that Val had brought her to and shown her, where there were no complications or stress. Where she had a friend who seemed to genuinely care about her and how she felt.
Looking up from her glass, Alex found Val watching her, and heat immediately rushed into her cheeks. Despite her first instinct to look down again, she had to ask the question she had been pondering since that afternoon.
“What did Ben mean when he said that he wasn’t sure we would make it to Mount Precipice when you added Cana to the tour? Were we not supposed to go to Cana today?”
It seemed that Val stopped breathing for a second. He didn’t answer, at first, but then finally chuckled and shook his head from side to side slowly, as though she had caught him in a grand scheme.
“No, Cana was not originally on the schedule.”
“Did you add it because of our conversation last night? Because of what I told you about wanting to get married?”
It was what she’d thought when Ben mentioned the timing of their stops. But if that were true, if Val had added a stop just because of what she was going through with Billy and what she wanted in her life…
“Yes,” he replied simply. “I thought it would be meaningful for you. I thought you would like it.”
“I did. It was perfect. The whole day with you was perfect. It was the trip of a lifetime. Thank you for that. Thank you for all of it.”
Val nodded, saying nothing, but there was something in his eyes that made her think that, perhaps, he wanted to thank her, too. Maybe it was meaningful for him, as well.
Alex sipped what was left of her wine, conscious of Val’s nearness, wondering what he was thinking. But as she tipped the last drop from her glass, he still said nothing, and she couldn’t find the right words to ask what his silence meant.
Val was quiet as they rode the elevator together, and when she ventured to glance at his face, the hint of melancholy in his expression made her heart squeeze. The sound of the elevator doors sliding open when they reached their floor jarred her from her contemplative state, and Val gestured for her to step off the elevator before him.
Alex stopped at the door to her room and withdrew the room key from her back pocket as Val came up behind her.
Suddenly wary of the fluttery feeling in her stomach, Alex unlocked the door and gripped the handle to push it open. Seconds passed as she paused, her hand unmoving, and the door locked again with a click.
She found herself turning away from the door and boldly looked into Val’s eyes. The confusion and, quite possibly, panic she saw written on Val’s face made her smile and, oddly enough, gave her courage.
“Thank you again for a wonderful day, Val.”
Whether it was due to the wine or the look in his eyes, the tenderness Alex felt for Val overwhelmed her, and she reached up to hug him. Without hesitation, he leaned in to wrap his arms around her, his strong arms holding her, making her feel both protected and powerful. They held each other for longer than was necessary, but neither of them seemed inclined to let the other go. With her eyes closed, she felt his chest rise and fall against hers, and without effort, their breathing fell into sync.
Finally, after what could have been one minute later or ten, Alex slowly released her hold on Val and felt him do the same. As she withdrew, Alex turned her head and brushed her lips against his cheek.
It was an innocent gesture, like the kisses she had given her brother at least a hundred times before, and she told herself she merely wanted to convey how much she cared for Val, as a friend. But then Val’s hand slid into hers, and of their own accord, her fingers spread apart, weaving with his.
Val bent his head toward her, and Alex froze, watching as his lips drew closer to her cheek. As he placed a chaste kiss just under her cheekbone, she closed her eyes and sucked in a quiet breath.
