Paths of Desire
Published in Issue #14 Translated from French by Kathryn Gabinet-Kroo(Excerpt from a Novel)
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Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Daniel finally fell asleep. Despite the shaking of the bus, despite his neighboursʼ animated conversations, despite the thunderous horn-honking of the trucks rushing by in the left lane. When he boarded the plane, he stopped thinking entirely. He simply repeated the next steps to himself: once in Jerusalem, I’ll leave my bags at the hotel and then jump into a taxi to go to the university. There, I’ll meet with the assistant dean. I hope he’ll have news for me.
Earlier, on the plane, he hadn’t touched his meal. For the past two days, he’d eaten almost nothing. His seatmate watched him from the corner of her eye. She was perhaps in her thirties, but the long hair dyed a vibrant red, the silver hoop dangling from her right nostril and the skull-shaped ring on her index finger gave her the look of a rebellious teenager. All these details, however, were lost on Daniel, whose expression seemed to say he was somewhere far, far away.
The young woman tried to engage him in conversation. “Is this your first trip to Israel?”
He shook his head. So as not to be impolite, he added, “I was there several times when I was a child but I haven’t been back since.” Intrigued, the woman studied his face, as if she could learn more from his features, which were ploughed with furrows and wrinkles, than from his meager responses.
“Do you have family in Israel?” What could he possibly answer? Yes, my daughter. She...
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