GIDEON TELPAZ
55
The old lithograph of the pyramids that my Egyptian predeces–
sor had left still hung on the walls of my room. His family photograph
in a silver frame stood on the table, he, moustached and smiling,
with his young wife and two children . He'd had no time to take it
with him. I had not touched it. I had not changed anything. When
he returned, he would find the room exactly as he had left it.
I finished packing and managed to get some sleep. The room
was flooded with light when I awoke. From down below came the
sound of voices in a Slavic tongue. I got up and crossed to the win–
dow. There were three white command cars with UN soldiers in blue
uniforms in the hospital yard. On the other side of the yard, near the
gate, our two ambulances stood ready to leave .
When I made my last round the patients seized my hand and
kissed it. Some cried openly. I didn't see Sergeant Bashan until I en–
tered Muna's room. He was pulling the syringe out of Muna's arm
and wiping it with cotton wool.
"What the hell are you doing?" I roared.
"She was writhing in pain. She begged me to give her a shot. So
I did."
"You did!"
"What's the fuss?" He ambled out, rubbing his hand on his
khaki pants. "All I did was ease her last moments ."
I took her hand. Her pulse was almost imperceptible . Her lips
trembled in an attempted smile. As she viewed me through a rapidly
thickening haze, her facial muscles twitched . I bent over to catch
what she tried to tell me. No sound came. Her face slackened. Her
hand felt limp, vacant. I put it down.
I went out of the room and walked along the corridor. I picked
up my bag and came down the stairs to the hospital gate . Sergeant
Bashan and the orderlies were seated in the second ambulance . The
driver of the first ambulance had kept the seat next to him for me.
When I got in he produced a packet of lemon drops and held it out. I
made no move. He pushed the packet into my hand.
"What about you?"
He tapped his shirt pocket. "There's enough here to see me
through the desert."
The ambulance groaned and started moving out of the hospital
yard. I looked in the rearview mirror. The other ambulance was fol–
lowing closely. As we drove out of the gate, the UN soldiers jumped
out of their white cars and began running up the stairs and into the
hospital.
