“He just looks young, hon. Remember what I used to ask Tassie when she was little about the sky?”
“How far is the sky blue, Tassie? Forever. That’s how far God will protect you. I know but look what she went through.” Marge set her elbows on the table and rested her chin against her clasped hands. She closed her eyes.
“Marge, God delivered her and used her, and He will keep her safe now. She sent me a text this afternoon.”
“She did? Oh, what did she say?”
“‘Hi Dad, how far is the sky blue?’ It was followed by a smiley face.”
“That’s it? My sweet girl. I miss her, Jack.” A tear rolled down her face.
“I think we should go. We can decide whether to stay after we get there.”
Marge sighed. “But then we’d have to come back to sell everything.”
Jack sat for a moment chewing another cookie. “Great cookies, sweetheart. Look, the economy is taking a dive. Argentina defaulted, and the U.S. holds the note. China could call our note in. The stock market is down, and anti-Semitism is rising. I never thought we’d come up against this. I totally love my country, but our daughter is in Israel now. Perhaps it’s time for us to go there, too.”
Marge set her cup down, leaned back in the chair, and stared at Jack. “Go, as in move? Really, Jack, how could we? I mean I know I considered it, but I didn’t think you would. I expected you to just say it would be safe enough to visit. I never dreamed you would want to actually go. I don’t think I can sell all our stuff. I mean . . . ” Marge put her head down on her arms and sobbed.
Jack stood and walked over to Marge and caressed her shoulders. As the sobbing lessened, Marge lifted her head. Jack pulled his chair over to face hers. He took her hands in his. “Marge, I have come to a conclusion about all this.” Marge nodded and sniffled. Jack continued. “Israel is not the problem. Israel is the solution. Israel honors its people. It protects its people. It honors God. And I believe God honors Israel. They have so much pressure from the rest of the world, but they are innovative, smart, caring, and blessed. The U.S. used to be the same way, but so many things have changed. The Psalms say that God will prosper those who love Israel.”
He paused. “And, Marge, you know I love to study the history of the U.S. just like you love world history.”
Tears continued to run down Marge’s face. She dabbed her eyes and nodded again.
“Well, recently I learned that the United States Navy was developed in order to stop the Barbary Pirates. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, as Presidents, studied the Koran to understand the mindset of the pirates. Today our leaders don’t do that. They don’t understand the threat to the freedom principles we live by. Some do, but they’re shamed into thinking they are narrow minded and bigoted. Israel, however, simply understands and realizes what must be done to protect themselves. And, if Hector were here, I think he’d tell us to go.”
Marge hung her head and began to giggle. “Oh my, I think he would.”
Jack dipped his head. “He’s been right so far, and I think we should go.”
Marge closed her eyes and sighed. “I guess I can do this.” She looked around. “All my antiquities, all my artifacts, my collections. I shouldn’t feel this way.”
“They are precious to you, Marge. I understand that. Select a few to bring. We can store the rest, donate some, sell some.”
“Rube and Jill might want them. Oh Jack, the baby is coming into all this. How can I leave with the baby coming?”
Jack reached over and picked up another cookie. “These are too good.” He took a bite. “You know, a few weeks ago, I would have worried about them and the baby, but now that I know they are CIA . . . ” He chuckled. “I think they can take care of themselves. And, we can come see them often. Maybe they’ll come to Israel, too. He worked pretty well with the IDF or the Mossad or whoever it was.”
PRESENT DAY, ISRAEL
The plane touched down and Marge had her face plastered to the window. “Oh, Jack, I can’t believe it. Israel. Tassie. This is so exciting.”
Jack patted her hand and smiled.
As they stepped off the plane onto the walkway, the steam from the asphalt of the runway, rose and wafted all around them.
“Oh, there she is.” Marge saw Tassie and tears glistened in her eyes.
Tassie spotted them at that very moment. A big grin spread across her face and she ran to meet them, hugging Jack first and then Marge. “Daddy, Mother, I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Tassie, are you okay? All that you’ve been through. Did he hurt you?” Marge couldn’t stop blubbering. Tears coursed down her face.
“Mother, it was scary, and I had some scratches and cuts from the explosion. But I’m okay. Emotionally, it was hard, but the sky is blue.” Tassie reached over and grabbed her dad’s arm.
“Tassie, we really were worried.” Jack’s voice was gruff. “But we knew God would be with you.”
Tassie’s face lit up. “Yes, He was.” She stepped back and looked each parent in the eye. “And I have come to know the Messiah of the Jews.”
Marge stopped. She leaned slightly forward and stared off in the distance. “Tassie, do you mean Jesus? Like the rabbis?”
“Yes, Mother, and I couldn’t be happier or feel more complete. I hope you’re okay with this.”
Marge placed her arms around her daughter while the tears streamed again. “I don’t know why, Tassie, but now I truly know you are all right.” She stepped back and put her hand over her mouth while tears once more pooled in her eyes. “I’m happy for you, so happy.”
Jack handed his wife some tissues. “Well, my girl, looks like we have some interesting discussions in our future.”
“Yes, we do, Daddy. Now we have an apartment for you not far from the Goldmans. Jethro is in the same building.” She stopped and turned to her parents. “Jethro is a gem. He’s such a good friend. Who would’ve thought?”
Harvey and Sally arrived with her uncle, Rabbi Hermann Welcker, and his wife, Joannie. Tassie and her parents were already having coffee as they sat at the outdoor café. The sun was warm. Tassie grinned. “Sally, get cream in your coffee. They draw flowers on the surface of your coffee with the cream.”
Sally laughed as she sat down. “I know. I love it.” She looked across the small table at Tassie’s parents. “Welcome to Israel. May this always be home for you.”
“I can’t believe how at home I feel here.” Tassie’s mom reached over and patted her hand. “I was so nervous about coming and so worried about Tassie.”
“I’m really glad you came, Mother. I’m just as amazed that I’m here.”
Her mother glanced at Tassie’s dad. “When we were deciding whether to move, we actually thought about what Hector would say. We agreed that he would encourage us to come.”
Her dad nodded. “We did.”
Rabbi Welcker had a quizzical look on his face. “Did you say Hector.”
Tassie and her parents burst out laughing.
Just then the waitress arrived and took coffee and pastry orders from the rabbi, Joannie, Sally, and Harvey. “You are a happy bunch.”
Tassie smiled. “Yes, we are.” As she walked away, Tassie turned to the rabbi. “So, you know Hector, too? Hector Woodley?”
“I do, but I’d decided that maybe he was an angel.”
“Maybe he is an angel to the descendants of Gabe and Lydia Goldman.” Tassie’s mom leaned forward. “Tell us how you met him.”
“Well, it begins with my father-in-law. When all those involved in the oil drilling were about to give up, he had a dream, at least he thought it was a dream.”
Tassie and her parents exchanged looks. Her mom responded. “Yes, I thought mine a dream as well.”
“I didn’t.” Tassie rolled her eyes. “It was real, but a nightmare, I thought.”
The rabbi continued. “Well, in the dream, John, Joannie’s father, was reading in Deuteronomy, chapter 33, where Moses blessed the children of Israel before he d
ied. As my father-in-law read, he became aware of a man standing near him. John commented that normally that would have startled him, but since it was a dream, he was fine with it.”
Her mom chuckled and took a sip of coffee.
“This man pointed out the verse that said Asher will dip his foot in oil and said, ‘Did you ever look at a map as to where Asher’s land is?’ John shook his head. The stranger reached in and turned a few pages in John’s Torah book and there was a map of the twelve tribes of Israel. He pointed at Asher’s land. ‘What does that look like, John?’ John just stared at it for a minute and then he saw that it was like an extended foot. ‘Oh, I see it,’ John said. ‘Dip his foot. The toe? Is that where the oil is?’
“‘Does the verse say toe’ he asked John. ‘No, it says foot’. Then the man pointed to a spot along the shore line north of where the toe would be. ‘If I were you, I’d look right here.’ John told him that was near where they already had drilled and actually produced a little bit and that he only had enough to drill one more place before they closed down the company. ‘Go out there tomorrow. Do your soil samples in exactly this spot. Check it out.’ John agreed and fell asleep, except it was a dream so he continued sleeping until morning.”
The waitress returned with coffee and pastry.
“The next day he told his crew they were going to check out a different place. They replied, ‘Yeah, Hector already told us we were to do soil samples at one more location.’ John looked at them. ‘What, who? Hector?’ They pointed and there was the man in his dream. He’d not taken a good look at him, but he knew it was him.”
Tassie picked up a piece of pastry. “What did he look like?”
“Well, I arrived a short time later with Joannie. John had called us, and we weren’t quite sure what to make of it, but I knew dreams were Biblical. Hector was standing there talking to John. He was not very tall, had kind of long, sort of scraggly hair. It was gray, blond, a little of both, and balding on top.”
“That’s him,” Tassie and her parents said in unison.
Rabbi Welcker took a sip of coffee, then winked at his wife. “We actually noticed that he resembled me enough to be a distant cousin.”
Joannie grinned and took up the story. “We had the necessary paperwork ready as Dad had called us early about his new venture. Seemed a little hairbrained to me. We arrived just as the second soil sample was coming up. The first looked promising. I walked over to Dad just as Hector turned to him and said, ‘This is the one you’re looking for.’ He smiled at me and said, ‘Joannie, this is the best find of all. By the way, I’m Hector.’
“The crew was bringing up the auger with the soil sample tube and a chunk fell off. Hector pointed at it and said, ‘That’s what you need.’ Hermann and I walked over and picked it up. John and Hector joined us as we pawed through the muddy chunk. A bottle fell out. Hermann had heard stories about it and recognized it immediately. Hector said, ‘This is where you need to drill.’ We were pretty blown away. And I guess you know it was almost a gusher.”
“And now, here we all are.” Tassie’s dad set his coffee down. “We’re all descendants of Columbus or married to them. The world is pretty crazy, but I think more and more we are perfectly in God’s will. I said before, I believe Israel is the solution or at least part of the solution. That’s why we’re here. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I think it’s big.”
Rabbi Welcker placed his arm around his wife. “Well, if I may quote David Ben Gurion who, right here in Tel Aviv, proclaimed the birth of the state of Israel and soon became Israel’s first prime minister . . . he said, ‘In Israel, in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.’”
“Hear, hear.” Tassie’s mother lifted up her coffee cup and tapped Tassie’s cup. “I heard someone say the other day, ‘God performs miracles in such a way that you can choose to believe or not.’ I thought that was so good. I want to believe in all His miracles. And I am so glad to be here with you all.” She wiped a small tear from her eye.
Sally lifted her cup. “I think my favorite quote along that line is: God has made us strong and smart and wise enough to know it is He that has done it.”
Tassie pushed her hair behind her ear. “Rabbi, could you fill in one more piece of the puzzle?”
“I’ll try.”
“I’ve been following the path of the bottle. It came across on the Santa Maria with Lydia and Columbus. Well, the tassel did. Who knows about the bottle? And there were four blood moons right after that journey. Then it remained in the family until 1949 when it was stolen from the Orbins’ house on the night of a blood moon. A young boy found it not long after and it remained with that family, not related to any of the descendants, until his nephew returned it to a family member at the end of the Six Day War. At that time there were also four blood moons. And now, a short time before the blood moons we’re already in, you guys find it. Omar steals it for a short time and steals me a longer time. And now we are back here. But where between 1967 and a few months ago did it go missing?”
“It occurred on the ninth of Av in 1994, a day that is traditionally known for bad things happening in Israel. Talk about signs in the heavens . . . the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with Jupiter and broke into twenty-one pieces at that time. Beforehand, the tassel of the bottle was displayed at another museum in Tel Aviv, the same art museum where Ben Gurion proclaimed the birth of the State of Israel. Even though the museum was guarded sufficiently, the relic was not. It’s thought that perhaps a museum worker, who had studied what was considered its protection blessings, decided to steal it. How it ended up in the soil miles north of here, we’re not sure. I think it must have been thrown off a ship somewhere.”
Joannie smiled. “Okay, my theory is that the thief saw the movie Titanic when the lady throws the jewel off the ship at the end, so no one would have it, and decided to throw the bottle overboard.”
Harvey laughed. “And there was a lot of farming going on for a while near our oil drilling locations, so maybe it washed ashore. Maybe a kid found it and buried it and then it was plowed up and under. Who knows, but it was there and signified where to drill for oil.”
The sun was high. The rabbi looked at his watch. “Should we order lunch? We’ve been here a long time.”
“Could I just ask one more question of you, Rabbi?”
“Of course, Jack.”
“Why does God use blood moons?”
“In the prophets of the Bible, it says in the book of Joel that He will show wonders in the heavens and the earth, that the sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. In Genesis, the book of beginnings, we are told that the lights in the skies would be for signs or signals and seasons. So, we see these blood moons as signs that signal both God’s judgment and the accomplishment of His great purposes in the earth. Now in 1492 after great persecution, the Jews were given a new world to live in. In 1948 after terrible tragedy, the Jews gained Israel. In 1967 there was incredible pressure followed by the triumph of retaking Jerusalem. Now here we are again. Perhaps the Temple will be rebuilt or perhaps the temple of God will be rebuilt in the hearts of men.”
The waitress came and removed the plates and some of the cups.
“Well, I for one can’t wait to see what God is going to do.” Tassie’s mother reached across the table and patted and squeezed everyone’s hands. “I will admit I’m still a bit nervous, but excited.”
“Forgive me, but I must get back out to the oil site.” Joannie stood up. “I’m so delighted to have had this time with you.”
Harvey picked up the bill. “This one is on me. And I should get going as well.”
Soon they all had departed except for Tassie. She remembered sitting at the coffee shop by the water in Chicago, wondering where she was going. I feel like I’ve lived a lifetime since then. I wonder what is still ahead.
CHAPTER 23
PRESENT DAY, ISRAEL
Th
e morning dawned bright and beautiful. The sun rising over the Israeli countryside soon cast its golden glaze upon the stones of Jerusalem. It was as if internal flames lit each stone that made up the buildings and walls of Jerusalem. For Benjamin Akeena it never grew old. Every morning he praised the God Almighty, blessed be He, that he, Benjamin, the most blessed of all men, could live in such a place. Yes, a rough neighborhood, no doubt, but never a place more anointed by God in the whole world.
Arriving in Israel from Russia as a young man was the most joyous day of his life. From the time he could perceive anything he had heard his father pray, beg God, speak out, believe, and cry for an open door to Israel. The government would not let them leave, but his father and mother would not let go. Then the day came that they were told to go, just drop everything, leave their belongings, all their cattle but one milk cow, and go. They left with almost nothing, but themselves, the cow, and their faith, their belief in the one true God, blessed be He. The arduous journey wore on them and lasted a month.
When they arrived, they were welcomed, and a place to live and learn and grow opened up. They were home, and life just got better. Benjamin was nearing the end of his three years in the military. He had been training in the technological field and wanted to always work in the IDF, to always guard and protect this land that he loved and that he was so sure loved him.
Today was the ninth of Av, a bad day in the history of Israel. Terrible things happened on this day so many times and everyone was on high alert. Still the beauty of the sunrise could not be dampened by the concern of the day.
Then the beeping began on his smart phone. He glanced at his compatriots. They had heard it as well and were taking their places at their missiles. Benjamin checked his orders. Syrian missiles were in-bound for Jerusalem. Were they crazy? Jerusalem?
Benjamin barked the orders and missiles fired over Jerusalem to intercept the IEDs. F151s were on their way. The Iron Dome was ready. Benjamin and his crew were first cover. They were able to take out three. The fourth continued. Benjamin sent out coordinates of possible impact. Another team destroyed it just before it entered the city, exploding over the Kidron valley. By then F151s were deployed and Benjamin listened to the chatter.
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