My Journey

by Amalie Coles

  “Of course I know! I just went for a quick walk to unwind after a long day and took a wrong turn.”

  “You should’ve asked me or someone else to join you! Do you understand what could’ve happened? Jeez, Rebecca! I always knew you’re a bit dreamy but not to this point!”

  “You know nothing about me!” I snapped. “Look, I’m lost and tired. And instead of showing me a way home, you keep on grilling me for leaving alone. Just for your information, I’m over eighteen and have every right to do whatever the hell I want!”

  I knew that every argument I brought up was lame, and perhaps he was right about my dreamy quality. I could be easily swayed and often in the wrong direction. But my sense of pride wouldn’t give way. So we stood there arguing back and forth until I finally broke into loud sobs.

  Startled by what he had done, he tried to console me. “Becky, I’m sorry for screaming at you,” he said. “I got scared and overreacted. Please don’t cry.”

  “Piss off, George!” I started walking again.

  “Where are you going now?”

  “Ah, I don’t know.”

  He ran after me and grabbed my hand. Even during such a stressful time, his touch felt electrifying. I looked at him, tears running in streams.

  “Hold on, let me get you a tissue.” He fished out a Kleenex from his pocket and passed it to me.

  Up until now, I couldn’t stop crying and probably looked like a big mess. He came closer and touched my face, gently wiping away a tear.

  “How about we go home and forget about everything that happened?” he suggested.

  “I’m sorry,” I said after having calmed down for a bit.

  “It’ll be all right. Let’s go find a cab.”

  Much to our luck, a taxi car was passing by, and a driver asked if we needed help. George quickly instructed him to take us to the Albright Institute, and we got inside.

  The ride wasn’t very long. Feeling embarrassed by the scene I had caused, I kept quiet. I had never expected myself to have a meltdown right in the middle of a street. I worked in customer service, for goodness’ sake! OK, maybe I cried at work once or twice, but I was in a bathroom, so that doesn’t count. In the meantime, George sat very close to me and tried to provide as much comfort as possible. Somehow, I felt protected with him.

  ***

  “Do you want some tea?” George asked me. I was sitting cross-legged on his bed still trying to recuperate from everything.

  “Sure,” I replied. “Earl Grey would be great.”

  “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  After he left, I looked around the room, which was a copy of my own. It had two bunk beds across from a small table, a chair filled with clothes, and a sink. Two contemporary paintings were decorating the walls. While looking around, I noticed a few drawings lying on the table. I walked closer and took a better look. These were images of the pottery finds and hand-drawn maps of Ashkelon. As I was leafing casually through the papers, I realized how much more I still had to learn about archaeology. Even after all the time I’d spent with the Leon Levy Expedition, my hands-on experience was still lacking.

  “Here you are.” George reappeared with a tray of two cups and a plate of halva.

  “Oh, thank you.” I took one bite and moved back to the bed.

  He put the tray down and sat next to me. For a moment, we sat quietly drinking our tea and munching on the halva treats.

  “By the way, thank you for finding me,” I said at last.

  “You’re welcome.”

  “I just wanted some fresh air. I had no idea how easy it is to get lost in Jerusalem. I should’ve taken a map or something.”

  “You bet. Please don’t ever scare me like this again.” He shook his index finger at me.

  Suddenly, it occurred to me that he truly cared about me. First he helped me to get into the Albright Institute and then saved me from getting lost.

  “George, why are you helping me?” I asked.

  “What do you mean, Becky? I had to come after you. What would you do if I weren’t around?”

  “I have no clue.”

  Our eyes met again, and our lips came close. I felt passion stir inside me. I was completely alone with a man who had rescued me from danger.

  “You are right,” I said. “I do have my head up in the clouds sometimes, but not always.” I trailed my fingers down through the collar of his shirt.

  “At least you’re admitting the truth, Rebecca.” He smirked.

  For a second, I considered having that last, long-overdue fling. Those eyes were telling me that he was more than willing.

  “I have to go now.” I pulled myself away from him. “I have to be up early tomorrow.”

  “See you then.” Traces of disappointment showed up on his face.

  “Goodnight, George.”

  “Sweet dreams, Becky.”

  That night, I tossed and turned, unable to stop thinking about George. No longer could I lie to myself about us being friends. I wanted all of him, and thinking about that rescue scene from a few hours ago only intensified my desire. There was something sexy about the way he came after me and took charge of the whole situation. Even the way he got angry about my carelessness made me drawn to him more.

  The intellectual side of our budding relationship was just as fascinating as the physical. All the time we had spent together was amazing, and the conversations we had had were incredibly fulfilling. I recalled the reassuring words he said to me when I was feeling nervous about my project. I even wondered if, under different circumstances, he and I would stand a chance. “I believe in you” resonated in my ears.

  Chapter 16

  Next morning, I walked into the cafeteria half-expecting everyone to turn my way. I was glad when no one showed the slightest interest in my crazy story from the last night.

  “How are you finding the translation?” Avi asked me while making a toast.

  “A bit tough, but it’s fine,” I replied, pouring my coffee.

  “Yesterday, we were cataloguing the artefacts, and they mentioned the one you had found.”

  “Oh really? That’s great!” I was already feeling ten times better.

  “Yes. They are thinking about publishing an article about the figurine.”

  “That’s amazing! I hope it makes to the BAR.”

  “I’m not a big fan of it.” I took my tray and moved towards a table. Avi followed me.

  “Really? How come?” I couldn’t imagine anyone from the scholarly world not enjoying this magazine.

  “It’s mostly for lay readers, not scholars. I mean, it’s cool and everything, but I prefer ASOR’s journals.”

  “Makes sense. I tried their subscription once but found the articles a bit too dry.” In truth, I still had my last issue lying around unfinished.

  “So, what’s your area of focus, Rebecca?” he asked, taking a bite from his toast.

  “I don’t have one. I only did an undergrad in anthropology and Near Eastern Studies.”

  “Really? I assumed you were a grad student.”

  “Taking one step at a time.” I smiled. “By the way, you still haven’t told me your area of focus.”

  “I’m focusing on the Upper Palaeolithic era. My thesis is on the Cave of Kebara at Mount Carmel.”

  “Not my strongest side,” I admitted, recalling one time I had completely flunked a test on the prehistoric Levant. Luckily, I made up for the low mark later when we moved on to the Bronze and Iron Ages.

  “Lots of people in the field say that. Nevertheless, the Palaeolithic and Neolithic are my favorite periods.”

  “Why?” Although the breakfast was coming to an end, I didn’t feel like leaving yet. I wanted to know what made Avi drawn to such a daunting area. I mean, just look at those tools. They hardly look different from rocks or from each other.

  “People underestimate the importance of the earlier periods,” he replied. “In reality, those were the times when the human civilizations started forming.”
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br />   “I see.”

  “Becky, if you are having any troubles with the translation, please let me know,” he suddenly added. “I’ll come over and help you.”

  “It’s all right, thanks. I’ll manage.”

  Through the morning, I completely dedicated myself to the article. As I became more efficient with the dictionary and online translation programs, the work became easier. No longer was I spending an hour on a single sentence, and by eleven o’clock, I was already halfway through the translation. Suddenly, my computer shut down. I tried restarting it, but the button refused to work.

  “Shoot!” I screamed.

  “Do you need some help?” the librarian asked politely. This time, it was a young man named Ehud.

  “Yes, I think my computer is down.”

  “Wait a minute.” He quickly walked to his desk and phoned someone.

  “The tech support is coming over.”

  A few minutes later, a group of young men showed up. They examined the laptop and tried restarting it a few times.

  “I’m sorry, but it looks like the disk has crashed,” one of them told me.

  “What?” I exclaimed in horror. “I’ve got my paper on it!”

  “We’ll try our best to fix it, but we can’t promise anything. It has to go to the computer shop.”

  “When can I expect it to be fixed?” I asked, trying to hide my panic.

  “The waiting time is usually very long. It could be anytime between tomorrow and the next few weeks.”

  I couldn’t believe my ears. I had less than three days to finish the translation, and I still hadn’t gotten to the footnotes and bibliography, which would take quite a lot of time. If the data wasn’t salvaged by the next day, my entire effort would go waste.

  “All right, thanks.” I walked away without letting anyone see my tears. Having reached my room, I sat down on the bed and spent the next hour or so staring at the ceiling and wondering how much of my work was lost. Surely, I saved it shortly before the system went down, and perhaps some parts of it were saved automatically. Still, I had no idea if the technicians would be able to retrieve my document at all.

  ***

  “Rebecca, are you OK?” Megan asked me while we were making our lunch in the kitchen. “You look like you’ve been crying.”

  “I’m fine,” I said, tears rising in my eyes.

  “Look, you are crying!” Caitlin exclaimed. “Let me get you a tissue.” She fished out one from her pocket.

  “Thank you.” I looked away.

  “What’s wrong, honey?” she asked.

  “Well, the laptop I was working on crashed,” I mumbled. “My article is lost now.” I began sobbing.

  “Oh, no!” Caitlin exclaimed.

  “It’s OK, honey. Don’t cry.” Megan came to my side and hugged me.

  “And I promised to finish it by Friday.” I couldn’t stop crying.

  “Wait, did you save it?” Caitlin asked.

  “Does it matter now?” I shrugged. “The technicians said it might take several weeks to fix the hard drive.”

  “How far did you get?”

  “Only through half of it.”

  “Which means the staff can still use it after you are gone,” Megan noted.

  “If they manage to recover the disk at all.”

  “They will.”

  “I wanted to finish everything by Friday.” I put my hands over my face.

  “I’m pretty sure everyone will understand.” Megan tried reassuring me. “Besides, you are not even getting a credit or anything, as far as we know.”

  She was right. The whole expedition wasn’t meant to be anything more than a summer adventure. So why was I even here, at the Albright Institute, sweating over some scholarly article on the Neanderthals when I was supposed to be in Ashkelon or Megiddo enjoying the sunshine?

  “Maybe you are right.” I sighed.

  “Don’t be so discouraged,” Megan said, patting me on the shoulder. “If you want, we’ll take you out tonight so that you feel a bit better.”

  “No, thanks. I’m not going anywhere again.” First, I got lost in a foreign city, and then my article disappeared. What else could I expect to happen?

  “We’ll go together this time. We’ll take a cab and ride to the western side of the city. What do you think?”

  “I don’t know yet. But thanks for offering.” I faked a smile.

  “No problem. We all need a little outing. So think about it.”

  After lunch, we proceeded to the basement, where I was supposed to help the rest of the team with the lab work. I suddenly remembered how I initially preferred it over the article. Now I was getting my wish but at a high price.

  I spent the afternoon entering information about the findings into the database. Countless artefacts had to be documented, and the amount of paperwork linked to the finds was unbelievable. I carefully filled up all the documents and keyed in the numbers. Although the work wasn’t as challenging as the translation, it was still quite interesting. Maybe if I wasn’t having such a terrible day, I would be enjoying it.

  “Don’t worry about the project,” Avi told me at the end of the work day. “If you don’t get to finish the article, I’ll take over after you leave.”

  “Thanks, Avi, but I still can’t believe it happened.

  “It happens to almost everyone.” He smiled.

  Throughout the university years, I had always backed up my work on USBs and Google Drive. Sometimes, I went a bit overboard with saving work. Not once had my computer crashed. The moment I decided to skip multiple saves, I got into trouble.

  During dinner, I was still in a bad mood. For the first time during my stay in Israel, I had zero appetite for food. So I sat quietly by myself moving kabob around the plate with my fork and trying to fight back my tears. As soon as the dinner ended, I wanted to leave.

  “Hey, Becky! Wait!” Avi yelled.

  “What?” Was he going to tell me not to worry again and make me feel even worse?

  “I brought something to cheer you up.” He lifted a bunch of disks in the air. “Want to listen to the music together? I’ve got a CD player and everything.”

  “I’m not in the mood today. Sorry.”

  “That’s why I brought the disks in the first place. I want you to feel better, Becky.”

  “Wait! You brought them?” Somehow, this piece of information had slipped away from my ears.

  “Yes! I drove all the way to Ein Kerem to my apartment to get the disks especially for you.”

  “Oh, my goodness! I feel so bad now.”

  “It’s not a big deal at all. If you don’t feel like listening to the music, I’ll just go home, and we’ll meet tomorrow at the lab. I was thinking about taking a little break from the academic stuff and just relaxing.”

  “All right, you win.” I couldn’t let him down after all the effort he had made.

  Initially, we wanted to go to the Common Room, but someone else was watching the TV, so we ended up in my room instead.

  “So tell me, Rebecca. What draws you to Israeli music?” he asked while putting a disk into the player.

  “Hmm, good question, Avi. Maybe I just like the beat.”

  “I could see that. But why did you choose to learn Hebrew in the first place?”

  I thought for a bit. “Well, my field is obviously one thing,” I began. “I had majored in Near Eastern archaeology and studied Hebrew and Aramaic as the primary source languages.”

  “That would make sense. I’ve taken Aramaic, too.”

  “You see? I’m not that weird,” I joked, hoping he wouldn’t continue asking.

  “But how did you find out about all the artists?” he pressed on. “You aren’t Jewish, are you?”

  “No, I’m not. That’s a long story.”

  “So tell me.”

  I took a deep breath. “I was in high school going through a tough stage,” I started slowly. “I had no friends and was on the brink of failing all my classes.”


  “Sorry to hear about that.” He looked at me with sympathy.

  I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to pour my heart to Avi. Technically, he was my boss. Moreover, he belonged to the culture that prized achievement above everything else. Yet I kept talking.

  “When it came to music, I wanted something different, something that would take me away from the everyday reality. One day, I went to a library and stumbled upon a collection of disks in a foreign language. It was the language of the people I’ve been fascinated with since the age of twelve. I tried out one recording, and it made me forget all my troubles. Then it kind of meshed up together, and I ended up majoring in Biblical archaeology, learning Hebrew, and going crazy about Sarit Hadad.”

  Avi kept quiet. He probably didn’t expect his fellow worker at the Albright Institute to have such a challenging past.

  “I’m glad it all ended well for you,” he remarked.

  “I think it all comes down to going after something that’s hard to get,” I suddenly said.

  “What do you mean, Becky?” He looked perplexed.

  “Well, it would be much easier for me to like music from my country or to choose a major with more job prospects. My sister and I are exact opposites in that respect. She’d chosen a very practical program, and she’s using her degree at work, while I’m using mine on a vacation.”

  Avi laughed. “I wouldn’t call what you’re doing here ‘a vacation.’”

  “As for the music, she’ll like anything that’s in trend. As a kid, she was a fan of the Spice Girls and Britney. When we moved to a new school, where most of the kids were rock lovers, she suddenly started cranking up Rush and Queen. I bet if she ever moved to Israel, she would either start admiring Arik Einstein or Omer Adam, depending on a circle she was in. I often wish I could be like her.”

  “No offense to your sister, Becky, but why do you want to follow the crowd?”

  “Then I wouldn’t have to lie about my playlist or answer annoying questions on how I plan to use the anthropology degree in my real life. But this is who I am, and I’m happy about it.”