After a few solid hours of shopping, the two women were laden down with bags and walked into a bar. They were both happy and giggling like schoolgirls. They had missed each other sorely, but had not realised it until today.

‘I’d forgotten how tiring it was to shop with you. I’m exhausted,’ Mina said.

‘But happy?’ asked Liat.

‘Oh yes. Very happy.’

Mina dropped her bags and gave Liat a big hug. They sat down and as Mina looked at the drinks menu, she spotted the name of the bar. It was called Noa.

‘Is the name of this place really Noa?’

‘Yes, like the builder of the ark. Isn’t it funny?’

Mina didn’t respond. She could not help noticing these small signs, which were starting to stack up like an omen. Maybe her choice of studies and her recent adventures had more to them than a mere scholarly pursuit. Was she fated to track the history of Noah? Her rational mind usually fought against such superstitious ideas, but she could not shake the strange feeling she was part of a larger story here. She had thought she was following in the footsteps of Benjamin of Tudela. Maybe she should have checked first if he had been following someone else’s footsteps himself.

‘Are you alright Mina?’ Liat asked her brooding friend.

‘Yes of course. Let’s order some drinks pronto.’

‘What’s the rush?’ Liat asked, half-yawning.

‘Too much time spent in a non-wine-drinking country, that’s what!’

Two bottles of wine and some tasty nibbles later, Liat and Mina slumped back into one of the sofas. They propped their feet up on the coffee table in front of them and admired their newly bought Ferragamo high heels.

‘They’re lovely, Liat,’ Mina slurred.

‘Yes they are.’

‘If you don’t mind my asking…’

‘What?’ asked Liat.

‘With the fortune your parents left you, do you still need to work for a living?’

‘What you really mean is why am I working?’

‘Well, yeah.’

Liat thought about it for a moment, and then simply replied, ‘Because I enjoy it.’

‘Good answer!’ She could sense that Liat was about to ask her what she was hiding and the amount of alcohol she had drunk would make her an easy prey to thorough questioning. But Liat was as tipsy as her. Instead she asked her about Charlie.

‘It just didn’t work out,’ said Mina.

‘Liar. He wrote to me at the time. You dumped him when you decided to go off to Iraq.’

‘Alright. I did. So what?’

‘You were a great couple, you could have stayed together. You’re twenty-nine, you know! Time’s ticking. Didn’t you think you should have waited for him? I know he’d have waited for you.’

‘No. That was part of the problem. Charlie and I would never have stayed together. Do you remember Susan and her Italian boyfriend? Remember the hours she spent on the phone talking to him instead of being with him? Remember how she was never free but alone all the same? It was painful to watch. Long distance relationships? No thanks.’

Both girls went silent.

‘You seemed to get along.’

‘There was no passion, Liat. Not on my side anyway. I loved him, don’t get me wrong. But in the end, it was like having a good friend and living in the hope it would turn into something greater.’

Mina didn’t know if it was the alcohol or the talk about former lovers, but Jack’s image had entered her head and would not leave. ‘I hardly know him,’ she said softly.

‘What? Who are you talking about?’ Liat asked, her gossip antennae quivering.

‘No-one,’ replied Mina.

‘Yeah. Like I’m gonna let that one slip. C’mon, talk to Auntie Liat.’

‘OK. There is someone.’

‘What’s his name?’

‘Jack.’

‘American?’

‘Yes.’

‘Kind, supportive, does the dishes after dinner… or a bad boy?’

‘You’re being silly’, laughed Mina.

‘Fine. Where did you meet?’

‘In Mosul.’

‘Journalist, diplomat or military?’

‘Are those the only American men available there?’

‘Oh, let me guess; you found yourself the only American archaeologist mad enough to work in a war zone.’

Mina smiled, ‘I don’t want to talk about him.’

‘Liar.’

‘Not as much of a liar as he is.’

‘Bad boy then,’ concluded Liat.

‘I guess so.’

‘Any regrets?’

‘Yes. We never even kissed.’

Liat was about to laugh, but saw the genuine sadness on Mina’s face. She gave her a long hug instead.

Another bottle of wine later, in the early hours of the morning a very drunk Mina stumbled into the Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel amp; Towers.

Chapter 14

December 8th, 2004

Mina woke up at 08.00, still exhausted. She had overslept and was suffering from a monumental hangover after her drinking session with Liat. She felt more disorganised than she had ever been and desperately wondered how she would cope at the interview under these conditions. The only course of action was a long, hot shower and by the time she had finished drying her thick black hair, putting on her make-up and choosing an appropriate ‘interview skirt’ among the clothes Liat had bought her the previous afternoon, it was 10.15.