Saving Sophie: A Novel by Ronald H. Balson

north to fight against them.”
    “Why, Jaddi? Why did the Israelites want to fight?”
    “They say in their Bible that God commanded them, but in truth, that is their way. They are conquerors and occupiers of other people’s houses and lands. Even today. Just the same. Did you ever hear the simple song ‘Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho’?”
    Sophie’s eyes brightened. “‘And the walls came tumbling down.’”
    “Just so. Only, the song is a fable. We are not told the real story. Do you want to know?”
    Sophie nodded.
    “Jericho, the oldest city in the world, was a peaceful little village in Canaan. It was small, but it had a large wall around the city to protect the people. Jericho didn’t have very many soldiers. Only about five hundred. Joshua had a huge army of eight thousand Israelites, some on horses, some on foot, but all with weapons. There were four times as many men in Joshua’s army as there were all the people in the town of Jericho. But the people had built a wall, six feet thick and twenty-six feet high, so they felt safe.”
    “Like the wall around your house, Jaddi?”
    Al-Zahani laughed. “Maybe. Only a little bigger than mine, no?”
    “How did the walls come tumbling down?”
    “That is only a fairy story. The truth is that Joshua and his army encircled the city and for six days marched around making terrible noise and blowing loud horns. Then a woman named Rahab, a very evil woman who thought only of herself, made a secret deal with Joshua. In exchange for her safety, she snuck Joshua’s soldiers into the town and they opened the gates for the army. What happened next is too terrible to tell. The Canaanites who lived in Jericho were brave and honorable, but no match for such a large army. After Joshua finished fighting them, he set the whole town on fire. Then he marched on to fight other towns in Canaan.”
    “And our family comes from Canaan, Jaddi?”
    Al-Zahani nodded. “For thousands of years. Even though their lands were taken and they were left to wander without a home, they struggled against their oppressors and resisted the unlawful occupation then, as we do now.”
    “Did you ever have to leave your home?”
    “Yes, I did. My whole family, my friends, and everyone I knew had to flee from the bombs. I was just about your age. We lived in Haifa, by the ocean.”
    “Did you have a home like mine?”
    “Well, I’ve never been inside your home, but I think they were probably very much alike. I had my own bedroom.”
    “Why did you leave your home?”
    “Because a war was about to start. Because far, far away from us, in New York City, a group of other countries decided to split up the land of Palestine and take our part away from us and give it to the Jews for a new country called Israel. So that we could keep our family safe from the war, we had to flee from our home. And we could never come back.”
    “That’s not fair.”
    “You are right, little one, it is not fair.”
    Al-Zahani lifted Sophie from his lap and kissed her on the forehead. “And now it is time for bed.”

 
    S EVENTEEN
    L ARGE SNOWFLAKES, ILLUMINATED BY the headlights of Kelsen’s black Bentley, gave the illusion of space travel as it motored through the streets of a quiet subdivision north of Chicago. The Bentley turned into a driveway at the end of a cul-de-sac and flashed its high beams against the side of the house. A figure soon emerged, dressed in a black, hooded parka. He sloshed through the snow to the back of the Bentley and a window was lowered.
    The man leaned in. He spoke with a Russian accent. “Is it all arranged?”
    “Yes,” Kelsen said.
    “You are sure? Dmitri will be playing large. This must be assured. Nothing can go wrong.” The man wagged his finger side to side.
    “Nothing is assured, Evgeniy. It’s a basketball game. Things can go wrong. Tell Dmitri to lay off if he’s worried.”
    “Dmitri want to know, are you in?”
    “Big-time.”
    “Okay. Okay. Then I give