The Boudicca Parchments

Chapter 76

“Wake up! Wake up!”

Shalom Tikva was shaking his son’s arm. He had entered the living room of the friend’s house where they had both been hiding out and was now rousing his son aggressively. For most of the night, Baruch Tikva had slept a fitful sleep after arriving at Aryeh’s house. And now, just as he was finally nodding off in the small hours of the morning, his father was waking up.

“Wha… what? What is it?”

“We must get up and recite Shaharis.”

The word Shaharis was the Ashkenazi classical Hebrew pronunciation of Shaharit — this was the morning service, recited by orthodox Jews either quietly and individually or out loud by a minyan, a quorum of ten males aged 13 or over.

Baruch got up and staggered to the bathroom.

“Why so early?” he called out. “We can davan later.”

We can pray later.

“No we can’t. We have something to do.”

“What?” Baruch called out over the sound of running water.

“We are going to rid the face of Israel of our enemies.”

“But how do you know where they are?” Baruch called out.”

“I know where they have to go. They will go where this ends. They will go where it started.”

“And where did it start?” he asked, shouting to be heard over the water.

“Where the sinners took their lives… where the woman died.”

“But how will we rid ourselves of them?”

The water stopped.

“I met a Palestinian friend,” said Shalom Tikva. “He gave me something… as a favour.”

When Baruch Tikva emerged from the bathroom, he saw that his father was holding a hand grenade.