Part 24 (2/2)
”Do you think I haven't tried?” Moishe Russie said. ”I've talked to the fleetlord. And I've talked even more to his adjutant, because Atvar is sick of talking with me. All I can tell you is, the Lizards aren't going to change their minds about this.”
”Does anybody actually go to the shrine they built here?” someone else asked.
”I've seen some people do it,” Reuven said. ”A few Christians, a few Muslims... a few of us, too.”
”Disgraceful.” Three men said the same thing at the same time.
”I don't think the world will end,” Reuven said. ”I wouldn't care to do it myself, though.”
”The world may not end if a few Jews go to this shrine,” Moishe Russie said heavily, ”but we haven't got so many Jews that we can afford to waste even a few.” Reuven had a hard time disagreeing with that.
And then, the next Monday, he'd just got into his seat at the medical college when the Lizard physician named Shpaaka said, ”You Tosevites here are an elite. You have the privilege of learning from us medical techniques far more sophisticated than any your own kind would have developed for many years to come. Is this not a truth?”
”It is truth, superior sir,” Reuven chorused along with the rest of the young men and women in his cla.s.s.
”I am glad you concede this,” Shpaaka told them. ”Because you are an elite, more is expected from you than from other Tosevites. Is this not also a truth?”
”It is truth, superior sir,” Reuven repeated with his cla.s.smates. He wondered what the Lizard was getting at. Most days, almost all days, Shpaaka simply started lecturing, and heaven help the students who couldn't keep up.
Today, though, he continued, ”Because you are privileged, you also have responsibilities beyond the ordinary. Another truth, is it not so?”
”Another truth, superior sir,” Reuven said dutifully. He wasn't the only one puzzled now. Half the cla.s.s looked confused.
”One of the responsibilities you have is to the Race,” Shpaaka said. ”In learning our medicine, you also learn our culture. Yet you do not partic.i.p.ate in our culture as fully as we would like. We are going to take steps to correct this unfortunate situation. I realize we should have done this sooner, but we have only just reached consensus on the point ourselves.”
Jane Archibald caught Reuven's eye-not hard, because his gaze had a way of sliding toward her every so often anyhow. What he talking about? What he talking about? she mouthed. Reuven shrugged one shoulder. He didn't know, either. she mouthed. Reuven shrugged one shoulder. He didn't know, either.
A moment later, Shpaaka finally got around to the point: ”Because you are privileged to attend the Moishe Russie Medical College and learn the Race's medical techniques, we do not think it unjust that you should also learn more of the Race's way of doing things. Accordingly, from this time forward, you shall be required to attend the shrine in this city dedicated to the spirits of Emperors past at least once every twenty days as a condition for attending this college.”
Shpaaka insisted on decorum in his lecture hall. Normally, he had no trouble getting it and keeping it. This was not a normal morning. Instead of holding up their hands and waiting to be recognized, his human students shouted for attention. Reuven was as loud as any of them, louder than most.
”Silence!” Shpaaka said, but he got no silence. ”This is most unseemly,” he went on. The racket just got louder. He spoke again: ”If there is no silence, I shall end lectures for today and for as long as seems necessary. Are you more attached to the pursuit of knowledge or to your superst.i.tions?”
In answer to that, Reuven shouted loud enough to make himself heard through the din from his fellow students: ”Are you you more attached to teaching your knowledge or to teaching more attached to teaching your knowledge or to teaching your your superst.i.tions?” superst.i.tions?”
Shpaaka drew back behind his lectern, plainly affronted. ”We teach the truth in all matters,” he declared.
”How many spirits of Emperors past have returned to tell you so?” Reuven shot back. ”Have you ever seen one? Has anybody ever seen one?”
”You are impertinent,” Shpaaka said. He was right, too, and Reuven wasn't the only one being impertinent, either-far from it. The Lizard went on, ”Anyone refusing to give reverence to the spirits of Emperors past shall not continue at this college. I dismiss you all. Think on that.”
He left the lecture hall, but the clamor didn't die down behind him. Some of the students, the ones without much religion of their own, didn't care one way or the other. Others did care, but cared more about what would happen to them if they were forced from the medical college.
Reuven and the Muslim students seemed most upset. ”My father will kill me if I go home to Baghdad without finis.h.i.+ng my medical studies,” Ibrahim Nuqras.h.i.+ said. ”But if I bow before idols, he will torture me and then kill me-and I would not blame him for doing it. There is no G.o.d but Allah, and Muhammad is His prophet.”
No one would kill Reuven, or torture him, either, if he went to the shrine the Lizards had built here in Jerusalem. Even so, he couldn't imagine such a thing, not for himself. The n.a.z.is had wanted to kill his family and him for being Jews. He couldn't slough that off like a snake shedding its skin.
He made his way over toward Jane Archibald. She nodded to him. ”What are you going to do?” she asked, seeming to understand his dilemma.
Except it wasn't a dilemma, not really. ”I'm coming to say goodbye,” he answered. ”I'm not going to stay. I can't stay.”
”Why not?” she asked-no, she didn't understand everything that was on his mind. ”I mean, it's not as if you believe everything that's in the Bible, is it?”
”No, of course not,” he answered. He bit his lip; he didn't know how to explain it, not so it made rational sense. It didn't make rational sense to him, either, not altogether. He tried his best: ”If I went to the Lizards' shrine, I'd be letting down all the Jews who came before me, that's all.”
Jane c.o.c.ked her head to one side, studying him. ”I almost feel I ought to be jealous. I can't imagine taking the Church of England so seriously.”
”So you'll go to the shrine, then?” Reuven asked.
”Why not?” she said with a shrug. ”If I don't believe in what I grew up with and I don't believe in this, either, where's the difference?”
That was perfectly logical. Part of Reuven wished he could see things the same way. Part of him was relieved he hadn't got intimately involved with Jane. And part of him-a bigger part-wished he had. He said, ”Good luck to you.”
When he said no more, she nodded as if he'd pa.s.sed a test, or perhaps as if he'd failed one. She found another question for him: ”What will your father say when be finds out about this?”
”I don't know,” he answered. ”I'll find out when he gets home tonight. But I don't see how I can do it. And even if I don't finish here, I know more about medicine than anyone who just went to a human university.”
Jane nodded again, then hugged him and kissed him, which had to drive every male student in the cla.s.s wild with envy. ”I'll miss you,” she said. ”I'll miss you a lot. We might have-” Now she shook her head. ”Oh, what's the use?”
”None,” Reuven said. ”None at all.” He left the lecture hall, he left the cube of a building that housed the medical college named for his father, and he left the razor-wire perimeter around the building.
One of the Lizard sentries at the perimeter said, ”It is not time for you Tosevites to be leaving your cla.s.ses.”
”Oh, yes, it is,” Reuven answered in the language of the Race. ”It is time for me; in fact, it is past time for me.” The sentry started to say something to that, then shrugged and waved Reuven out into the world beyond the perimeter-the real world, he thought as he headed home.
His mother exclaimed in surprise when he walked in. ”What are you doing here?” she demanded. ”You should be in cla.s.s.” He laughed a little at how much she sounded like the Lizard. But then he explained. His mother's face got longer and longer as she listened. After he finished, she let out a long sigh. ”You did the right thing.”
”I hope so.” He went into the kitchen, took a bottle of plum brandy off a pantry shelf, and poured himself a good dose. He didn't usually do that in the middle of the day, but it wasn't a usual day, either.
”Your father will be proud of you,” Rivka Russie said.
”I hope so,” Reuven repeated. He hefted the bottle of slivovitz. His father wouldn't be proud of him if he drank himself blind, which was what he felt like doing. Instead, with a sigh, he put the bottle away.
The twins also exclaimed when they got home from their school and discovered Reuven there ahead of them. He made his explanations all over again. Judith and Esther's faces grew unwontedly serious by the time he was through.
And he explained one more time when, his father came home. ”No, you can't do that,” Moishe Russie said gravely. ”Or you could, but I'm glad you didn't. Till we see what else we can arrange, how would you like to help me in my practice?”
”Thank you, Father!” Reuven let out a long sigh of relief. ”That would be very good.” As good as staying at the college? He didn't know. He had his doubts, in fact. But it would do.
10.
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