At the other side of the tracks – 2:30 AM - IDT
The night had turned into early morning. The incursion took a few hours. The fire stopped and the evacuation of every patient to various hospitals in Israel began. Ambulances and rescue trucks rushed past the peculiar team. The agents crossed to the other side as the ghosts they had been.
As they approached the restaurant where they had left their vehicles, Ifat grabbed Mila’s arm. “We are close. Do you still want to go see the moshav?”
“I do.” Mila glanced inside the restaurant where the rest of the team gathered. It was a hole-in-the-wall type of place, eclectic, very loud; life was going on despite the turmoil and blasting guns going off at night. “This place feels familiar.”
“Because this is where we used to come with our friends…”
“It’s like I’m looking through a broken-glass window: I see fractions of my life, one piece of broken glass at a time. But when I want to access the entire picture, something deep inside me holds me back,” Mila confided, sighing loudly as she walked to Kei. “We’ll meet you at Eldad’s. He might already be there, carried on angels’ arms.” She winked at the team and left with Ifat.
Eli was going after her, but Kei gripped his shoulder. “Let her gather her memories. She’ll be back to us. You’ll see!”
Mila and Ifat climbed on the bike and rode it for a few miles joining the rest of vehicles resuming their course, as if nothing had occurred that night, only hours before.
“Here it is,” announced Ifat, tapping Mila’s side after about twenty minutes on the road.
They got off the bike in front of some burnt-out ruins, and walked through the rubble, stepping on glass, bricks, and scrambled soil in the place they had once called home.
“Look, most of the front of our moshav is gone. Here stood my house.” Ifat picked up a broken brick and examined its black edges, sensing its roughness on her skin. It was a token of the fragility of life and peace in constant threat. “And here is where you lived with your mother, next door. You had a beautiful garden with lots of herbs and plants encircled by fig and orange trees. People got used to see you when feeling sick and you treated us with your plants. Our own natural medicine doctor. I’m so sorry your garden is gone, too. The rebuilding is happening but is taking a while… Do you remember that?”
Mila shook her head. “I don’t remember, but I think understanding plants is a kind of ‘gift’.” She smiled at Ifat, intuiting her confusion. “I sense the energy of every plant I touch. I don’t know how to explain it. Information flows inside of me, as if they allow me to know them, and the information is stored in my mind to use for treating ailments. It happens organically, I don’t have to think about it.” Mila noticed the surprise in Ifat’s big green eyes getting wider. “I take it I didn’t speak about it back then. Maybe I didn’t even know what was happening.”
“No. It was something you did and no one really questioned it. It was you and knowing about the plants in your garden was your thing.” Ifat grimaced and walked around the area that used to be the garden, hiding her sadness and holding back her tears. “You also had another skill… none of us knew you had…”
“What was that?” Mila asked, hoping Ifat would shed light on her Time traveling.
“Fighting,” Ifat recalled. “Fighting as you did tonight and as you did one night. Right over there.” Ifat pointed to the other side of the road, ambulances, cars and trucks were still dashing by. “We were trying to scare off some thieves, but we got attacked.” Ifat faced Mila. “We counted when we were encircled, just like we did last night. Echad, shtayim, shalosh, and men lunged at us. I pulled my gun and fired, the man fell, grabbing his bleeding shoulder. While you… you raised your steel stick and spun, striking everyone with great precision. Your movements were fast. One thief after another fell to the ground. By the time the rest of the guards arrived, the fight was over.”
What Ifat was saying, Mila had seen in her nightmares. That night was forever recorded in her subconscious.
“You wanted to avoid confrontation and bad press,” Mila said as coming out of a tunnel. She turned her face to Ifat. “Do you think this happened in retribution for that night?” Mila crouched and scooped the black, burnt soil and ashes with both her hands as her tears ran down her cheeks.
“I don’t know for sure; this area has always been under attack as we experienced it just hours ago. But it’s too coincidental.” Ifat sat on a pile of bricks. She gazed at the shadows of the trees and houses still standing.
“And the rest of your family?” Mila asked softly, sitting down next to her.
“Everyone is gone. I was the only one clinging to life. Waiting to be rescued.” Ifat looked away, lost in the memory of burning flames and the stink of flesh coming back to her nostrils. She felt sick. It was easy to slip into that pain; she had preserved the path back to that horror. She grabbed her head as the screams and cries echoed in her head. That was the moment she would drown in whatever promised to numb her mind.
Mila embraced her as tightly as she could and rocked her in silence for a while. Two strong women courageous enough to be vulnerable. “I know words would never suffice for your loss, but could I share in your pain? Could I be your sister?”
“You were my little sister from the day you arrived when you were only twelve years old.” Ifat wiped her eyes with the palm of her hands.
“When I turned eighteen, you made me a beautiful chocolate cake, right? I’m remembering!”
“And you wished before blowing your candles to remain here, with us.”
“You said: Mila, the citizen of the world wants to be a Sabra and you laughed so hard… saying that I was already one of you.”
“Right. But you went with your mother to Peru.”
Mila’s face became overcast, her head hung low. It ached to have lost even the memory of her mother.
“We have our losses, don’t we?” Ifat said, gripping Mila’s hand. “We are left half dead in this life. What is the point? Enduring more devastation?”
“I don’t know the answer. I don’t have it figured out yet. You have your memories weighing down on you and I have many missing pieces in the map of my brain…What a pair!” Mila whispered, drying her sister’s tears. “Yet we are alive. You and I… Maybe a bit half-dead, half-alive, as you say. But I want to believe that there is a greater reason we were preserved despite everything that went so wrong for us and those around us. I’m not diminishing our experience and loss. But here we are, at ground zero, to shed our guilt for surviving and to find a purpose.”
“What are we going to do with this life then?” Ifat asked, waving her hand to expose the wreckage. The sun would soon rise, revealing what the darkness of the night hid.
“We had a sample last night. We can be there for those who need us. And, I don’t think we are not alone.” Mila held Ifat’s hand. “Can I ask you something?”
“What?” Ifat peered into Mila’s eyes.
“The vices which are destroying your life—can we treat them?”
“I don’t know if I can do it. I’ve been in this vicious cycle for almost two years. I’m a functional addict, Mila. I do my job well. I’m very motivated to catch terrorists, as many as I can! But when I’m off the clock, my mind only has one dark place to go.” She got up to try to slip away.
“Let’s find a way to break free together. Would you let me help you?” Mila followed her.
“The world is too messed up, sister. And you have a lot on your plate already. For instance, you still have to recover the rest of your memory. You must decide what to do with your kidnapper and her bioweapons. Can you imagine if the enemies of our country get a hold of any of those? We will be gone without even knowing what happened!” Ifat faced Mila, finding new strength and motivation to be sober.
“Yes, I know.” Mila walked to her bike. “The world is messed up. I have to live with the guilt of assisting Masae to disperse her weapons.” She put on her helmet and the engine purred softly. “But what if there is time to change things around?”
“What are you talking about?” Ifat climbed on the bike.
“Let’s go back to the group. It’s time to join forces. But regarding your addiction, you are not off the hook. We’ll overcome it together, one day at a time!”