Devil's Island by John Hagee Page A

he had a raging headache, but he would be fine. He bore no ill will toward Tobias for the injury, for he knew it was an impulsive attempt to spare Abraham the same fate Tobias had met. And it had worked.
    Light-headed but heavyhearted, Abraham made his way slowly through the deserted streets back to the house, debating whether to tell Rivka. Would the news that Tobias was alive renew her strength and revive her will to live? Or would it only throw her deeper into despair, knowing his chance of living through the final battle was virtually nonexistent?
    His internal debate turned out to be an exercise in futility. When he reached the house, he found Rivka sitting against the wall, her eyes closed, her breathing shallow. She still held the baby clutched tightly to her chest, but Abraham perceived instantly that something was drastically wrong.
    He knelt down beside Rivka and reached over to touch Joel, stroking the baby’s cheek lightly with the back of his index finger. The child was cold and clammy and unresponsive. Abraham gently closed the lifeless eyes, which had been fixed on his mother’s face. One pitifully small hand held on to Rivka’s sleeve, and Abraham carefully pried the tiny fingers loose. Judging from the stiffness, Abraham surmised that Joel must have been dead for several hours.
    Abraham started to lift the child, but the motion roused Rivka and she opened her eyes. No. Her mouth formed the word silently.
    â€œRivka . . .” He didn’t know what to say. Did she not know the child was dead? Could she not comprehend what had happened or could she just not accept it?
    Rivka’s arms moved from side to side ever so slightly, and a faint sound escaped her lips. Abraham leaned closer, his face only inches from hers, and listened. She was trying to hum.
    He lost his composure then. He sat back and leaned against the wall beside her, letting the tears fall down his dust-streaked face. Why? he silently asked God over and over, begging for an answer to his unanswerable question.
    After a few minutes, he noticed that Rivka had fallen asleep again. He took the baby from her arms and carried him into the bedroom. Rummaging through a storage chest, Abraham found several yards of linen fabric and tore off a long strip to use as a shroud. He wound it tightly around Joel’s tiny body and then wrapped the cloth over the baby’s old-man face, the visible hallmark of starvation. Abraham emptied another small chest and laid the baby inside. There was no place to bury him, and Abraham didn’t know what to do next. He finally decided to place the chest in the mikvah , the small bath used for ritual cleansing in the wealthier Jewish homes.
    Rivka nodded her approval later when Abraham told her what he’d done. “Thank you,” she said weakly. “For everything.”
    He held a cup to Rivka’s lips and gave her small sips of water. That evening he crushed the last few kernels of wheat and tried to feed them to her, but she could no longer swallow.
    For the next two days Abraham never left Rivka’s side, watching helplessly as her life ebbed away minute by painfully slow minute. When it was finally over, he wrapped her body with the rest of the linen and laid her in the mikvah , next to the chest where he had placed Joel’s body. Then he broke down and sobbed like a baby.
    He kept thinking of Tobias’s words: “Save them, if you can.”
    I tried, Tobias. God knows I tried to save them.
    At last, when he was able to speak, Abraham said the kaddish , the traditional prayer of mourning for the dead. He had not witnessed a funeral since he had become a Christian; therefore he did not know what the proper burial custom for a believer should be. So after the kaddish he added an extemporaneous prayer for Rivka and Joel, asking the Lord to raise them up on the last day.
    Freedom. Abraham could still see the look in his cousin’s eyes. That’s what Tobias said he