“Move!”
I raced back to my room, left David a note on his bed, packed my things quickly, and rushed out the base gate toward the bus stop to Tel-Aviv.
“Do you know where Lily is?” I asked her mother on the phone from Tel-Aviv’s central station.
“Lily’s at Avni all day.”
“I’m in Tel-Aviv. If she calls, tell her I’ll stop by Avni.”
“Did something happen?” She sounded worried.
“No, I got special leave, don’t worry.”
I took the number five bus to the city center. From there, it wasn’t far to Avni.
“Do you know where Lily, fourth year, is?” I asked one of the secretaries.
“Are you her husband?”
“Yes.” I’m sure I blushed. It was the first time someone asked me that so directly.
“She doesn’t stop talking about you. She said you two got ‘married in quotes,’ is that true?”
“There’s some truth to it … but…”
“You’re a doctor, right?”
“I’m in officer training now,” I pointed, with some pride, to the white insignia on my shoulder and the beret tucked under the epaulet.
“But you’re a doctor?” she pressed, proving to me that even at Avni, where I thought they only cared about art, people weren’t entirely free of ‘Jewish mother’ nosiness. I nodded. After she gave me a once-over, she stood up and offered to show me the way to Lily.
“Don’t disturb her, I’ll wait,” I said when she stopped in front of a closed door.
“Don’t you want to see her? I’m sure she’ll be glad.”
“I’d love to see her, but I don’t want to interrupt.”
“I’ll go in, and when I come out, I’ll leave the door open,” she said, and went in, closing the door behind her. I was left in the corridor, my heart rate rising. Lily was just behind the partition. I wanted to kick the door open, rush to her, and hug and kiss her. Only last week in training, we’d learned to break down doors – but not for hugging and kissing. A minute passed. She didn’t come out. Then the door opened wide. Lily stood there, more beautiful than ever. A colorful scarf partly covered her tied-up hair. She wore a strapless blue blouse that concealed a little and revealed a lot. Her stomach was bare, her jeans stained with paint. Her large eyes captivated me all over again. I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
It felt like I was discovering her for the first time. She walked toward me. I thought she hadn’t recognized me, but she held out her arms to me and smiled.
Lovely. A shiver ran through me. We hugged.
“What are you doing here?”
“They gave me leave until the end of the week. We did get married, after all.”
“Come on … really … don’t step on my toes … come, I want you to meet my class.”
“I don’t want to interrupt,” I muttered, as Lily took my hand and pulled me inside.
“Come in, come in,” said the drawing teacher, pausing the lesson.
“I don’t want to interrupt,” I repeated.
“It’s fine. Lily told us about you and the wedding. We already know her, now we’ll know the other half.” Normally, I’d have reacted to such generalizations, but this time I let it slide.
“I’m Michael,” I said awkwardly to the students, who were examining me with curiosity. Lily pointed out each one and said their names. Most were young, between 20 and 30.
