Venice – 'An irretrievable step' – an excerpt

A short excerpt of my 10th book 'An irretrievable step.

Venice �" 'An irretrievable step' �" an excerpt

In their suite bedroom in bed with the sleeping Bianca in his arms, Ray could not sleep and kept thinking on his parents; should he sneak out of bed without waking Bianca up and write a few sentences in Hebrew to his parents? He did not even dare to bring up in his memory the town's name where he was born and brought up.

No I might wake Bianca up and compromise our love, her confidence in me and our mutual future; I mustn't do it although it burdens my conscious so much.

There were some more urgent issues he has to find a way to cope with. He kept thinking perturbed.

I'll have to renew my ties with the Coptic community in Venice, and with His Holiness Giorgio Usire their Bishop and leader in particular; and accept their suggestion, should I meet Al Azam before our flight to Venice or after? It seems as his man doesn't follow us anymore, it must have been his man for if I'd wished to detect the Italians that take care of us for instance, I'll have to perform a long and meticulous surveillance detection course. It will be the most stupid thing to do of course, while that amateur that Al Azam employes to follow us was followed by the Italians… He thought amused and smiled in the darkness.

In two weeks time they have visited all Rome's popular sites, visited Saint Peter cathedral twice and prayed during the weekends in San Giovani Laterano, which is Rome's cathedral and first ever church. Bianca was deeply moved visiting it and praying there; she called her parents every second day, telling them time and again how happy she is.

Thus at the beginning of their third week in Rome Ray decided to start preparing their flight to Venice. He booked a suite at the Hotel Danieli next to Piazza San Marco from next Friday on, and went to his bank branch to check his dwindling account he needed two more cheque books and some handy cash. He was surprised to learn that his account was augmented with fifty thousand dollars wired from a Californian North Valley bank, through his supposedly Brother Jeremy Magdi's account. The last thing he had to do was to call Fabio Lucra the Coptic Bishop secretary to ask a meeting with His Holiness.

© Haim Kadman August 2013 �" all rights reserved