Alpha and Omega by Harry Turtledove

Author:Harry Turtledove
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2019-07-01T16:00:00+00:00

“Come on, Shoshanah! Come on, Rosie!” a man coaxed.

Chaim Avigad watched helplessly from his apartment window as the red heifer got into her trailer. A couple of carrots were more persuasive than her Hebrew or her English name.

“She’s going to Jerusalem!” Despair filled Chaim’s voice.

“Of course she is,” his mother answered. She’d never understood what was bothering him.

“They’re going to kill her!” Chaim cried.

“They have to, sweetie.” Rivka Avigad did her best to sound consoling, but her heart wasn’t in it. Chaim could tell. She went on, “The Temple’s about to go up. We’ll be able to celebrate our religion the way God always meant us to. They need to sanctify the ground, and the workers, too. And they have to sacrifice a red heifer to do that. I know you’re fond of Shoshanah, but—”

Chaim spun away. “God is stupid!” he yelled. “If you have to kill something to make something else holy, what’s the use?”

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” his mother replied. “It’s in the Scriptures. It wouldn’t be if God didn’t want it. If it’s something He needs, who are we to question Him?”

“Somebody ought to,” Chaim said. “It’s silly.”

“Is it any sillier than raising children in buildings on stilts?” his mother replied. “I thought that was worthwhile, and so did your father. We never argued about that.” Her mouth twisted. They’d argued about plenty of other things; Chaim remembered the fights from when he was little. She’d raised him by herself since, and she got on a lot better with Uncle Yitzhak than she ever had with Chaim’s dad. He couldn’t remember the last time Tzvi Avigad came around. He had his own, much less pious, life now.

“Nobody ever asked me what I thought about that,” Chaim said.

Rivka Avigad sighed. “No, nobody did. So what? All of us who agreed to bring up our boys like this, we were doing God’s will. See how things are coming together? The red heifer, and the Ark, and rebuilding the Temple at last, and the miracle He worked when He stopped the rockets and killed the wicked leaders who launched them…”

“Why didn’t He keep the terrorists from setting off the dirty bomb in Tel Aviv, then, if He’s working miracles?” Chaim asked.

Down below, they were closing the trailer and hitching it up to a muscular American pickup. Armored personnel carriers belched diesel fumes into the air. They would protect Rosie all the way. Oh, boy, Chaim thought. They don’t want anybody killing her till they can do it themselves. Big deal!

He missed some of his mother’s answer. When he started paying attention again, she was saying, “—think we needed that bomb in Tel Aviv. It woke people up. It made sure Israel has the government to want to restore the Temple.”

“So God blew up a thousand people and made lots more radioactive, so He could get His temple back?” Chaim said. “Wasn’t there an easier way?”

“God doesn’t worry about easy. He does what suits Him, not what suits us.

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