In the cave the air was cool and dry while the bright sun from the entrance filled it with light. He teased the soil away and, in looking for remnants of the ancient past, found he was able to temporarily escape the troubling present. His argument with Judit echoed in his mind and was confused together with the images of the truck rolling slowly towards the aircraft on the runway. Judit’s cold stare and her determination that put her cause above her family was overlaid in his mind with the body of an Arab boy engulfed in flame in an explosion. But here and now, with his hands in the ancient dirt, such thoughts seemed for a brief moment very far away. This was where he belonged. This was where his head was clear. He had arranged to come here with Mustafa as often as he could, which in truth was rare between caring for his daughter and the demanding routine of Mustafa having to work on his father’s meagre plot of land. But here they were, side by side, toiling in the earth for ancient treasures at the burial site of a woman named Ruth.
