Page 56 - Three Adventures

The Nazarene Foreskin

“Cohn-Diaz. Violet Anne Cohn-Diaz. But please call me Vi. I’m a
graduate student from the States, University of South Kansas. Art
history is my field, and I’m here doing research for my thesis on the
iconography of Levantine amphorae—you know, ancient pottery
jugs, often highly decorated.”
Scoop scowled. “The only jugs in here are decorated with
pretentious French wine labels. There is a civil war in progress, Miss
Cohn-Diaz. I’m surprised a cab driver would even bring you to this
end of the Green Zone.”
“Oh.” Her lips puckered poutingly or pensively. He could not tell
which. “I know that fighting sometimes breaks out in the city, but I
didn’t think it was really dangerous.”
“Well, it is. Those are not fireworks you see and hear throughout
the night, see and hear them even in a room darkened at midnight
with blackout curtains, see and hear them asleep or awake, sober
or—” He shrugged and raised his glass.
“I’m sorry,” she said, just audibly. “I’ll find someone else to take
me to the Old Church of Saint Elias.”
She lowered her eyes and swung her left leg away from the bar.
The pivoting action enabled by ball bearings again briefly engaged his
barely analytical mind.
“Wait a minute.” Scoop reached for her arm, checked himself
again, hunched back over his drink. “If you read my dispatch then
you know that Saint Elias took a mortar round in the buttress and
collapsed a few days ago. You can scratch it off your list of tourist
attractions.”
Vi regained her perch and looked across and slightly down at him
with something like hope in her eyes.
“But that is precisely why I am interested in it. According to your
article the buckled nave exposed parts of the structure not seen in
centuries, underground rooms and passageways.”
The newsman leapt to her conclusion. “And you think some old
jars might be down there in the catacombs?”
“Yes.” Her words tumbled forth, accelerated by youthful
enthusiasm. “According to my research Saint Elias was built on the
ruins of a much older holy shrine, an early Christian church
constructed in the Byzantine era when the city was known
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