Hand of Miriam, A Bayla and the Golem Novel

She sighed and smiled. Well put, husband. To think Aunt Fannie sent her to a matchmaker to find a traditional husband. Despite her aunt's best efforts, Bayla had found her future husband, not from potential prospects presented by the matchmaker, but at her job as assistant curator at Goff's Manor. She had become enamored with the professor while assisting him in organizing his vast archives of antiquities. Isaac was not religious, but a scholar who was always traveling to far-off countries. Not a good matrimonial prospect, conducive to a stable family life. After much pleading and threat of spinsterhood, they finally accepted Isaac's request for her hand in marriage. He was Jewish, after all. 

"Very well, just remember I warned you." Erasmus opened the tent flap. 

Bayla dashed to the other side of the camp and took out her journal, pretending to write. She put her pen down and threw him a smile. Erasmus Hix gave her a brusque nod as he passed before ordering his porters to ready his camel for his detour to the market. She stood. "Professor Hix." 

Erasmus stiffened and turned. "Yes, Mrs. Gideon?" He took his pith helmet off and brushed dust off. 

"How soon will you be joining us at the expedition site?" 

"If all goes well, by the end of the week." His brow pinched and he stared at his pocket watch as if concerned about time, an irrelevant concept in the desert, since there were only two times, day and night. "Is there anything in particular you want from the market?" 

"Actually, come to think of it, I'd love halva with pistachios." 

Erasmus chuckled. "I shall bring you several blocks of the confection." 

"Most generous indeed." His camel was brought, and he mounted the bellowing beast and bid her farewell. She returned to her tent to pack her journal. Tomorrow at sunrise they would cross the sandy wasteland toward Mt. Jebel Ideid, which Isaac believed to be the real site of Mt. Sinai.

Above the path, a large dark-winged creature shadowed a boulder. Bayla raised her goggles. Gone. What was that? Hmm. Too big to be an Egyptian vulture. She dabbed at beads of perspiration on her brow. Likely a mirage. Especially, in light of the fact, that her camel had remained calm. Though by nature, dromedaries were less nervous than horses. She stopped her camel and looked again. Nothing. The shadow must have been a hallucination brought on by the heat and dull landscape. 

Bayla twisted in her saddle and regarded Isaac. He was sunburned and his lips were cracked, but there was a sparkle in his eyes. He was fiddling with his pocket compass sundial and then took notice. "Are you in good health, my dear?" 

Bayla was hot, dusty, disheveled, and smelled like the camel she rode. Nonetheless, she was splendidly content. Convention, so prevalent in gentlewomen, was not her cup of tea. Adventure and the search for antiquities were her passions. Best not to mention the odd hallucination. She didn't want to cause him to worry that the expedition was taking its toll on her. Four days in the torrid heat was indeed a physical challenge, but certainly her mind was spared, mirage or not. "I'm quite well, indeed." She enjoyed leading the caravan and nudged her camel on. 

Her attention returned to the barren sandstone desert at the foot of Mt. Jebel Ideid. Could it really be Mt. Sinai? She imagined thousands of harried Jewish refugees attempting to settle in such a foreboding desolate land. Men, women, children, the old, and the sick, tasting the difficult task of freedom. 

Isaac's camel lurched forward and raced past her. "That's it." He dismounted and stared at the nondescript ordinary-looking mountain. From his leather satchel, he drew out a mechanical tripod and locked his camera obscura on to it. Like a pet monkey, the mechanical gadget followed him.