The Last Song

the Inquisition’s men found it on you?”
    “But they didn’t, Enrique,” Mama said. “Isabel saved Yehudit’s life. They might have killed that child – or worse!” She shuddered.
    “She
did
save her life,” Papa said grudgingly. He picked up his load. “We must start walking again.”
    “I am so frightened,” Yehudit complained. “I can’t go on.”
    “The brigands might return. Do you want tochance it?” I held out my arm.
    Yehudit took it. Her weight was heavy against my shoulder.
    “Don’t despair, my children,” said Rabbi Abenbilla. “The Lord led us out of Egypt. He parted the Red Sea for our people’s safe passage. He will do the same for us in Cartagena.”
    “I hope that you are right, Rabbi,” I said. “We can’t go on like this much longer.”

C HAPTER 20
 
F RIDAY , J ULY 20, 1492 –
S UNDAY , J ULY 22, 1492
    O n the morning of the third day after the robbery, we joined hundreds of people streaming from all directions toward the sea. I saw a man carrying his little son on his shoulders while his wife supported her aged mother. Ten children followed their father and pregnant mother, the older ones carrying the young ones in their arms. Everybody was excited, even the sick and the infirm. For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, I heard laughter.
    A man called out, “The almighty will save us!”
    Someone else shouted, “He will part the sea and lead us to freedom just as he led our ancestors out of Egypt!”
    “He will lead us to freedom! He will lead us to freedom!” the crowd began to chant.
    A smudge of dark blue appeared on the horizon.
    Mama cried out. “The ocean!”
    “Our future,” Yonah whispered to me.
    We picked up our pace and soon we were in Cartagena. We passed the humble dwellings lining the streets of the town and finally arrived at the port. Six galleons were dancing on the blue sea.
    Somewhere in the crowd a man began to sing “Dayenu.”
    “It’s a song we sing at Passover,” explained Yonah, his eyes filling with tears.
    A woman’s voice joined in, then another voice began to sing, and another after him until a thousand throats expressed their gratitude to God:
    “If He had given us their wealth,
and had not split the sea for us
– Dayenu, it would have sufficed!
    If He had split the sea for us,
and had not taken us through it on dry land
– Dayenu, it would have sufficed!
    If He had taken us through the sea on dry land,
and had not drowned our oppressors in it
– Dayenu, it would have sufficed!If he had drowned our oppressors in it,
and had not supplied our needs in the desert for forty years
– Dayenu, it would have sufficed!”
    Finally, the song ended and the noise subsided. We waited and waited and waited for a miracle to occur. Nothing happened. The waves did not part and the ocean remained calm. The flags of the ships fluttered gently.
    Instead, priests carrying crosses appeared.
    “Repent! Repent!” they cried. “Accept Christ and you will be saved!”
    For a moment, I was back in church in my usual pew, with Father Juan conducting mass. I heard the music; I smelled the incense; I tasted the host. The familiarity of it all tugged at my heart. I thought of the heavenly peace I felt when I prayed to the blessed Virgin. I felt like me when I thought these things. I looked at Yonah. Would I ever become the person he wanted me to be? I didn’t know.
    “We must go to the ships or we won’t get a berth,” Yonah said.
    “You’re right,” Papa added. He looked around. “There are so many of us.”
    “The almighty will help us,” said Master Abenatar.
    “I wish that I had your faith,” Papa said.
    Sofia nudged me with her elbow. “Mistress,” she said, “I have something of yours that might be useful. Before we left, I went to your room to look for the necklace that Doña Brianda had given you, but I couldn’t find it anywhere.”
    “It’s in my jewelry chest.”
    “I thought that it might be but I didn’t dare to bring the jewelry chest with me. It’s too big. But I did bring this!”
    She took a garish gold bracelet out of the bundle over her shoulder, the bracelet that Luis had given me for my birthday. She held it up. “It was thrown down on a table in your room. I know that you don’t like it, young mistress, but it must be valuable. I heard that you were forbidden to take gold with you, but nobody would suspect somebody like me of having such a bracelet.” She handed it to Papa. “Don Enrique,