"Our next stop is Megiddo, a ruin older than Caesarea. It is not interesting. But since it is on the list the tour promises you, I give you what the tour people promise."
Rory whispers to me from the back seat, "Did you notice Sol uses present tense no matter how far in the past things happened?"
"I think the past is the present here."
Sol drives with one hand and lectures over his shoulder. "Megiddo is known as Armageddon. It is the ruin of twenty-five to thirty cities, all destroyed and rebuilt. It is mentioned eight times in the Bible, and Revelations says that when the fmal battle is coming, it will be at Armageddon, at Megiddo. Centuries ofmen prays here. Seventeen altars is being found on the same holy rock. Here we are. Everybody out."
The sun on twenty-five layers of holy rock is searing.
"The oldest discoveries is 3300 B. C. E. in the Bronze Age, and at the sixteenth level, King David is fighting his battles. Here stands the great palaces for the kings and the stables for four hundred horses."
We start up the path, and I see broken pottery everywhere. Sol stops beside me. "The archeologists discard insignificant shards. Take what you want."
So I gather pottery fragments that could be from the American southwest. Among them is a small clay sphere fired to the consistency of stone. I pick it up and roll it in my palm. "Look at this, Sol. It doesn't have a hole so it's not a bead, but what do you think it is?"
He studies it before he spills it back into my hand. "It is a marble or a counter. Maybe for poker or the roulette. For a game. Like now."
Like typical Americans in typical American cities. Or typical Israelis in typical Tel Aviv. Making money, watching TV, playing games. While waiting for Armageddon
