264
CAIRO TO DAMASCUS
Carter had provided cooks, kitchen help, housekeepers, and
waiters. We were not sure who was what, but two Arab youths
and an Armenian girl named Mary served us in those capacities. Our Arab help had no idea of sanitation. A dozen ravenous cats soon discovered our premises, and we had to place
rocks on the garbage cans. Mary was in her early twenties, an
attractive girl with large brown eyes, light skin, and a figure
sufficiently shapely to cause muffled whistling. But Mary's personality soon squashed any romantic notions. She had had a
violent love affair with an English officer, and had begged him
to take her away. He had left her in the lurch, and she was
undergoing a pronounced anti-male period. She refused to
speak Armenian with me, and said she was ashamed to have
been born one because her parents were so narrow-minded.
We let her alone. On the night of this first Shabbat, despite
the fact that the electricity had been turned off and she had
to work by the light of a kerosene lamp, Mary prepared a delicious supper. She baked a pie and served it with American
coffee—luxuries that were to disappear soon. Including Carter
Davidson and myself, there were fourteen of us at the table:
Jim Fitzsimmons, Associated Press photographer, a redfaced, hard-working extrovert; Tom Pringle, the third member
of the AP team, adventurous and fearless; Dana Schmidt,
veteran New York Times correspondent, lean, studious, a bit
austere until one learned to know him; Kenneth Bilby of the
New York Herald-Tribune, a former Army colonel, who was
always kindly, quiet-mannered, and well-liked; Bob Martin of
the New York Post, bluff, hearty, a good Samaritan; Cornell
Acheson of the Indianapolis News, reticent, self-contained;
Robert Hecox, Paramount News cameraman, tall, handsome
and moody; Al Noderer, chubby, hard-working reporter for
the Chicago Tribune; John Calder, pleasant and likable, the
Reuters correspondent; and James Hayes of Kemsley Newspapers, Ltd., whom I thought arrogant and overbearing—a
dachshund kept him company. Hore and Claire Hollingsworth were correspondents for London newspapers. He was