An Unexpected Afterlife_A Novel Read online

  The guide swallowed hard. He had hoped to avoid that topic.

  “Tell me, please,” Herzl continued. “Are they buried here as well?”

  The guide grasped at the shred of positivity. “Yes, they are. Over there.”

  Herzl gripped the guide by the shoulders. “Show me!”

  This was a very bad idea but how could he refuse the Father of the Jewish State?

  He led the newly resurrected visionary along another stony path. He needed to call the Dry Bones Society to arrange a pickup but stopped himself. The instructor had warned against using modern technology such as mobile phones, which might disorientate the new arrival.

  He stopped before a row of three plaques. “Here they are. Paulina, Trude, and Hans.”

  Herzl appraised the markers in solemn silence. “The dates,” he said, startled. “Paulina and Hans died in the same year—and so young!”

  The guide hesitated. “Paulina suffered from depression. She overdosed on heroin. Hans shot himself on the day of her funeral.”

  “Depression,” Herzl muttered. “The scourge of our family. And little Trude? Died 1943. Did she, at least, live a happy life? And why does she not have a gravestone?”

  He was right. Behind the plaque with Trude’s details, and between the two large rectangular gravestones of her siblings, lay a gaping empty space.

  The guide shook his head. He had already said too much.

  “Tell me!” Veins throbbed on the forehead of the resurrected statesman.

  “We don’t have her remains. She died in the Holocaust.”

  “Holocaust? What Holocaust?”

  “During World War Two.”

  “A world war—and two of them? Please continue. I must know.”

  There was no holding back now. “The Germans and their collaborators systematically murdered Jews throughout Europe.”

  “The Germans? If you had told me the French I would have believed you, but the Germans? How many Jews died?”

  “A great many.”

  “Tell me, boy—a thousand, ten thousand?”

  “Six million.”

  Herzl ran his fingers through his mane of hair. “Dear God. 1943. But you said that the State was established in 1948—only five years later. Five years too late! We didn’t work fast enough.”

  He lurched backward and the guide steadied him. He called on two of the Japanese who had followed them to support the distraught man. He should never have shown him the Herzl family plot.

  “Wait here, sir. I’m going to call for help and I’ll get you something to eat.”

  He dashed off toward the snack store and called the Dry Bones Society on his way. A team of their volunteers was on the way.

  Theodore Herzl himself! The guide’s skin prickled all over. The recent resurrection had raised hopes for the dawn of a new utopian era, and who better to lead the nation into a brighter future than the spiritual father of the modern Jewish State? The Visionary of the State had returned with perfect timing.

  When the guide returned to the Herzl family plot with a handful of Mars bars and a covered paper cup of sugared tea, however, Herzl had vanished.

  “Where is he?”

  The Japanese chattered excitedly and pointed toward the forest. The guide shielded his eyes with his hand and scanned the thick press of trees. In the distance, between the tall trunks, a bearded man in a white gown sprinted and disappeared.

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  Table of Contents

  Titles

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Bonus Content

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Author Notes

  Bonus Content

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