Summary
Benia delivers the box to Nakht-re’s house the following
day as promised, but Dinah is occupied with Re-mose at the time
and cannot see him. She does not send word to him afterward, and
Meryt becomes angry that she lets go of a good man who clearly cares
for her. Dinah continues to attend to births with Meryt but grows
restless with her life. Re-nefer soon dies in her sleep. The following
season, Nakht-re also dies, and the house is given to a new scribe. Dinah
decides that her time there is over, and she prepares to leave. Meryt
has been offered a place in her son’s home in the Valley of the Kings,
where Bernia has moved, and she asks Dinah to join her. After much
discussion, they decide to move together.
Dinah sends for a scribe to write a letter to Re-mose
informing him of her plans. Dinah and Meryt go to the river to collect
reeds for delivering babies in their new village; then she packs
up all of her belongings in Benia’s box. After a day’s journey they
reach their new town, which feels ugly and crowded to Dinah. Meryt’s
son Menna leads them to his house and Dinah meets the other son,
Hori. The family reunion is happy, and Dinah sits in the corner,
watching them and remembering her own family. Days later, as she
carries a water jug to the fountain, she comes across a pregnant
woman who is close to giving birth and offers to assist with the
birth. Dinah and Meryt help her give birth to a healthy boy. Word
of Dinah and Meryt’s skill spreads, and soon after the two women
are busy delivering babies throughout town.
After several months, a letter arrives from Re-mose. He
has returned to Thebes and works for a vizier named Zafenat Paneh-ah. Soon
after Dinah receives this news, Benia shows up at her doorstep. He
reaches out to her with his hand, she takes it, and they smile at each
other. Dinah brings Benia into the house and introduces him to Meryt’s
family. Meryt tells her to go with him, telling her that she will
bring her things to his house in the morning. Dinah goes with Benia,
surprised at how simple it seems. They walk to his house at the
end of the settlement, and he shows her the furniture he has made
for her. He gives her a beautiful ebony box he has carved and tells
her that by taking it she will become his wife.
Dinah and Benia eat a simple meal together. Though Dinah
feels shy around him, he leads her to his bedroom after the meal
and they lie together. He is gentle, and they find pleasure in each
other’s arms. Dinah grows to love him quickly and delights in having
her own house. He tells her the story of his life, but she cannot
bring herself to share her troubled history. Eventually she admits
only that her husband was murdered. While they hope to have children
together, as time passes she does not conceive. Dinah takes comfort
in Meryt’s granddaughter Kiya, who comes over to play at their house
often.
Analysis
After sharing her story with Werenro and finally addressing
her grief, Dinah starts to move on with her life. Though she has
spent her entire adult life living in the garden of Nakht-re’s home,
barely venturing off the property, she realizes that to keep living
she must start over. Meryt’s assistance proves vital, providing
the comforts of a ready-made family in their new home in the Valley
of the Kings. At first the love and boisterousness of Meryt’s sons
and grandchildren makes Dinah homesick for the family she has lost,
but eventually she begins to recognize that she must let her memories
remain memories and accept the present as it comes to her. She develops
a close relationship with Meryt’s daughter-in-law and granddaughter
Kiya. She immediately begins offering her services as a midwife
in town, and she and Meryt become renowned for their skills. Both
women are accepted wholeheartedly into the community, and Dinah
begins to feel that it is almost the home she has been looking for.
Benia reenters Dinah’s life and marries her, returning
her to the position of the cherished wife and allowing her to come
to terms with her memories of Shalem. The rapid pace of Benia’s
proposal and Dinah’s acceptance is reminiscent of her rapid courtship
and marriage to Shalem. As with Shalem, she also feels an immediate physical
connection to Benia, and they grow close very quickly. Though Benia
tells her his history, including both the good and the bad, she
cannot bring herself to share the story of her tragedy, and she
mentions only that she had a husband. As she explains to us, “I told
him as much of my truth as I could.” When Benia hears that she lost
a husband, he responds by petting her hair and gently and succinctly
comforting her. Dinah takes great comfort in Benia’s understated
sympathy. After living with bottled up feelings for so many years,
Dinah became frustrated that she could not grieve her losses with
Re-nefer, the one woman that had suffered as much as she had. As
a result of this, Dinah thought she would never get to feel the compassion
she deserved. Benia’s sympathy helps her to feel understood and
provides her with everything she felt she had been denied.
Dinah asserts control over her life by making and keeping
a home with Benia. She agreed to become Benia’s wife, because she
could see that he possessed kindness and compassion, but she is
nonetheless surprised as how much she delights in being a wife and
making their home. She notes the simple sweetness in choosing where
to place a chair or what to plant in the garden. Dinah relishes
creating her own order, and she cheerfully hums to herself as she
performs her household duties. Up to this point, the tragedy at
Shechem and her subsequent life in Egypt have defined her adult
life. As an adult, she has never exerted any control over her existence.
As a child, she was at the mercy of her brothers and her father,
while in Egypt she was at the mercy of Re-nefer and her own self-imposed
exile. She could make no independent decisions or take any action
on her own behalf. She comes to Benia on her own terms and shares
with him a home that he designed for both of them, which gives her
contentment and a sense of control over her destiny.
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