Deep Calls

The old man stood in the shadows, leaning on the doorway, letting it bear his weight. He gazed at his wife as she sat in a corner of a now dark room. She held a small boy in her lap; she hummed and stroked his hair. "Is she going to be alright? "Oh Anna! You have come again. Thank you. I do not know...I do not know...will any of us be alright? She sits and rocks him -- will not put him down. The first nights she slept by his bed ~ when she slept. This is a nightmare -- thank you, my friend, for coming. I could not leave her without knowing you were with her and John." "Such a child. See, he sits so still in her lap. It is like he ... knows. As long as you need me, I will come. But I have thought, in this grief we can rejoice...they did not come to your door." "Simeon thinks he would not dare to touch the son of a High Priest ~ I wonder if the monster even knew of us and our son ...and ... and ... I am grateful, so very grateful! God be praised they...

"Alexi !!!  Here you are! When you were late to dinner ... again ... I finally came looking. I must say Sari is annoyed. She made lamb ~  Reading the old scrolls again Alexi...?" Looking up as if coming from a long way off and just now noticing his friend, "Ah Beltzi. . . .OH DINNER !!  I am sorry. I just meant to stop by for just a moment. Ahhh...its dark.!  Oh, I am so sorry! Come, is it too late? May we stop on the way? I must bring a gift to Sari to apologize." " ... and then the camels spit, right on the bundles ~ Alexi, are you even listening? Where are you? What has come over you lately?" "It is the scrolls, the old ones ... " "The scrolls? Again the scrolls? I love study as much as the next man, and I always thought MORE than you until ... what is it?" "I don't know, I swear they haunt me! I ... dream of them, no, don't laugh ~ I do! I think of them all day and find no peace till I go and read them. I m...

Pain subsiding, breathing out, she opened her eyes and looked into his. They were dark with concern, stormy with his fear for her, and for the baby. His jaw set. "No, Joseph. I am OK. They are  ~ not close." Turning his hand, and holding it to her belly, "There! See, he kicks and plays. See, we are fine." A solid smack hit squarely on Joseph's hand, making them both laugh. As she readjusted her seating, Joseph gripped the lead and lengthened his stride. "Not long now. We will be there before the nightfall. Then a room and a bed .... " She saw beyond the smile he gave with his mouth to the storm in his eyes. Oh, he has more to carry than I. She remembered their story in flashes : The first time she saw him, setting down a load of wood, to lift a child from the dust where she had fallen, his voice tender, his eyes soft. The first time she caught his eyes. She had looked up from the well into his eyes. The world had stopped. Her breath had stopped...

In morning light she stood. She had been there a while, rising in the dark to see the sun begin the day. Her thoughts had been of bread to knead, and floors to sweep, and Joseph.  Closing her eyes, she swayed into the memory... Joseph coming and talking long with her father. His hands rough and strong, his eyes somber then. She had never seen them like that: dark, intense. In fact it was his eyes she knew best, his eyes that laughed, that sparkled in merriment, his eyes that strayed to children at play as he worked. She could not hear the words, just the voices of her father and Joseph. And then her father nodded and Joseph had turned ~ and she had caught her breath as Joseph caught her eyes . The agreement made, they were espoused. She still trembled at the thought. And soon ... Now he took every free moment to build their home so he could take her home to be  ~  his wife . Even in her thoughts she whispered the ...

Memories of my trip are tabbed in color: Flying into North Carolina I was instantly mesmerized by the variegated forest I watched...almost like it was a movie...from the plane's window. North Carolina isn't a place "with lots of trees" to me ~ it is a forest, a strong community of trees that grudgingly gives bits of land to people for houses and businesses. When you see, for example, the L.A. basin, all you see is building : houses, stores, high-rises. Not in NC. You see trees ~ swaths of them, clumps of them, rivers of them, trees lining streets, trees en-sieging (1) houses. On this trip it was not GREEN, GREEN, GREEN, that filled my view, but rust and red and orange and yellow and brown. I caught my breath letting my eyes absorb the memory. My kids told me, sheepishly, that I should have been there the week before. It was a differnt landscape for now, they said, all the leaves were nearly gone. I am not sorry for my timing. I can't know what I missed, but I ...