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Short Story This story is dedicated to John and Michael Gray. We remember. -R.R.
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After the heat and festive chatter of the celebration, he found the cool arbor a sanctuary away from
the other wedding guests. Awaiting him was his cousin John. They embraced and talked
of many thing, the political and religious debates to survive the Roman occupation,
of leaving home and family, the expected duties of disappointing eldest sons, and
ghosts of what could have been and what may come.
"I'm going to the East, John. Alone. Today. I brought my pack and will take
the Jericho road from here. Please take care of Mother while I'm gone. I'm afraid
James won't make much with the shop now. And the milk goat is getting old..."
"How far, Joshua? How will you travel?"
"As far as Alexander!" and the cousins laughed. "No, really. I'll
join a caravan and work my way east. I want to see for myself the land of the great
rabbi. I need to learn more about his teachings besides the tales of caravan merchants.
But first I'll go on foot in the cool of the night to the monastery at the crossroads
and prepare for my journey. "
"Joshua, I'll look out for Aunt Miriam as best I can but you know I have dreams,
too. You know where to find me when you return." They both laughed, saying together,
"Down by the river!"
Joshua said, "Pray for me as I thee."
"I'll miss thee, my brother. Go with God."
Joshua wended his way through the party, saying fare thee well to kin and friends
and neighbors. He heard some of his grandaunts gossiping, "Such a good young
man! Will he ever recover from Judith's and the baby's death?" "Recover!
Miriam should arrange another marriage. It is a sin to have such a fine craftsman
and provider be a widower forever!" "Widower! Humph! He's becoming a hermit!"
The strong young man went up to a woman with black and silver hair. His mother. Like
many village women, she was getting old before her time. Hard work, deprivation and
sorrow etched lines in her still lovely face but she had a flame banked in her deep
blue eyes. Looking at her son she composed her face and heart with an effort. Miriam
saw it was time and tried not to cry; her arms aching to hold and keep him safe forever,
she let him go. But she held this grown, first-born son in her heart as tenderly
as when she nursed him so long ago.
"Don't worry, Mother. I'll be fine. I'll send word when I meet with a caravan."
Joshua gently wiped away a silver tear from his mother's pale cheek and replaced
it with a kiss. "God be with thee, Mother." He turned to pick up his pack.
"Wait, Son! My mother's blessing". Looking deep into his face, Miriam stood
on her toes to plant a kiss on his forehead, eyelids and lips. "May thee know
no harm, see no harm and speak no harm. Go with God, my Child." And Miriam let
go, amazed that something she had been practicing so long was still so painful. She
knew that Joshua, or Jesus as their Greek neighbors and clients of the carpenter
shop called him, had to begin his journey and what better place to start than this
town not too far from the old caravan crossroads?
Joshua climbed the hill above home. The sun, gilding all of creation with rosy gold,
hung low in the western sky. He turned to look back at the transformed jewel of his
town, red as a garnet in the dusty green of the surrounding vineyards. The sun warmed
the little dome of the small temple he helped build with his father. He saw the houses
of his family and friends. He thought he could see the wedding party in the big garden
and his mother still standing, looking at him. He raised his arm, waving a fare well
to it all and turned east, downhill, to the old travelers road and began to walk.
Joshua walked far beyond the wells and fields. The winds from the eastern plains,
where night already was, began to cool his head from the heat of wine and emotion.
His body rejoiced in the world: he was glad to be alone. He longed to find answers
to his questioning prayers and knew his way lay to the East, the desert and beyond.
The air was cooling, good for walking. He pulled his cloak closer about himself but
continued to walk as the long evening became night. Owls cried. Mountains lions called
to mates. The stars burned the black heavens to a glittering veil. The air turned
very cold and he realized it was the time of year when he had been born over twenty
five years ago. Joshua breathed a prayer of thanksgiving for the deliverance many
ago when as an infant his family smuggled him out of Palestine and into Egypt. He
began humming an old Nile Delta song children used to sing when he was little, playing
on the shores of the island where they had lived. "Shay-la la, se fa fa... Come
all you little children, Come play with me, Come to the river, Come to the sea. We
play with the sun, We will play with the rain, We will play with the stars 'till
you return again". For the first time in many a year, Joshua realized he was
happy, not for anyone's sake but his own. He walked through the vibrant night of
the wilderness while the stars swung slowly over him. He felt a deep peace.
He began to feel lightheaded and knew he needed to sleep. He looked around the star-lighted
land to see where a son of man could lay his head. His feet ached and he longed to
stretch out if he could find a safe place. Ahead he saw a large boulder at the base
of a hill that seemed it may have a natural shelf in it. If only there weren't scorpions
or snakes curled up there... Joshua reached the boulder and found a toehold and pulled
himself up. By the soft, indistinct star glow, he examined the long break in the
rock and decided he could lie down here. He took the blanket Judith had woven out
of his pack and wrapped himself up like a baby in the cradle. Like the cradle he
made that remained empty. Beginning to fall asleep — trusting that mysterious alchemy
of dreams like other worlds, and renewal of the body and spirit — Joshua saw what
he hoped was a harmless, little snake. "I won't bother you if you don't bother
me," he whispered and immediately went to sleep.
He knew he was dreaming yet he couldn't wake up and soon what was dream and what
was life became tumbled together. Joshua, half-awake, found himself on a kind of
rock shelf but it was smooth and sharp right angles hemmed him in ... in where? There
was a terrible ceaseless roaring and strange thunderings. It was very dark and yet
he could see no stars. There was an odd stark light in great pools of orange pink
glare. Joshua willed himself to sleep and so to be able to awaken from this troubling
dream.
When he awoke he thought that the roars and thundering had never stopped but intensified.
The air he breathed smelled poisonous. It was bitterly damp and cold. Joshua held
his head and prayed. This was beyond dream. He was somewhere else. Climbing down,
he saw by the harsh lights a strange sight. He seemed to under a vast built platform
of immense proportions as rigid and engineered as a Roman concrete structure. Through
drifting clusters of icy fog he saw indistinct giant boxes with strange symbols on
them, blinking bright colors with no natural meaning. Joshua recognized a familiar
formation in the nightmare landscape — trees! Trees, far beyond the giant boxes,
winding on a river bank. He caught a dark silver flashing between them. To the river
he would go. He picked up his pack he had used as a pillow and bravely walked into
a strange new world.
Wide, empty roads crisscrossed each other. Odd machines of some sort blinked a succession
of red, green and yellow lamps in an endless pattern at the intersection of these
roads. High weird walls holding up not a thing were lit with hissing lamps and decorated
with fantastic images. He followed a road that seemed as if it would lead to the
river when an unnatural screeching erupted behind him. He jumped to see a man in
a metal box with swollen wheels. "What the hell are you doing, wandering out
in the middle of the street! I almost hit you!" the man screamed.
Joshua saw an angry smooth face behind a transparent shield built into the strange
box. This person seemed to be related to the Romans, somehow. Amazingly, Joshua could
understand his speech. Could the man understand him?
"Please, man, what is this place called? Where am I?"
"Jesus Christ, a nut case!" The man was gone in a swirl of noise, a rush
of wind and noxious fumes.
As Joshua moved towards what he hoped was the direction of the river, he looked back
to see the top of the immense platform where he had awaken in this mad dream. He
saw a vast blur of metal boxes on wheels streaming in a strange pattern of movement.
Thousands and thousands of them, some large, some small, harsh pools of lights attached
to the fronts. To think, they all must have people in them!
Now there were more moving boxes on the road so Joshua found a smaller, parallel
path, also in concrete like the road paving material. The fog was beginning to lift.
The stone path with no stones ended abruptly. He walked past more colossal box-like
structure with odds lights and images and came to a place where the madness ended.
Now he saw a field, a curious fence and horses and the trees hinting at the river.
As Joshua lifted his robes and climbed the metal-stringed fence, he heard the sound
of cloth tearing. Leaning over he carefully removed the hem from the snag of sharp
barbs. A Roman invention? What a shame. His mother had woven and dyed this cloth
her favorite color, blue. Some women used to talk about her and her blue dyes at
the well. Being her child, he was used to village gossip. He crossed the sodden field
trying to guess what someone might grow on all the open land. How did they plow such
a large expanse? Where were the other animals, the vineyards, the wells? No house
or village in sight.
He climbed another fence that winded through the trees and found himself standing
in mud on the steep river bank. The river was closer than he realized - it was a
big, fast moving grey and silver and green serpent, a maybe mountain river rather
than the lowlands rivers of his home, slow and stately. Joshua lifted his robes again
to climb down the slippery sides of the rocky shores. He reached the water and crouched
beside it, reaching his hands into the water. It was cold as a mountain spring! He
washed his face and hands. When he cupped his hands to drink, a shout startled him
still.
"Whoa, Jesus! Whatcha doing, man? That water ain't fit to drink!" Joshua
turned to see a man older than he dressed in a barbaric fashion, walking across the
river rocks to him. Beside him there was a big dog who looked like a wolf. The dog
was silent, listening to his human. "Hey, Don'tcha know that water's got shit
in it?"
"I'm sorry - I don't know what you mean."
"You know, shit - junk like PCB's, sewage, dioxin, petrochemicals, pesticides,
shit like that!" Seeing Joshua's puzzled look he said, "Ya know, don't
drink it!"
"No, I didn't know ... what do you drink?"
"Hey, I gotta a camp over here, you come with me, Jesus, I'll get you som'in
ta eat and drink. You look like you could use a friend."
"Thank you, that's kind of you. Yes, I could 'use a friend' at this moment ...
I'm have never been here before. This place is very different from what I know"
"Hey, Jesus, I can see that!" the bearded stranger declared.
The man lead Joshua to a clearing between the river trees where there was a small
traveler's camp, and at the center, there was a clean burning fire with a metal pot
in it. Bedrolls stirred, someone coughed. The dog stretched his long lean torso and
settled down, looking at Joshua intently. Joshua, knowing a little of animal etiquette,
was careful not to look straight at the beast at first.
The older man poured a hot liquid from the pot into a small bowl with a handle and
handed it to Joshua. He poured himself another bowl. "This will put hair on
your chest, as me mom used ta say!"
Joshua politely sipped the scalding liquid and almost gagged. Recovering, he asked,
"What is this drink called?"
"Hey, Jesus, where have you been? Outer space? That's coffee and we're damned
lucky to have it, thanks to nimble Mary and the Safeway Corporation!"
"Mary? That's my mother's name... I wonder ... how do you know my name? My name
is Joshua, or as you say the Greek version, Jesus."
"You don't say! Well, you sure look the part! My name is Dragon Breath, street
singer and musician extraordinaire. This here is Lobo, my faithful canine companion,
and Mary, my friend. And Little Passenger." Dragon Breath gestured to the bedroll
and it groaned and coughed. "Mary's a little sick right now. She'll be okay
come dinner time - we don't do the mission scenes usually -- we just rip off the
goods from the Man -- she's the pro -- me, I get caught. I always look guilty, whether
I am or not! So... we busk the streets, do our music and get some greenbacks, if
we are lucky. I want to get a room for Mary on 'count of Little Passenger".
Joshua knew he was not understanding the full import of this kind man's words but
he got some of the feelings conveyed. These people were not householders. They were
not villagers, nor farmers nor ascetics. They were outsiders, musicians, travelers.
They were not following every rule. They were extraordinarily poor. Maybe resourceful.
"And who is Little Passenger?" Joshua wondered aloud.
"That's Mary's baby, supposed to be born in a few days. We'll manage."
"You must be proud to have a child coming..."
"I had nut'tin to do with it. Mary and I are just friends. I'm helpin' her out
'cause her old man knocked her up so she zipped out of there." Seeing Joshua's
puzzled expression, Dragon Breath explained, "Ya know, she ran away from home.
So that makes me the criminal! Hah!"
Joshua knew his face must be even more confused as he tried to follow this story.
"Yea, see, she is under-age. And I'm an old man, forty-five. See, it's statutory
rape charges for me if we get caught. But you know, she's like my sister. Or daughter.
I'm just trying to look out for her."
The bedroll moved and coughed again. Like a tousled butterfly emerging from the cocoon,
Mary rose from the bedroll. Joshua looked at her and was amazed. She looked as his
mother may have looked when she was young. Long, black, tangled hair and lapis colored
eyes, she was dressed in a strange garb. She was pregnant. Nonetheless, he felt as
if he knew her.
"Goddamn it, didn't cha save me any coffee? Oh, hello, Jesus, how ya doing?"
At that moment a roaring sound grew. There was a horrible shaking on the ground.
A shriek filled Joshua's mind. Terrified he whipped around to see the source of this
unearthly commotion. Mary laid a small hand on his bare forearm. "It's okay,"
she shouted in his ear, "it's only the six o'clock train to Portland."
Just above the bank of the river, a blur of monster boxes on iron wheels rush by
and eventually faded away.
"What are you on?" Mary asked him gently.
"I'm not sure," he replied. "Is this the same earth I have known?
Is this the same planet in my Father's heavens? I do not know what I stand on."
"Hey, Dragon, do ya have some more coffee? It's legal!" She giggled. "Well,
not exactly, but it will help you feel better."
That night Joshua stood on a street corner with Mary and Dragon Breath and Lobo.
It was raining and they were chilled. The hard streets were shiny with wet, smeared
streaks of bizarre color. Dragon Breath spoke under his breath about the crimes of
a country that let him fight and kill and couldn't find him a good job. He had an
instrument he called a guitar that he cherished. He seemed to be a good musician
although it was hard for Joshua to tell because it sounded so different from his
idea of good music. He and Mary shook tambourines and rattles, instruments he recognized.
Dragon Breath had set the guitar case open in front them. People walking by to eating
houses would occasionally toss coins into the case.
Dragon Breath sang with a harsh wail in his voice, like the trading tribesmen of
the East Joshua heard singing around caravan camp fires. He sang of war and peace,
love and loss, candy and babies. A man and a woman, who was dressed in the barbaric
pants so many wore, walked slowly by, arms linked, like school boys or disreputable
Greek carousers. But they seemed civil and sober. Customs here were very different.
"Hey, man," the man said in what may be the typical greeting,"that's
some powerful singing. Takes me back. Good luck", and put this paper coin Joshua
had seen today into the guitar case. The paper had a Arabic numeral five on it.
"Hey, thanks,man!" And Dragon Breath broke into a rousing peace song, "The
Soldier's Lament". Mary and Joshua followed the music as best they could. It
was a simple old melody and Joshua recognized it. The couple stayed and listened
and politely clapped their hands together when he finished. "Ya, I wrote that
meself. Me, the great and powerful Dragon Breath. Sorta based on the old Celtic laments.
And give a hand to me accompanists, Mary and Jesus!"
The people smiled tightly and backed away. "What characters!" Joshua heard
the man say to the woman as they walked away. She said, "But the guy has got
real talent. What a shame he is on the street."
"There's a lot of wasted talent on the streets. I feel sorry for that poor kid.
She looks ready to pop any minute."
Ready to pop... to give birth like a ripe seed pod? Joshua wondered. Yes, what a
shame she had no mother nor home nor midwife. How would Mary manage? He remembered
the saga of his own birth and felt comforted by the parallels that his mother did
not have her mother nor midwife with her. She, too, had been far from home when she
was "ready to pop". Yet his father had found shelter and they had managed
in a hillside barn. Maybe that was the logic of his being here at this strange place
out of time. To help Dragon Breath find a safe place for Mary to give birth to her
baby. Joshua sensed Mary's fear and despair under her cheery bravado. Her poor baby,
conceived in incest and rape. He must find a way to help her understand that the
sin was not hers nor the child's to be. But first he must understand this eerie place
better. And after that... how to get back to his time and place?
They slept in a motel room that night. Dragon Breath sneaked Lobo in to the room.
Dragon Breath said this room would use up all the money but Mary needed a clean,
warm place to sleep. Joshua thought the traveler's inn most odd, not for the mechanical
lamps, nor the big bed, nor the noisy box of disturbing images they called TV, nor
the cubicle of hot running water (useful), but the lack of a central hall where the
travelers could meet and eat together. He mentioned this Mary and Dragon Breath.
They laughed as they sat on the bed and lit a smoking stick and inhaled it. Outside
the rain drummed on the roof.
"Hey, Jesus, you want company, you go down to the mission. They use your name
there a lot." Dragon Breath laughed but he was not amused. He raised his head
and spoke as if many people there. "'O, Jesus! Save us from the clutches and
snares of the devil. Save us sinners from the evils that beset us in this world of
sin and death. Save us from the alcohol and drugs that numb our minds." His
voice gathered power. "Save us from the despair of the dammed. You died so we
may find salvation. Your life blood was ripped out from your body so we may live
in your spirit. Your sacrifice on the cross opened the gates of Heaven. Save us,
O Jesus and through your healing grace, lead us to the Father. And bless us weary
sinners as we eat the bread of compassion at this table. We thank thee for all the
blessings Thou bestowest on us today. And welcome Joe O'Mann into your arms. He was
found frozen under the I-105 bridge this morning. For all of this, we are truly grateful.
Amen. Now we may eat.' And welcome Joe O'Mann into your arms... For all of this we
are truly grateful. Shit! They don't even know what they're saying. Joe shouldn't
have died. He needed a warm place, some regular food and insulin. He was just real
tired. So very tired. That's how this country pays back its soldiers who can't face
the lies anymore. Just go and die. Don't make any trouble. Just be quiet and go to
Jesus!" Dragon Breath leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. His face
contracted with pain. The artificial light ravaged his visage. A dragon with broken
wings.
Mary slowly got up, rubbed her swollen belly, and turned the picture box back on.
"Hey, let's cheer ourselves up and watch the evening news," she laughed
a mirthless chuckle. She produced a paper package and took out a sweet to eat. Then
she passed the package around. Joshua took one. It was good in an odd way. But it
had a strange aftertaste.
He asked, "What are these called, Mary?"
Mary yelped with mock amazement, her blue eyes sparked. "Oh, Jesus, you are
a character! Pretending you don't know chocolate chip cookies. Man, sometimes I wonder
what planet you're from."
Planet? "So do I," he spoke under his smile.
The box pictures jumped from images of underfeed, underdressed, women lounging on those large metal vehicles to a picture
with strange familiarity A picture of a village, small, flat-roofed
houses, a well, a woman in a dark veil. A dusty sun. A man's voice was saying, "And
today in the Middle East, violence continues as the Peace Talks are yet again canceled
due to violations of the cease-fire. In Ramalah, Israeli tanks fired on a Palestine
refugee camp after Hamas terrorists killed ten Israelis in a Jewish settlement. Included
in the dead are four children. Palestinian spokesman say twenty Palestinians were
injured, five houses destroyed and five have died." (Another picture of ruins
and vehicles with arms welded upon them.) "There is no confirmation of these
figures. Meanwhile in Jerusalem, the Ministry of Defense issued a statement justifying
torture and assassination as legitimate tools of self-defense for the military in
this current round of fierce fighting. In Bethlehem, thousands of Christian pilgrims
are gathering to mark the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Prince
of Peace. But according to the Bethlehem Visitor's Bureau the number of visitors
is down for the fourth year in a row." (A picture of a small ornate room.) "And
that's our world for tonight, December 23rd. We hope you will have happy holidays.
Keep safe, stay well and buy a lot. Good night from all of us to all of you."
Then a crashing sound as another picture of a vehicle roared down a mountain.
Mary flicked off the picture box. "What a bunch of sad crap! Everyone killing
off everyone else. Why don't they all just jump off a bridge together? Save everybody
a lot of trouble. Jesus!"
"Yes?" he answered a moment before he realized that his name was often
used in this curious place as a kind of rude plea. But he had other things to think
about. Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Ramalah. Home. Home so changed he would have never guessed
its future. For the future it was. Joshua, seeing this odd world, began to realize
he had somehow awakened into a nightmare of the future.
"Jesus! No clean towels!" Dragon Breath hissed! Joshua said nothing.
Outside the thin walls the cold rain poured down. A west wind hurtled against the
flimsy structure, shaking the clear windows. He was grateful to be dry and warm and
have a place to rest his head. He wrapped himself in his blue blanket and went to
sleep. He was awaken by a rhythmic thumping on the hollow thin walls from the next
room. A man's voice keened, "Rock...rock...rock..." This went on for a
long time.
Joshua raised his voice, "Do you need help, brother?" No answer but the
voice chanting its obsessive mantra of oblivion. He tried to go back to sleep. Soon
sounds of the multitude of mechanical vehicles filled the dark before the late dawn
of mid-winter. Thinking of birds' songs soaring over hills sliced by new day sun,
Joshua drifted off to sleep.
A wet, warm, soft tongue licked his hand. He reached over to feel course hair. It
was the dog, Lobo.
"Come on, Son of Man, we gotta push off. Pronto, amigo." Dragon Breath's
voice moved closer then farther away. Joshua smelled the astringent smoke of cigarettes.
He opened his eyes. Mary was sitting on the bed looking at him while she smoked.
"Let's go, Jesus. Check-out time," She said in a matronly tone of voice.
He quickly made ready to leave. Soon they were standing out on the sidewalk in the
cold rain. Mary and Dragon Breath had an outer layer of yellow stiff water proof
material over them. Dragon Breath carried his guitar in its case strapped over his
back.
"You need rain gear, man," Dragon Breath declared. "Let's go over
to the mission." Mary stuck out her tongue. Lobo barked. They walked over slick,
flooded streets, shiny with oily rainbows. Mary had a hard time going very far and
rested several times. They crossed the railroad tracks. The tracks made Joshua nervous.
When they reached a large dark brown hall of some sort, Joshua saw many people, mostly
men, clustered in front of the entrance. Lobo sat under a holly bush near the door.
When they walked into the cavernous interior, their footstep echoed on slick flat
fitted tiles. He noticed little pictures of sweet faced men with beards. He saw a
plain wooden cross on the wall. Why would anyone want the symbol of Roman death and
torture as a decoration, for that clearly was what it was?
"Hello. Are you registering for services?" a soft spoken woman with shorn
grey hair walked up and asked them. She wore a little cross around her neck.
"No, ma'am, "said Dragon Breath. "We're here for rain gear for our
friend here. And lunch. That's all." In an aside to Joshua, Dragon Breath whispered,
"You can put up with all the Jesus crap for a hour. 'Fact you might feel right
at home, I reckon."
"I think your lady friend is going to need something more than lunch. You look
almost ready to deliver your baby, if you forgive me saying so. How old are you,
my dear? Have you made any arrangements?" the woman inquired.
Mary squirmed and shrugged her thin shoulders. "Let's go!" she said loudly
to Dragon Breath." Now!" They turned and stalked out.
Joshua followed his new, troubling friends out the door back into the drizzily rain.
"What was the problem. Mary? That woman seem truly concerned for you."
"Oh, Jesus! What planet are you from? She's nosy, professional do-gooder, "Mary
said patiently as she could. "She is a religious social worker." Joshua
looked blankly at Mary. "I'm a minor, a runaway. They'd have to tell my old
man. I'd be dead meat if my dad found me. No, it's better this way. I'm free. Dragon
will take care if me." They were walking down to the river again, making for
their old camp like foxes heading to the den.
"That mission lady was right, Mary. You look like a balloon ready to pop. Maybe
we better plan something. We could go to the Free Clinic," Dragon Breath suggested.
"No! No! NO! How many times do I have to tell you, they'll lock me up and take
away my baby. My poor innocent baby. It's not its fault. It's my word against Dad's.
Who are they going to believe? A mall rat like me or that holy hot shot with the
big bank account? A shrink. A doctor. A community leader. They'll ask me questions
like 'who's the father of your child? He'd be liable for child support, you know...'
Right! Dad would have me committed first before he'd admit he raped me!" Mary
heaved with anger and fear.
"Fear not, Mary. The Lord is with you."
"Jesus, Jesus! You really are from somewhere else!" Mary struggled
down some boulders and hiked upriver. Alone.
Dragon Breath tagged behind and said to Joshua, "Maybe you and me, man, we can
go out tonight and get some bread busking." Joshua nodded. "Christmas eve,
ya know. Maybe we'll get a few good hats..."
They were hungry, having blown their wad on the motel last night. The men left Mary
at the resurrected camp. Joshua made a tent out of some plastic sheeting there. Dragon
Breath made a fire, collecting old newspapers and twigs and river drift logs on the
bank. A train rattled and roared by. The men walked by the bike paths to the Fifth
Street Market to sing. There were little white lights, diners and shoppers, sweet
smells from shops. They set up on a busy corner. Dragon Breath tuned up his old guitar
he called by name, Martin, and put out his battered guitar case on the sidewalk.
He sang about gentlemen resting, holly and ivy, wasailing around the town, Herrod's
men, shepherds in fields where they lay. Joshua sang a harmonic bass for Dragon Breath
and shook the tamborine. Lobo thumped his tail. Well fed, self-satisfied people wandered
past. Some coins came their way. Dragon sang many old songs. Joshua could usually
guess where the melody was going. As the evening wore on, Joshua again had that odd
feeling of being trapped a nightmarish future. Many of the songs had some kind of
exalted version of the story of his very own birth. His own family stories.
People stared at him. "What a Jesus freak!" a muffled man muttered to his
companion, a person painted in the manner of the Romans, as they passed by. "Getta
load of the costume! It looks authentic. He must be cold."
"'Tis the Season!' " replied the painted one cheerfully. "Maybe he
is in a living crèche program at midnight."
"No, he's just a real bum."
Rain fell fretfully. The cold wet night drove people away to their own warm homes.
Dragon called them names, mindless middle-class morons and such, his voice becoming
hoarse, his guitar wet. Joshua hands and feet were ice. Soon a moist, heavy snow
began to fall. "Come on, man, let's get some food and get oudda here! We gotta
get back ta Mary -- I'm worried 'bout her. Maybe we should take her to the hospital.
Maybe she'd be safer there. I could say we were married. 'Course she has no health
insurance but I don't think they'd turn her away. But we have no address... hmmm.
Better make up something... "
Joshua wasn't sure what a hospital was but he got an impression of life and death,
help, and healing, and harm from Dragon's words. They took the coins and bills and
stopped at a market. Dragon Breath showed Joshua how to shop. Dragon Breath was getting
the idea Joshua was who he seemed he might be. So maybe he needed help to adjust
to this crazy world. Maybe he could keep him here and save Joshua from the cross.
Joshua was thinking about Mary. He bought milk and orange juice, cheese, bread and
wine. When they got back to camp, the river was rising. Dragon Breath called out
to Mary they were back. No answer. They opened the tent flap. It was a mess, blood
and their few clothes tossed up. By the snowlight they could see Mary asleep, exhausted,
nestled in her bedroll. In her arms was a little bundle, stirring. The newborn's
face, resting on his mother's breast, gleamed in the snowlight. Lobo slipped in and
went to Mary and the baby. Lobo licked the hand of the baby. A little sleepy blue
eye opened and closed. An almost smile brushed the newborn's lips.
She opened one blue eye."Fat help you were. The baby's here," Mary said
to Dragon Breath. She eyed Joshua."I'm naming him after you." Then she
fell back asleep. Joshua took off the blue robe Judith had woven and wrapped it around
Mary and the baby. The baby Joshua.
Dragon Breath built up a fire and heated up some rocks to keep the tent warm. He
then slept, too.
Joshua rose and left the small tent. He prayed by the riverside. The water rushed
on from the mountains to the sea. The snow lay like a clean warm blanket over the
land. The city beyond was almost silent. He sat on a large stone and thought. "Lord,
why am I here? How do I get home to my place and time? Have I just seen your face
in this odd world? In Mary's baby face, as others saw you in me when I was born?
How do I get home? Where do I belong? What are all these hints of my mission, that
I am just understanding, distorted? How can I bring peace if there is no room in
hearts for you? This world has become even more lost. People without livelihood or
homes, a kind of material culture gone mad, my homeland mired in death and destruction.
O Lord! Help us. Let there be one night, just one night without hunger, without war,
without hurt and harm. O Lord, let your love fill our hearts for just one night.
Let our lives be true to you. Let there be peace." And Joshua prayed all night.
The snow stopped and a sharp cold wind from the eastern desert pushed back the clouds
to expose a pulsating sky filling with living stars. The dawn was coming. Joshua
stepped into the water and raised his arms. With a deep honking call, he stood white
in the starlight, spread his mighty wings, leaped into the air and glided over the
water. Away. Away home.
In the cold windy morning, Dragon Breath got up to build a fire. He looked around
for Joshua but didn't see him. He shrugged. A loose sheet of newspaper scudded by.
Dragon Breath picked it up. A headline read "Peace Virus Strikes a Weary World
- For the first time in recorded history, the world experienced a full peace from
midnight Christmas day to noon, Greenwich time. This unique phenomenon has no logical
explanation according to political scientists at the University. They are dubbing
this mysterious moment in contemporary times as the Peace Virus. Hostilities ceased
in over one hundred countries where serious conflicts rage according to United Nations
standards. Also, no crimes were reported in over ... The WTO Consortium of Defence
Contractors say that if the Peace Virus continues, world economic stability will
be threaten as well as..." "
Dragon Breath took the newspaper and crunched it loosely into a ball for fire starter.
The fire gained heat. Dragon fed more twigs to the new hot flames. "Good for
you, Jesus. You did it! I guess you got back somehow." The baby cried and Dragon
Breath brought hot water to Mary.
"The Bum" © Copyright 2001 by Ryan Ramon
from a work in progress, The Adventures of Jesus © Copyright 2001 by Ryan Ramon