Mary of Nazareth by Marek Halter

Author:Marek Halter
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780307409775
Publisher: Crown/Archetype
Published: 2008-04-07T16:00:00+00:00

IT was noon, and Obadiah was still alive. But his body was burning with fever, and he had not regained consciousness for a moment. Miriam never left his bedside.

The midwife prepared more plasters and another potion, had some cloths boiled in an infusion of mint and cloves—in order to stop the bandage rotting the wound, she explained. But when Mariamne asked her if Obadiah was going to survive, she merely sighed. She pointed to Barabbas with a haughty air and said, “We have to take care of that one too.”

Barabbas objected scornfully, but the woman would not let herself be intimidated by him.

“You can hide it from the others, but I see it: You have a fever. You’re badly wounded, and it’s eating away at you. In a day or two, you’ll be as bad as this poor boy.”

Stubbornly, Barabbas called her a madwoman. Rachel forced them both out of the room, saying, “I don’t want all this noise near Obadiah.” But then she insisted that Barabbas agree to be treated by the midwife’s care. “We’re going to need your help in saving your companion. So I don’t want to see you in the same state as he’s in.”

Reluctantly, Barabbas lifted his tunic. There was a torn, bloody piece of cloth around his right leg. The midwife pulled it away and grimaced with disgust when she saw the wound. The tip of an arrow had gone through the fleshy part of his thigh. It was only a minor wound, but it had not been looked after, and was now oozing with yellow, foul-smelling pus.

The midwife sighed. “You’re filthier than a louse, you are!”

With an abrupt movement that took him by surprise, she tore off Barabbas’s tunic, revealing a torso covered in scars and scabs.

“Look at this! Gashes, wounds, bumps…When was the last time you washed yourself?”

Barabbas cursed her and pushed her away angrily. But the woman grabbed the back of his neck and forced him to listen to her, their faces so close that it looked as if they were about to kiss.

“Shut up, Barabbas. I know who you are; your name has come as far as here. I know what you do and why you fight; you don’t have to prove you’re a brave man. And you don’t have to die pointlessly because you’re so sad about your young companion being at death’s door. Use your head. Let us look after you, rest for a few hours, and then you’ll be able to help him.”

The tension in Barabbas’s muscles relaxed all at once. He glanced toward the room where Miriam and Obadiah were. His shoulders sagged. Even though no tears came, his lips quivered. Rachel and the midwife both knew what that meant, and they discreetly looked away.

A little later, he slid into the bath the handmaids had prepared and fell asleep, weary to his very soul. The midwife smiled and whispered in Rachel’s ear that his medicine could wait.

If Miriam had heard the argument, or Barabbas’s protests, she did not show it any more than she inquired about his condition.

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