Rachel & Leah by Card Orson Scott
Author:Card, Orson Scott [Card, Orson Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical, Age Range 2 Older Audience, Religion, Romance
ISBN: 9780765341297
Amazon: 0765341298
Goodreads: 7959
Publisher: Forge Books
Published: 2004-07-30T07:00:00+00:00
CHAPTER 14
Bilhah brought the comb to Leahâs inner room, expecting to prepare her hair before they went to study with Jacob this morning. But Leah was still lying in bed. âMy eyes hurt from yesterdayâs reading,â she said.
âThatâs why you should stop trying to read for yourself,â said Bilhah. âI was taught to read so you wouldnât have to.â
âI like to see the words with my own eyes.â
âTheyâre written so small,â said Bilhah. âTheyâre not easy even for me.â
Leah sighed. âI donât want to go today.â
âBut Jacob is waiting,â said Bilhah.
Leah rolled over, turning her back to Bilhah. âGo and tell him not to wait,â said Leah.
Bilhah couldnât understand why Leah was acting this way. âWhat about the word of God?â
âIt will still be there tomorrow, wonât it? The books wonât vanish in the night, will they? Canât anybody ever just do what I ask, for once?â
For once? People do what you ask all the time. Or rather, they do what you demandâand wish that you would ask, so they could do it freely.
But Bilhah said nothing. It wouldnât do to provoke an argument with Leah. When Leah was in a good mood, she was sweet and they could almost be friends. But when she was feeling sorry for herself, she would say the nastiest things and then, later, not even realize that she had been hurtful. Maybe, thought Bilhah, it was because Leah couldnât see the expressions on peopleâs faces. If they didnât tell her in words what they were feeling, maybe she simply didnât know they were hurt or irritated by the things she said.
âDo you want me to comb your hair anyway?â asked Bilhah.
âI donât know why I should take special pains just to go see my sisterâs husband anyway,â said Leah.
âI didnât think you combed your hair for Jacob,â said Bilhah. âI thought you prepared yourself to go before the Lord.â
âGod sees me all the time anyway,â said Leah. âSo thatâs just stupid. He sees me when Iâm dirty and sweating and stinking hot. He sees me at my very worst.â
Bilhah knew this was a silly argument. But if Leah wanted to pretend she didnât know the difference between ordinary life and going to read the words of God, it wasnât worth arguing with her.
âIâll go tell Jacob you arenât coming,â said Bilhah.
âIâm going to sleep again,â said Leah. âMy eyes are so tired.â
Yes, you said that already, and I havenât forgotten, even if I am just the stupid girl who learned to read so that your eyes wouldnât have to be tired.
Of course Bilhah knew that this wasnât about tired eyes, or not entirely, anyway. Leah was disappointed in the word of God. She had expected to have the meaning of her whole life spelled out for her, apparently, and was bitterly disappointed that most of the writing was about Enoch and his teachings and experiences. Leah kept trying to turn the meaning of every line of the scripture into some specific reference to her own life, and Jacob kept saying, No, this is the message Enoch gave to the people from God.
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
Biblical | Christian |
Historical | Jewish |
Mystery | Romance |
Science Fiction & Fantasy | Short Stories & Anthologies |
Western |
From Sand and Ash by Amy Harmon(4178)
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson(4044)
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom(3311)
Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff by Christopher Moore(3293)
The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom(2985)
In the Woods by Tana French(2384)
Call Me by Your Name: A Novel by André Aciman(2122)
The Next Person You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom(2090)
Unlocked: A Love Story by Karen Kingsbury(2021)
Unworthy by Antonio Monda(2016)
A Kingsbury Collection by Karen Kingsbury(1996)
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman(1955)
The Masterpiece by Francine Rivers(1881)
Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg(1843)
The Absolutist by John Boyne(1838)
01 The Rising by Tim Lahaye(1816)
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding(1739)
THE DA VINCI CODE by Dan Brown(1686)
Torrent Falls by Jan Watson(1652)
