The Jewish Priest: a Novel by Aaron Ben Shahar

Author:Aaron Ben Shahar [Ben Shahar, Aaron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-04T00:00:00+00:00

After filling his shopping cart with basic products, David saw a bar of chocolate on the counter. "I’d like that as well," he told the saleslady and she looked at him suspiciously. "Is there a problem?" he asked.

"No..." she replied reluctantly. "The other priest also bought the first packet—"

"So why the hesitation?"

"Two years ago, my husband brought two packets of chocolate from New Castle. The first was bought by the priest who was here before you, but when my husband found out what he did with the chocolate, he refused to sell him the second packet, nor did he agree to sell him sweets that children like."

"And what happened in the end?"

"I don't know if it was the end or the beginning, but a year ago my husband died of pneumonia he caught down in the mine, and the vicar refused to hold a funeral service for him in church."

David was appalled and his tongue cleaved to the roof of his mouth.

"I'm sorry to have embarrassed you," said the women. "You can, of course, take the bar of chocolate, but know that it has expired, and slander is very dominant on that street."

David paid the bill and before leaving the store he turned to the young woman. "I have two questions. The first, what happened to the priest? And the second, what is Joyce's address?"

"About six months ago, one of the mothers filed a complaint with the bishop, and one day we found out that both the church and the vicarage were locked. They said they moved him far away, but no one wanted to tell us where to. We have only one Joyce in the village, and she lives three houses away, on the left side of the street. You'll recognize it by the hyacinth blooming in front of the house. You seem like a nice young vicar to me, and I'm sure you’ll remember what I told you earlier."

David skipped over the hyacinth house and continued directly to the church, where he sat on the priest's chair near the altar. Sweat covered the back of his neck. A beginner's mistake, he thought. Bought the second packet of chocolate and asked for Joyce's address...

He considered what the head of the institute said in his concluding speech: "Studies are important, experience even more, but the most essential thing is common sense."

He took the chocolate out of his robe, placed it on the altar, hoping that would not constitute blasphemy, and began to contemplate with his common sense.

***

Six in the morning is an unpleasant hour in Black Eagle. The mist refuses to end the night shift and gloom and darkness prevails. Next to one of the black heaps, not far from the church, a lantern flickered, slightly illuminating a small pavilion where an older man was sitting and trying to warm up his hands with a cup of boiling hot tea. Two men with their calloused hands and black furrows in their fingers were waiting for him curled up in heavy coats.

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