Shifting Sands by Kathy Lowinger

Author:Kathy Lowinger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Annick Press
Published: 2013-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

Jerusalem during Passover was flooded with pilgrims to the Temple, not to mention all sorts of merchants hawking their wares, and an array of pickpockets, thieves, and beggars. In the marketplace I tried to take in the dazzling clash of hundreds of voices calling out in a dozen different languages, the brilliant colors of bolts of cloth for sale, the piles of yellow and orange spices. When I sniffed the delicious aroma of meat roasting at a kebab stand, I decided I was going to start my new life on a full stomach.

Before I could point to the skewer I wanted, a grubby hand reached around me and grabbed one from the brazier. The woman behind the stand shouted, “Stop, thief!” and took a few steps, but I could tell she would never catch the man. Without thinking, I pushed her aside and ran after him.

He dashed down a street that turned out to be a dead end, and I was able to grab him, the juicy skewer still in his hand. I realized that he was just a boy, younger than I was, and very frightened. I gripped his shaking arm, as thin as a bird’s bone.

“You forgot to pay,” I growled.

“Please, please. I was hungry,” he muttered. He held the skewer between his teeth while he felt around in the bag that hung from his belt. Finally he admitted, “I have nothing.”

I remembered the meals I’d shared with Jesus and his followers. “It’s all right. Go! Just don’t do it again.”

When I got back to the kebab stand, I handed the woman one of Jacob’s coins, cursing myself the whole time. Maybe I was too soft, but I didn’t like the way I’d felt when I had the boy’s trembling arm in my grip.

“God bless you! Thank you so much,” said the woman. “You’re a fine young man.”

Not really, I thought, but I hung my head and tried to look humble.

She handed me a skewer of meat and said, “My last helper has vanished, and I have only two eyes.” She insisted I take a second skewer, and before I had chewed the last mouthful I had a job with the widow Leah.

When she’d doused her charcoal fire and packed up the stand for the day, she asked me if I had a place to stay. I hesitated. “Come along, then. You can stay with us, if you don’t mind sharing quarters with my old father and my children.”

I started work the next day. I was surprised by how much I’d learned from Jacob. I knew how to convince a person to buy two kebabs when he didn’t know he wanted even one. I could calculate change quickly. I had a knack for recognizing possible thieves. Soon the morning’s kebabs had been sold. My head was spinning with ideas for a stall of my own.

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