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Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The angel wantsto write about a six-year-old, for Christ's sakes, how race could he have? It's not like Joshua walked around professing that he was the Son of God every day of the week He was a pretty normal kid, for the most part There was the trick he did with the lizards, and once we found a dead ht it back to life, and there was the tiht, when he healed his brother Judah's fractured skull after a gaot out of hand (Judah could never get the knack of being an adulteress He'd stand there stiff as Lot's wife You can't do that An adulteress has to be wily and nimble-footed) The miracles Joshua perforet used to them But trouble came from the miracles that happened around him, without his volition, as it were Bread and serpents come to mind

It was a few days before the Passover feast, and e to Jerusaleh our winter season, so it was going to be a hard year Many farmers could not afford the time away from their fields to travel to and fro in Sepphoris, and the Roive them time off work beyond the actual feast days Mythe unleavened bread when I ca in the square

She held a dozen sheets of the flatbread before her and she looked as if she was going to dash it to the floor any second "Biff, where is your friend Joshua?" My little brothers grinned at me from behind her skirts

"At home, I suppose I just left him"

"What have you boys been doing?"

"Nothing" I tried to rery, but nothing came to mind It was a rare day and I'd made no trouble Both my little brothers were unscathed as far as I knew

"What have you done to cause this?" She held out a sheet of the flatbread, and there, in crispy brown relief on the golden crust, was the ie of my friend Joshua's face She snatched up another sheet of bread, and there, again, wasMother frowned on so to Joshua's house and ask his poor, insane mother?"

"I did this I put Joshua's face on the bread" I just hoped that she didn't ask me how I had done it

"Your father will punish you when he coet out of here"

I could hearas I slunk out the door, but once outside, things worsened Wo stones, and each held a sheet of unleavened bread, and each wassome variation of "Hey, there's a kid on my bread"

I ran to Joshua's house and stor Joshua and his brothers were at the table eating Mary was nursing Joshua's newest little sister, Miriam

"You are in big trouble," I whispered in Josh's ear with enough force to blow out an eardrum

Joshua held up the flatbread he was eating and grinned, just like the face on his bread "It's a miracle"

"Tastes good too," said Ja a corner off of his brother's head

"It's all over town, Joshua Not just your house Everyone's bread has your face on it"

"He is truly the Son of God," Mary said with a beatific smile

"Oh, jeez, Mother," James said

"Yeah, jeez Mom," said Judah

"His " They didn't seeravity of the situation I was already in trouble, andsupernatural "We have to cut your hair"

"What?"

"We cannot cut his hair," Mary said She had always let Joshua wear his hair long, like an Essene, saying that he was a Nazarite like Samson It was just another reason why ht her mad The rest of us wore our hair cut short, like the Greeks who had ruled our country since the time of Alexander, and the Romans after them

"If we cut his hair he looks like the rest of us We can say it's someone else on the bread"

"Moses," Mary said "Young Moses"

"Yes!"

"I'll get a knife"

"James, Judah, come with me," I said "We have to tell the town that the face of Moses has come to visit us for the Passover feast"

Mary pulled Miriam from her breast, bent, and kissed ood friend, Biff"

I al at me "It's not the truth," he said

"It will keep the Pharisees fro you"

"I'm not afraid of them," said the nine-year-old "I didn't do this to the bread"

"Then why take the blame and the punishment for it?"

"I don't know, seems like I should, doesn't it?"

"Sit still so your mother can cut your hair" I dashed out the door, Judah and Ja lambs

"Behold! Moses has put his face on the bread for Passover! Behold!"

Miracles She kissed me Holy Moses on a matzo! She kissed me

The h I can only say that because of what happened between Joshua and the Pharisees later on At the tiht it was the fulfillment of a prophecy, or that's hoe tried to sell it to his mother and father

It was late su in a wheat field outside of tohen Joshua found the nest of vipers

"A nest of vipers," Joshua shouted The wheat was so tall I couldn't see where he was calling from

"A pox on your family," I replied

"No, there's a nest of vipers over here Really"

"Oh, I thought you were taunting me Sorry, a pox off of your family"

"Come, see"

I crashed through the wheat to find Joshua standing by a pile of stones a farmer had used to mark the boundary of his field I screamed and backpedaled so quickly that I lost my balance and fell A knot of snakes writhed at Joshua's feet, skating over his sandals and wrapping theet away from there"

"They won't hurt me It says so in Isaiah"

"Just in case they haven't read the Prophets"

Joshua stepped aside, sending the snakes scattering, and there, behind hiest cobra I had ever seen It reared up until it was taller thana hood like a cloak

"Run, Joshua"

He s to call her Sarah, after Abraham's wife These are her children"

"No kidding? Say good-bye now, Josh"

"I want to show Mother She loves prophecy" With that, he was off toward the village, the giant serpent following him like a shadow The baby snakes stayed in the nest and I backed sloay before running after my friend

I once brought a frog ho, a one-handed frog, quiet and well mannered My mother made me release him, then cleanse ue Still she wouldn't let me in the house until after sunset because I was unclean Joshua led a fourteen-foot-long cobra into his house and his mother squealed with joy My mother never squealed

Mary slung the baby to her hip, kneeled in front of her son, and quoted Isaiah: "'The wolf also shall dith the lamb, and the leopard shall lie doith the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead the ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den'"

Jahtened to cry I stood outside the dooratching

The snake swayed behind Joshua as if preparing to strike "Her name is Sarah"

"They were cobras, not asps," I said "A whole pile of cobras"

"Can we keep her?" Joshua asked "I'll catch rats for her, and make a bed for her next to Elizabeth's"

"Definitely not asps I'd know an asp if I saw one Probably not a cockatrice either I'd say a cobra" (Actually, I didn't know an asp froround)

"Shush, Biff," Mary said My heart broke with the harshness in my love's voice

Just then Joseph rounded the corner and went through the door before I could catch him No worry, he was back outside in an instant "Jumpin' Jehoshaphat!"

I checked to see if Joseph's heart had failed, having quickly decided that once Mary and I were o, or at least sleep outside, but the burly carpenter seemed only shaken, and a little dusty froh the door

"Not an asp, right?" I asked "Asps are ht?"

Joseph ignored et a knife from my workshop"

"She won't hurt us," Joshua said "Her name is Sarah She's from Isaiah"

"It is in the prophecy, Joseph," Mary said

I could see Joseph searching his h only a layman, he knew his scripture as well as anyone "I don't remember the part about Sarah"

"I don't think it's prophecy," I offered "It says asps, and that is definitely not an asp I'd say she's going to bite Joshua's ass off if you don't grab her, Joseph" (A guy has to try)

"Can I keep her?" Joshua asked

Joseph had regained his composure by now Evidently, once you accept that your wife slept with God, extraordinary events seem sort of commonplace

"Take her back where you found her, Joshua, the prophecy has been fulfilled now"

"But I want to keep her"

"No, Joshua"

"You're not the boss of me"

I suspected that Joseph had heard that before "Just so," he said, "please take Sarah back where you found her"

Joshua stor close behind Joseph and I gave them a wide berth "Try not to let anyone see you," Joseph said "They won't understand"

He was right, of course On our way out of the village we ran into a gang of older boys, led by Jakan, the son of Iban the Pharisee They did not understand

There were perhaps a dozen Pharisees in Nazareth: learned -class teachers, who spentthe Law They were often hired as judges and scribes, and this gave thee So much influence, in fact, that the Romans often used them as mouthpieces to our people With influence comes poith power, abuse Jakan was only the son of a Pharisee He was only two years older than Joshua andcruelty If there is a single joy in having everyone you have ever knoo thousand years dead, it is that Jakan is one of them May his fat crackle in the fires of hell for eternity!

Joshua taught us that we should not hate - a lesson that I was never able to eometry Blame Jakan for the former, Euclid for the latter

Joshua ran behind the houses and shops of the village, the snake behind him by ten steps, and me behind her ten steps more As he rounded the corner by the sround