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"Biff, this isHe couldn't even afford wine He didn't hire any ca boys"

Bartholomew stood and rallied his troops "I'll find them" He lumbered off

Inside we feasted on beef and etables, bean and nut pastes, cheese and first-pressed olive oil with bread There was singing and dancing and if it hadn't been for a few old guys in the corner looking very cranky, you'd never have known that there wasn't any wine at the party When our people danced, they danced in large groups, lines and circles, not couples There were men's dances and women's dances and very few dances where both could participate, which is why people were staring at Joshua and Maggie as they danced They were definitely dancing together

I retreated to a corner where I saw Maggie's sister Martha watching as she nibbled at sooat cheese She enty-five, a shorter, sturdier version of Maggie, with the sah Her husband had divorced her for "grievous skankage" and now she lived with her older brother Siotten to know her ere little and she took ie for me She offered me a bite of her bread and cheese and I took it

"She's going to get herself stoned," Martha said in a slightly bitter, er sister tone "Jakan is a member of the Sanhedrin"

"Is he still a bully?"

"Worse, now he's a bully with power He'd have her stoned, just to prove that he could do it"

"For dancing? Not even the Pharisees - "

"If anyone saw her kiss Joshua, then"

"So how are you?" I said, changing the subject

"I' with my brother Simon now"

"I heard"

"He's a leper"

"Look, there's Joshua's o say hello"

"There's no wine at this wedding," Mary said

"I know Strange, isn't it?"

Jaed his mother

"Joshua is here too?"

"Yes"

"Oh good, I was afraid that you twowith John"

"Pardon me?" I stepped back and looked to James for explanation He seemed the more appropriate bearer of bad news

"You hadn't heard? Herod has thrown John in prison for inciting people to revolt That's the excuse anyway It's Herod's anted John silenced She was tired of having John's followers refer to her as 'the slut'"

I patted Mary's shoulder as I stepped away "I'll tell Joshua that you're here"

I found Joshua sitting in a far corner of the courtyard playing with soht her pet rabbit to the wedding and Joshua was holding it in his lap, petting its ears

"Biff, come feel how soft this bunny is"

"Joshua, John has been arrested"

Josh slowly handed the bunny back to the little girl and stood "When?"

"I'uess"

"I shouldn't have left hi"

"It was bound to happen, Joshua I told him to lay off Herod, but he wouldn't listen You couldn't have done anything"

"I'"

"Yeah, you could have gone to prison with him Your mother is here Go talk to her She's the one that told me"

As Joshua e about this wine situation Where's the wine?"

Ja any ith you fro sarcasht of ainst people I didn't like)

Joshua gently pushed his mother away "You shall have wine," he said, then he went off to the side of the house where drinking water was stored in large stone jars In a few minutes he returned with a pitcher of wine and cups for all of us A shout went through the party and suddenly everything seemed to step up a level Pitchers and cups were filled and drained and filled again, and those who had been near the wine jars started declaring a miracle had been performed, that Joshua of Nazareth had turned water into wine I looked for hi been free of sin all of his life, Joshua wasn't very good at dealing with guilt, so he had gone off by hiuilt he felt over John's arrest

After a few hours of subterfuge and guile, I was able to get Maggie to sneak out the back gate with me

"Maggie, come with us You talked to Joshua You saw the wine He's the one"

"I've always known he was the one, but I can't come with you I'm married"

"I thought you were going to be a fisherman"

"And I thought you were going to be a village idiot"

"I'et Jakan to divorce you"

"Anything he can divorce ment on people, Biff I've seen his I'm afraid of him"

"I learned to rinned "Huh?"

"I' to poison my husband"

I sighed, an exasperated sigh that I'd learned from my mother "Then leave him and come aith us, far from Jerusalem where he can't reach you He'll have to divorce you to save face"

"Why should I leave, Biff? So I can follow around a man who doesn't want me and wouldn't take me if he did?"

I didn't knohat to say, I felt like knives were twisting in fresh wounds in my chest I looked at ht in my throat

Maggie stepped up, put her arainst my chest "I'm sorry," she said

"I know"

"I missed both of you, but I missed just you too"

"I know"

"I' to sleep with you"

"I know"

"Then please stop rubbing that against me"

"Sure," I said

Just then Joshua stuate and crashed into us We were able to catch ourselves and hiirl's pet bunny, hugging it to his cheek with the big back feet swinging free He was gloriously drunk "Knohat?" Josh said "I love bunnies They toil not, neither do they bark Henceforth and fro bad happens to me, there shall be bunnies around So it shall be written Go ahead Biff, write it down" He waved to ate "Where's the friggin' wine? I got a dry bunny over here!"

"See," I said to Maggie, "you don't want to miss out on that Bunnies!"

She laughed My favorite music

"I'll get word to you," she said "Where will you be?"

"I have no idea"

"I'll get word to you"

It was ht The party had wound down and the disciples and I were sitting in the street outside of the house Joshua had passed out and Bartholo under his head for a pillow Before he had left, James had made it abundantly clear that eren't welcome in Nazareth

"Well?" said Philip "I guess we can't go back to John"

"I'm sorry I didn't find the camels," Bartholomew said

"People teased me about my yellow hair," said Nathaniel

"I thought you were from Cana," I said "Don't you have family we can stay with?"

"Plague," said Nathaniel

"Plague," we all said, nodding It happens

"You'll probably be needing these," came a voice out of the darkness We all looked up to see a short but powerfully builtour camels

"The camels," said Nathaniel

"My apologies," said the ht theet them back to you"

I stood and he handed the camel's reins to me "They've been fed and watered" He pointed to Joshua, as snoring away on his terrier "Does he always drink like that?"

"Only when a major prophet has been imprisoned"

The man nodded "I heard what he did with the wine They say he also healed a lame man in Cana this afternoon Is that true?"

We all nodded

"If you have no place to stay, you can come home with me to Capernau your camels"

"We don't have any money," I said

"Then you'll feel right at home," said the man "My name is Andrew"

And so we became six