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~JDB
* * * *
Neorah opened her eyes to see the wall next to her cot. When she tried to move and stretch she felt the blankets ruffle up under her as she turned over. When she opened her eyes after stretching, she spotted a welcome surprise on the opposite side of the room. It was Avel! She jumped out of bed only to fall back down at her head’s protesting. She guessed that she had hit the wall on the way down because Avel’s eyes snapped open to the noise.
Neorah sat forward and put her head in her hands, rubbing her temples. As she did so, Neorah heard Avel rise and walk over to her, sitting next to her. He placed his hand in the middle of her back, between her shoulder blades, and said, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to try anything.”
Neorah chuckled slightly and sat up. She threw her arms around him in welcome and said, “I’m so glad to see you! I don’t know what I would have done if you didn’t come when you did, Avel.”
He returned her hug after a moment and then pulled her back. Avel placed his hands on Neorah’s shoulders and said, “Nayeli thinks you are dead! We all thought you were dead.”
Neorah felt as though someone had just stabbed her in the stomach. How? What! That was impossible. Nayeli had to know that she was alive. There was nothing for it.
“I—what? She…” Neorah said brokenly. She was in a state of shock, her head was whirling, Nayeli had to know that she was still alive. Neorah just sat there, staring past Avel, blankly.
“I’m sorry to have been so rash, but I didn’t know what else to say. I—“
“No,” Neorah said, “no, it’s ok. I appreciate your frankness. It’s just shocking that everyone still thinks I’m dead.”
Avel moved his hands from her shoulders and to her neck. He used his thumbs to prop up Neorah’s face so that he could look at her eyes, which were starting tear up. Avel put his hands on either side of Neorah’s face and wiped her tears away as she closed her eyes.
“Look at me, Neorah,” Avel said tenderly, “What happened?”
“I… I think I actually did die. I remember the Roman guards attacking and then something hit me right up here,” Neorah said tracing her scabbed over gash, “ then there was a white light and what seemed to me to be only a few moments turned out to be an hour and a half or so. Then I heard a Voice. I know that it was only one Person; it was Jesus! He said, ‘Neorah, I know that you don’t want to, but you have to go back, it is not your time yet.’ Then I opened my eyes to this room, fell back asleep, and you know the rest.”
“Wow! You’re nuts, but for, as nuts as you are, I know you aren’t lying to me. You have honesty in your eyes. Will you tell me about him?”
“You need not even ask,” Neorah said with glee.
She proceeded to tell Avel of the incredible healings that Jesus had performed while He was on the earth, the fragments of His teachings that her parents’ had been present for, and then the capture and execution He had faced: forty-nine cattail lashings and crucifixion.
When Neorah got to how Jesus was crucified, she saw tears well up in his eyes.
“They nailed, nailed, an innocent Man to the cross for loving you, Avel. Jesus never did anything wrong, and, yet; He chose the cross because He loves us all so much. He had wailed, ‘My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?’ No answer came. He was taunted and tormented. When He became thirsty, the Roman guards gave Him wine and vinegar. Then, as He took His last breaths, Jesus said, quietly, ‘It is finished.’ Then He died. It was finished; the atonement for every sin you have, and are going to commit, was paid when Jesus died on that cross, spilling His innocent and perfect blood. But I haven’t even told you the best part yet! He rose three days after He was laid to rest in a tomb. When Roman centurions showed up and saw the stone rolled away and heard an angel of God speak to them, they hid their faces in fear. Jesus appeared to his disciples and let them feel his scars on His hands and feet and where they had pierced Him in the side to ensure his death. Then, after that, five hundred people watched as God raised Jesus into the heavens in pure white robes and bathed in light. He lives today, and He lives in me.”
Avel looked in Neorah’s smiling eyes and asked, “How do you do it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Stay so happy when, when things are so awful? Why is it so easy for you?”
“It isn’t easy, Avel. I’ve just found that when I give it all to God, He takes that weight off my shoulders that I am not strong enough to carry. He makes it as though it has never happened and I can continue on my life in peace, knowing that is He is on my side, who can be against me?”
Avel looked at Neorah brokenly and said, “I want to know Him too.”
Neorah smiled broadly and took his hands’ in hers and, happy tears building up in her eyes, said, “Avel repeat after me: Dear, Jesus, I acknowledge and believe that You died for my sins and have risen and live again. I know that I am a sinner and that I cannot achieve Your godliness without Your Holy Spirit in my heart. Please, God, enter my heart and be an ever-present part of my life so that I may go and live with You after my death on this earth. God, I pray that You forgive my sins against You and Your children, Please accept my plea and enter my heart so that You can be my Lord and Savior. Amen.”
Avel finished the prayer and looked at Neorah with happiness in his eyes and said, “I feel Him. He’s inside my heart! I know He’s there! Thank you, Neorah. Everything that has always blackened my soul, it’s gone; it’s all gone. I can’t even explain it!”
“I understand completely,” Neorah, said full of joy. She embraced Avel and saying, “Welcome to the family of Christ.”
* * * *
Warick awoke with a start. He was still embracing Nayeli and felt her steady breathing as he heard her heart, “ca-pump, ca-pump.” When he pulled back, Warick felt a wet substance turn cool on his skin. He looked and saw that Nayeli’s back had been reopened and that there was a good sized red blotch on the front of Warick’s toga. Warick pulled the blanket covering Nayeli toward him and rolled her on to her stomach. Pulling the blanket back over her, Warick puller her arms down to her sides and bounded to the door, banging loudly, yelling, “Help, help!”
A Roman guard opened a slot on the door saying, “What!”
“Please, bring Apollo. It’s urgent.”
A moment later, the slot opened and Warick saw Apollo’s face. His presence made Warick’s blood boil hot, but Nayeli needed him.
“Nayeli’s back has opened again and is bleeding. Fetch a doctor, please,” Warick couldn’t believe that he said it, and it felt like molten metal as it came off his tongue, “master.”
“Of course, of course,” Apollo said, seeming both triumphant and concerned.
What seemed to Warick like hours were only minutes when the bolt on the door raised subsequently after the door was unlocked. In streamed a doctor, in his yellow toga, Apollo, and several guards, who stood against the wall quietly watching the goings on with keen eyes on Warick at all times.
“How did this happen in the first place?” The doctor asked Warick with a suspicious eye.
“I assure you, it was not of my doing. My…” as much as Warick despised the man, he never wanted him to be sought after for being a felon, “brother. He is the one responsible for this. I have no idea how it happened though.”
The doctor looked at Apollo and asked, “Does he speak truth?”
Apollo gave Warick a look then, it was not that of a master to his slave, but that of a close friend, or ever a subordinate. Then he spoke, still looking at Warick, “Yes, the man is truthful.”
Warick was shocked. He never expected Apollo to ever look at him that way, especially since he was as good as dirt now. Slaves of the Roman society had no rights and no way of making any life altering decisions on their own. They never lived a moment of their lives without keen supervision, no freedom, no matter the kindness of their masters.
Warick gave Apollo a nod of respect and smiled slightly. In return, Apollo did something rather unexpected: he gave Warick a look that basically said, “Not in front of them, if I am anything but harsh and brutal while my men watch, they will undermine my authority.”
I return to the look that Apollo gave him, Warick stood regal and prideful. Apollo’s eyes smiled slightly and he turned his head back to the doctor tending Nayeli’s wounds.
“It looks, to me, that there was some sort of a knife involved in this. I know just what to do, but as she is under your authority, I must get your consent, Apollo. If I don’t there is a high possibility of infection and her becoming paralyzed,” the doctor said, raising his eyes to Apollo’s questioningly.
“What?”
“I need to cauterize the wound where it has reopened.”
The doctor’s words hit Warick hard in the stomach. His eyes widened and he looked at Apollo and said, “Is there any other way?”
“I’m afraid not. I am as worried as you are for her safety, but if this is to succeed, I know that I need your help. You and I will have to hold her while the doctor treats her,” Apollo said with sympathy.
“I know what cauterizing feels like, it’s not pleasant, but I know that the options are limited and that this is her best assurance of survival; I will help you.”
“Good, because, you either do it willingly, or I bring you to a separate room while the doctor does his treatment,” Apollo said. This time, Warick could tell that he meant it.
The doctor looked to the men on the sides of the room, saying, “I need you to go and find me an iron rod, I need you to go get me a iron bowl and stand of hot coals and fire, I need you to go get my assistant from my tent along with fresh linens and my herbs, tell my assistant that she has a knife wound and that I need herbs to pack it with, and,” the doctor looked at the last guard in the line against the wall, “I need you to get some small sticks that will burn the hottest in the coals.”
“Is that everything?” Apollo asked the physician.
“Yes.”
“Well, you heard the man, go do your duties.”
The soldiers brought their feet together at the same time creating a small clacking sound, bringing their right fists over their hearts, and filed out of the room.
It was an awesome example of Roman power and prowess. There was a hint of fear in Warick’s heart. It disappeared as soon as it appeared, however. He averted his eyes and looked at Nayeli’s resting face. Her sadness was still so evident, and Warick just wished that she would awaken from her coma like state so that he could tell her of Neorah’s survival and good health.