Ilia Grinberg - Mother of Jesus

“You'll have the dinner alone”

“Why ?,” he said.

“So Anna left somewhere urgently. So hurried, so hurried. I hardly managed to ask, where is she in such a hurry?” the gossiper issued another dose of information and paused, glancing at the wool merchant who was still standing near the cart.

Realizing that if he does not accept the rules of the game proposed by the woman, he will find out what happened at his house only in the evening.

Gritting his teeth, Joachim asked:

“Have you talked to Anna?

"Still would".

“And what did my wife tell you?”

“Oh, she said that your Maria, for no reason, has a tooth ache. So much so that no strength to endure. And they went to Delilah, the healer" the gossip answered, and continued, writing as she went. “Maybe, she says, what medicine will give. Rinse there, what to do, or weed or roots chew. Although it is unlikely. How to chew if your teeth hurt? What do you think? And it will not help, so, she says, God forbid, it is necessary to pull out.”

“What, and pulled up there in the same?”

“Not, of course. You know that behind this to the Romans, to the doctors, will have to go. She herself, I suppose, and there is no such money?” she threw the bait.

“Well, thank you, neighbor, for bringing good news,” Joachim said in a frustrated voice and began to open the gate.

“So, I think, what is this tooth such that Maria herself cannot go? Why?! On a donkey they drove her, on your little one, Dahan began to roam. And, seeing that the attentive listener was leaving the hands, she walked quickly beside Joachim.

“Scarf on the head, face all closed. And this damned tooth hurts, that even the host for dinner did not wait ?!”

“I already said thank you? Thank you once again” Joachim said through clenched teeth, looking at the impossible woman from under her brows.

“Yes Yes. Said already. It's my pleasure. We are neighbors. Should help each other. Is not it? And you, friends, and Gideon, and Anna and I are friends, it’s only a pity that our sons with Gideon had grown long and married, but maybe they would have intermarried, eh?” suddenly, Daana finally realized that in spite of her neighborly relations, she was about to get a whip. “Well, I went, okay? In the evening I will come, I will find out what kind of help Anna may need. Well, in the sense, Maria” the potter's wife already finished speaking, moving back to her house.

"The Lord has awarded the neighbor" quietly muttered Joachim, closing the gate. “And as soon as Gideon lives with her?” Although a matter of habit. He once said that he practically did not hear her. The main thing, he said, is to learn how to catch when she says something on business. And this is quite rare. Well, it murmurs to itself like a trickle, and let it murmur to itself. It is possible, the neighbor said, to nod occasionally so that she would not interrupt. That's the whole simple science of communication with such a woman. Yes, what only a person does not get used to! .. What happened to my girl? I hope Anna will do everything right ... And, unfortunately, such important negotiations. It is necessary, finally, to agree on prices so as not to bring them down to each other. And then this newcomer, Ephraim from ... Where did he bring him there, from Judea from somewhere? At the last fair all the prices knocked down, the fool is young. I just didn’t sell, and Ikim needed the money, the man had to lower everything on the cheap. How many lost, hmm ...”

The anxious father's thoghts jumped like young goats. Yes, it was not surprising. Mary was in the family, to put it mildly, a late child, and, moreover, the only one, and therefore adored, secretly and openly. Joachim thoughtlessly petted and cherished his Mariam, doted in her soul, bought her everything, to which she would point with her finger at a festive fair, and was ready to allow the girl any prank. As such a father, with this upbringing, a meek, calm clever grew up, and none of those who knew Anna or Joachim closely could not understand. Therefore, when the whimsical neighbor brought down an endless stream of information on him, the loving father got really excited. Therefore, trying not to show his anxious babe to his anxiety, he gave vent to feelings only by closing the door to the house behind him.

Finally, convincing herself that Anna loves her daughter no less than him, and she communicated with healer more than he, he calmed down a bit. After eating lentil soup with bread, he decided that life was not so bad, and if the Lord had given him such a wonderful daughter almost in his old age, then nothing bad could happen to her. Otherwise, why did the Almighty need to listen to their prayers with Anna? After resting in the shade, he, without waiting for his wife and daughter, went to his partners to continue negotiations.

Meanwhile, Anna and Maria got to the house of the healer. Delilah is quite an old woman, twenty years older than Anna, but she moved so that some young women, seeing how she was carrying a bundle of brushwood from somewhere outside the city, or a full bucket of water from the source, were simply amazed and unkind middle-aged woman envied. And what would their feelings be if they knew what distance it travels in winter and spring, almost without getting tired, in search of the right herbs and roots? ..

Anne and Maria were lucky. Herbs are almost all dried up and the healer, for a week now, after finishing all their preparations for this year, she was at home.

Opening the gate, she looked at the woman standing in front of her. Recognizing the merchant's wife, stepped aside and said:

“What got up, come on.”

“I’m not alone, I’m with my daughter” she said in an agitated voice, already full of prayer.

Leaning out of the gate a little further, the old woman saw Mary sitting on a donkey.

“Then come in both, since you two” and, on reflection, added just in case “you get a donkey too, is he, as I understand it, with you?”

In addition to various decoctions of medicinal herbs, Delilah treated visitors with another peculiar method, her rude humor. However, those who turned to her for help quietly swallowed her jokes for fear of being weaned from treatment. Anna was no exception and did not react in any way to equating the donkey to a human tribe.

When the visitors finally walked into the courtyard, Anna helped Maria get off the Boy and, having looked around quickly, arranged for her on a bench that stood next to the gate. Then, once again looking around, she tied a donkey. Delilah silently watched the wool merchant's wife.

“Managed? Let's go to the house. Or do you want my neighbor to know everything? Here, plague, already on the roof, sort of on business, climbed. Come on girl” she helped Maria up. “Tell me what kind of a disease you have happened.”

After closing the door behind her, Delilah sat Maria on the only suitable place for this, which turned out to be the butt of a tree, on which the mistress sat for long evenings, sorting out and sorting herbs and roots.

“Speak,” she told Anna. “There is nothing to pull the donkey's tail. My time is precious, you know.”

Anna, looking at the face of the old woman, slowly knelt down:

“Delila, do not ruin, help my daughter. All that is, no, all that you say, I will give.”

“Wait a minute, then rewrite the farm to me”again the healer joked at the wrong time. “Really speak.”

“She was raped by her robbers today, when she was walking in your garden. They manhandled her. ” Anna quietly wept, swaying from side to side.

“And, I understand correctly, by the day may well be a child? the old woman clarified .

The poor mother just nodded silently.

Delilah went up to Maria, took off her handkerchief. Then a bandage.