Ilia Grinberg - Mother of Jesus

“Well, here it is, just, you do not worry. For a couple of days, I will attach the grass one to your cheek and it will pass. Now you raise the dress. Higher, higher come on! What is now ashamed?

Maria closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and with one jerk she lifted the dress, covering her face with the hem.

“Bastards,” the old woman hissed, seeing what the rapists had done. “I feel they die today. Now my good will figure it out with you, and I will dread them. There is nothing for them in this world to do more, that's enough, they lived. Saw them?” having lowered a dress, she asked Maria. She nodded. “Ok, then tell me.”

After plucking several kinds of herbs from the hanging beams, breaking off a couple of roots, the healer poured everything into a large plate and poured boiling water on it. While insisting on one medicine, she collected another mixture and brewed it.

“I'm not going to embarrass you, your mother will wipe you now, but you also need to take this broth inside, just don't drink. Do you call Anna?” she asked the woman. “Come here, show you how and what you will do. Do not cry out, but because of the tears you will not see well. You will, only, hurt to your daughter.”

Having laid the girl on the clean flooring of the boards, which served the healer as an operating table, Anna, under the guidance of an old woman, began the procedures. Maria turned her head to the wall, even more than the first time, gritted her teeth, but did not close her eyes. Not a moan escaped from her broken and swollen lips, only trembling sometimes with her whole body when it was especially painful. Mother, hearing, finally, the words of the healer, calmed down. She did everything calmly, as suggested by the old woman standing next to her. Not a single tear fell from her eyes anymore, only her lips were biting as a spasm passed through her daughter's body. In these moments, Anna stroked Mary, as if asking her daughter: "Be patient, my dear, be patient!"

“Well, that's all,” Delila finally stated, covering the girl with clean canvas. "Lie down while the girl, take a rest. And your mother and I go to the fresh air and talk."

Taking Anna by the arm, the healer led her out of the house, closing the door behind her:

“Let's go to the barn, but then, you know the people, they are poor already occupied all the convenient observation posts. The neighbor on the right saw you, he sits on the roof, fixes it. Imagine how someone comes to me for treatment, he immediately climbs the roof, and it doesn’t bother you! And he sends his son to my neighbors on the left. So that those, too, took part. They want to overhear what is being done here, that he is even ready to sacrifice my primacy, just to find out who came and why. This is his entertainment, you know. He probably thinks he was lucky with her neighbor, and there is no need to wait for the fair, almost every day the theater, just like the Greeks ... Close the door. Now listen to me carefully.” the old woman sat on the old chest. - “How much time has passed, from that time until you came to me?”

“When she went home and before we knocked on your door ... You know where we live, so it was possible to turn around on foot two times. And I didn't know how long she was there. At first she was unconscious, then she still came to herself, while our worker helped her get to her house. I do not know.”

“My God, also the worker saw it! Bad!” thought Delmila thoughtfully with her lips. “Very bad. If you know, she will live. Lets lie down for a few days. Drink decoction I'll give you herbs. It will not be better, you will bring more. But, here's the deal. You understand that during this time everything has already settled there ... Hey, hey, only you don’t have to lie here! At home you will rest.” shouted the healer Anna slid down the wall on the dirt floor. “Come, come, come to your senses.”- She hit her unhappy mother several times with her palm. “Out? That's good. If there is no blood on the set days, come. Or come as you wish. I give you another broth. I’ll say right away that not only can this fruit not be from him, but others too. Never. So it's up to you.”

“Fruit? Do you mean a child, then?! How so? Without a husband after all! What a shame! Joachim will not stand it!”

“Do you think, woman, that your daughter should endure all this?” Joacim! Oh, you! Was he raped? In general, so, let's solve problems in the order of their receipt. Maybe she will carry it on.… A lot of it, ”said the old woman, who saw ten coins stretched out to Anna. “Is it husband's stash?”

Anna nodded silently, lowering her eyes.

“From the heart give?”

Anna nodded again.

“From the heart, but from the heart, this is good,” Delilah said, taking two coins. “You know my price. Shekel for any help. We assume that the second coin is a loan. Because very much I am afraid that oh far not the last time we meet. Well, come on, take your daughter, and with god. Do not say anything to Joakim of yours; it may not be necessary.”

When Anna and Maria set off on their way back, the sun was still burning with might and main, so there were no curious fellow citizens along the way. Everyone hid in the shadows and went about their business, some in the houses, some in the back rooms. Others slept in the courtyards in the shade of buildings, waiting for the evening chill, when it would be possible to work in more comfortable conditions.

When she reached the house, Anna put Maria in her room by the window, left the door to the house open so that she could bleed through the rooms at least a little, and sat down beside her daughter.

“Sleep my dear” she said. “And I'll sing a lullaby to you.”

“Mother, I'm so scared,” Maria whispered, tightly gripping her mother’s palm. “I'm afraid. Father learns, neighbors, workers! Horror!”

“Your father was going after today's meeting with his trading partners either to go to Nazareth, or to Jerusalem. It depends on how everything goes there. Just for a few days. He will come late, you will sleep. Or will pretend to sleep. So he won't see your bruises. And then. ... If there is nothing left of the robbers in you, that’s the end of it. And if it remains ... Okay, why chew like raw meat. If you get pregnant, Delilah promised to give another brew. True, she said that you will have no more children then. Never. Like this. Well, nothing, we have a week or two to think about. You are my child, I am your mother and I will never leave you. Sleep, my dear, come to your senses. Or do you want to eat first? Not? Rest, girl.”

In the evening Joacim came home. He was joyful and excited. Negotiations with partners and competitors succeeded. Everyone chose to cooperate rather than fight. Now it was necessary to go to Jerusalem, where it was planned to sign and seal the general contract with the governor.

“Anna, I'm at home,” he shouted, getting a donkey pulled by a wagon into the yard. - Where is everyone ?!”

“Quiet, you! Why are you shoutting?” Anna jumped out of the door of the house. “Maria is sleeping.”

“It's a pity,” Joacim said more quietly. “I thought I would ask her, how is she, how is she feeling. And tomorrow early in the morning it is necessary to go.”

“Nothing, come back, talk a lot” she suffered today. And, noticing the worried look of her husband, reassured him.” Everything is fine, fine. Where are you going? In Nazareth?”

“No, I have to go to the capital. A week, no less there will stay. But now I know for sure that no one will drop prices. So stability for years. Until again, some rebel or adventurer does not appear ... Oh by the way, did John come in? Did you transmit anything?

“John came, and then he went away. More precisely he ran for a while. Maybe his goats ran away.He nothing passed, so everything is fine.”