The Missing Madonna, Chapter 13 'Mari's escape'

I don’t know what to think. In fact, I’m still half asleep and all my attention is concentrated on holding Joshua tight and trying not to wake him. The events of the last few hours are as if a whirlwind has hit us. One minute, there we were in domestic routine. After all the fuss and excitement of Joshua’s birth, the last year or so had seemed somehow an anti-climax. In one way I’d been keen to take Joshua and Joseph back to Nazareth and have a proper wedding. But of course I was ill after Joshua was born and in no fit state to go anywhere.

So Joseph had just got us to his own house and let me and the baby rest after that astonishing night and had sought the help of a neighbour to tend to me. And then he’d unpacked all his tools and tidied up his workshop, and before we’d realised it, he had a string of customers all wanting him to make something for them, because there’d been no carpenter in the village since old Simon had died, a man Joseph had assisted when he’d learned the trade. So even after I’d recovered we put off going home and I got acquainted with the village life and was fully occupied in getting used to looking after Joshua – it was all new and exciting then.

And I’d made good friends, Ruth and Rebecca and the other women of the village were welcoming and helpful, so we’d stayed although Joseph assured me that we could go home to Nazareth once he’d made enough money to look after us all properly and not have to rely on Eli’s charity or patronage. And then I’d really taken to Ruth, her little boy was nearly the same age as Joshua and they got on so well together, it was a joy to see. Sometimes I missed them all at home and felt homesick – Rebecca would be twelve now and Salome eleven. I still think of them as little girls – I can’t believe they might even be betrothed for all I know.

I’m sure my mother would somehow get a message to me if something important like that happened. Joseph had said that they might be coming to Jerusalem for the Passover three months ago, but there was no news from them. Joseph had promised me that we would journey to Ein-Karem sometime to see my cousin Elizabeth and see how her son John was doing – he’d be over two – but now it won’t happen. I don’t know when we shall see my folks again. We’re off to the great unknown and in the hands of God again. Despite my fear and confusion at what has happened, I can’t suppress that glimmer of excitement that is stirring within me again.

It was only the other night that I prayed to God for a sign that all the promises he’d made to me when Joshua was conceived and reaffirmed on the night that Joshua was born would somehow be reignited in my mind. I know I’m too impatient and the role of being a mother and home-maker spending my time just with the other village women was becoming boring – no, that’s unfair. I must be patient I thought, Joseph is good to me, I have a wonderful child. I must not expect all life to be lived on a heightened level. And now all this! Those splendidly robed men coming all this way to worship my son – worship, they said. What a peculiar way to put it! It’s as if they thought he was a god! And they looked pretty important people themselves, they must be for them to have been received in the king’s palace. It all fell into place though. Just as we had visitors the night Joshua was born saying he was special, so these rich men said the same. It must be true.

And now this! Just as I’m getting used to these distinguished men’s visits and making sense of it, Joseph has decided we must leave and become refugees fleeing to another country. I thought at first that we ought to stay, God would protect us against Herod and protect our child. But Joseph sees it differently and I must trust him too. It’s frightening and exciting at the same time. I’m sure God is looking after us and preparing some great new step for us to take. I wonder what it will lead to?

We’ve left our home. I look back at it silhouetted in the moonlight. I wonder when I shall see it again. It’s a good job the moon is nearly full tonight, it’ll help us see where we are going. I mustn’t trip on the rough stones and let Joshua fall. We’ve headed out of the village to where the paths divide and we’ve stopped. I hope Joseph knows which way to go.

“Which way Joseph?”

“I’m just wondering. We could go towards Jerusalem and pick up the road to the coast from the gate outside the city. That would be easiest but it will take us nearer possible danger and I want to be as far as possible away from Jerusalem before Herod hears anything about us and sends his soldiers to find us. I know this track to the west takes us through the village of Emmaus but I don’t know where it goes after that. If we go beyond that village and then take the first road north, hopefully that will bring us to the Roman highway, then we can make good time and mingle with other travellers because that road will probably be busy.”

I nod at him and am happy to follow his suggestion. I’ve not been out of Bethlehem since our arrival here on our way from Jerusalem itself, so I haven’t the faintest idea where we are going, but the track is clear at first and we make our way with reasonable speed until we reach the next village after an hour or so. Joshua, thank heavens, is still fast asleep and Joseph asks if I want to mount the donkey, but it’s easier not to disturb the child if I walk. The village is dark and still. I can hear an occasional wild dog bark and I see the shapes of sheep grazing as we pass, then we are the other side of the village and the moon disappears behind a cloud. It is much harder now and we slow right down. Suddenly we seem to have reached a criss-crossing of tracks and Joseph is undecided which one we must choose. He doesn’t admit his uncertainty to me but I can tell he doesn’t know. I’m a bit afraid now, but I mustn’t let him see it.

I thought he’d take the path going to the north like he said he would, but after a long pause we continue westwards and move slowly in the darkness. Joshua is getting heavy in my arms, but I must keep on though it is difficult not seeing properly where I put my feet and I’m afraid of turning my ankle over and finding it impossible to walk. Joseph senses that I’m dragging a little and takes Joshua from me while I take the reins of the donkey and lead it to follow Joseph. We get to another village equally silent and deserted and can’t find a track out. It seems to peter out at the end of a row of cottages and we find just fields of crops and sheep beyond. We seem to have come to a dead end.

“I’m sorry, Mari, I seem to have got it wrong. I wanted to get as far west as possible before looking for the Roman road, but it doesn’t look as if we can go any further. We’ll have to go back to where the tracks crossed and strike out to the north.”

I hoped that it would be alright and we’d not find another dead end – perhaps we’d have to wait for daylight and cut across the fields until we found another track.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, Joseph. I can take Joshua back if you like, I’ve had a rest.”

As he hands the child to me, the boy stirs and suddenly begins to whimper. I try to shush him at first, making soothing noises, but he begins to cry and I have to ask Joseph to stop while I comfort him and offer him my breast to calm him for a few minutes. There is beginning to be a glow in the eastern sky and I get the feeling that Joseph is worried that we are not further on our way. Joshua accepts the darkness and does not seem to realise we are no longer at home and begins to slumber again, so we continue on our way with Joseph now leading the donkey once more while I follow carrying Joshua.

The track leads us over a gentle hill and then we are dropping down into a valley, and in the dim light I think I can make out movement. I think it must be the main road to the coast that Joseph has talked of. My husband has said nothing, but he is striding out more confidently now and after another half hour or so, we find we are approaching a major thoroughfare and it is getting light. When we are about a league away from the road running from east to west Joseph halts and puts his arm on my shoulder. We are standing by a small bush which gives us some cover.

“Let’s stay here a while and take a rest,” he says and takes Joshua from me, handing me the reins of the donkey. “Let’s both sit down for a while – we must have been walking for over three hours and I don’t want you to get too tired for we’ve a long way to go today.”

I think he really wants to observe the traffic on the road to check that it’s safe before we join it. At this point Joshua decides to wake up and struggles to get out of his father’s arms.

“Let him go, Joseph,” I call out, “let him run around while we’ve stopped. We’ll have to carry him when we’re on that road and he’ll get fed up then and want to walk.”

I can see that Joseph is watching the road intently and we can see the silhouettes of figures moving slowly on the horizon. People are moving in both directions despite the early hour, though the majority seem to be going towards Jerusalem with their animals – I guess that they are going to the early morning market in the city. Although Joseph doesn’t say it, I can see that he is worried about the possible movement of soldiers and has his eyes skinned to make sure none are in sight before he indicates that we are ready to be on the move again. I’m sure his concerns are needless at this hour. The strangers will only have been back in Jerusalem for a couple of hours and I doubt if the king is ready to receive visitors until mid morning so we can go a fair way yet without having to worry too much.

At last Joseph decides we can go on, and I pick the protesting Joshua up and we make it to the highway. At once our pace picks up as our sure-footed beast feels the even paving stones under its feet, and as the sun appears behind and casts long shadows that go before us, we pass a steady stream of travellers shielding their eyes from the red glowing ball which shines right into their faces. We plod on and after a while we halt to let a couple of hurrying men past pulling their cloaks tight round them to keep out the morning chill. I hadn’t noticed the freshness until then. All our work to get under way had made me hot and carrying Joshua and clasping him to my body had kept me more than warm enough. In fact I found the temperature refreshing and knew that later in the morning we’d find the temperature rising until we suffered under the full glare of the midday sun. Joshua is getting wriggly now and squirming to get down. I promise that he can ride on the donkey if he will sit still and he beams at me and squeals in delight as I place him on the donkey’s back, his legs splayed wide apart. I hold him and take the reins from Joseph so that I can control the pace of the animal.

Although we are making reasonable progress, several groups overtake us and pause a moment to greet us and ask us where we are going. We can’t say we don’t know, so Joseph just says ‘to the coast’. I know he doesn’t know the name of any towns there so he has to be vague. One prosperous looking man was curious and asked us where we’d come from and I could see my husband hesitate. Then he answered, ‘from Bethany,’ which is a small town on the other side of Jerusalem where some distant relations of Joseph live. He told me afterwards that he chose to say ‘Bethany’ because he’d been there and could answer questions in case our inquisitor knew it. He explained to me that we should not mention Bethlehem at all in case Herod’s men started making enquiries for us. After that we repeated our story several times and although one travelling family accompanied us for some distance, no-one seemed to know much about Bethany which was a good thing!

The road passed through a number of villages and there were market stalls selling produce beside the road. Joseph bought some figs and dates at one of the villages where we stopped for a rest and drew water for our beast to drink as well as quenching our own thirst. As long as we let Joshua ride the donkey he seemed content enough, but as the sun drew to its highest in the sky above, he began to yawn and I feared he’d slip from the animal’s back. Joseph kept glancing back and suddenly I saw his facial muscles tighten and he quickly drew our animal to the side of the road and into a grove of olive trees growing there. “Get down,” he shouted to me and I drew Joshua off the donkey, sat down on the scrubby grass and bared my breast to allow Joshua to begin to feed, looking as natural as I could while Joseph put his back to the road as if to shield me.

“It’s a band of soldiers,” he whispered to me. “They’re marching in formation. Don’t look at them.”

I couldn’t help it and gave a quick glance as I heard the crunch of their boots on the rough ground. I saw enough to gauge that they were Romans, not Herod’s guards whom Joseph feared most. They didn’t give us as much as a glance and we waited until they were specks on the horizon before continuing our westward trail. As I lifted Joshua back onto the donkey’s back, I realised that his undergarment was wet and I ought to change him before we went any further. This could become a problem I thought and I asked Joseph to stop if he saw any clean water so I could wash the soiled cloth and if possible, lay it on the donkey’s hind quarters to dry before the sun lost its strength. Once Joshua was comfortable I decided to carry him for a while in the hope that he would sleep and after several false alarms when he roused himself just as I thought he was going off, he finally fell into a deep slumber. It wasn’t long before my arms began to ache and I found myself willing him to wake so I could let him ride the donkey once again.

The sun rose high in the heavens and the heat permeated everything. Joshua began to whine and the pace of the donkey slackened noticeably. We plodded on – we dare not stop. We ate some of the figs as we travelled and did stop briefly at a village well we encountered to quench our raging thirst. I took the opportunity to feed Joshua at this point and we continued with no further alarms other than the heat – everyone normally sheltered at this hour but we felt compelled to keep on the move. The further west we went, the sparser grew the traffic and I began to feel nervous when the road began to climb some rolling hills and then cut through them down to the open countryside beyond. I felt so exposed and worried that we could easily become the targets of robbers, with no-one in sight to hear any calls of distress. But no-one came and I began to breathe more easily as the road descended from the barren hills to the fertile plain and I could see men toiling in the fields.

At last the sun began to sink and Joseph said that we must soon find lodgings for the night. Suddenly we could see another major road ahead – I could glimpse men and beasts moving slowly along the horizon. We joined it and headed south because Joseph was sure this was the way towards the country of Egypt, but we were a little puzzled as we could see no sign of the coast and Joseph was sure he’d heard that the main north-south Roman highway hugged the coastline most of the way to Egypt. We continued south for a few leagues now passing groups of people I guessed to be merchants and just before the sun sank we came across what seemed to be an important road junction. Our road continued southwards, but anther road which looked equally impressive, veered off to the right in a westerly direction. We stopped and Joseph looked unsure. Should we continue in our present direction or would this new road take us to the coast and the main route to Egypt? Could we take the risk of displaying our ignorance by asking one of the passing groups of men who would doubtless ply us with questions and remember us if Herod’s soldiers were in pursuit?

Joseph pointed to the signs of a village in the distance on the road south and he suggested that we continue to that point and find an inn where we could stay the night and seek advice from other lodgers there. It was a small town, not much more than a village – a bit bigger than my native Nazareth but smaller than Bethlehem. There was, to our relief, an inn there and Joseph went to barter with the owner to ensure accommodation for all of us for the one night. He came over to me while I held both Joshua and the reins of the donkey.

“There’s room for us but the owner is asking a high price and I’m not happy at letting so much of our savings go this soon on our journey. I’ve suggested that we could pay in kind – with the two chickens and the eggs. After all, it’s not going to be easy to cook them on the road and the landlord is willing to take them in complete payment for our stay.”

“What are we going to eat tomorrow?”

“We’ll buy some fruit and bread in the village first thing tomorrow. The chickens will soon be unsafe to eat, they’ll go bad in the heat and make us ill. We can’t risk giving them to Joshua. The innkeeper’s wife will serve them as the evening meal for her guests and her own family.”

I agreed reluctantly. I’d thought the flesh of the chickens would have sustained us better for our journey and was reluctant to part with them, but in the event we had meat for the evening meal once we had tethered the beast in the courtyard at the back of the inn and had unpacked sufficient for the night. We were made welcome and the owner’s wife was fascinated with Joshua who began to show off to the new audience and amazed the woman with the words he knew and his obvious understanding of them.

“My!” she exclaimed, “You’ve a clever little bugger there! I’ve never seen a child as young as he obviously is with such a vocabulary. How old is he?”

“Just eighteen months. Yes, we’re pleased with him.”

“He’s your first?”

“Yes.”

“Of course, you’re still a wee young thing yourself! Get a good fill of this meal – you’ll need that ready for your next. I’m sure that won’t be long coming.”

I looked at Joseph and we both blushed. Despite her outspoken familiarity, the woman was a kind soul and let me put the clothes I’d rinsed by the well beside her fire to dry. But she was curious.

“Where are you off to, then? Are you another family off seeking your fortune in the south? If you’re thinking of Egypt, I’m not sure you’ll find it as easy as some people say. We’ve had returning travellers staying here and some of them have found prejudice and rejection there instead of a welcome.”

Joseph sees the opportunity here to ask for the route to that country without specifically answering her question.

”Is this the route that travellers to and from Egypt usually take? Do many stop here overnight?”

“Oh, we get quite a few, although we’re not on the direct route. You probably saw the route via the coast just before you got to our village. But many come out of their way to stay with us as we look after them and they feel safe here. They know we are fair and won’t rob them. You can’t trust all the innkeepers on this route. Some are unscrupulous cheats. If you’re going on via the coast road, I’ll give you the name of a trustworthy dwelling lodge where several of my regulars have stayed and recommend. It’s in Ashkelon, just about a further day’s journey, right on the coast. You’ll meet the main route to Egypt there – it’s well guarded, you’ll not meet any trouble on that road. That’s at least one advantage that the Romans have brought. They won’t tolerate the thieves that used to operate in these parts before they came. There are regular patrols from the garrison in Ashkelon, manned by both Roman and Herod’s troops.”

This was both reassuring and alarming at the same time. Would news of our flight already have reached Herod’s ears? Could he already have got a messenger through to the garrison there to arrest us when we arrive tomorrow? It’s certainly possible, because a swift messenger on horseback could arrive while we sleep. We shall need to be very wary tomorrow morning. However, there is little we can do about it tonight. I try not to show my concern although I catch Joseph’s eye and I can see he shares my thoughts. However, Joshua needs me and I spend the next hour feeding and cleaning him after our dusty journey and getting him down to sleep on the bedroll I have folded to try to stop him tuning over and off the cloth on to the earthen floor. Joseph meanwhile has obtained some fodder for our animal and is busy securing our more valuable possessions in a bag he places on our bedroll as a pillow, despite the assurances given by our landlady.

It’s a strange night. I listen to all the unaccustomed noises from the inn, constant movements, animals braying, I’m sure I heard a camel and a horse. When I heard that animal all my senses became alert and I strained to hear any voices, fearing it might be a soldier. But I heard little and just succeeded in waking myself right up and took ages to get back of to sleep despite the weariness of my limbs. And just when I did get to sleep Joshua cried out and woke us both up. I lay there hoping it was but a momentary disturbance, but the next thing I knew was that Joshua had climbed off his bed and had come trotting over to me, bleary-eyed but with a mischievous grin on his face that I felt was quite inappropriate at this hour. I let him squeeze himself between the two of us and in the end we all fell asleep squashed together, and only awoke as the first cock crowed and the rays of dawn slanted across the sky we could glimpse through the opening in our tiny room.

We were able to buy some fresh bread and grapes from the innkeeper’s wife in the morning – she’d been up early and had already got in provisions for the day’s meals expected. She pumped us for a bit more information about our journey and the circumstances that had caused it, and Joseph reiterated his story that we were poor people from Bethany intent on a better life in Egypt. The woman shook her head as if to warn us that we were on a fool’s errand, but she teased the boy and kept making him laugh and put a few dates extra in our bag which we had not paid for as I think she felt sorry for us. We’d not seen much of the innkeeper, but he helped Joseph load up and secure our bags to the donkey’s saddle and bade us ‘godspeed’ on our journey, wherever that might take us.

We breathed a sigh of relief as we left the village that no soldiers had come looking for us and retraced our steps back to the junction of the roads and steered our patient beast westwards once more, knowing for the first time that our immediate destination was the city of Ashkelon. Joshua had insisted on riding on the donkey and was holding its neck by its rough mane making braying noises imitating the noise that the donkey made as we harnessed it this morning. The road continued to be of a good standard, paved with large even blocks for most of the way, although it became little more than a rough track at one point where it climbed a small hill in quite a steep little stretch. On the other side the road soon returned to its proper paved state and our animal made good time with Joshua now making ’geeing’ noises as if he were riding a horse – heaven knows where he got that idea from.

Anyway, we passed midday without incident, stopped to rest in the hottest part of the day by a group of olive trees that provided a little shade and where another family of travellers also were resting. I wanted Joshua to sleep for a while, but the other family had a couple of children, girls of about four and six years of age and Joshua wanted to join in their games. The children played up to him and made him so excited that sleep was out of the question. When we restarted I was much more relaxed and my previous worries were beginning to evaporate. It must have been about an hour before sundown, when we reached a crossroads with what was obviously the highway from the north to Egypt. Joseph looked worried and I asked him what the matter was.

“Do we go into Ashkelon and risk being seen and questioned by Herod’s soldiers garrisoned there or do we turn south immediately and try to find an inn off this highway?”

“How much of a risk do you think it is to go into Ashkelon? I’m tired and Joshua hasn’t slept at all today and he didn’t have that much sleep last night. Isn’t that the city we can see on the skyline?”

“You’re probably right about that. It looks as though it has walls, which means it must be Ashkelon. We could be there before sundown. But we’ll have to go through the main gate which is sure to have guards and may get some close questioning on where we‘ve come from and where we’re going and the reason for our journey. It won’t be so easy to convince them that we are ordinary travellers moving south for a better life. It’s a big risk.”

“Joseph, if we go south on this road and we don’t find rest soon, we shall be very conspicuous with a crying child and an easy prey if there are robbers taking advantage of darkness. Is it safe to go without being part of a larger party after dark?”

Joseph thought for a long time before turning the donkey’s head towards the city of Ashkelon.

“You’re right, Mari. We must seek rest. We’ll trust God that he will protect us once more.”