Ten years ago the streets of Israel were open on a Sunday for market as usual. The only difference was that the Greek legions who had been stationed in Israel post a peace agreement with Egypt had recently been relocated. The old unit has been moved back home and a new legion of men are now being settled in the same quadrant of the city. These men have not arrived in Israel to fight or to negotiate, but to live. Annexed within the walls of the city on a long-term and potentially permanent assignment, the new Greek visitors have branched out into the city on the first market day of the month, intent on exploring their new home.
Rivkah's father had explained that she was not to wander too far today. Not that she would have, unless she saw a friend. But it didn't keep her from staring at the soldiers that filled the marketplace.
So many of them! How many?
She didn't know, but she did know that a lot of people seemed grumpy today. Or if not grumpy, at least not happy. She didn't like that. If God cared, He would know that her mother was not happy with her a lot. Why, Rivkah still didn't know, but it wasn't that she tried to be bad. Her father said a lot that she was nearly too good to be a child, whatever that meant. But what her mother not being happy meant was that she had to go places other than home to see people who liked her.
And the soldiers, whatever they were here for, had something to do with people not being happy today. Rivkah didn't understand why exactly, because they weren't killing anybody... yet. But still, people seemed to huddle within their own groups and not go near anyone they didn't know, sometimes not even other Jews.
Well, it didn't mean she couldn't look at them, even if talking to them was probably stupid. Some had different textures to their hair than she did. And their helmets were different, too.
How many were wearing helmets? Some had taken theirs off, so she didn't count those yet.
One, two, three, four...
She lost count at twelve, when one man moved from his place. He had been standing so still that she jumped when he moved, her eyes going round in fear.
And then she saw Hazael of Aviram, sucked in air in relief at seeing someone she knew, and waved.
Maeri was so excited she felt like she was going to fly out of her own skin. Not only had the whole family gone on a visit to Israel, but they also got to be there on market day. Normally, back home in Judah, market day was one of her favorite days of the week. There were always fun new things to see and to buy. And she could always count on her mother to buy her some fun new toy or trinket. There was just so much to see and do.
That morning, Maeri had been so excited that she had begged her mother to take her to the market as early as possible. Her older sister-cousins who had traveled with them were taking their time to get ready for the day, but Maeri herself hadn’t cared. It only took so long to pull on her own tunic and sandals to head down to the market. Her mother had made her sit through having her hair brushed and braided down her back before she was allowed to head out the door.
When they reached the market, her mother handed her a small bag of coins to take with her into the market. It wasn’t much money, but to the eleven-year-old, it seemed like a small fortune. Maeri barely heard the warning that she shouldn’t spend it all in one place before she took off into the market, running ahead of her mother.
There was so much to see here that Maeri’s head couldn’t stop spinning as she looked one way and then another. The port city had so many items that she had never seen before. They must have come from far away places like Egypt or Greece. The Greek soldiers were also a sight that she had not seen before. To Maeri, they were nothing more than a curiosity, though her mother had spoken in approving tones when she had seen the Greek soldiers who were in the city. Maeri couldn’t even decide where to stop and look at things before being distracted by a stall where a man was demonstrating some carved wooden tops. Maeri watched for a few moments before exchanging a coin for one of the tops.
She skipped down the street happily, looking for a place with a hard, flat surface where she might be able to let the top spin. She was so busy looking everywhere but in front of her, that she slammed straight into someone in her path. She immediately stepped back, stammering her apologies while looking at the ground. “I’m so so sorry. I didn’t see you there. I’m sorry.”
“Hazael!” A sharp scolding tone rang out above the crowd. Although, most of the people around the stern-faced woman who had practically barked out this name, it brought one small boy who had dared to wander too far from the woman to a screeching halt. His dark brown eyes widened at the realization of his error and without needing to be summoned twice, the dark crop of hair could be seen scurrying back to his mother.
“Sorry Eema.” Hazael sheepishly said as he rejoined the small army of children being corralled by the sister-wife pair. Yardena, the one who had summoned Hazael, only nodded briefly at her son before turning to mind some of the boy’s younger siblings. Biologically, he was not related to Yardena as he was the son of his father’s second wife, Levana, but she was still as much of a mother to the boy as she was to the three older children who indeed have their blood. Yardena was the disciplinarian of the household as she was not as tolerant of the six children running rings around her like the more pliant Levana seemed to be.
“Don’t you wander off again.” She said sternly as she tried to shoosh a fussy three-year-old Eliora. A bit further behind, Hazael caught the eye of Levana who had seen the whole scene unfold and she motioned for the boy to come to stand by her rather than add more pressure to Yardena. Without a word, Hazael moved over to his mother, taking a moment to slip a hand in hers. The older woman squeezed it a bit in reassurance as she smiled down at her eldest child.
However, it did little to calm the frayed nerves Hazael had from being scolded a moment ago. Though, that might be more in part due to the fact that even at nine-years-old, Hazael could see her worry and concern just past the calm exterior she was putting off for the children’s sake. He didn’t question it though, he already knew why she was worried. Everyone from Israel could feel the tension in the air today, especially whenever a group of rowdy Greek soldiers came into sight.
Just recently, the temporarily stationed soldiers had been given permission to stay indefinitely. Hazael himself was murky on the details, but even he knew that they were a large part of the reason why the Egyptians were kept away from his city. He was grateful for that, even as a young child… but still, he was young. The exaggerated stories his father told at meals seemed real to him and it caused him to fear the soldiers.
Perhaps that’s why when he saw an old friend waving to him amid the crowd, Hazael was shocked to see that she was on her own. Where was her family? Why would they let her wander about on the day that the Greeks were moving in permanently? Glancing up at his mother as if to ask if he could go over to her, she let go of his hand and nodded in the young girl’s direction. Quickly he hurried over to the other girl and hissed at her, “Rivkah!” After he caught her attention, he continued in a low tone, “What are you doing on your own? These are Greeks. You don’t want to go near them.” Hazael said, almost parroting his father word for word.
He then glanced back at his family with a worried expression. After thinking for a moment he said to her, “Come on. You should come walk with us. My dad says they won’t bother groups.” Hopefully, Rivhak would agree and allow them both to head back to the safety of the group so that they may explore the market. Nafretiri of Thebes ,
Rivkah still couldn't quite breathe. Where was Abba? He'd been standing right next to her! Then she realized he must have been going to talk to some of his merchant friends and had probably told her to follow, but she hadn't noticed. Those shiny helmets had grabbed her attention. How was she going to find him again?
Her friend Hazael's whisper put the breath back in her lungs somehow.
"I don't know. Abba was right here... and then the soldiers moved. They must have been heading toward us," she gasped. It was all she could figure out. "Then I couldn't move..." It was like her body had just stopped working!
"One of them had been standing so still that I jumped. And now you're here..."
She was oddly comforted by that, though she didn't know why. Hazael was a nice boy who liked animals, so maybe his voice had a way of soothing people, too. It was nice to think that he'd cared that she'd been all alone.
She nodded in relief at his offer, though she was still ghost-pale. "Maybe I shouldn't have come, but my Eema didn't like me a lot today." Rivkah's voice trembled a little with mingled sadness and the still-obvious fear and shock at finding that she was by herself. The fact that Lael would not have been happy about the Greeks staying permanently, either, did not dawn on her just then. She just knew that Eema was often angry for some reason Rivkah couldn't name, but which seemed to have something to do with her. Sometimes she was almost not an Eema at all, really. Rivkah turned to follow Hazael, but first she wanted to say something to him before they joined the others.
"You're lucky, you know, to have two Eemas. El Shaddai has blessed you a lot." When sometimes it felt like she didn't even have one Eema, Rivkah liked to imagine that she was part of a big family like Hazael's, some animals included. She lapsed into silence for a minute, wishing so hard that it could have been true. But no, her Abba would miss her then, and she would miss him, too. She would have to hold onto that. Her leaving would have made him sad. She tried to think of something else then.
"The soldiers have neat shoes, don't they, though? And I think their helmets are different from ours, too. But are they scary to you, too?" she asked.
The morning dawned in a cloud of anticipation and worry and resentment. It permeated the air and infected all those around it. Her family was no exception to the norm. Arela herself was extremely excited. She heard the warnings Avriam gave and resolved to follow them, stay in a group. Stay with her mothers.
Now that she hear however, those rules were increasingly hard to follow. It was so crowded travelling with her family surrounding her on all sides, and Yardena was being even more controlling than usual as impossible as that was to believe. Even the soldiers themselves were fascinating - despite Avriam’s warnings. Even as she stuck carefully with her family she felt the pull. It was the pull of something new begging to be explored. At fifteen, Arela was already very familiar with the feeling. It appeared almost daily for her, each time focused on something new. She had rarely been able to resist it.
And as the family moved through the market, with each soldier she saw the feeling only intensified. They were after all so different from everyone she knew. They were so interesting and so scary all at the same time! It was because of that fear that she remained so close to her family as they moved through the market area. She remained even as the buzz around her, in her family grew. As tension increased in her mother, and the younger children inevitably picked up on it. But at least no one was crying.
She had spoken too early. It was at that moment that three-year-old Eliora began to whine. It grated on her ears, annoying her. She was still afraid of the soldiers and wouldn’t dare get too close, but staying here? With a crying baby? No thanks. She could find another group to join. So, while Yardena was distracted by Hazael’s disappearance she slipped away, sure she wouldn’t be missed but whispering to Nissa nonetheless. If Levena had been the only supervising adult she would’ve asked, knowing she would get her way but Yardena was strict. With Yardena, she knew she would not be allowed to flee.
"I’m going to find a different group, don’t worry I won’t talk to the soldiers." She had never lied to Nissa. Not on purpose anyway. And just like always, her words were perfectly true… at the moment. Arela didn’t lie - not to Nissa stuff just happened afterwards. Things she couldn’t avoid, pulling her into doing precisely what she had been sure she wasn’t going to do. But before Nissa could protest, Arela had slipped away into the crowd under the cover of Hazael’s convenient distraction.
The general atmosphere of the crowd was no less full of emotion than her family had been, but at least now there were no crying toddlers to concern herself with. Eyeing the soldiers warily, Arela now needed to find a new group. She cast her eyes around the crowd, searching for - preferably someone she knew.
That was when a force ran straight into her. In seconds that force was apologizing profusely and Arela looked down to see a girl of around ten, stammering her apologies at the ground. To say that she hated children would be an overestimation. She didn’t. She disliked her siblings, that was all and the girl stammering her apologies was not a sibling. That being said, she didn’t like that she had been so rudely bumped into but the girl looked sorry enough about it that Arela supposed she could forgive her. Besides, she needed someone to hang out with.
"That’s alright, I didn’t see you either. Hey, where are your parents?" that was a good question. The girl was young, didn’t her parents know that there were soldiers in the city? "You shouldn’t be by yourself. Especially not today." she added, casting a meaningful glance towards the nearest group of soldiers.
Maeri was relieved when the person who she had run into was not angry with her and was an older girl. Maeri always enjoyed hanging out with older girls, often following around her older sister/cousins when they were spending time with their friends. She would have done the same today, except they had decided to take their time getting ready, and Maeri hadn’t seen them around the market at all. It never crossed the eleven-year-old’s mind that perhaps this had been intentional on her sisters’ parts. She couldn’t imagine that they might not appreciate her company. But that hardly mattered to Maeri, now she had someone new to hang out with, and that was much more interesting than the sisters who she already knew.
At the mention of her parents, Maeri looked around, searching for her mother through the crowd. She couldn’t see her mother, but she was unconcerned. She was sure she’d be able to find her mother later when she wanted to. If not, she knew her way home. As far as she was concerned, there was nothing to be worried about. The soldiers wandering around were a curiosity, not something that she needed to fear. Still, what Maeri heard in Arela’s concern was not worry, but an offer of someone to spend time with her.
Maeri’s face spread in a wide grin, ”Well, I’m not by myself anymore. I know plenty of things we can do in the market. I’ve got a new top.” Maeri held up her new prized possession for the older girl’s inspection, but only paused briefly before rambling on excitedly. ”And I think I saw some honey-rolls the next row over.” Before waiting for a response Maeri took Arela’s hand and began dragging her towards the stall. Now that she had thought of the idea of the sweet bread rolls, she knew that she needed on immediately, and so did her new friend.
Although Hazael was glad to see his friend, her story about how she came to find herself on her own in a large crowd like this worried him. Rivkah was known to be a bit of a daydreamer and most times it was harmless, but today it was dangerous. He made that much clear when he spoke once she was finished recounting how she had managed to get herself into this predicament.
“You need to pay closer attention Rivkah,” Hazael said, continuing to unknowingly parrot the things that his parents had said to him over the years. This particular statement was something he had heard from Yardena whenever one of the children were underfoot when she was attempting to handle other household tasks. It was funny how naturally Hazael was able to pick up the things he heard and spout them back at others, almost as if he was a little sponge just soaking up what other commanding presences said around him. It made sense though, as even at nine years old he was not as strong-willed as his father wished him to be. He was more compassionate and quiet than how his seventeen-year-old brother had been at his age. Hazael knew it irked the elder men in his family to no end, but could you really blame the boy? Especially given he was growing up in the shadow of men and women who had wills of iron who left no room for the younger ones to make their own marks on the family dynamic.
But that was beside the point. Clearly, the more important thing at the moment was that Rivkah was on her own on a day that no one should be wandering without others. Hazael looked around for a moment, looking for the figure he knew to be the girl’s father, but just like she had said, he was nowhere to be found. A small frown formed on Hazael’s face at this. Then without another word, he began to usher Rivkah back towards his family.
“He’s probably around somewhere. You can’t be on your own, though” He explained simply as they weaved their way through the crowd, never taking his eyes off of where his own mother stood in case he accidentally lost sight of her. It wasn’t a polite thing to do, he knew, but at the same time, it just simply wasn’t safe for her to be on her own. Plus it also didn’t hurt that Hazael came from a household where talking back and arguing just simply wasn’t tolerated. This kind of thing was just simply normal to the nine-year-old. If Rivkah wasn’t a fan, she was more than capable of digging her heels into the dirt and thwart his effort.
Before that though, the conversation turned to their mothers, which the mere mention of had Hazael gazing back at where his own Eema’s were. He frowned at the mention of strife within Rivkah’s household. The girl didn’t divulge very many details, but it was incredibly clear that whatever happened had quite an effect on the girl. He wondered if it was the issues with her mother that led to her being alone in the market. Even though it was truly none of his business, the insatiable curiosity that was within all of those who were their age won out, “What happened? Is everything okay?” A small part of him was glad that they were quite a bit away from his own mothers. Yardena would not be happy with hearing Hazael pry into Rivkah’s home life -- that kind of behavior was frowned upon in their culture. Yet, Hazael knew that sometimes just talking about an issue was enough to help someone feel better and Rivkah was right, he did care.
It just wasn’t right to let his friend be upset for no good reason, especially today of all days where if Rivkah started crying, it could draw the attention of the soldiers to them.
He laughed though at the notion that he was lucky to have two mothers. “Well you can have Eema Yardena if you want her that badly.” Hazael finished with a small mischievous smirk. He wasn’t being serious, of course. With the two being friends, Rivkah was more than aware of how his first mother was someone who had very little patience for the horde of children within her household. She loved them, that was unquestionable, but Yardena was easily the kind of person who valued practicality over imagination and she was not one to hide it. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing though, as it was a good way to ensure the children grew up with a head firmly attached to their shoulders and no inclination to stray from the acceptable path in life. It truly was a noble effort from the woman, especially with all the children already showing wildly different personalities.
It made Hazael wonder what Rivkah’s own mother was like. He hadn’t been in the company of the woman recently and the last time he did see her hardly counted as it was only for a few minutes. Haz simply didn’t know anything about her, but it made him question her a little bit, especially given that she had allowed her daughter to wander the market today with all the soldiers teeming about.
Hazael absentmindedly nodded when she mentioned their outfits. In truth, he couldn’t really care all that much for what they were wearing. He wasn’t someone who paid attention to details like that. However, he didn’t say anything, knowing how Rivkah was already upset. Hazael didn’t want to accidentally add to that.
He did catch the tail end of her statement though. It was nothing more than a simple question and it pulled a simple answer from him.
“Yes. They don’t belong here.”
Those simple five words quickly came tumbling from his mouth without him understanding the implications of what he was saying. All he knew was that this was he was told to believe by the likes of his father and older brother. Hazael didn’t know anything about the Greeks and it was unlikely with this trained mindset he had that he ever would. Not when those older than him in his life had spent years spouting off their rhetoric to him completely oblivious to how they could be wrong or how the weak-willed boy would soak it up like a sponge.
It was a shame that they were always corrupted when they were young.
"Thank you..." Her voice trembled a little. " I can find him later if I see him. My mother just doesn't like me. She never has and probably never will. She almost died having me, and it made her unable to have any more children. So when I wasn't a boy to carry on my father's line... " She sighed. "My abba is good and loves me, but I just wish she did, too. It's not fair. Because I'm a girl and have to learn chores, so I have to be with her all the time! She's a grouch. And he's not always here, because he's a merchant, though he has been home a lot lately."
She thought about his words about the Greeks not belonging as they walked back to his family. "I guess you're right. I still think their helmets and shoes are interesting, but they're not like ours. I do think it would make it easier to tell who the bad guys are if their armor looked different than yours, but maybe other than that it just means they're not from here and should go home.
Rivkah considered his comment about Eema Yardena, giggling. "Um, I just said I wanted someone to like me." But she grinned, knowing he was trying to make her feel better. "Thanks, though. You're a good friend."
Arela was taken aback at how happy the girl appeared to be upon meeting her, she was far more used to the non acknowledgment she got at home. Knowing she was there but not really caring at the same time though she supposed she did it to them as well. The girl didn’t answer the question about her parents but didn’t seem at all upset or even worried about their absence, instead immediately declared Arela as having joined her. The complete non fear in the girl was incredible, it calmed Arela and assured her that her choice to leave her family was the right one - after all who would let a poor defenseless girl wander the streets by herself with soldiers around? Not Arela that’s who.
The girl held up a wooden top for her inspection and Arela immediately expressed her amazement, "That is so cool! Have you tried it out yet? Does it spin well?" Arela well remembered her top experiments, trying to make them spin on any surface she could find, sometimes pitting them against each other to see which was better. And then suddenly she was being dragged away to a honey roll stand though as soon as she realized where they were headed, she stopped resisting and ran beside the girl - just as excited as she was.
Reaching the stand, Arela pulled out her money pouch, "Two honey rolls please!" if the girl protested Arela would talk over her saying, "It’s alright! I got it!" and would wave her money away before quickly paying for the rolls and handing one to the girl. "See? Everything’s fine. Now we both have a sweet treat! Now then, I’m Arela. What’s your name?" The girl was so sweet and for the first time in her life, Arela found herself actually wanting to get to know a child. Perhaps it was merely the fact that she wasn’t having to compete with her for attention or that she wasn’t being forced to like her but any which way, the girl was very interesting and Arela couldn’t wait to see what she’d suggest next.
As Maeri dragged her through the market to the honey roll stand that she had found earlier, her new-found friend asked after her top. Maeri had almost forgotten that she was looking for a place to try it out when she ran into the girl. ”I don’t know yet. Do you want to try it out together? We could go back and buy another and then we’d have two and we could race them.” Maeri paused to catch her breath. Between speaking so quickly and running, by the time she stopped at the honey roll stand, she was panting slightly. When she caught her breath, she reached into her coin purse to grab money to pay for her own roll, only to find that the girl had already purchased rolls for the both of them.
She grinned broadly as the girl offered her a roll. ”I’m Maeri.” she introduced herself. She looked around for a place to sit, and found a stone step a little ways away, just far enough off the road to be out of the way. She sat down there and started eating the roll hungrily, even though it hadn’t been that long since she had eaten breakfast. “Dus ih suh gooo,” Maeri said, not waiting to finish chewing her bite before expressing her appreciation for the food. She quickly finished off the roll, practically inhaling it with all the voracity of a growing child.
Roll gone, Maeri looked around for something new to do. She reached into her pocket to bring out her top, only to find herself leaving sticky honey fingerprints on her brand new toy. She quickly wiped her hands off on the hem of her tunic and then wiped down the top as well. It was still bit sticky, but at least it was better. She set her top to spin, but then immediately thought better of it. ”Wait we need a top for you too!” snatching the top back up, she immediately ran back off into the market, searching for the stand where she had first bought her top. She was a bit turned around now that she had eaten. Nothing looked quite where she remembered it. Instead, she spotted a stand where they were selling realistic looking carved wooden animals, and she stopped there to admire one. Picking up a large striped cat in her still sticky hands and admiring it.
It was a glorious day. The sun was shining, Amarissa’s family was visiting Israel and market day in the larger province was in full swing! Amarissa begged to go with Golda and Mazal to the market and her abba finally agreed with warnings to stay away from the greek soldiers. He held no ill will towards them, but was fully aware how tempting a 14 year old beauty such as Amarissa might be. Still he trusted Golda and figured the girls would be safe with her. No one crossed Golda and didn’t regret it after all.
Talking and giggling with Mazal, the girls wandered farther and farther from Golda who was focusing on getting the needed supplies. Wandering through the clothing merchants, Mazal pulled Amarissa into a stall and used her as a model for a beautiful mitpahath with golden threads that glistened against Amarissa’s dark hair.
“See this is beautiful on you, really brings out your eyes!” Mazal said encouragingly. “Oh well thank you!” Amarissa blushed and quickly turned, surveying the other strips of cloth hanging there. Snagging a bright blue one, she quickly snagged it and wrapped it about Mazal’s head with a grin. Snugging it along her hairline just so. “I think this one looks good on you!”
The girls continued their giggling and talking as they moved deeper into the market and before they knew it, they came upon Arela of Yardena and a young girl that Amarissa did not immediately recognize. She had met Arela once or twice before that she could remember anyway. She remembered that she had always thought Arela was so graceful and beautiful. Yahweh had blessed her so. Or so Amarissa believed. Still she felt such as ease with Mazal and frowned slightly when she noticed Mazal quiet and lower her eyes in the presence of Arela and the girl. She so often forgot that Mazal was in fact her family’s servant. It seemed that was not something Mazal forgot so easily. “Good Morning Arela!” Amarissa said with a kind smile “Is this your cousin?” she asked curiously looking at the young girl beside her.