Читать книгу Mother of Jesus - Ilia Grinberg - Страница 5

Bilam was right. Maria saw them. She regained consciousness when the men who had outraged her, walking away, were already hiding behind the trees. When someone clamped her mouth and hit her jaw, she didn’t have time to understand or see anything. The world disappeared in an instant. She did not feel anything when she was raped. She did not hear a conversation between rapists. When the consciousness returned, she saw two men retreating, dressed in the clothes of commoners. A profile of a very contented old man crashed into memory like a flash of lightning. And then the second, the younger, looked back. Eyes bulging from fear, cramped face. Maria for a moment even thought that looking at her, he asked for forgiveness for their actions. But then the elder called him and after a moment both robbers disappeared from sight.

Her head was buzzing. Cheek swelled from a hard blow. Broken lips are bleed. Unbearably sore lower abdomen. And yet, despite the pain in her entire body, she gradually came to her senses. There was no time feeling. The world existed separately from it, and the body separate from the mind. At first she felt that she could move her arms, then she was able to roll over on her right side. And immediately came back piercing sharp pain, as if a stone protruding from the ground, stuck into the lung. I had to lie still for some time, not moving, at first waiting for the stone to disappear. Her next achievement was that she could, having made several serpentine movements, crawl to the olive tree. Tears flowed becouse of the pain that had returned.

“Help” she shouted, leaning on her elbow. "Help ... Strange," the girl was surprised. “Why can't I hear myself? Where is the voice? Did I scream now or not?”

Maria tried to call for help again while listening to herself. However, only half-wheezes escaped from the throat - half-tone. It was clear that no one would hear her, and so far she would have to rely only on herself. After a long rest, she was angry with her helplessness, bit to the pain and so aching lips, crawled to the olive tree and with great difficulty could still lean her back against the tree. The girl then could not remember how much time she spent so, mindlessly looking at the low hills escaping into the distance. Then she screamed when an unexpected cramp strained her legs. Tears poured from his eyes. However, when the pain was released, she was able to stand up! Very slowly, letting go of one tree and, almost falling on the next, she moved through the garden to the house.

“Maria!” she suddenly heard the voice of John. The young man, when he was given free time, and Joachim was not at home, found her in the garden or in the courtyard, and occasionally casting loving glances at her, talked to her. He told her about what had happened to the herd in the time since the last meeting, how a goat was entangled in the bush, or how his careless subordinates work, and how he cares about the property of the goat. He decorated his stories with funny details, and Maria laughed loudly at them, sometimes even forgetting that she was near her mother and that she was the owner's daughter. Anna looked at the young people with sadness and quietly sighed. She liked her husband’s assistant, it was evident that he didn’t like the soul that he could become a good husband to her, but she understood perfectly well that Joachim would find a richer groom, some of the sons of his trading partners. And why was this necessary if there was enough of its wealth? But the girl would be happy. Look, as it turns red, meeting the eyes of a guy.

“God, it isn't. God no!" But there was nowhere to hide, and she would not have been able to do it. She, holding tight to the olive next to her, slowly, so as not to wrinkle in pain again, sank to the ground and, closing her eyes, clasped her head with her hands. When she was scared, Maria always closed her eyes from childhood, in the hope that when she opened her eyes again, the danger would disappear. "God, let's him go away, well, please," she asked. “He will think that I myself, that I am guilty!” she muttered incoherently.

However, this time no one helped her. She heard John’s footsteps just around the corner. He stopped beside her and, kneeling beside her, exclaimed:

“Oh my God, my goodness! What happened?! What happened to you?! Maria” the young man, leaning over her face, finally saw the bruises on her face and hands, and blood on her feet. “Who did this to you ?!”

“Help me please. I need to go home.”

“Yes, yes, of course! Come quickly!”

“I rather just can not. Let me lean on your hand.”

“But tell me who did it !? Tell me and I will kill him!”

“John, I did not see anyone. Someone hit me from behind, and when I woke up, there was already no one ... And, in general, take me to my mother, and then you can kill someone if you want ... Please.”

“Come on, Maria, come on. I'm holding you.”

With the help of John, it became much easier to move, but still the girl could not walk fast. She often stopped from the tidal pain and waited, gritting her teeth. And, nevertheless, they soon left the garden to the house. At random, the street was empty. The heat has dispersed everyone home. And the young people entered their yard without anyone noticing. Anna, who did not trust anyone in sorting wool, sat on a bench in the shade of a house and, singing something, worked. Hearing footsteps, she tore her eyes off the bag, and saw a daughter with her husband's mate. Her heart broke off, at first glance, she realized that something terrible had happened.

“Daughter” the mother stood up and tried to take a step in her direction, but when she saw the battered face, the torn hem of the dress, covered in blood, the forces left her, and the woman sank back on the bench. “What? You?” she threw to John.

“Mother, what are you saying?! I was attacked. In the garden. I was dreaming and did not even see who attacked. Some robbers” from the new attack of pain, Maria barely moved her tongue.

John helped her sit down on the bench next to her mother. Maria leaned her back on the wall of the house, stretched out her legs and closed her eyes. Anna, raising the hem of her dress up to her knees, saw the flowing blood.

“Scoundrels! Did you recognize anyone? Not? Where did they go? Long?” the girl fell asleep with questions mother.

The girl, without changing her posture and without opening her eyes, negatively showed her head.

“John,” coming to herself, Anna said to the guy. “Help me, I want put her on the couch. So, so, be careful. Enough. Get out. No, wait, bring a jug of water and a mug. There is warm in the kitchen. Faster.”

When the young man carried out her instructions, the woman helped her daughter to take off her dress and began to wash her. Then she brought clean clothes. Finally, Maria braced herself and began to tell her mother what had happened to her. The story was short and vapid. The girl did not see anything and did not remember, so she could only tell about how she woke up, saw John, and how he helped her get to the house.

Suddenly, she screamed:

“Mother, I think I saw him. He left and looked back. But it seems he was not alone. It seemed to me that someone called him. So there were at least two of them.”

“I will kill them,” came the voice of the young man.

“There is nothing to eavesdrop on,” Anna screamed at him. “This is, firstly, and secondly, where are you go, boy ?” she threw up her hands. “They are adult men, bandits. They have a weapon. They will slaughter you like a ram and do not blink an eye. And nothing you can not do with them. That they will kill you, not you them. Moreover, for them, it seems, this is a usual thing.”

“Nothing,” he said, showing his knife bought at the last market in Nazareth. “I also have weapons, and our shepherds taught me how to fight ... They must die.”

“Don't be a fool. And not a word to anyone, I understood” Anna was breathing out without moving her lips apart. “Especially the owner ... Hey, listen to me, boy. Do not go there.”

Clenching his teeth, John put in his travel bag a small fur with water, a couple of lozenges and, without answering anything to the hostess, jumped out of the gate.