Читать книгу Mother of Jesus - Ilia Grinberg - Страница 8

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.

“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.”