Chapter 6
The Leper Messiah ~ continued from Chapter 6 | Arlemay
The men laughed in the face of the Badiyat Ash Sham, which stretched between the fertile banks of the Mediterranean in the west and the Euphrates River in the east.
“We will ride to Palmyra where the water is sweet,” said the quiet blue-eyed man as he spread his arms wide.
“Where do you travel?” he asked David and Shimea. “We are searching,” David said.
“Ah, women?” Omar laughed.
Shimea began to laugh and could not stop. “They know you already,” he said looking at David.
“Stop,” the blue-eyed traveler said.
“Yes, Master,” the servants cried as they arranged themselves out of the sun.
The dust rose far across the Syrian desert as Bedouins disappeared into the distance. The travelers seemed lost between the water holes, sparse vegetation and the knot that tied sand and sky together.
“Where are you from?” David asked.
“The west, across the seas,” said the blue-eyed traveler.
The two looked at each other and smiled.
“What are you doing here?” David asked.
“That, my friend, is a very long story.”
Arlemay laughed and looked out over the sands.
“What do you see, Omar?” he said.
Omar covered his face from the sun with his hand and peeked through his keffiyeh.
“Nothing,” came the desolate reply.
“Out here there are no laws, no codes that men can live by.”
“We must make them,” David said.
“Yes, yes, my son,” he laughed. “My name is Arlemay.”
“I am David and this is Shimea. We are sons of Jesse,” David said.
A scorpion crawled quickly over the rocky landscape and moved closer to a viper in the sand.
The small group of men watched the little battle in the heat of the day until Arlemay took his riding glove and swatted the scorpion out of the way. The viper slithered along the sand until it was within striking distance of the men.
David quickly reached for the snake’s head and grabbed it, holding the mouth away and flinging the creature far away from them.
Arlemay looked at David cautiously and then smiled. “If a leper comes give him an audience.”
He laughed and took another bite of his Hasty.
“Ta-aal,” he said. “Come, we go now.”
Omar whipped the camels again and soon the three were over the last hill.
Continue reading… Chapter 6 | Be My Mouth & Tongue
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