Historical Setting: 561 C.E., Gaul
“How did you find her?” I asked Ezra.
“It is a long ride.” He observed, “So I will make a long story of the short one.
“When I was first tending vineyards near Tours I started my search for her. That was near where we were taken to the Hag of Healing. Do you remember the charcoal drawing you made when the twins were wee little babies?”
“Of course I remember. I marked a rock as a gift for your mother.”
“I have that rock in our cottage even to this day. I carried it in my search and showed it to anyone who would listen. I was searching for the beautiful child with long black hair named Eve. No one had a whisper to share.
“Then years after the hag died of pox and her cottage had been demolished, I was working again in vineyards for the owner of the idle lands and I noticed the hag’s gardens for healing were being tended. I thought of Eve, and couldn’t let go my search. This time I was asking about the gardens and not the child. I heard rumors of demons and trolls, since, of course the hag was pagan. It was well-known by Christians that whatever was happening there could only be omen of evil. So there I was, seeking a woman named for the Original Sinner among the pagans and trolls.”
“She was not named for the sin, but for the Creation.”
“Sure Papa. All the while, I was gaining coin with work so I choose to make myself a landowner. I read that if I paid the taxes owed on abandoned property it would be mine to farm, but I would also have to take on the neighbor’s burden of tax as well and that had a house and fields ready to till. I believed I were a rich man. Even with my lame leg a strong and beautiful wife would be mine simply because I had land. Everything was amazing. Then I went up on the hill of graves behind our old farm to meet with the angels and shout my gratitude for such a good life and there I saw the bouquet of flowers. I believed Eve was nearby.”
“So you found her near there?”
“No. Were it only that simple. And now I learn it wasn’t even her that left the flowers.”
(Story continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 