Historical Setting, 629 C.E. A near Trier
Gaia, this woman, betrothed to Brandell, already knows my odd notions of peace, “Your pacifistic demands are known by everyone.” She tells me. And it doesn’t even seem to bother her that I am laid out as a dead man in a cemetery.
She explains it all to me, “Brandell and I went searching for you because Brandell believed in the Lazarus myth of his papa ever healing back into life. We learned that you had gone to see the vintner at the place with the three barrels. And then, we learned there was a terrible battle with the established wineries that were Christians, fighting against the Jewish newcomers across the river. After that battle, only a few were left on the Christian side of the river – widows they were. The widow of the vintner whom you had visited on the day of the battle mistook Brandell for you. And she went off on a little rant telling you how foolish you were.
“It seems when Haberd came asking for information about what had happened to you, she wouldn’t tell him because she didn’t want to tell your son his dead father was, what she called, a fool.
“But then, thinking Brandell was you, but without a memory of that day, she told him everything that happened that day, even the clue he needed to find you here. She didn’t realize it was an important detail that you were born Jewish. But she said after the battle the few who were left living on the other side stripped the clothing off the bodies of the men left on the battlefield and buried only the Jewish bodies. Then, Brandell realized you would be marked with the sign, the scar of the briss. So, we realized then, we would find you here with the war-dead on the Jewish side.
“And now today, just as Brandell expected, you are not only found, but found to be living. And that so-called foolishness of peacemaking that won for you that Christian slashing and a Jewish hammering is a peace that Brandell and I hope can rescue all these people from their own hates. We have been negotiating with winegrowers on both sides of the river. Peace is really what everyone wants. Not having peace here has cost these people everything.”
So now I find I’m gaining back strength enough to appreciate relentless pacifism. But I wonder why would this woman ever want to be wed into such a stubborn family?
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 