Historical Setting, 629 C.E. near Trier
Brandell and some others come here where I am waiting for help to pull me to my feet, useless as my feet may be. I have one arm around the shoulders of Brandell, and the other arm around a stranger. With all my wooly beard and long hair, no one is mistaking me for this tidy and powerful son of mine. These two who came to help are known to Gaia and to Brandell. The one who goes ahead of us, guiding the blind Gaia is Zachariah. We go through a tent village, then through a meadow toward the river. I have a memory now, this is the meadow that once was a newly planted vineyard that wouldn’t burn when it was torched. It became the battlefield. I was staying with the boat staying out of the fight.
Now I am starting to get my feet under me, as we move along, and when they slow the pace a bit, I can be more helpful, nearly taking my own weight if they would give me moment. So, we stop here, I can see the river now, ahead of us. I can take a step and if we go slowly, I can walk with them, somewhat. I’m glad to find a place to sit on the floor of the rowboat. Gaia is seated in the front and Brandell is at the oars. He thanks the men who helped us, and they push us off from the bank.
On this side of the river now, we are at the vintner’s cottage marked with three barrels for hospitality, though I know the last time I was here hospitality had worn very thin with all my talk of peace making. Has anything changed? Gaia tells me Brandell has been helping negotiate a peace. And now that I hear one language on one side of the river, and another on the other, and knowing of Gaia as a translator, I can guess both Gaia and Brandell had a part in the peace negotiations.
We seem to be welcome here, though the chatty vintner’s widow perceives my presence, not as a miracle by Jesus, but more as the annoying fool who once believed in peace for the sake of peace, even though no one seemed to get anything from it.
“So what use is this possibility for peace with your neighbors now?”
I ask her.
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 