Entry Forty-Six:
Our clandestine meeting was delayed. Rumours that Mark Antony has given Benjamin’s land to his lover, the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra are spreading in the town. The smitten Roman has already heaped many gifts on this queen. It is said that he has bequeathed to their illegitimate children the whole of the eastern Roman Empire. Julius Caesar’s beneficiary, Octavian and the Roman Senate, are not happy about this. Apparently, the couple are on their way to Jericho…Cleopatra wishes to inspect her gift. Herod is in town preparing for their arrival. Again, our community is in uproar. How is it possible that my land could change hands so many times in such a short space of time? For our community, the nightmare has gone from bad to worse. Herod was enough to make them disown my son. Mark Antony had them calling for my stoning. What will they do now? The Egyptian Queen is dangerous and fickle. Those who know, say that Herod is concocting a plan to lease the land from her, just to keep her away from his backdoor.
Levi and I retreat to my home. It is safer. He tells me more about his son…how, in spite of their care to have him instructed in the way of the God of Israel, he had been intent on making the wrong decisions even from an early age. At first, he was a star pupil in Hebrew School. He learned the alphabet in record time and was way ahead of his class as far as memorization of the Torah was concerned. But then something went wrong. Levi says he has wracked his brain to find out what happened…when it happened…to no avail. What happened happened…that is all he can say. His son, Asaph by name, chose the wrong path and was soon surrounded by the wrong people. Levi and his wife prayed and hoped that this would be a passing phase. Any attempt at discipline only seemed to exacerbate his bad behaviour. They were grieving parents long before that awful night when the news no parents wants to hear came bursting into their lives.
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