The pressure felt as if it would crush her. The force shifted and lifted her. Light, brilliant as what she saw coming from the stone, spiraled around her. It drew her deeper and deeper into a blue whirlwind.
Kaitlyn cried out, but her voice was silent. Other voices, however, swirled all around her. Words sang out in rhythm with the flurry of light. A few sounds she made out as English. Most were languages she did not understand.
Her body flew upwards to the wide opening above her. As quickly as the force had drawn her up, it flung her from the whirlwind. Words she understood started coming with a greater frequency.
A man spoke. “Benjamin take this money and got to the City. We must have our lamb for the Passover.”
“Yes, Father.” A younger voice answered.
“Take your time. With so many here for the Passover, there is much to see. But remember to buy the lamb; we must prepare it for the sacrifice.” The voice moved away.
The pressure vanished. Kaitlyn tumbled. Her body banged to the ground; her head struck something hard. Easing to her side, she rubbed the bump growing in the back of her head and pried her eyes open. A wall of stone spread out in either direction. She guessed this was the source of her headache.
“Where in the world am I?” Kaitlyn sat up.
“Bethpage.” The younger voice answered her. “Who are you? You don’t belong around here.”
She scrambled to her feet and faced a boy. His attire resembled what men in ancient pictures of the Middle East would wear.
“Who are you?” He repeated his question.
“Kaitlyn” She held out her hand to shake his.
The boy frowned at her extended hand. His glare traveled from her face to her toes as if he could not figure out what type of strange creature she was. “You’re a girl?” He stepped back. “Where is your father or your brothers?”
“Well I don’t have any brother and I guess my father must be in Rome by now.” What a strange question.
“So you are Roman?” He relaxed. “Girls there wear strange clothing and do the men like their women to have hair like a boy.”
“No, I’m not Roman, I’m American.” Kaitlyn touched the ends of her shoulder length hair. “And my hair’s not boy hair.”
“American? I’ve never heard of such.” The boy mad a slight bow. “I am Benjamin.”
“I know your name, but where is this place.” Kaitlyn spoke more to herself than to the strange boy standing in front of her.
“How could you know my name?” He backed away frightened of her.
She stood and turned slowly looking for any clues about where she was. “I heard you and your father talking. He called you Benjamin. No great magic in that.”
“My father.” Benjamin grabbed the hem of his cloak and tucked it into the leather belt around his waist. “My mother will know what to do with you. I must go to the city to purchase the lamb.”
Benjamin walked away expecting her to follow. She hesitated resistant to blindly following some odd boy she did not know. Glancing around, Kaitlyn realized there did not seem to be any better solution to her problem. Maybe his mother would make more sense.
Stepping through an opening in the wall, Benjamin called to two women sitting on mats in the center of the dry dusty ground of the courtyard. The women worked together, one pouring a grain of some type as the other ground it between a large stone and a smaller one.
“Mother, I found Kaitlyn standing outside our home. She has no one to watch over and seems very confused.”
Kaitlyn cringed at the emphasis he sued on the word confused. She caught the coded meaning. He intended to let his mother know he thought the girl was nutty.
The older woman glanced up from her work. “Where is this girl now?”
Now Benjamin looked confused. “She’s standing right here, at my side.”
Benjamin’s mother settled the bowl of grain on her mat and walked towards her son. “Are you ill?” She laid a gentle hand on his forehead. “There is no fever.”
“I’m not sick. I just want you to take care of the girl. I know she doesn’t look much like a girl. But she assures me she is one.”
“Benjamin there is one except you, your sister and me in this yard. You must have been dreaming. Wake up and go get us that lamb.” His mother returned to her work, but concerned eyes stayed focused on her only son as he made a strange motion and left the yard.
Kaitlyn stared at the women who denied her existence until Benjamin signaled her to leave. Back on the street, Benjamin reached out and touched her hand.
“I see you; I hear you; and I feel your skin.” He sighed. “So why didn’t my mother or sister see you.”
“I think I’m the one dreaming.” Kaitlyn said.
“No.” His voice dropped a level. “You must be my dream just as my mother said. But I don’t have time to figure this out; I need to get to the City.”
“What City do you keep talking about?” She asked.
“ The Holy City, Jerusalem.” He walked off kicking at pebbles on the road paying no attention to whether she followed or not.
Kaitlyn raced to catch up with him. “Then this is Israel?”
“Of course it’s Israel, where did you think you were?” He walked head down and lost in thought.
She fell into step beside him. Kaitlyn glanced around her. For some reason she thought Israel was a much more modern country not a land of crude houses constructed of rocks and mud; dirt roads and livestock living in and around people’s homes.
Hee Haw, Hee Haw. A braying sound caught Kaitlyn’s attention. She broke from Benjamin’s side and wandered towards a momma donkey and a colt at her side. Reaching her hand out the colt tickled her palm with his velvety nose.
“Hey, little one” She bent down and rubbed the young animal’s ears. “What are you yelling about?”
“Leave that animal alone. “ Benjamin yelled at her. “Zechariah owns those donkey’s and he gets awful touchy when people mess with them.”
Kaitlyn shrugged and stepped away. “Fine, he just a cute fellow.”
Benjamin threw up his hands and whirled around with the intention of leaving her far behind. “You are a strange one.”
She rubbed the colt’s nose one last time and rushed to catch up.
“Stop!” A man shouted. Benjamin and Kaitlyn froze in place. “Leave my animals alone!”
Kait turned to explain she was leaving. A giant man ran towards the donkeys. She guessed this was Zechariah. The giant of a man closing in on the two men standing near the colt made Kaitlyn glad the owner had not seen her petting his animals.
The two men stood still by the animals. One of the men untied the mother and colt. He looked at the furious Zechariah. “The Lord said to tell you he needs them.”
Anger evaporated from Zechariah’s face. “The master is here. Of course, take them. Here I will lead them.” He took the ropes and waited for the two men to lead the way.
“What was that all about?” Kaitlyn whispered to Benjamin.
He grabbed her arm and dragged her after him. “Come on, it must be the Rabbi. Everyone is talking about him. He’s coming at the Passover.”
“Who?” She jerked back and held her ground.
“My father says this Rabbi might be the one promised by the prophets. The one who will free Israel and make us a might kingdom again.” He let go of her arm. “The old men always say he will come at Passover.”
“You mean the Messiah?” Zayde’s words about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple echoed in her head. “It was the belief in rebels calling themselves the Messiah which caused the unrest in Israel and the destruction of the city. Should she warn Benjamin not to make the same mistake his ancestors did?
He raced off. Kaitlyn jogged to keep up. High wispy grass tumbled beneath her feet.
“Wait” She cried, but the boy raced ahead. She lost sight of him. The slope of the land changed enough for her to see him dropping down onto a winding mountain road.
She reached the edge and dropped down beside him. “What are you doing?” She screamed over the excited voices below.
Benjamin glanced back. “ I want to see the Rabbi.”
“ We all want to see him.” A giant of a man pushed Benjamin aside.
No one would see this Rabbi. Even the donkeys led by Zechariah and the two men disappeared into the center of the crowd. The people shoved and jostled one another. Kaitlyn feared for the colt.
She looked back up the road. A flood of people swarmed towards them. Songs and praises hung in the air. Kaitlyn could not imagine where this crowd was coming from. Why did they rush towards this rabbi?
Kaitlyn stood still. Something was happening in the ball of people below. The crowd parted to allow someone to move through them. Benjamin bounced out of the crowd and signaled Kaitlyn to follow him.
The boy bubbled. “He’s riding into Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey.” He twisted and pointed towards the Rabbi moving at an easy pace down the road. “It’s like what is written in the prophecies. He’s coming to free us. Look, the people are pouring out of the City to greet him. I can’t believe it. He’s come.”
Kaitlyn wondered how he could have said so much without ever taking a breath. Benjamin rushed to force his way to the front of the line of people surrounding the road.
Men climbed the trees to pull limbs down and handed them to who were waving the branches as if welcoming an old king or triumphant warrior. People kept shouting. “Praise the Lord, Praise the king coming in the name of the Lord.” One man after another tossed branches on to the road. Many pulled their cloaks off and laid them in the road for the donkey to walk on.
This madness, Kaitlyn shook her head. “Who do you think this Rabbi is going to free you from?”
“The Romans” Benjamin frowned. “Who else?”
A thought rushed through her mind. This was not just a dream about Israel. Her mind had traveled through time to when the Romans ruled most of the world. Those in the Holy Land dreamed of freedom.
She rushed towards her new friend. Words of warning formed in her mind. How could she convince him that the Messiah they were waiting for would cause destruction?
A break in the crowd formed around some distinguished men. Kaitlyn slipped towards it. She wanted to see the man who was causing such a commotion.
She moved in beside the men without anyone seeming to notice. Kaitlyn assumed she was as invisible to these men as she had been to Benjamin’s mother.
“They’ve gone mad,” A man in a robe of a bright red color said. “Don’t they know this will bring down the wrath of the Romans?” Turning from his compatriots, he yelled. “Rabbi! Tell them to be quite.”
The phony messiah must be passing close to the men she thought. She figured if she were invisible she could move in front of everyone.
Benjamin hollered for her to come back.
She shouted back. “I am invisible to them.”
The man on the colt stopped in front of the men. He glanced at Kaitlyn and smiled. He saw her. How could he see her?
Kaitlyn studied the man this crowd saw as their king and savior. What made them think he was a hero? Wavy black hair framed an ordinary face. He sat on the donkey making him higher than those standing on the road, but it was obvious he was average height and build. She expected him to be tall, broad shouldered and remarkably handsome. He seemed ordinary.
“Rabbi warn them to stop all of this yelling and singing before they bring us trouble.” The man in the red cloak demanded.
“They cannot stop.” The rabbi’s rich voice filled the air. “If I told them to be quite, if they were quite, the rocks on the ground would cry out praises.”
The people hearing these words cried out again. “Thank you Lord, thank your for the one who comes in your name.”
The man Kaitlyn believed was a local leader huffed and stormed away. Those with him walked away murmuring. “It looks like the whole world is going after him.”
She held her place as cheering people rushed to fill up the space the rich men left. Benjamin eased in with them. The donkey took a few steps and stopped again.
The crowd grew silent. A heavy anticipation hung over everyone. The Rabbi stared across the valley. On the other hill stood Zayde’s city. The temple glistened in the sun. Kaitlyn caught her breath. The old man with all his intricate work on details missed the pure glory of the structure. Nothing Kaitlyn saw in all her travels compared with its beauty.
“Oh, Jerusalem.” The Rabbi’s whispered words drew Kaitlyn’s attention back to the man. “I wish that even today you would find the way of peace. Now it is to late, and peace is hidden from you. Before long, your enemies will build ramparts against your walls, encircle you, and close in on you. They will crush you to the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you have rejected the opportunity God offered you.”
The words stunned Kaitlyn. She struggled out of the crowd.
Benjamin rushed out beside her. “What did he mean by those words? If he’s the promised one why would he talk about defeat?”
Kaitlyn shook her head. The Rabbi’s words predicted exactly what would happen how could he know?
“Wake up, it’s a school day.” A voice jerked her back into the blue light.
Fourth Day Adventures 