"...but you liked Philo, didn't you? You liked answering his questions. You liked his library."
"He stays with us," said Joseph calmly. "He will not go to Philo."
The Teacher continued to stare at me. This was not right.
"Jesus, speak up!" he said. "You want to be educated by Philo, don't you?"
"My lord, I do as my father and mother want," I said. I shrugged. What was I to do?
The Teacher turned and threw up his hands.
"When will you go?" he asked.
"As soon as we can," said Joseph. "We have work to finish."
"I want to send word to Philo that Jesus is leaving," said the Teacher, and with that he turned to go. But Joseph stopped him.
"We've done well in Egypt," he said. He took money out of his purse. He pressed it into the hand of the Teacher. "I thank you for teaching our children."
"Yes, yes, and you take them back to - where was it? Joseph, there are more Jews living in Alexandria than there are in Jerusalem."
"There may be, Teacher," said Cleopas, "but the Lord dwells in the Temple in Jerusalem, and his land is the Holy Land."
All the men laughed to approve and the women too and so did I and Little Salome and Judas, Joses and Symeon.
The Teacher couldn't say anything to this, but only nodded.
"And if we finish our work quickly," Joseph said with a sigh, "we can reach Jerusalem in time for Passover."
We all gave cries of delight when we heard it. Jerusalem. Passover. We were all excited. Salome clapped her hands. Even Uncle Cleopas was smiling.
The Teacher bowed his head. He put two fingers to his lips. Then he gave us a blessing:
"May the Lord go with you on your journey. May you reach your home in peace."
The Teacher left.
At once all the family was speaking our native tongue for the first time in the whole afternoon.
My mother looked at me, ready to nurse my cuts and bruises. "Why, they're gone," she whispered. "You're healed."
"It wasn't much," I said. I was so happy we were going home.
Chapter 2
That night, after supper, while the men were dozing on their mats in the courtyard, Philo came.
He sat down to a cup of wine with Joseph, just as if he wasn't wearing white linen and wouldn't be soiled, and crossed his legs like the other men. I sat beside Joseph, hoping to hear all that was said, but then my mother took me inside.
She listened behind the curtain and she let me listen. Aunt Salome and Aunt Esther were there too.
Philo wanted to keep me and instruct me and send me back to Joseph an educated young man. Joseph listened to all this in silence but said no. Joseph was my father and Joseph must take me back to Nazareth. He knew that this was what he had to do. He thanked Philo, and offered him wine again, and said that he would see to it that I was educated as a Jew.
"You forget, my lord," he said in his gentle manner, "that on Sabbath all Jews are philosophers and scholars the world wide. It's no different in the town of Nazareth, believe me."
Philo was pleased at that and nodded and smiled.
"He'll go to school in the mornings, as all the boys do," Joseph went on. "And we will have our disputes over the Law and the Prophets. And we'll go up to Jerusalem and there at the Feasts, maybe he'll listen to the teachers in the Temple. I have many a time."