Lamb The Gospel According to Biff Christs Childho - By Christopher Moore Page 0,13

girl. You are a pretty little thing. What is your name?"

I could see that Maggie was shaken by the attention of the Roman. "I am Mary of Magdala, sir." She wiped at Joshua's brow with the edge of her shawl as she spoke.

"You will break someone's heart someday, eh, little one?"

Maggie didn't answer. But I must have shown some reaction to the question, because Justus laughed again. "Or perhaps she already has, eh, Biff?"

"It is our way, sir. That's why we Jews bury our women when they are still alive. It cuts down on the heartbreak."

The Roman took off his helmet, ran his hand over his short hair, and flung sweat at me. "Go on, you two, get your friend into the shade. It's too hot out here for a sick boy. Go on."

Maggie and I helped Joshua to his feet and began to lead him away, but when we had gone only a few steps, Joshua stopped and looked back over his shoulder at the Roman. "Will you slay my people if we follow our God?" he shouted.

I cuffed him on the back of the head. "Joshua, are you insane?"

Justus narrowed his gaze at Joshua and the smile went out of his eyes. "Whatever they tell you, boy, Rome has only two rules: pay your taxes and don't rebel. Follow those and you'll stay alive."

Maggie yanked Joshua around and smiled back at the Roman. "Thank you, sir, we'll get him out of the sun." Then she turned back to Joshua. "Is there something you two would like to tell me?"

"It's not me," I said. "It's him."

The next day we met the angel for the first time. Mary and Joseph said that Joshua had left the house at dawn and they hadn't seen him since. I wandered around the village most of the morning, looking for Joshua and hoping to run into Maggie. The square was alive with talk of the walking dead woman, but neither of my friends was to be found. At noon my mother recruited me to watch my little brothers while she went to work with the other women in the vineyard. She returned at dusk, smelling of sweat and sweet wine, her feet purple from walking in the winepress. Cut loose, I ran all over the hilltop, checking in our favorite places to play, and finally found Joshua on his knees in an olive grove, rocking back and forth as he prayed. He was soaked in sweat and I was afraid he might have a fever. Strange, I never felt that sort of concern for my own brothers, but from the beginning, Joshua filled me with divinely inspired worry.

I watched, and waited, and when he stopped his rocking and sat back to rest, I faked a cough to let him know I was coming.

"Maybe you should stick with lizards for a while longer."

"I failed. I have disappointed my father."

"Did he tell you that, or do you just know it?"

He thought for a moment, made as if to brush his hair away from his face, then remembered that he no longer wore his hair long and dropped his hands in his lap. "I ask for guidance, but I get no answer. I can feel that I am supposed to do things, but I don't know what. And I don't know how."

"I don't know, I think the priest was surprised. I certainly was. Maggie was. People will be talking about it for months."

"But I wanted the woman to live again. To walk among us. To tell of the miracle."

"Well, it is written, two out of three ain't bad."

"Where is that written?"

"Dalmatians 9:7, I think - doesn't matter, no one else could have done what you did."

Joshua nodded. "What are people saying?"

"They think that it was something the women used to prepare the corpse. They are still going through purification for two more days, so no one can ask them."

"So they don't know that it was me?"

"I hope not. Joshua, don't you understand that you can't do that sort of thing in front of people? They aren't ready for it."

"But most of them want it. They talk about the Messiah coming to deliver us all the time. Don't I have to show them that he has come?"

What do you say to that? He was right, since I could remember there was always talk of the coming of the Messiah, of the coming of the kingdom of God, of the liberation of our people from the Romans - the