Delilah

Chapter 19

Naomi asked Alian to help us locate a suitable property for our project. He was appalled at the suggestion and tried to talk us out of our plans. Naomi told him that she had a word from God in the form of a dream. She told him of her dream, but did not mention that I too had experienced a similar vision. To my surprise, the dream convinced Alian that he was wrong to oppose our plans. Instead he told Naomi that he planned to join us.

“I am not going to let two women welcome into their home strangers who are wanted for a crime, without providing masculine protection. No matter how wealthy you are, Salome, your funds will run out quickly if you hire a bodyguard. Since Naomi raised me after my parents died and is like a mother to me, it would only be natural that I act as protector,” he told us.

“I cannot ask you to do that,” I protested. “You have a life of your own. You travel often with your merchant friend. You will one day take a bride and no newly married woman in her right mind would consent to live under a roof with a bunch of men who fled for their lives.”

At that, Alian burst out laughing.

“Although you and Naomi are not newly married, you are women. Does this mean that the two of you are not in your right minds?”

“That is not what I meant, and you know it,” I replied. “Who would consent to be your bride knowing she would be entering such a household?”

“I am not worried,” Alian responded, a smile still lurking in his eyes and around his lips. “If I am to wed, Yahweh will bring me a bride with a heart for outcasts.”

“Perhaps he already has,” Naomi said under her breath as she watched our interchange.

Realizing her meaning and recognizing that she did not intend for either of us to hear, I pretended not to comprehend, but rather said caustically to Alian, “Yahweh will have a hard time finding a woman who is willing to put up with a man who has the apparent strength of a lion but the heart of a mewling kitten that cannot stand on its own but has to be carried by its mother wherever it ventures.”

Turning on my heel, I left the two standing in mute confusion at my sudden outburst.

As the plan progressed, I became increasingly difficult. I was forced to accept Alian’s help in locating property but was determined to alienate him so that he would repent of his decision to live with us. The surlier I became, though, the harder he seemed to try to please me. At times I caught him watching me with a speculative look.

Finally the property was purchased. It was a large structure near the western gate. The walls facing the city were tall, as though the builder sought to shelter the inhabitants from prying eyes. Inside the front gate was a spacious courtyard surrounded in a semicircle by rooms. In the very center of the rooms was a passageway that led into a back courtyard, which was also encircled by rooms. The courtyard in the back acted as a kitchen. Stables for animals were built along the back of this courtyard, and its back wall was actually part of the wall surrounding Hebron. Stairs led from the passageway to the roof. Small windows were cut in the front and back walls, allowing anyone on the roof to look out into the city on one side and into the surrounding countryside on the other. I learned that the structure had once served as a barracks for soldiers. When the Israelites took control of Hebron, the soldiers had been slaughtered in their sleep. No one wanted to inhabit a structure with such a grizzly history, and so it had stood empty for years. Numerous repairs were needed to make it inhabitable, but the price was low enough that plenty of money was left over for renovations.

The structure was perfect for our purposes. It had ample room to house as many of the disenfranchised as the gods sent our way. Normal travelers would not seek a room there because of the history of the building. Only those seeking asylum would be desperate enough to ask for lodging. In this way, perhaps we would not have to advertise that we considered ourselves a home for outcasts and thus alienate our neighbors. Instead, outcasts would come to us while those with a reputation to protect would stay away.