Cavalier

Chapter Sixteen

                                          

                                                                           

David knows that they can't stay in Adullam forever. It's served them well, and there's no reason that they can't come back, but they need to keep moving. Every day that they stay it becomes more likely that Saul and his armies will show up and if David has to be on the defensive, he'd rather not be shocked into it. Especially now that there's over four hundred other people involved—not just men, either, but their wives and families.

They have to move, and he tells his best friends as much.

"But David," Eleazar says, "what about your parents?"

Jesse and his wife are frail, coming near to the end of their days, and they would be safer staying in one place than moving all around like David is planning on doing. When David looks at his parents he thinks of how Ethan was towards the end of his life; no less full of life, just tired. Ready to rest. David's parents accompanying them is an impossibility.

"I know," he says. "I—I'll drop 'em off somewhere. Not anywhere around here, not where Saul can get them. Somewhere in Moab, maybe? We're friendly with Moab, right?" He's been out of the loop for way too long.

Benaiah shrugs. "Friendlier with Moab than we are with the Phils," he says, and that's going to have to be good enough.

The next morning, David tells Jesse of the plan. His father's skin is withered and weathered in comparison to his mother's skin, the contrast obvious when they clutch each other's hands like they are. David finishes with, "I just—I'm not trying to get rid of you," beseeching them to understand because they need to, he loves his parents and he just got them back, he wouldn't just get rid of them. His father and mother smile.

"We don't think that, David," Jesse says, his voice a croak. "And of course we'll go, if you think it'll be safer."

"It will," David replies, because it has to be. "It will."

"Well, that settles it."

He wants to take them alone, but Jashobeam insists on coming along because travelling back by himself would be a bad idea. His parents entertain Jashobeam with stories of David's childhood, from when he was just a newborn and onwards. David remembers when he was ten and desperate for these stories, and even despite the time that is passed and how circumstances have changed him that desire has not left.

At least, not until they tell the story of how he'd peed on Eliab that one time with great enthusiasm and elaborate details that can't all be true because David knows they heard it second hand. "I see what Eliab meant when he said that he didn't want it talked about ever again," David says dryly as Jashobeam cracks up in the front passenger seat with laughter.

They make it to Moab in good time. His parents know people in Moab, and so when the border guard asks for a reason he tells her that he's dropping them off. The passports are cleared easily; there's a raised eyebrow at the sight of David's, who gave his real passport with nothing to fear, and the border guard checks in with someone over the phone before she says, "We're on friendly terms with you, but if your passport isn't scanned outgoing within twenty-four hours we'll have to assume that you're hostile."

"Understood," David says. He still doesn't like how his reputation precedes him everywhere he goes. "We'll be out of here before the afternoon is up."

And they are. They find David's parent's friend's house with little trouble and soon enough Jashobeam and David are helping them get their bags inside and saying goodbye. David is reluctant, and he's sure that his mother can read it all over his face. She's a tiny thing, he realizes when she hugs him, but strong in all of the ways that matter. When she breaks away, she lays a palm over his cheek. "David," she says, "just remember that we'll aways support you. We love you, and we're proud of you. You are such a strong young man of God and that's better than anything we've ever wished for you."