The cloud above Nazareth roared like a wrestler about to enter a no holds barred combat with a weakling, cocks crowing in their numbers as young children chase them into their pen, storekeepers locking up their stores, and, man and ox driven carriages leaving the Nazarene trade zones for respective destinations.
“Me, my cabbage, my carriage
Meeting ends for my marriage.”
a cabbage dealer said, in a singsong tune while tugging his cabbage filled carriage off the trade zone and down the valley to his home.
“Let’s hurry, it's going to rain. How I wish, I had an ox, with a Yep Yeep, and Whoa, I would’ve been at home by now.” he said. He found a fountain at the foot of the valley, stopped by for a drink, “Sweetie cabbage, stay in the carriage, while I go get some water. And you, wheels, do not move an inch.”
He reached the fountain, exchanged “God be with you,” with the children he found bathing there, and drank to his fill.
“So our water's free, while your cabbage’s for sell,” the eldest amongst the children said – they had requested a cabbage from him but he refused, bluntly.
As if without knowledge of what prank to pullout, they watched him continue up hill with his carriage, “Gotcha!” their young lips embraced laughter. They’d thrown their buckets at him to obstruct his steps, and it worked. His carriage reversed, after he lost control of it, and in a blink, his sweetie cabbages went rolling.
An ox driven carriage passing by did justice to the cabbages.
“My cabbages!”
The carriage came to a halt, and Joseph, the young carpenter from Bethlehem, jumped down. After requesting a couple minutes from the driver, he turned to the cabbage dealer, “Please I’m sorry for the loss,”
“Just sorry?” the trader bent on his knees and crawled about, gathering available cabbages, “Don’t worry, sweeties, papa's going to get you to safety.” Gradually, he gathered them near the carriage, right before the ox’s mouth.
As if hypnotized, the ox found the cabbage gathered before him, inviting, and decided to feast on them.
“My cabbages!” the trader gave up on them, and returned to the fountain for more water, like a wounded soldier, who got missing in action.
Joseph ran towards a compound few meters away from the fountain, and halfway there, his eyes left its socket, something behind a curtain had hit him hard - a figure that illuminated the almost dark room.
“She’s such a goddess,” he said.
“Hey, man, time's not your goddamn mama. You've stood there, god knows how long. Please I need to get my ox off this goddamn shower, you might be water resistive, but dammit, my ox isn't.” The driver called him to attention.
He continued into the compound, and on parting the curtain, poked the young maiden who sat near the window, stitching badges to a piece of cloth. She's Mary - his betrothed.
“I knew you’d come,” she said, “Hope your workshop was injury free today?”
“Yeah,”
She stood up from where she sat on a table near the window, picked a lantern the hung on the curtain rail, and searched beneath he bed for her first aid kit.
“Dammit! I’m leaving! I've got a lover to tend, too!” Lover? Who would ever love a foulmouthed? Well there’s always a women for every man.
“Exercise patience, please,” Joseph said, then turned to his betrothed, “Could you be faster, please.”
She moved the table from its position, came nearer to the window to dress Joseph's hurt finger. She applied ointment on it to make sure it doesn't leave a scar, then tied a bandage around it, “Of all the places, why hurt the ring finger,”
He bid her goodbye and returned to his carriage, running past the fountain without noticing the cabbage dealer.
“Sorry for the inconveniences. Hope you'll still have time to tend your lover, tonight,”
“Well, about that, mine doesn’t give a damn,” the driver said, “Yep Yeep,”
Mary stood behind the window smiling as he made through the rain. Before closing the window she noticed someone at the fountain, “Why would a living creature stay under the rain and precisely in a fountain?” she covered her head with a leather clothe and proceeded to the fountain. “God be with you. Aren't you feeling cold, please you have to go home,”
“My cabbages!”
Somehow, she talked him into going home.
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