* * *
Rachel sat in a corner of the cold cell she’d been thrown into with sixteen others and refused to cry. Tears were freely streaming down the many other cheeks around her and she knew they had every reason to cry, but then, were they not warned about Jerusalem’s downfall many years ago? Were they not told to prepare for it in good time? Even the one they called the Messiah talked about it for a long time before his own people condemned him to death.
No, she decided, this was not the time to cry for what had already been lost. After all, the captivity in Babylon lasted for several years and yet those in exile returned to rebuild the city. Even the Chaldeans and the Persians couldn’t stop that return then.
Presently, she looked around her. Those in the cell were mostly women and children, so the guards had opted to leave them unchained. Her father she knew to be still alive, because she was hearing his voice in the other cell, but she could not find her mother amongst the women in her own cell and kept wondering what had happened to her. Rumor had it that only the women and children would be sold off there in Iudaea, while the men would be taken to Rome for hard labor. Another rumor had it that all the Christians who failed to denounce their faith would also join this second group, and she just hoped her mother would see reason and denounce the faith, just as she, herself, was planning to do.
Rachel knew her father would never denounce, and although she loved him so much, she thought this a very foolish thing to do. She could never forget the stories of torture and sorrow the Roman soldiers in Jerusalem always brought back with them from Rome. They said Christians were usually used as entertainment for the citizens of Rome in their many amphitheatres and that was not the way she wanted to go.
Maybe she would be bought by the governor’s son during the auction. She knew he would not hurt her because he was far younger than her and looked quite harmless. She was sure he’d been trying to get her attention back there on the planes near their burning city and wondered what ‘Nora’ meant in Latin.
“Attention all prisoners of Rome,” a Roman priest outside the room suddenly announced. “This will be your last chance to proclaim your allegiance to our noble emperor, Titus Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus! Members of your Christian sect who refuse to show their loyalty shall face the full wrath of our emperor in Rome! Your men will not partake of this ritual.”
The room’s heavy iron doors clanged open and soldiers with spears appeared outside. Rachel saw the priest waiting for them to come out.
“Hail the emperor,” the first woman near the doors cried and they pulled her to the priest’s right hand. She hurried some kids to join her.
“Hail the emperor,” another woman repeated and joined her Jewish counterpart on the priest’s right with her own kids.
The third woman said nothing, and was dragged to the left with her children. So were three other women and two girls after her, then Rachel’s mother stepped forward.
She said nothing and was vigorously pulled to the left.
“No,” the girl screamed in Greek, pushing her way forward. “Mama! Save yourself.”
“I must be with your father,” her mother cried and a soldier glared at her. Rachel made her way to the door and stood before the others. “Save yourself, my girl,” her mother pleaded with her, but she said nothing.
She was pulled to the right.
“But I never said a word,” she protested, struggling to move to the priest’s left. “I must be with my mother.”
“You must praise your Christ and count yourself lucky,” the guard preventing her from doing this grumbled. “None has ever been shown the kind of favor you now fail to appreciate.”
He fought under Centurion Claudius and knew what he was saying, since the Romans viewed the Christians as rebels who must be severely punished.
Nonetheless, the stubborn girl kept up her disturbance until both groups were separated and she was pushed towards the auction hall, looking back now and then with tears in her eyes.