22. Nothing brings clarity like calamity

Sara lit candles and sat beside Naboth’s remains in the cottage. Yashar knew, but did not mention, that many of those who had helped murder Sara’s husband in the evening had delivered his body early that morning (by the light of the same torches they had carried during the stoning on the square).

At first light, after looking in on Sara, Yashar led Juttah up the hill. Naboth had fallen, finally, close to his own rail fence (so said the bloodstained ground) not far from where Yashar had first seen Sara, years earlier, smiling like an angel at the gate. Juttah spied a handful of dogs at the spot, drove them away with startling ferocity, then refused to return down the hill when called. He stood guard there for two days and nights afterward, sun and rain, no drinking or food for him until the attraction passed.

Zach, Nurit and their boy arrived early that morning from Shunem, the first of Naboth’s children to arrive to pay respects. While Nurit sat with Sara in the cottage, Zach and Yashar found a large white stone and chipped it to mark a tomb. All the family save Avi had arrived by early afternoon. As they sat together quietly in the shade near the cottage, King Ahab came bounding down the hill flanked by several of his soldiers.

Ahab stopped and read to them, concluding…

“For all these reasons mentioned, approved by the king’s council in Samaria, none of you or others may claim this vineyard. It passes, therefore, into my hands as sovereign. In two days or less you must vacate this property from yonder gate to the stream below, leaving everything attached and of value in place.”

Sara stepped forward and spit at the king’s feet. “You cannot allow us proper time to mourn, O king?” she said. “Are you so eager to consolidate the fruits of your queen’s deceit?”

To Ahab’s credit as a monster, he never hesitated. “Your husband miscalculated, dear lady. So did you. By refusing to sell this land to me you missed an opportunity.” With that, he turned to head away, up the hill.

“A word, O king,” Yashar said.

Ahab stopped in his tracks but did not turn to face him.

“Within only days,” Yashar said, “the prophet, Elijah, will confront you here in Jezreel.”

Ahab turned to face him slowly, his eyes revealing rage for certain, fear perhaps.

“Your concern is proper, O king,” Yashar said. “Who in Israel is unaware? When Elijah addresses royalty, the world changes. Such will be the case when he faces you here, again.”

“A threat, boy?” Ahab asked. He nodded toward the armed men beside him. “There doesn’t seem to be much wisdom in that when compared to the risk. I am not a tolerant man.”

“I make no threats, sir,” Yashar said, “I simply warn you of an upcoming interview.”

Sara touched Yashar’s shoulder, concerned for his safety, but the king remained where he stood. “Have you spoken to Elijah, lately?” Ahab asked. “No, you certainly have not. No one has seen him for years and he is, for all Israel knows, dead. And you, boy, are no prophet and lucky to remain alive. What madness brings you to claim you know his plans?”

“The moment will tell its own tale,” Yashar said.

The curt answer clearly angered Ahab further but, after a moment’s hesitation, he and his men marched out of the vineyard without answering.

What had happened? Nurit hugged Yashar as she might a naughty child. Zach asked him if he felt ill. All Naboth’s family seemed embarrassed to have witnessed the confrontation. And why not? Yashar had no knowledge, no vision, no anointing; but he had seen poor Naboth murdered, a man who had harmed no one; who had only drawn breath to grow grapes. After such evil, how could Elijah not appear?

*

On a cloudy day, Naboth’s family laid the old vintner to rest beside Sara’s stream in a cave beyond the lowest terrace. It seemed as though all Jezreel, even recently wounded men from the garrison, had learned the place and time. Though uninvited, they came by threes and fours, down the vineyard path then alongside the course of the brook as it led the way.

Sara objected to their coming but the family welcomed them.

The sky cleared afterward. A light breeze stirred in the trees to accompany the sound of weeping. Nothing brings clarity like calamity. Naboth’s murder had sealed the nation’s fate.