Throughout Adella’s neighborhood sat many abandoned homes with no surviving gardens and empty wells. Though a few of her neighbors in Zarephath had died during the drought, most had simply left town, off to Tyre or Sidon to find food or jobs at sea. Those who had remained drew sour water from the common well in town and foraged for food in the nearby hills.
As Elijah’s tree continued to grow, some of Adella’s neighbors had become suspicious. “Sir,” Adella told Elijah one day while nodding at the once small sapling under which he sometimes slept, “men stop and stare at this tree because its appearance defies reason.”
Elijah nodded. The tree’s trunk had grown gnarled and thick in just three years and had sent several leafy branches spreading over the gate. “Glory be to God,” he said.
“My point is,” Adella said, “it is unnatural and I fear…”
“Fear not,” Elijah interrupted.
Adella sighed. “We began this adventure, prophet,” she said, “with those very words.”
“And with them we must also end it,” Elijah said, “for though it saddens my heart to say, the time has come for me to go.”
Yashar looked away, trying not to cry.
“I knew you would leave us someday,” Adella said, “but I could not bear to speculate as to when. You saved our lives, sir, yet you mean so much more to us than our survival.”
“God saved you,” Elijah said. “Your faith drew me here.”
“When you leave, prophet,” Adella said, “will our cruse and barrel remain full?”
“No,” Elijah said, “not for long.”
Adella seemed both surprised and hurt by that news.
“But there will be no further need,” Elijah said. “The word of the Lord has come to me saying, Go and let Ahab see you so that I may send rain on the earth.”
“Rain, child, rain,” Adella told Yashar, hugging him while swaying to music only she could hear. She turned and tipped, holding him so tightly Yashar had no choice but to dance along.
“Remember the sound of thunder?” she laughed. “Do you recall the smell of a running stream, of wild flowers, black earth and wet grass? Oh, how wonderful the world will be again when…” She stopped suddenly and turned back to Elijah. “You saved us, prophet,” she said, “and you taught us how to pray.”
“It has been a blessing,” Elijah said.
“So, why do you chose to go now?” Yashar asked.
“God chooses,” Elijah told him, “I obey.”
Elijah’s strange appearance in Zarephath and his stranger departure proved two things, Adella told her son later, “God is good and prophets are unusual men.”