Ur
Terah sat with his crutch in his lap, trying to catch his breath after the conversation with Ikuppi. The king’s guard drove the single-horse chariot away, and when Terah could no longer hear it, he gathered his strength and plotted his path to the bedroom. “I am coming to you, Belessunu,” he said.
“I would come to you if I were able,” she said.
“Save your strength. You’ll need it.”
“Whatever for, Terah?”
“Give me a moment.”
Light-headed, Terah hesitated after rising. He could not afford another fall. On a day when he should have simply laid low to try to recover, he had been up and down and on his knees and outside and back in. Not to mention riding to both his livestock pen a hundred yards one way and the palace more than a mile the other. The stop at the servants’ quarters had been nearly as exhausting as his performance at the king’s court and in the dungeon.
He pushed aside the drapery in the doorway of the bedchamber and waited again. Belessunu lay on her back with Abram asleep on her chest. She peered over the boy’s head. “What have you been doing all day, husband?”
“Oh, to even begin to tell you would take another whole day.”
“Well, come and sit, but don’t wake the baby.”
Sitting on the low mat was the most difficult maneuver of all. It was one thing to make his way about the house, and with help he had been able to climb into the chariot and either stand or sit. But to lower himself nearly to the floor with no support but the crutch, that had already proven something altogether different.
Belessunu pulled her feet to one side to make room for him, but when Terah began to bend, his hands moving down the crutch an inch at a time, his weight shifted and he was unable to catch himself. “Here I come!” he said, keeping a death grip on the wood as his backside headed too quickly to the mat. At the last instant he knew he had to land on his uninjured side or the pain would make him cry out.
Terah fought to keep from slamming down while also shifting to take the brunt of the drop on his good side. He nearly accomplished it, but momentum carried him beyond his balancing point and onto his back he went, swollen feet leaving the floor and following him over. With his sandaled feet in the air, he pushed with the back of his head to try to right himself, but his legs went vertical and the hem of his tunic dropped to his waist, exposing him from his toes to his loincloth.
The crutch had lost purchase with the floor and went tumbling as Terah let out a huge, “Oomph!” and quickly brought his feet back down, trying to cover himself again.
“Oh, no, husband!” Belessunu chortled, covering her laugh with one hand and steadying Abram with the other.
Her chuckling made Terah do the same, and he lay there with his face next to her feet as their laughing shook the mat. The baby coughed and squeaked, which made them giggle all the more. “I must sit up,” Terah said. “I can’t breathe!”
He planted both palms at his side and rocked, trying to raise himself. But his bad shoulder added nothing to the effort. Belessunu pressed a foot under his shoulders, to no effect. Finally Terah was able to roll himself up on his side so he could face her.
“If the boy can sleep through this,” she said, “he could become a warrior.”
Terah waited until he was able to breathe evenly and rested his head in his hand, his good elbow planted on the mat. “I have no idea how I will ever get up,” he said. And they laughed some more.
“Yes, but not for some time. If I have to wait, I’ll wait, but I was hoping for some food soon.”
“Maybe I can get up in a while,” she said.
“No, no, as I told you, all in good time. You will need your strength later.”
“For what?”
Terah let his head fall back onto the mat and stared at the ceiling. “The king wants to see our son.”
“Tonight? Are you mad?”
“Of course not.”
“And you must not allow it anyway, Terah.”
“Absolutely not. But when I do not comply, he will come looking for the boy.”
“We must flee long before that.”
“That’s what I am saying. But, Belessunu, I need to tell you what I have done.”
“What you have done?”
“He believes he has already seen Abram, though I told him we had named the baby Amraphel.”
“I’m confused. You named the boy after the king, and the king believes what? Make me understand, Terah.”