The five boys hung around the oasis so that Daniel could check out the various animals that the villagers herded there to drink. Sometime after they arrived, Levi reached into the folds of his tunic and pulled out a ball constructed of rawhide tightly wrapped around and around a core of rounded stone. Its diameter was approximately that of a modern-day hard baseball.
He and Joshua tossed it back and forth. Daniel finally took note and said, “Hey, guys, let me see that ball.” Joshua tossed it over to him. Daniel caught it one handed, and he turned it around several times. “Wow! This is a cool baseball. You guys have a bat and gloves to go with it?”
None of the boys responded.
“Aw, man, don’t tell me. You dudes don’t know what I am talking about, huh? OK, let’s go sit down in the shade, and I will clue you in.”
The four boys followed Daniel T., and they all sat down under one of the nearby olive trees. It took close to half an hour of Daniel talking, gesticulating, and drawing in the dirt, but finally the boys had a grasp of how to play baseball.
Jesus said that he could fashion a bat back at his father’s carpentry shop. Levi said that he could talk the leather smith into making gloves if Daniel would draw a likeness. Joshua said that he would get wool from his father to stuff the gloves with. Abraham said that he would get some goat hides from his father to trade to the leather smith to make the gloves.
Daniel said, “You guys are awesome. So in a few days we play ball.”
“We can play ball now,” said Abraham. “We will teach you how. Since the game is for the same amount of players on each side and we are five, Daniel, you watch until you learn, and then each of us will take turns playing and not playing.”
The game that unfolded, to Daniel’s eyes, was, in fact, a form of soccer pretty much the same as is know in the modern world: there were two teams and two goals, and no use of hands. The only real difference was the ball: it was small and solid. As the game got going, Daniel caught on quickly and said, “Man, that’s gotta be tough on the feet.” He glanced at his sandals and figured that he would to have a talk with the sandal maker about making something with a little more protection.
Several days later, not only Jesus, Abraham, Levi, and Joshua but also several other boys from the village of Nazareth engaged in that all-American game we all know as baseball.
Gosh! exclaimed Daniel T. to himself, I wonder if I can explain hot dogs good enough to have someone make ’em?
Ten or so minutes after the first baseball game in Nazareth commenced, there were spectators on each side of the playing field. Daniel T., playing pitcher, glanced right and left and took in the growing onlookers. With the thought of hot dogs still in his mind, he said aloud “Could happen!” Then he smiled big and threw his pitch.
Daniel T. had been in Nazareth for five days, and he still believed that he would find his way back to Vancouver, Washington, and his family and friends there. He was beginning to miss them tremendously. He missed the people, television, and video games, as well as his computer, food, and even his pesky little sister.
What I wouldn’t do for a Big Mac and fries, Daniel would say to himself a couple of times a day. He thought what he had been eating in the home of Joseph and Mary was OK—a little strange, but it tasted all right: stew with goat meat and vegetables—carrots, lentils, onion—and the seasoning that Mother Mary threw in tasted pretty good. Unleavened bread wasn’t bad either, but boy oh boy, thinking of a Big Mac got Daniel T.’s mouth flowing. If he shut his eyes tight, squished up his shoulders, and concentrated really hard, he could smell a Big Mac and French fries.
During the boys’ quiet time sitting under an olive tree, Daniel described hamburgers and fries to Jesus, Joshua, Abraham, and Levi. Jesus told him that he thought his mother could make such a thing—the hamburger at least. He was not too sure about the fries. However, the villagers only ate beef on special occasions.
“Say,” Daniel said, “where did you guys learn to play soccer? Your foot-and-ball game?”
Levi answered, “The Romans play it. They use a bigger ball, but we think it is more challenging with a smaller one. But they don’t call it soccer; they call it football.”
“Yeah, right!” Daniel replied with a smirk. “Let me tell you about American football. I think you guys will agree that it is a little different from the Roman’s game. First of all, the ball used is just a might different from the one they and you use. It is not round, big, or small, it is…Oh man, how do I explain how our football is shaped? Here, gather around. I’ll draw one for you all.”
As the boys gathered around Daniel, he grabbed a short stick and drew in the dirt the shape and approximate size of an American football. Then he took the time to explain to the boys the ins and outs of the game.
“But you gotta wear special stuff to play and not get all banged up,” Daniel told them. “Another thing about football is that hot dogs and Coke really go good with it.”