Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: FALSE (04/15/21)
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TITLE: Too Quick For Us | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
04/20/21 -
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“Hurry!” another woman called. “It’s almost time.” The two figures slipped inside while a boy stood outside the door, watching. Clay lamps flickered and betrayed their presence through the small gaps in the wooden shutters. “Boy, we need the stool,” the first woman called. “Hurry!”
The boy darted from building to building as security forces roamed the outskirts. He slipped into a small hut and snatched up a birthing stool. “Shiprah needs it,” he announced.
“Wait!” a man called. “The guard will see you struggling with that and he’ll know what is happening. Let me take it apart and we’ll carry it under our robes. I made this with interlocking notches so we don’t need to hammer it together.” He laid the stool down and tugged at a leg. “Eat something while I’m doing this. It will be a long wait.”
The boy accepted the figs and dates offered. “What do we say if we’re caught?” he asked.
“We tell them we’re taking this wood to make something,” the man answered.
“Isn’t that lying?”
The man paused and wiped his brow with the back of his hand. “Are we going to make something or aren’t we going to make something?”
“I guess we’re going to put a stool together for the midwives.”
“Exactly.” The man pulled the last of the legs apart and bundled up the four. “You know the security forces will question us for being out so late. You must let me talk.”
With the pieces concealed, the man and the boy slunk through the shadows again, arriving at their destination. As they were about to enter a guard called out. “Hey, what are you doing out?”
The man withdrew a section of wood that would make a leg. “It’s dinner. My neighbor needs some wood. You need a fire to stay warm, right?”
The guard stepped closer. “You should have sent your boy out for that. Hurry, deliver the wood and get back home.”
“Thanks, so much. Perhaps tomorrow I can bring you something to say thanks.” The boy slipped inside and the man followed but turned back. “I’ll be a moment making sure they’re okay and then I’ll get home right away. Thanks for understanding.”
It took minutes to assemble the birth stool. “I heard you lying to that guard, Nadab,” Shiphrah said.
He smiled in the dim light. “I spoke no falsehood,” Nadab said. “All three statements were separate truths. If he chose to link them together then how can I control the mind of an Egyptian?”
“Perhaps we can convince the Pharaoh in the same way,” the other woman said. “Hurry, men, it is almost time. These Hebrew women are quick when it comes to births.”
“That’s what you should tell the Pharaoh, Puah,” Nadab whispered. “These women are vigorous and give birth quickly. Sometimes before we’re even ready.”
“The crocs have been fed enough on dead slaves and the elderly without feeding them our next generation,” Shiprah said. “If only we could figure out a way to hide these newborn boys before the guards find them. Now go before the guard gets suspicious.”
“May the true God guard your tongue, your hands and your hearts,” Nadab whispered. “Come, my boy. We need to take you home.”
“Before you go,” Puah interrupted. “The woman here has a three-year-old son who needs care overnight. If you could care for Aaron we will do our best to bring him a new brother by morning.”
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