Chapter 15

Ricky Harrison, 21, the Sketch Artist, and Emmy Goodell, 28, Spinster and Biblical Scholar, were married three months later. They honeymooned in the Holy Land and traveled the roads. These roads seemed familiar, although they had never been there before in that part of the holy land.

Not many clues to where the hamlet where Miriam, and Peter the Scribe resided. Little did they know that the landscape had changed over the centuries and the lush fields of Miriam and Peter’s time had come to be semi-dessert?

Ricky’s senses did quiver when he passed by a pile of stone rubble. It looked like the best stones had been removed to build other buildings in some other area. It really was all that remained of the inn that Petrous and Joab had helped construct as they traveled the country as carpenters years after the friend of their youth was crucified.

Emmy was on the other side of the pile of rubble and kicked around in the dirt looking for a souvenir. There was a green piece of broken metal revealed. She put it into her handbag with other odd pieces she had collected. “Emmy, that’s copper and we will show it to Uncle Pete. According to the dreams he worked in the far past with copper.”

The two could see there were some small houses at the edge of the nearby hill that rose to a mountain of stone, but they were short of time on their planned tour of the area so they didn’t go to talk to the people. Unknown to them, there was a cave behind one of the houses. The cave had been deteriorating over the centuries and the entrance into the cave was blocked from falling rocks. The second entrance on the other side of the mountain was hidden by a rock slide that occurred many centuries ago that had blocked where Peter the Scribe and Miriam were trapped inside.

But there was one item that would have been of much interest if found. It was a small baked clay tablet with the words “Peter the Scribe” fashioned by a proud young wife’s hands in wet clay, baked and presented to her husband on their first wedding anniversary. It sat there today on a shelf above where he worked as scribe. There was a light dusting of dust as there was on everything. The dust may never be disturbed unless someone takes the trouble to move a slab of stone which fell just outside the cave opening, blocking this entrance. There were many other items of interest to be found going deeper into the cave.

The family welcomed the newlyweds, home warmly, and had dinner with the family. Emmy brought out the box she had mailed home that had all the things she had collected while in the holy land. These were the curios she had purchased in the tourist shops, many items from street venders some found in the shops, purported antiques, and some certified small pieces of antiquities.

Pete spotted the piece of copper that Emmy held in her hand which had been found near by the pile of stone rubble. He turned white, asking where Emmy got it from. “I found it near a small pile of rubble. The stones were just small irregular pieces and not good for building. We were looking for some evidence of a small hamlet, but all there was the pile of small stones.

“We thought at first from the information we were told about in your dreams that we must be near, but there was nothing to indicate anything of interest. Besides, it wasn’t close to the mountain of stone we could see in the distance.”

“Emmy, I swear I sense this piece of copper was once part of a window clasp to close and hold open a shutter on the second story window in the inn Amy told me about and I dreamed about working on. You say you found this in a pile of stone rubble?

“My senses are telling me that I should travel there and see if Mary and I can discover where Miriam might have lived. There was supposedly a cave behind her dwelling where Peter the Scribe worked copying letters, sending them on to the disciples. I would like to find some evidence to verify that these dreams some of us have been having are factual. I’ll bet I can persuade Joe and Amy to go with us.

Ricky queried, “You mean we were that close to this place described in the dreams you and Mary have had over the years and we didn’t look further? Emmy and I will certainly go with you.”

Joe and Amy weren’t as excited about going to Israel as Mary and Pete. They dithered, and finally refused the invitation. Mary and Pete said they were going anyway with Ricky and Emmy.

It took two weeks to get travel tickets and make arrangements. First they went to the Wailing Wall to see many of the holy sites that this land provided, knowing that they wouldn’t remember it all. They collected information from the various tours and had it sent home to peruse after returning from their journey.

Finally, they connected with a woman from the university. Agatha Noonan, who Emmy had met when there while she was studying at the university. Agatha was an archaeologist at the university and Emmy had attended only one of her seminars.

This was the person who had just a bit of knowledge and had recognized the name of Peter the Scribe who did some copying of letters for the couriers to go out to the disciples and those who were carrying the word of Christ of this religion that was advancing around the known world. Peter the Scribe’s name didn’t appear very often on the few letters going out that still existed. There were only three replies known to be in letters addressed to some one as Peter the Scribe that Agatha knew of.

Emmy and Ricky had inquired at several universities and libraries if anyone had heard of anyone known of a person named Peter the Scribe in ancient history. They left their hotel address as a contact point if anyone had. Agatha Noonan was the only person who answered this inquiry and contacted Emmy at the hotel they were staying in.

Agatha, herself had put out her own inquiries out several times searching for the name of Peter the Scribe. She had questioned some of the universities and libraries who had names of people connected to the Christ. She had no idea who this man was, but the name intrigued her. She most usually came up empty and the conjecture was determined by those Agatha had inquired about Peter the Scribe that he could have been an unimportant person who might at sometime during his life touched on the Christ slightly.

Mary. Pete, Emmy and Ricky sat for an interview with Agatha and was questioned why this person named Peter seemed important to them. No dreams had been mentioned to Agatha at this point and she (Agatha) couldn’t understand why Mary was interested at all. Agatha had the feeling that Mary and Pete weren’t fully telling the reason for their interest. Agatha threatened to break off the interview.

Mary, worried that Agatha would dismiss them, “Agatha, if you would turn your back to me, I’ll relate what some of my life has been like. It concerns my early life and some dreams I was wont to have. Shortly, after meeting Pete they became much stronger and detailed. I shared with him, of course, and shared a mark on this body I was born with. Please bear with me while I tell you a little of why the name Miriam and Peter the Scribe mean something to me, or should I say, us.?”

Mary unbuttoned her blouse, took off her bra, and held open her body for inspection. “I was born with stigmata. The dreams I was having concerned a woman named Miriam, who accidently got some of the Christ’s blood on her hands and then wiping them on her shawl. Miriam tucked her shawl under her robe and the blood transferred to her body. She discovered the marking when she bathed.

“I dreamed I was this woman when walking by where Jesus had been crucified and I had been implored to help load the cross and the body onto a cart. The blood I had gotten on my hands came from the bottom of the cross. I was given three pennies by one of the men who asked for my help.

“The following day at noon I gave a crippled boy and his mother two pennies to purchase bread. I neglected to ask the boy his name. That same evening I met up with the boy again and he wasn’t crippled any longer. He said he had his hand rubbing the coin when walking and was ecstatic when he realized he wasn’t crippled any longer. He called me a holy woman.

“Long after dark I was searched out by a man who was sent to find me because I was expected in the village I was headed for. This man Peter, was upset for he had put in a day’s labor already in the fields by my half brother Samuel who Peter was indentured to. Peter did have training as a scribe.”

“Peter was more solicitous of my needs when we reached my half brother’s dwelling. I have much dreamed of Miriam and Peter the Scribe and of their life together and that they loved and married. She used her large estate for Peter the Scribe to carry on his work in service to the Lord. The dreams did indicate that he took up the career working as a scribe immediately after his indenture was completed.

“These dreams detailed what his service was by copying letters and sending couriers out who traveled to and from the disciples. They were sent out into the world to those teaching the word of the Christ about this new religion. Peter would copy letters to and from the disciples so everyone would know what was going on while promoting the teachings of those who followed the Christ.

“I came with a large estate and I used it all in carrying on Peter’s work. Peter and I were loved much by my four half brothers and they sustained us after my estate was depleted.”

“Just a minute, you two, I have doubts about this tale you are telling me. You say this all comes in dreams you both have? Dreams people have are very suspect because of the natural order of not being verifiable. The first question that comes to mind is why are you are having these dreams? How am I going to believe you?”

“Agatha, we realize there is no way for certain these questions of yours can be answered. I think if we can find the cave where Peter the Scribe worked and there we can find the answer to these dreams. Remember, we have no idea why a few of us in this day and time are having these dreams.”

“Mary, you tell me there are more persons who have these dreams? If so, list them for me so I can get more out of this disjointed tale.”

I answered, “Okay, there is Mary here who has stigmata on her chest. The evidence is before you and there is a woman who is behind the dreams named Miriam. Centuries ago, she meets Peter the Scribe who more and more seems to be the central figure in the dreams. So far we know of no one here in the present as a person who corresponds to him. The dreams tell us that my name was Petrous and here I am now as Pete.

“There is a Joab from the past, now in the present named Joe, and a woman named Anika now in the present as Amy, and the two are married. Petrous, Joab, and Anika were three youths with Jesus and Petros learned the carpentry trade together from his father who worked in the trade as a metal smith. Petrous was also a copper smith that has a relative connection to the Lord, they growing up together. Petrous had another connection by being one of the men who took the cross down and transported it by cart to the Garden of Arimathae and installed into a tomb.

“I know this fact in the dream is suspect that Petrous was one of two men who removed the cross, but knowing the men gathered together many years after the fact to put the Bible together as a compilation of how the Lord was transported. I’ll admit this fact is somewhat weak and might not have known the true facts. Miriam was there according to her dreams and may have used these fact for her own agenda.”

I went on speaking about the dream and those of us who had them. “Amy now is Joe’s wife in the present. Her dreams of the past says Anika was their great friend always loving Joab. She went with the two youths, Petrous and Joab, just to be close Joab. Amy was born with a scar on her thigh that Anika got when the three youths were climbing on a fence. The Christ carried Anika home on his back. This was a dream of Amy’s that came to her from Anika.”

I continued explaining, “When older, Anika travelled with the two men to keep their quarters and get their meals. She is the one who talked about their youth and remembers more of them being of that childhood age than we do. I have very little dreams of that time in my youth as Petrous. We thought for awhile that the real reason for the dreams was to reveal what the Christ’s early life was like. Not very much is known about him in the years of his youth before he went on to follow his father’s teaching.”

Agatha Noonan turned to Ricky and Emmy, “Where are you both in this life of dreams?”

Emmy spoke first. I have not been having dreams of that time for very long. In the far past I was a niece of Miriam ben Nickolia. My father was Samuel ben Nickolia, Miriam’s oldest half-brother. I adored my aunt Miriam, just like I do my Aunt Mary in the present day. I do know of Mary’s first miracle though.”

Mary exclaimed! “It was Pete’s miracle, not mine. I will admit that the dream was mine at the time this happened. The miracle is standing before you. The same happened to Ricky when he was a child by being born with a crippled foot like the boy with no name of the past. Ricky is the boy who is said to never have a name when he begged money from Miriam to feed his mother. Miriam gave him two pennies and by that evening was he walking without a limp.

“Ricky was born with a crippled foot like the boy with no name. The painting that Mary inherited from her mother has a copper penny notched into the frame and Pete encouraged him to rub it because Ricky said it made him feel warm and took the pain from his foot when he was tired.”

“Stop! You are telling me about your dreams. You are saying there are several people in your life that you associate with and somewhere there are people in that time who match those here and they send you all dreams about the same subject. I can’t believe this and it makes no sense to me. How long are you going to be here?”

Mary answered, “As long as we can to determine whether we can advance our search concerning Peter the Scribe. Emmy floated his name in several museums and universities that dealt with our search and you are the only one who answered our queries. Why wouldn’t we approach you?”

“Please sit down and write your tale together for me to read. As far as I can see I make no sense of what you are or are trying to do. I think you and Pete should write this up and then I will look at it.”

“We can and will work something up for you. There was a clue in the latest dream to the location of the village of Ben Nickolia. We’ll have Ricky and Emmy here to see if they can pin down the location exactly.”

“Pete, can you tell me what the clue is?”

“I can tell you, Agatha. While on her honeymoon Emmy was poking around a pile of stone rubble and spotted a small piece of copper. She picked it up and brought it home. When I had it in my hand, I sensed immediately that it was something I was familiar with it and I may have fashioned it at one time ... I mean that Petrous was familiar with. Petrous’ father was a copper smith and I naturally followed his trade.

“Joab and Petrous built an inn in the village and we are now searching for the remains of the village. Emmy and Ricky didn’t realize it at the time, but Emmy picked up this piece of copper when they were on their honeymoon. They will return to that place while we are busy writing what you have requested and will look at the houses that were in the distance which they ignored at that time they were here a few weeks ago. Specifically we are searching for the entrance to the cave where Peter the Scribe worked. Miriam and Peter’s house was backed right up to the opening of the cave.”

“Pete, you certainly seem to know all about what you are looking for.”

“Agatha, I can only tell you what I have dreamed.” I paused and then said, “I think I had better go with Emmy and Ricky and leave Mary here. She was the first channel to have dreams long before I knew her. Besides, if that tumbled bit of rubble is still there, I’m sure I will sense that it was where the Joab and Petrous built the Inn. If it is and we reach the houses of the village where Miriam and Peter lived, I will be able to sense which one they lived in.”

“What do you mean, you can sense it and declare definitely that was their house?”

“Agatha, I’m not without capabilities. I have been working with Miriam for many years. A lot of the good works I have done came to me through a sense of how to proceed for and against. Trust me, please?”

“Well get going then. I’m interested in what Mary has to tell me.”

I felt Agatha wanted what Mary and I was telling her was something she could hang her profession on. She was a well known Archeologist. I suppose if you were working in a certain area and came up with little or nothing for a while, her peers would begin to disbelieve her abilities. That thought had suddenly come to me. Was it Miriam’s fine hand in this?”

I knew nothing about Agatha except that she was the only person who had heard the name of Peter the Scribe and took the time to inquire about it. As I got into the Land Rover we were renting, I thought I would let this play out. Mary was with Agatha and maybe Miriam was watching from afar (Heaven?) over Mary.

A vision of the Smokey Quartz Chrystal passed through my mind, and of me falling off a huge boulder staring into and opening under said boulder. This was the cave that had netted me several millions of dollars that I had put to use for mankind. I smiled as this was Miriam’s way of telling me not to doubt, for she was in control.

I spoke to Ricky as I hitched around to back up the Land Rover. My eyes fell on the suitcase that contained the replica of the painting. There were three coppers in the case as well. “Ricky, take the case into Mary, if you would. She may have need to explain more fully of her journey passing the field of crosses. I can’t think of why we didn’t show that to Agatha before this.

Coming back, Ricky said, “Mary wanted this case but she thought we had already left. Pete, you must be physic or something.” Maybe I was, but I would say someone else was triggering all of these thoughts I was having.

–——————————————

We were about two hours away from where we wanted to go. Emmy was driving and after an hour and a half, Ricky was looking for a turn off onto a dirt road. At two hours, He said that he must have passed the turnoff because we had come in from a different direction. The one time they had been here was unfamiliar from this direction, so we had to turn around and go back. Emmy and Ricky both recognized the turnoff after retracing our journey for twenty minutes.

We followed the unkempt road and finally Ricky said there is a bend in the road and we stopped there and decided to go no further until we could stretch our legs. Emmy exclaimed “There is the pile of rubble where I found that piece of copper.”

We got out and I looked around. I remembered that Miriam described the landscape as being a lush, verdant green of the landscape in one of her dreams. The land now looked nothing like she said it did twenty centuries ago. Now it was fairly arid. There were bunches of brush, some of which had been cut, and I thought probably used for heat or cooking. In the distance at the foot of the mountain I could see a hand full of dwellings ... just the shape but not if they were occupied. I walked around the pile of rubble, but there was nothing to see that was of interest.

We returned to the SUV and slowly drove toward the mountain. There was little to see as we approached what we thought were buildings. As we got closer we could see that there was only one that appeared to be inhabited. That was second from the right where there were eight lined up in a row. The third one from our right just showed the front wall of one. Behind this were several slabs of limestone that had slid down the mountain and crushed the building except for the front wall of laid up stone blocks.

There were five more remnants of buildings that were all in serious disrepair. Why I was sure that the second one was inhabited was because there was an old man with a long beard sitting in front of it and the building had a door. He was sitting on some old timbers strung over two flat topped stones to make a seat. We had pulled in parallel to the string of buildings and parked. The old man hardly made note of us.

I asked Emmy if she thought the old man knew English. “Probably not. I guess it is on me. Why don’t you get a bottle of water out of the cooler for him?”

“Good idea. Tell him that Ricky would like to sketch his home if it is okay? Also ask if we can pitch a tent for a few days. I think we all want to be here. I sense we will be having some dreams tonight.” I was glancing at Emmy and Ricky when I said what had popped into my mind. They both nodded that they expected the same. I felt that we had reached the site of the former village of Ben Nickolia. This building before us had to be the home of Miriam and Peter the Scribe!

Emmy went to engage the old man to see if they could understand each other. I decided that I would offer him more than a bottle of water so I took a bottle beer in my hands with me. When I reached him, he ignored the water and took the beer from my hand. I laid the water beside him. He picked it up and put it under the bench he was sitting on and immediately opened the beer and took a swig, smacked his lips and raised it to me in thanks.

I smiled and then began looking around. There was a small fire pit for cooking near where he was sitting. The pile of brush he used for fuel was nearly depleted. There were a pair of modern brush cutters on the ground and I grabbed it along with a rope that was there and went into the field of brush. I went deeper into the brush patch and began cutting single stems of brush. Some were nearly two inches through and tough. It took two efforts for me to hack through them.

When I had a pile on the rope of about five feet in diameter, I tied the rope and I picked it up and carried the best I could on my back. I must have had a hundred pounds. It was awkward to carry the lopper in one hand and have the tied bundle on my back. When I reached the point where brush had been cut I dropped the loppers and used both hands to ease the rope over where it had bitten into my shoulder.

Emmy had engaged the old man in conversation. I asked her as I returned, “What’s his name?”

“He goes by the name as John Bergholtz. His family came here from far off Germany. He speaks in Aramaic with a bit of Hebrew thrown in. He does know English for England had a mandate after the First World War winning it from the Ottoman Empire and governed the Land until the Second World War. His father went to school where English was taught.

“He thanks you for getting some wood for him. I began asking him about the buildings here. His great-grandfather moved here almost two hundred years ago. John claims all the land and buildings are now owned by him. He has a family that doesn’t live here now because there was nothing for them to do.

“He has a grand daughter and she has a family with kids. She is a widow whose husband was killed a few years ago in one of the many skirmishes that the country is involved in at times.

“She is the one who brings him food once a week. She may come tomorrow with her son who cuts the brush he uses to cook with.”

“Ask him why he stays here? It must be a burden for everyone.”

There was an animated conversation. “John says the remains of the buildings are his only asset. The stones will be stolen if he leaves. Pete, I don’t think that is the real reason

“Ask him if there ever was a named village near here.”

Emmy came back, “Yes, and it is said the village was named after Mount Nickolia and it is said that the great revered lady, Nickolia, was the one who named the mountain after her family. This was so far back in history that no one knows for sure who she was and why she was supposed to be so great.”

“Ask about this again what this great lady was revered for.”

“It is said that no one knows is the answer to that question.”

“How long ago did that house get crushed when part of the mountain landed on it?”

“It is said no one knows. It is said that there is an apparition sometimes seen and sometimes a woman weeping can be heard. If you should care to sit on the front wall during the full moon of October, she might appear. He is grinning as if he is telling a ghost story

“Emmy, ask him if he has ever seen or heard this apparition?” Emmy asked and John turned and looked at the pile of stone that had landed on the house that we were almost sure belonged to Miriam so many centuries ago. Emmy went in a different direction when it seemed as if he wasn’t going to answer.

“John, do you ever talk to Miriam or just dream about her?” It was several minutes before he uttered anything, and then it was only one word, “Maybe.” He hesitated and then said, “See for yourself, it is October and the full moon must be soon.”

Emmy was looking up on her phone when the full moon would be. “Pete, tonight is the night of the full moon. Are we going to stay here and find out?”

“Yes, and I’ll wager that Miriam has planned this for us. I’m game, how about you and Ricky?”

Emmy looked at Ricky and could see he was in. “Pete, Mary is going to be very disappointed about missing the moon tonight and more so if an apparition appears and it is Miriam.”

“Well, please call and tell her. It would be good if the woman, Agatha Noonan was with her. If Miriam appears we might find out more of why the dreams that all of us are having come from one source. I feel we are a singular group of people who are from such different backgrounds and tied together by dreams. Just think, I have been living with these dreams for many years and Mary has had them longer than I have.”

I sat there thinking while Emmy made the call to Mary. A thought crossed my mind; could I suppose that Mary coming together with me as we did opened some kind of a portal to the past? I decided nah, this wasn’t science fiction.

Emmy said that Mary and Agatha would be here about dark, well before the moon was up and Agatha would be driving. Mary would be guiding her, stating, “I’ll let my past dreams guide me and then she laughed,”

Emmy asked Mary to stop somewhere and get a big basket of food filled with stuffs we can leave with the old man when we go. “Include a case of beer with it, John likes beer.”

Emmy now went back to interrogating John. “John, are there any old rumors about the house that is under the stone that fell on it or about the mountain behind it? Tell me about Miriam, you must know something about her if only from your dreams? I know you aren’t afraid of her or you wouldn’t be staying here.”

John shuffled his feet and we thought he was going to stand up and walk away. He almost rose and then he settled back. We had mentioned Miriam, to him before this and we actually hadn’t told him about anyone named Miriam, just speaking her name amongst ourselves. John didn’t ask who Emmy was talking about. “I’ll bet you have dreams about her. Dreams you can’t explain. Has she said why she sometimes appears here?” John shook his head and didn’t answer.

Emmy had pushed John enough. She asked John, “How do you cook your meals?”

John answered in English, only with a British accent. “I rake the coals from the fire to one side and I have a pan here to put over that section where the coals are. If it is raining, I carry the coals inside the house in a pot and there is a pan inside to cover it. I cook on that. Do you have food to cook?”

“I do, I have some fish I bought at a market. Do you like fish?”

“I do very much like fish. Do you have enough so I can have a bite?”

“Tell me an hour ahead of time before we eat and we can bury some potatoes in the coals. Do you like the fish cooked on a rack if you have one? They don’t take very long so I’ll put them on later so the potatoes get done at the same time.”

I wondered what Emmy would be asking the old man next? I couldn’t think of much to say.

Random thoughts; I looked closely at Emmy. She did look a lot like Mary. If her lineage had to come down through her father it was possible. Funny how Emmy had always liked me from that first time when I was getting my breakfast. She and brother Chester heard me and came down and ate with us that first time I went there with Mary. They thought it a great joke on their mother.