ALIVE: Chapter 46 The Reunion

Aaron woke up at dawn that spring morning feeling energized and optimistic. It was the slave's day off. Pharaoh thought himself generous for giving the Hebrews one day free every fortnight to rest, when actually their restfulness benefited him tenfold. The Hebrews had not yet been told that God demanded Sabbath rest and this ignorance made their toil less tragic than it really was.

Thoughts of his younger brother, Moses, swirled through Aaron's mind that morning washed clean of its black night. He hadn't thought about Moses in years, but lately he could think of nothing else. He had been reminiscing about how Pharaoh's soldiers had searched for Moses for days, but never found him. They eventually gave up. After all, who really cared if he killed a Hebrew?

Aaron had been proud of his younger brother. Surely, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had blessed him by delivering Moses from death and the bonds of slavery directly into Pharaoh's closest orbit. Aaron often pondered what it must have been like to live in the palace with all those clean beautiful women, and all that sumptuous food and music!

Forty years had gone by since Moses escaped. How strange to be thinking of him now. "If Moses can escape, so can I." said Aaron to himself while becoming infused with a spirt of courage. "I could go today! Perhaps I will find Moses in Midian. Do I remember an Egyptian mention that Moses was alive in Midian, or did I dream that? I will go to Midian to find out for myself. Even if I don't find Moses, it is still better than this life in chains!"

Emboldened by his resolve to escape, Aaron began to fill a sack with food.

Miriam, his sister, walked into the room still numb from her deep sleep. "What are you doing Aaron?" she said.

"I am leaving; I am going away from Egypt to look for Moses."

"Aaron, are you mad?! You can't just walk away. If you could, we all would do that. Besides, you are 83 years old! How far could you go on your own? Come to your senses Aaron. Start the stove for me while I make you breakfast. I made bread dough last night. It will be ready soon enough. Come, let's talk."

"Miriam, no!"

She knew it would be senseless to force him to stay, that escape was a yearning Aaron had been nurturing for years.

"And what will I tell them tomorrow when they come looking for you?" she said.

"Tell them that I went into the desert to die. I am an old man and no longer so useful. Miriam, tell them anything you want. I can't stay here another day. I must find Moses."

While pleading his case, Aaron noticed how lovely Miriam looked for such a mature woman. Wisps of gray hair produced an aura around her leathered olive face with its high cheek bones and large wise green eyes. Aaron and Miriam had always been close. Even as a young girl, she was more like a motherly confidant than a big sister. He knew he would miss her terribly.

"Let me make you bread to take, and then you can go."

Aaron emerged from the house their family had inhabited for an hundred years as if for the first time. The familiar city took on a glow as if he was walking into the past, into a memory. Brimming with resolve and with fear he wanted to capture the scenes of the city that he would never see again.

Aaron carefully slithered through the most populated Hebrew neighborhoods and arrived at the very fringe of the city. He managed to make himself invisible as he passed guard after guard.

"Give me some credit for this!" exclaimed Perambula who indeed was fully responsible for Aaron's escape by blinding the guards which the angel carefully placed within the trajectory of the low morning sunbeam, and bringing to their minds gossip to spread while facing each other. Thus renegade Aaron managed to drift farther and farther from their clutches until he was well within the protective isolation of the wilderness.

Days later, the last ounce of nostalgia spent, Aaron faced his new challenge of how to cross the Gulf of Acaba. Once on the other side, he knew he would be completely free of Pharaoh's tight grip on him. When he arrived at the shore, he found a busy port with fishing boats unloading their catch. He chose one, and asked if he could be taken to the other side. Once on the boat, Aaron marveled at how easy it had been to escape. He had never seen such a large body of water before and was astounded by the vastness of the sea, and the smell and feel of the silky salty air on his rough face. Having arrived, Aaron thanked his generous host who gave him some fish to take on his journey to Midian.

Once on the other side, the challenge was how to find Moses in this vast territory. Aaron prayed to the God of Abraham to help him, ignorant that God cared more than he did that they meet. Every thought of Moses and of fleeing were planted in his mind by God himself. Had he known, Aaron would not have been so frightened, or so cautious.

"Gracefeld, go help Perambula." said God. "Lead this man to Horeb (Sinai)."

"Yes, my Lord." replied Gracefeld.

Perambula picked up the signal that Gracefeld was on the way and was glad for the assistance. Aaron had been meandering from tree to tree sinking into the deepest part of the wilderness. It was difficult to be both protector and pathfinder.

"Where have you been Gracefeld? This man obviously hasn't a clue of where to go. I can either guide him or ward off the animals, but I can't do both!"

"I have been with Moses. Poor sore boys. I kept the predators away to give them peace in their healing. They are resting safely."

"God wants them to meet at Mount Horeb." added Perambula.

"Of course." replied Gracefeld, "The Mountain of God, where else? Aaron can travel faster without the family, but his journey is so much longer. I know Moses will want to stop there to show his sons the burning bush. Does Aaron know anything of Mt. Horeb? What will make him stop there?" Perambula flashed Gracefeld an expression of disbelief, that the angel could ask such an absurd question.

"Okay, so who will guide the family if we are on Aaron-duty? said Perambula.

"Firstoff," replied Perambula, "this week of rest gives Aaron time to reach Horeb. He is the one who needs our guidance most now. Moses will see Horeb in the distance, and is familiar enough with the place. They will be fine. Come Gracefeld, let's see if we can rush this man along. Did he bring water?"

While the angels were discussing their mission, Moses and his family were still reeling.

"Father, it has been three days and I still hurt so bad!" whined Gersam. Sepphora told Moses that they must stay put while Gersam was recuperating, and she was recuperating too. Sepphora, the daughter of a priest of Midian had never met God before. But after He nearly killed her husband, she had a newfound fear of this God, and a newfound concern over the what they would find in Egypt. She did not dare share her worries with Moses, only wondered if they should circumcise Eliezer too, or rather, when?

"I know my son. Forgive me." confessed Moses, "Had we done this when you were eight days old, you would not be suffering now, and I would not have angered God. When I left my people and Egypt, I believed that I was leaving everything behind me, not just Pharaoh. I never lived as a Hebrew," and then Moses paused reflectively and added, "except by the covenant stamped on my own penis, which I never understood. Why would I care, why would anyone care that Abraham would be the father of nations? More unbelievable still, that his children would possess these lands. Those poor slaves could barely possess the mats they slept on. Forgive me my son, for my ignorance."

"Father, when will you circumcise Eliezer?" said Gersam with a pinch of bitter malice folded into the sweet buttercream of desire for his protection, and of their own. Eliezer tried to hide because he knew that it must be his turn to meet the flint. Moses and Sepphora had already decided that they should circumcise Eliezer right away.

Sepphora hollered, "Eliezer, come here, right now!"

Trembling, Eliezer succumbed to his mother, and screamed as his brother had. The circumstance being very different, the reaction was too. Eliezer bore his pain nobly, proud to be accepted into the tribe of the people of the covenant about whom he knew so little.

A week later Moses announced, "Tomorrow, we will set off again. Do you see that mountain over there? That is Horeb, the mountain where God spoke to me from the flaming bush. We will go there to show you my bush. Perhaps God will return and speak to me again. For now, let's pack up."

That evening, as Moses laid down to sleep, thoughts of Aaron flooded his mind. How would he find Aaron? Would he even recognize him? Where could he go to to look for Aaron in this vast wilderness? As a mental exercise to help him fall asleep Moses tried to remember every time he had ever seen Aaron. Moses knew his family of birth, his parents and brother and sister, but he rarely saw them, certainly not in the last forty years in exile. How would he recognize him?

The next morning the donkey was fully burdened again, and took it well as any decent donkey would. It was Gersam's turn to hold the donkey's rope. Fully recovered from his operation, Gersom grabbed the rope and lead the ass on the well-trodden path to Egypt. He held his head as high as the donkey's head was lowered to bear the weight, trusting his man-child.

Moses walked alone ahead of the others, thinking and listening for God. He had walked this path many times while shepherding the flock to find green pastures, sometimes being gone from home many days, but it never took so long to reach Horeb as it had with his family in tow.

Eliezer who was still sore, walked side by side with his mother in silence.The sons and Sepphora saw that they were walking towards a mountain, and wondered if Moses meant to take them over it or around it, but they didn't ask. Moses walked too far ahead for conversation clutching his staff and contemplating the whole concept of speaking with God.

Perambula and Gracefeld used every means in their angelic powers to speed Aaron along so the brothers would arrive at the mountain at roughly the same time. As they grew nearer, the moment became imminent.

Aaron was intrigued by one particular mountain before him and used that as his goal for days focusing on it as over time it grew from the size of his thumb to the size of a dog, and then a house, a pyramid, and finally there he was before its massive vertical rise.

As he looked around him, Aaron was the first to spot a cluster of fellow travelers. He hadn't seen another human for days. Sitting on a boulder at the foot of the great mountain, Aaron wondered if he should run over to them, or wait to see if they would come towards him. The scorching heat from the noonday sun forced him to stay and wait.

Perambula and Gracefeld were proud of their accomplishment. Bringing these two tiny flecks in this vast terrain together took angelic skill of the highest magnitude. God knew who He could trust to do the job and he was right. Perambula wondered if there would be a reward and what it could be. Gracefeld looked forward to the next challenge, which would be to guide the entire Hebrew population on its Exodus from Egypt.

For Aaron, the image of the travelers became more clear. He could see a large man followed by a boy and a donkey, and then a woman and a boy. 'It must be a family on a journey to Egypt' thought Aaron.

Moses saw the isolated man in the distance staring at him and his family. He instinctively knew the man was no threat to them by the way he sat still and open, curious.

Gracefeld flew up and whispered into Moses' heart, "That man is your brother Aaron. God has sent him to you. Go to greet him."Moses was astonished at this revelation. He stood still for several moments staring at this figure in the distance. The distance that would soon close until the two brothers became as one instrument of God.

Perambula echoed the introduction to Aaron who didn't stop for a moment to think, but instead rushed over to the Moses of all his hopes, his idol of a brother.

Because Moses was more aware of God's need for this meeting than Aaron, who all along thought that his escape was self initiated, no human being on earth or in heaven or above the heavens was more flabbergasted to see the subject of his trek running towards him. If he hadn't been breathing so hard, Aaron surely would have been shouting.

Instead, he heard the man Moses calling him as they got within earshot of each other. "Aaron! Aaron! My Aaron!" The two octogenarian brothers started to run as fast as any healthy old man could run, and as awkwardly .

When finally the elderly brothers met, Moses hugged and kissed Aaron, who by then was reduced to tears. His sentiment was infectious causing Moses to grow teary eyed too. The embrace lasted only for a moment because both men wanted to take a good long look at each other. They peered deep into each other's faces for evidence of familiarity. Aaron saw hints of his father and of Miriam in Moses. Moses noticed his son Eliazer's dimple in Aaron's chin.

While the brothers explored each other, the rest of the family caught up.

"Sepphora, this is my brother. And Aaron, these are my sons Gersam and Eliezer."