Two canoes came
rowing along the shallow water of the river. One boat had three
people in it, the other only two. This was weird though because the
river had been dammed at some point and only puddles remained in the
river bed.
The five people had
cut out holes in the bottoms of their boats and would walk a few
paces around, drop the boats down so they could sit and pretend to
row in the muck for a bit.
Confused, Bleach
ran up to them and started to walk in the muddy river bed towards
them.
“Do you see what
I see?” shouted one of the men in the two-person boat. He was
small, wearing a black pointed hat and a blue robe. The robe was
dirty. He was dirty. And his overall look was funny-looking.
The much larger man
sitting in the boat with him struck him very hard, knocking his hat
from his head and sending him backwards into the muck behind the
boat. “Damn you, Tinli, I wanted to be the first to say that line!”
He began to fiddle his fingers on a gold chain he wore around his
neck.
Tinli didn't say
anything: he was out cold.
“TIRSK!”
shouted an older man with a bald head and grizzly-looking gray
goatee. He wore a gray robe. The man he named was wearing a red robe.
They exchanged angry looks and shrugs.
“Praise be The
Lord!” shouted a mannish thing in a brown robe. Then she tore her
fake beard off along the robe, revealing a dirty light gray dress she
wore underneath. At some point when it were clean, the dress might
have been white. “He walks upon water!”
Tirsk growled
again, but didn't dare hit the woman as well. “Great. I knocked out
the third wise man because he angered me!” he groused. He slapped
Tinli's face, causing him to stir a little but still he remained on
the ground unconscious. “We bring you ---” he began.
“GIFTS!”
shouted his companions in unison. Again the man in red fumed.
A third man wearing
yellow tossed a wrapped package at Bleach and it bounced off his head
before he could duck away from it. “I am your father!” squeaked
the man in yellow robes. He also wore a necklace but his was made
from a leather string.
Rubbing his head,
Bleach noticed that they all five wore similar amulets. They were red
jewels encased in gold.
The oldest, the one
of the gray robes, shook his head. His necklace was made of silver.
He sighed. “I am a servant of God, Oh who art Christ!”
“What is a
Christ?” Bleach wanted to know.
“A Christ
performs miracles, Lord Jesus!” yelled the woman. “I am your
mother, Mary, and my... husband... is Joseph!” She very carefully
kissed the yellow robed man on his bearded cheek. Neither one looked
happy about the kiss.
“Yosef!” he
corrected.
She hit him in the
crotch with her fist.
Yosef gasped. “Call
me Joseph, please,” he said weakly.
