Free Indeed; Chapter 2

 

Free Indeed; Chapter 2

© 2025 by Amber Wright

Date: AD 30

Place: Jerusalem & Galilee

Joanna stared. The master’s son was indeed sick unto death. What would her master and mistress do if Alexandros did die? He was their idol—their prize in life.

She took a deep breath. There was a man in the village who could make sick people well. Perhaps he would come. She started towards the cart where the mistress was wailing and the master was swallowing with effort.

“Master,” Joanna gulped down her salvia and inhaled a breath of courage. “I have heard there is a man in the village who can make sick people well.”

“But my son is not sick—he is dying!” The mistress wailed even louder.

The master swallowed another time and stroked his beard thoughtfully; then, he nodded to Joanna. “Take my wife into the house—and stay with her until I return.”

Joanna nodded. Of course, what else would she do but stay with her tragedy stricken mistress? She walked over to the woman and gently began leading her into the house. The stranger and the servants carried the master’s son before them.

Just as they were walking through the threshold, Joanna glanced back outside. The master was already on a donkey, hurrying out the gateway towards the village. Please God, she silently prayed, let the man who can heal be in the village.

She let out her breath slowly. Now, all they could do was wait.

• • •

The sky was indeed dark when the master returned. Joanna peered through the window and saw the man she had heard teaching by the seaside and who made the sick well. Her master had found him.

“They are here, mistress.” She said gently to the woman kneeling at her son’s side.

Her mistress stood up with swollen eyes and a very red nose. She wiped at her face with her veil. Joanna only stood there quietly. She had not cried…but neither had she been friends with the young master, Alexandros.

At the sound of her master’s and the other man’s footsteps on the chamber’s

threshold, Joanna shrunk into the shadows—out of the way of light from the oil lamp by the bed. Her master and the man entered the room.

• • •

Footsteps awakened Alexandros from his deathlike slumber. Then his ears listened to the voices that spoke around him, and his lips tried to move, to speak. But no words came. His tongue felt fastened tightly into an odd tight angle.

For a moment, he lay there. Still. Too still that he felt his limbs flattened onto the bed like a blanket. He tried to open his eyes—but he could not. He only heard a man speak a few words. Then the footsteps walked away…and he fell into a restful sleep.

• • •

Days later, Joanna was summoned to her master’s study. The young master was well and now he went about the villa with a smile, instead of his usual haughty smirk.

“Joanna,” her master called her by her given name for the first time. “I have some news for you.”

“Yes?” Joanna did not know how else to respond. So she simply folded her hands, and waited silently.

“I have signed the papers.”

She felt her hands tremble. If a master signed papers, it only meant one thing: she had been sold to a new master. Her lips shook as she thought of a new owner—possibly an evil master who would treat her ill. No, I cannot go! She sucked in her breath, and slowly exhaled.

She knew she had no other choice but to go. So she asked, “What time must I leave, sir?”

“As soon as you can pack your things.” Then her master did a very odd thing. He smiled.

Joanna plucked up her courage to ask another question, “What is my new master like?”

“You have no new master, Joanna. You are free.”

“But you said you signed papers.”

“I signed papers, yes, to free you.”

Joanna stared. What was her master saying? Am I truly free? She heard him talking again.

“What you did for my son—I can never be able to repay you. I hope someday I can.”

Joanna felt her body freeze. She was free…she had no new master, none at all. Her master had said so. But where will I go to live? I know no one here.

“Jesus, the man who made my son well, said that you would be welcomed into their group. There is a woman—a wife of one of His disciples—who will care for you.”

“Thank you, master!” Joanna was so happy she could barely speak.

“Master no more, Joanna.” Her old master smiled again. “Shalom.”

“Shalom.” And Joanna felt free indeed.