That Leper; Chapter 1

 

That Leper; Chapter 1

© 2025 by Amber Wright

Date: AD 30

Place: Jerusalem

I was that leper.

The one who was so empty and so broken—broken in both body and spirit.

I was that spotted leper who had no choice but to die—sink to the earth—and fade away into silence with the countless others.

But now I have reason to sing.

Hope.

Smile.

My mourning has turned into dancing! Why? Because the Healer has touched me.

Here is my story…

It all started one day when I began noticing big red spots on my arms.

I was at the market when a Roman soldier happened to be standing beside me—close enough to look at my arms. I silently shuddered, seeing him glance down at me and my red spots.

“What have we here?” he barked.

I didn’t answer.

My heartbeat pounded inside my ears. What would happen to me? I tried to hide my arms with my basket but the soldier only pushed it aside to take a closer look. I cringed as he drew back in horror.

“Leprosy!” the Roman nudged me with the blunt edge of his spear.

I froze, terrified.

“Away with the girl!” the Roman barked an order to a younger soldier who was standing nearby.

The young soldier saluted to the older Roman and motioned for me to follow him. I clutched my basket in confusion and pain, following him.

The crowd stepped back for the two of us—for the Roman and for me.

The leper.

“Leper, leper, leper!” the word rang in my ears from multiple voices, stinging my mind.

Then I understood the feeling...of being a leper. Leper, the unclean one.

Unwanted.

Outcast.

The forgotten one.

I knew where we were going even before he told me. We were going to the Valley of Lepers right outside of Jerusalem where the other lepers lived and were fed.

“The place,” the young soldier said as he narrowed his dark eyes in the bright sunlight, “is the Valley of Lepers. That’s where you’ll live. I wish you luck and hope to your future.”

I nodded, feeling like the most wretched living human being on the whole earth.

I was a leper.

My home was to be the Valley.

My first real home I have ever had.

I had lived in the streets, on doorsteps, on the shop floor...just anywhere I could lay my head. But my first real home was to be the Valley.

We walked along down the dusty road that narrowed into a footpath the closer we neared the Valley. My eyes were to the ground yet my heart soared far away. Far away into brighter, happier times. Little did I know how bright those little moments were before...before this nightmare.

I looked into the dust from which I came—a moment I shall never forget.

I was being transposed.

From a child to an adult.

From a human to a leper.

From health to death.

From a name to the nameless.

And I was being led to the Valley.

We stopped at a fork in the path on a high bluff.

“There it is,” the soldier pointed down the hill where cave-like earthen dwellings stood like open tombs.

Ready to welcome me, I gulped. I was now entering the arms of death. Could there be no choice now but to submit to its clutches? No! I almost choked. But I took a deep breath. I would not let this Roman see me weak and afraid. Not to my conqueror.

“There,” the soldier said briskly. “The Valley of Lepers.”

I faked a smile to the Roman.

No need to be told. I had passed the Valley many times in my short lifetime.

“Follow that trail,” he pointed to a winding narrow footpath that hugged the rocks. “Be careful on the rocks.”

I nodded and gave him a confused look. Why was this Roman telling me to be careful? Did he want me to die slowly?

“Farewell,” he bowed slightly and smiled for the first time, but with a look of pain.

I simply nodded, biting on my lip to keep it from shaking.

I started on the footpath to the Valley of the Lepers. Farewell, indeed! Farewell life, I said to myself grimly. Farewell humans, I won’t be seeing you again...besides from my cave below here. My leper race will be my companions now—in this Valley—in our living tombs.

I paused on my trek down and looked up. The soldier was still standing above me on that bluff, watching me. I smiled up at him and waved, trying to look cheerful.

I tried to be cheerful as I stepped into my living tomb. I could never get well now for I was in the place of contamination.

I had entered into the Tombs.

Nobody who went into the caves of the Valley of Lepers ever came out again. I took a deep breath, and kept walking.

The Roman waved back at me and stepped backwards...until he was gone.

I looked around at my darkest Valley and cried until I could cry no more.

• • •

Months passed.

I did little and slept less.

Pain kept me occupied through my waking hours and haunted me far into the night. A leper's sort of pain.

I was walking along one day, thinking about life. We took the food that was let down in the mornings and the evenings. Usually bread and some sort of vegetable. We drank water from the brook that ran into the Valley. Our homes were wherever we could find a dry, empty space.

By this time, I realized my bare feet had stepped into human waste. Too many were too sick to care for themselves so they lay where they fell—until they died.

After they'd died, someone would throw them deeper into the cave for a burial—if the vultures had not eaten them already. It was pitiful, I thought. We were still humans and yet...we were not. It was all too strange for me.

My cramped quarters was even stranger than all my earlier days in the streets. It was all very strange and difficult. I used to be known as Keturah and now I was simply known as Leper.