Maid Servant

From We Were There

By Sarah A. O'Malley and Robert D. Elmer

MAlD SERVANT:I was in the courtyard that night, a maid working for the High Priest Caiaphas. The soldiers whisked a man in through the back door. I told the other servants this must be Jesus of Nazareth. Then I saw a man who was a follower of Jesus--- I was sure of it!  He huddled near the fire hypnotized by its flames. I approached him. "No shyness in your bones, missy," my mother used to say, and I straightway asked him, "Are you a follower of that Nazarene, Jesus?" I didn't mean to alarm him, but he became startled at my words like a horse encountering a snake.

"I don't know him," he sputtered. So I walked over to my fellow workers and pointed Peter out. I said loudly, so he could hear me, "Do you remember this man being a part of Jesus' group?" He turned sharply to us and denied it again. Finally, old Tobias, sitting around the fire, smiled at him and said, "Surely you are one of them; you're a Galilean!" The Galileans have that strange accent, you know.

The man stood up, cursing and swearing. He became so violent, we scattered. But I watched him from a distance. I saw a strange look come over his face when he heard old Ben's rooster crow. It was as though death had called for his soul. Then he turned away, and I saw his shoulders rise and fall. If he weren't a man, I'd swear he was crying.