chapter 07

We left Cairo with a shipment of furniture destined for Istanbul. I was the only woman on the ship and received much attention.

But they, the men, were polite enough not to kill Jesus, rape me and sell me to a rich King for his harem.

It was for Jesus and me our first ocean voyage.

The open sea was a strange thing. It was a big emptiness. Jesus talked to the captain about the horizon and the size of the world. He was quite excited to see Rodos rising up out of the water before us.

The captain drew a picture of a curve with the ship at one side and the island at the other.

"Moses was such an asshole. All our ancestors. The world is so big and we, the chosen race, we are just one inbred family waging war on one bit of desert."

"Cain took a wife from somewhere else. Maybe the father of Adam took his wife from somewhere else."

"His father and his father. The world didn't start with our arrogant family."

Jesus was getting himself worked up on the idea of the ignorant arrogance of the Holy Scriptures. He was even more upset with the Priests and Lawyers that ruled with violence and law to keep the chosen race, full of inbred and bastard children believing simply impossible events. Because they had been written.

Ignoring the obvious fact that the rest of the world didn't know anything about Adam and Eve. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The most famous of all being bastard children. Fathered by kings of other tribes.

"Just like you."

"Not a coincidence. If the word holds any meaning. All events are influenced by the events before and beside it."

"And our people have a set of laws that say you are a bastard. Like David, Jacob, Isaac and likely Ab and Adam."

"It would make more sense to follow the line of ancestors through the women. If at all."

"It would make more sense if we weren't your in house possessions. Sex slaves. Baby producers."

Jesus smiled and I could see the laws fall away and the animal appear.

"Defining meaning."

"You'll redefine it, Jesus."

"You have redefined it for me, Helene. You have defined my war against war. The world will see what we see."

The world had a long way to go.

Before all the self appointed royalty was removed from their power of fear and lies.

chapter 08

Istanbul was a world apart from Galilee. Eyes followed us from the ship to the university. The university campus was a different world again.

Jesus and I were taken to our flat in a house with other professors and an old woman that would look after us if we needed anything. Or if we didn't.

She loved us both on sight and mentioned a few times that she had been blessed. She made us mocha coffee while telling us about Istanbul. Where to go when and best times for which fish. Best locations for new and imported fabrics.

Our flat was small but very bright and the kitchen was open to a balcony overlooking the campus.

It was our first place that was our place.

So we got naked and had sex. And we stayed naked, having sex and sleeping until the birds called on us the next morning.

There were not many Jews in Istanbul. There were many non-Jews who were little different who paid service to any other gods. People loved to worship. It made me a little nervous to walk the streets alone but it was the only way to get to my dance class. It was traditional dance different than the traditional dance of my ancestors.

I enjoyed shopping in the market most of all my activities I did without Jesus. There were many other women with their children. Sometimes they tryed to talk to me. Touch my face. Sometimes vendors tryed to charge me too much. Never more than once.

We ate fish almost everyday. It was always fresh and Jesus was convinced red meat slowed him down too much.

I was happy to see him so charged. He took classes and taught classes. I attended most of the classes he taught, especially enjoying his rebirth class. I took theater classes and most mornings the old woman of our house helped me learn her language. She was very refreshing and always called me Angel. Jesus she called Master or Lord.

On days when we had no classes, one or two days a week, Jesus and I went to the Black Sea. There we had a favourite fishing village that wasn't really a tourist destination but there was a friend of a friend who let us stay in his boat house in exchange for a little work, fish cleaning, and hospitality.

He, like so many others, loved to hear Jesus talk about heaven and being born over and over. Learning each life like each day.

chapter 09

"Our religions are stories told from one generation to the next generation. Every land has a different story that they hold onto as holy wisdom. All these stories are different from one another in language and sound but they all have obvious similarities.

And they are all dangerous if adhered to as ultimate truth. We are a long way from ultimate truth and perhaps it may never be nailed down.

We demand too much too soon from our language and perception.

When I was a child, I lived in Cairo and was confronted with the ultimate truth of my ancestors, a book of instructions how to kill sheep and goats and a thousand other laws and the ultimate truth of Pharaohs that sold themselves, like Moses, as gods. Truths from the south, the north, the east and the west.

And the one simple truth that seems to be continually ignored."

Jesus took a short break and smile at me.

"We are here. And it is while we are alive that we are here. This is a truth we need not argue on. If we can drop, even for a moment, the written truths, the all so many varied stories of our grand ancestors, we will wake up to the most beautiful of all truths."

He waited again.

"The kingdom of heaven is here and now. And it is eternal."

Jesus went on to explain the reasons for propagating belief in a heaven somewhere else but all I heard him say was that he was in love with life and I was one of the parts of life that he most liked to touch and with whom to share heaven.

He explained that life was God, that we were all part of God, from the fish to man. That a new born child was also part of everything that had been. That we were in a physical and spiritual way still our ancestors. It was self indulgence to honour or brutal achievement of the past.

He pushed and pulled until he had set them on fire. His students. His teachers.

When he had finished, we went out into the early evening sun.

"Jesus. There is a fish waiting for us for our evening meal."


mary helene chapters 10 - 12