[Kahn]

continued

When Mary and Salome returned home, Eli and Anne were surprised, to say the least. Through careful explanation, the two daughters were able to explain exactly what happened. It took a lot of convincing, of course, but after two phone calls to the Abijahs and three hour long conversation with each other daughters, they decided that they believed the story.

Now Mary knew that all that was left was Joseph. She knew Joseph was kind and understanding, and that if she could explain it to him carefully he might believe it. She always had her family to help her in case, anyway.

Mary had been spending all her time in her bedroom, because she didn't want any of the neighbor's to see and go blabbing it all over town. She had to be the one to tell Joseph, so the second day after she came home, she called up Joseph to come see her straightaway. Joseph was thrilled that he could finally see his fiancee and get back on track with their wedding.

Her family had all gone out to the store, thankfully, so she had the house all to herself. She waited anxiously at the door for Joseph to arrive. When he finally did she suddenly wished she had more time.

“Hello, Joe,” she said as she answered the door.

“Mary!” he screamed with joy, grabbing her into a kiss before he got a good look at her. Mary pulled away, and Joseph felt confused. “What's wrong Mary? Aren't you glad to see me?”

“Joseph, look at me.”

“I am looking at your sweetheart!”

“No, look at me carefully.”

Mary was only four months along, and Joseph hadn't been around a lot of pregant women in his life. He looked at her, and thought that she'd gotten fat. Than, a horrible thought entered into his mind.

“Mary...” he couldn't finish what he was going to say. It couldn't be true what he was thinking.

“Joseph, I have something very very important to tell you.”

“No. Don't tell me. Please, tell me I'm wrong!”

“Oh, Joe, I'm pregnant!”

“What, no! How could you do this! You run off during our engagement for months without even calling me, and now you come back knocked up! What, you met some great city boy down there or something! All your talk about saving something special for our wedding night, and now you do something like this to me! Where's the father now, huh?”

“No, no Joe, I swear, it's not like this...” she found she couldn't explain herself, she was so afraid.

“Where is he? Are you leaving me for this city boy, is that it?”

“No, Joseph, I'm not going to leave you, just listen...”

“No, no Mary! What, let me guess, the jerk left you, huh! Thought you could straddle me into raising some other man's baby! Is that it! Because you've got another thing coming!”

“Joseph, please, I was already pregnant before I went to the city!”

“Oh God! Now I see what you've been up to. You were afraid so you went running off to your cousin's house! How dare you, you cheated on me here in town, when we were still together! Who was it, was it that Billy, cause I knew he always liked you but I never thought...”

“Joseph, please, listen to me. Trust me, I love you. We're engaged!”

“No! No, we're not! I, I can't do this Mary! I loved you with all my heart and I can't believe you'd go and betray me like this! I...I don't want to look at you. Please, just leave me alone. The wedding's off.”

“NO! NO JOSEPH, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! JUST WAIT UNTIL MY PARENTS COME HOME! THEY'LL EXPLAIN EVERYTHING, PLEASE, THIS BABY IS...”

But Joseph was already out the door. She followed him up to the car begging him to hear her out, but he just couldn't stand to look at her.

Joseph drove straight home, and ran upstairs to his room. He spent the entire night up there, crying, wondering what he could have done to make Mary betray him like this. He'd never been this angry in all his life, it was like he'd turned into a monster back there. But he was so frustrated the whole time Mary was gone, avoiding him, it seemed to him like he had lost her and seeing her today like this just confirmed it all. He still loved her, but he couldn't do this. He couldn't raise another man's child.

Mary was even worst off than Joseph. She knew it was unhealthy for the baby if she got upset, but she couldn't help herself from crying. She lost the man she most loved, all because God had made her carry this baby for Him. She wanted to scream curses at God, but she couldn't do that. She tried more than once to call Joseph, all night long, but he would never answer. She even convinced Salome to go to his house and talk to him, but he told his mother not to let anyone in, and though Mrs. Christ didn't know what was upsetting her son, she too refused to listen to Salome.

Neither of them were able to get to sleep until very late that night. Neither of them were exactly relaxed. Joseph was tossing and turning in his bed while he was having a dream. He kept hearing Mary laughing but from far away, and he was completely alone. But than, quite suddenly the dream changed. In fact, he wasn't even sure if was still dreaming. He felt wide awake. But it still felt like a dream. In front of him was an angel, but as Joseph was dreaming he wasn't too bothered by this.

“Joseph Christ, don't be afraid to take Mary Nazareth as your wife.”

“But, she betrayed me.”

The angel continued as if he had not heard him, “The baby Mary is carrying is not the son of a man. It was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. You will marry her, and raise Him as your son. He is the Son of God. He has been sent to Earth to save all humanity from their sins.”

“So, Mary didn't cheat on me, than? Does she know this?”

“I told her everything I'm telling you, four months ago when she became with child. Mary loves you.”

BRRIIIINNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!

Joseph's alarm clock went off. He woke up, still confused. But, somehow he knew what just happened wasn't a dream. It was real. He ran to the phone, and dialed Mary's phone number. Mary had just gotten up, to miserable to sleep, and was surprised to hear the phone ringing this early.

“Hello, Nazareth residence,” she said dully.

“Mary.”

“Joseph! Joseph, please don't hang up. Listen to me. My baby...”

“It's alright Mary, I, I know everything. You see, a ... an angel appeared to me in a dream, he told me what happened. Mary, I'm so sorry. I can't believe the way I acted yesterday. Please, please forgive me. I love you, and I hope that you still want to marry me.”

Mary was so overjoyed. She had felt angry with God but he had set everything right. This was the kind sensitive Joseph she knew and loved.

“You know I'll marry you!”

“Than, let's forget about the wedding, let's get married, today, right now!”

“What?”

“We'll elope, I know a chapel nearby that does this sort of thing. Will you?”

Mary wasn't sure, she had always looked forward to a big wedding, a white dress, family, and dancing, and cake. But what she did know was that she didn't want to not be married to him for one more second. “Yes!”

“I'll be there to pick you up, are you folks up?”

“No.”

“Great. See you soon!”

Both the Nazareth and the Christ family were shocked when they woke up to find notes explaining what they'd done. The Christ family wasn't happy about this at all, but the Nazareths had gotten so many surprises lately that they were just happy when the newlyweds came home that evening.

About five months passed, and Mary knew the baby was going to come soon. They didn’t have a lot of money; Joseph was apprenticing to become a carpenter, and was working a second-part time job. Still, they had all the money saved up that they were going to spend on the wedding, so they had enough to buy a beat-up old pick-up truck, and they had a large sum of money saved so they could hopefully soon afford to buy a house of their own and move out of the Nazareths’ house.

During mid-November they received an invitation in the mail to go to the Christ Family Reunion. It was going to be held in the town Joseph’s parents had come from, halfway on the other side of the country.

So despite her family member’s protests, Joseph, and Mary, nine months pregnant, decided to travel a cross-country trip in a pick-up truck in the middle of December. They were almost halfway there, the sun had just set, when it broke down.

“Darn it!” yelled Joseph, who got out into the rain to look at the engine. “This thing’s gone! Piece of junk! Great, great, great! We’re in the middle of nowhere. There’s not a town in miles! Stay here, honey, I guess I’ll have to go do some walking.”

“Oh, no…”

“Sorry, but it’s all I can do. I don’t want you walking around out here, especially in the rain.”

“No, Joe, I thought I had felt a contraction earlier but I wasn’t sure, but now I’m positive that my water just broke.”

“WHAT?” screamed Joseph. “No. Oh no. Are you positive this isn’t false labor or something?”

“Joseph, everything from my waist down is soaked. I’m positive I’m having the baby!”

“Oh, no, no, what are we supposed to do?”

“I don’t know, but I can’t have kid in this tiny little truck, there’s no room.”

“Great,” said Joseph. I don’t see a light anywhere near here! At least if it weren’t raining, maybe we could put you on the back on the truck.”

“Joseph, my child is not going to come into the world in the middle of the road! Think of something!”

“Relax, please, please relax!”

“I’m trying! Come on! AHHH!”

“What?”

“What do you think, I’m in labor!”

“Ok, this usually takes hours and hours, so we have a lot of time here…”

“Joseph, look, over there,” said Mary. “I think I see a house, on the other side of that corn field.”

“Yeah, yeah, I think you’re right. Come on, let's go, quick!”

Joseph took off his jacket to shelter Mary from the rain and they ran across the corn field. However, as they got closer they found that it was just an old dilapidated barn.

“There might not be anywhere else for miles,” said Mary. “I don't know but maybe we should just stay here.”

“You're alright having your baby in a barn, but the middle of the road is off limits?”

“Look, out of the two options, this one is the best.”

The barn was dark, filthy, filled with insects and the roof leaked. Still, they managed to settle Mary in a pile of straw in a corner. They stayed there for hours, Joseph tried to ease his wife's pain, but still was still nervous, because he knew that he would have to be the one to deliver this baby.

Finally, when sunrise was only about an hour away, after a lot of screaming, worries, and anxiety, Mary gave birth to a baby boy. Mary and Joseph looked on him in awe. He was incredible. He was by far the cutest baby they'd ever seen. Mary couldn't stop crying, and Joseph, well Joseph had been afraid he wouldn't be able to love this child because he wasn't his, but the second he saw him, he knew he didn't care in the least whether they were related.

“So, I guess we call him Joshua, than?” said Mary smiling, as they looked down at the baby. They'd use Joseph's jacket as a blanket and as soon as daylight broke they would be leaving.

“Yeah. It's amazing really, that this all worked out.”

“We do need to get him to a doctor though.”

“I wonder what our folks will say?”

“Well considering that they already missed our wedding and now they've missed the birth of their grandchild, I can't imagine they're going to be too please,” laughed Mary. “Oh Joseph, isn't he just amazing?” she said, rocking him back and forth as he cried.

“Yeah, he really is.”