Seventh Dimension - The King - Book 2, A Young Adult Fantasy by Lorilyn Roberts

suffering, familiar with disease.
    As one who hid his face from us,
    He was despised, we held him of no account.
    Yet it was our sickness that he was bearing,
    Our suffering that he endured.
    We accounted him plagued,
    Smitten and
afflicted by God;
    But he was wounded because of our sins,
    Crushed because of our iniquities.
    He bore the chastisement that made us whole,
    And by his
bruises we were healed.”
     
     
    I paused to
consider the words. Of whom was Isaiah speaking? I didn’t remember
reading these verses in the Tanakh—but when was the last time I had
even opened the Scriptures?
    I read a little more.
     
    “He was
maltreated, yet he was submissive,
    He did not open his mouth;
    Like a sheep
being led to slaughter,
    Like a ewe,
dumb before those who shear her,
    He did not
open his mouth.
    By oppressive judgment he was taken away,
    Who could
describe his abode?
    For he was cut off from the land of the living
    Through the sin of my people, who deserved the
punishment.
    And his grave was set among the wicked.
    And with the rich, in his death—
    Though he had done no injustice
    And had spoken no falsehood.
    But the Lord chose to crush him by disease,
    That, if he made himself an offering for guilt,
    He might see offspring and have long life,
    And that through him the Lord’s purpose might
prosper.
    Out of his
anguish he shall see it;
    He shall enjoy it to the full through his
devotion.”
     
    I put the
scroll back on the shelf. To whom was Isaiah referring?
    When Brutus
rode away on his horse a little later, I hurried to find Mari. She
was laying out clothes on the rocks to dry them.
    “Is Shale not
coming today? How can Brutus leave on the day of his daughter’s
arrival?”
    Mari sighed. “It’s so unfortunate. There has been
another uprising and they needed him in Jerusalem.”
    “So he won’t
even be here to greet her.”
    Her eyes met mine in uncharacteristic sadness. “He
promised he’d be back as soon as possible. We need to pray for his
speedy return.”
    I nodded.
    Mari smiled. “You have a kind heart.”
    I laughed. Mari
was five years older than I was and seemed like a sister. If I had
a problem, she was the one I went to see. She had plenty to do
without distraction, so I went back to my own mental to-do
list.
    I couldn’t
resist keeping a vigil. Every few minutes I’d find an excuse to
steal a look down the road. By noon, I had become so preoccupied
with her arrival I had not gotten much work done. I imagined a
beautiful young woman coming over the hill on a donkey. And then I
reminded myself I was setting myself up for disappointment. So I
would imagine a fat cow coming over the hill on a donkey—and
guessed she’d be somewhere in between.
    I soon
discovered I wasn’t the only one watching. I caught Judd gazing
down the road, too, though I pretended I didn’t notice, and he
seemed to be unaware of me. Or maybe neither of us wanted to
acknowledge we were both interested in the same young girl’s
arrival. The only problem was there was only one girl but there
were two of us.
    I found myself
copying him, washing my hands and combing my hair and looking at my
reflection in the water. Since arriving, I’d grown a beard, which
made me look older. Judd was three years younger than me. Maybe my
age gave me a competitive advantage.
    Still, I
imagined a family secret that had something to do with Judd. If my
ability to read minds could be that specific, I’d know all the
family secrets.
    At last, a
donkey carrying a young girl appeared in view. When I first spotted
them, they were a great distance away, merely a tiny dot on the
horizon.
    I stood on a
rocky outcrop filled with anticipation. As she came nearer, I could
see her long brown hair below her head covering. She sat sideways
with her legs draped to one side of the donkey—and she wasn’t
flabby or old.
    My heart
fluttered. I strained to see what she was wearing—a tasteful
flowery, purple dress. Water bottles hung off the sides of