Read The Galileans: A Novel of Mary Magdalene for Free Online

young man. The answer to the mystery of the universe may well lie in the vibrations of these strands of lowly gut. . . .”
    There was a commotion in the street outside and Mary ran in, plucking the shawl from her head so that her hair tumbled in a glorious torrent of living copper about her shoulders. In her excitement she did not see Joseph. “Demetrius!” she cried. “I brought Simon. He has been hurt.”
    Several people followed Mary into the garden. The tall musician, Hadja, was supporting a veritable giant of a man in the garb of a fisherman, whose occupation would have been betrayed, anyway, by the strong odor that accompanied him. The big man’s face was white and he carried his right arm in a rude sling. Behind them was another man, slender and dark-haired, also in the garb of a fisherman.
    When Joseph ran to hold Simon’s arm while they eased him down on the bench beside Demetrius, Mary saw him for the first time. “I just came from your house, Joseph,” she cried in astonishment. “Your mother said you would not be back until evening.”
    “I sent for him,” Demetrius explained, “to thank him for bringing you safely home last night.”
    Mary tossed her head. “I am not a child any longer. I could have come home by myself.” Then she smiled. “But it was nice of you, Joseph, and I did enjoy the ride on the mule.”
    “What was the disturbance about this time, Simon?” Demetrius asked. “You Galileans are always first in the fighting. And I suppose John, the son of Zebedee, here, was in it, too.”
    “Some Greeks were arguing that the Jews will not rule the world when the Messiah comes,” Simon explained. “We broke a few heads, but one of them had a club. You are the only sensible Greek I ever saw, Demetrius.”
    “Because I know better than to argue with you, my friend,” the lyre maker said complacently. “Now sit still and let Joseph examine this arm of yours.”
V
    The young physician knelt beside the injured man and gently felt his upper arm, where the trouble seemed to be. Simon flinched even from the light pressure of skilled fingers upon the arm, but not before Joseph had detected a slight grating of splintered bones rubbing against each other.
    “Can you make it whole?” Simon asked anxiously. “A fisherman has need of strong arms.” The fishing establishment of Zebedee and his sons at Capernaum was a large one, and well known along the entire populous shore of the lake. Simon, Joseph thought, must be associated with them, for he seemed to be more than simply a fisherman.
    “‘Healing comes from the Most High!” Joseph said quietly. “I will do my best to set the bone straight, but the rest is in the hands of the Lord.”
    “Simon is a very good man,” Mary said confidently. “The Lord is sure to favor him.”
    From his pouch Joseph measured out a dose of dried poppy leaves and mixed them in wine. Simon drank the mixture with a grimace. While he waited for the drug to take effect, Joseph began to prepare his bandages. Mary was sent to tear long strips of cloth from a winding sheet, while he trimmed short sections of the thin wood used to make the sounding boards of the musical instruments for splints. Water was also set to boiling in a pot over a brazier, and into it Joseph stirred flour to make a thick starch paste.
    Demetrius watched the preparations with interest, and when Joseph sent for a chair with a high back and placed on top of it a folded napkin, the old musician could contain his curiosity no longer. “Why do you need the chair, Joseph?” he asked.
    “The bar at the top will fix the shoulder and upper arm,” Joseph explained as he seated Simon sideways on the chair, with his injured arm hanging over the back and the pad under the armpit. “Then a pull can be applied to the lower arm with weights while the bones are set properly and bandaged into place.”
    “And the flour?”
    “Bandages moistened in starch harden when they dry, helping to hold the broken