{"id":1162,"date":"2019-02-13T13:38:05","date_gmt":"2019-02-13T18:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/read.whitefire-publishing.com\/?p=1162"},"modified":"2020-06-01T09:07:11","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T13:07:11","slug":"hopeless-the-woman-with-the-issue-of-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/hopeless-the-woman-with-the-issue-of-blood\/","title":{"rendered":"Hopeless The Woman with the Issue of Blood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Hopeless The Woman with the Issue of Blood<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

by Golden Keyes Parsons<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children love her. Dinah thought when she married she would have a house full of children. The days melted into weeks and the months sped by with no pregnancy. At last, the long-awaited pregnancy, only to end in bitter disappointment with a late miscarriage. Then another\u2014and another. After that, the hemorrhaging began. No doctors could help. She went to every priest, physician, and charlatan who promised healing, but the bleeding would not stop, nor could she conceive. Years went by. She had given up. She heard about the brash young teacher, making his headquarters in her hometown of Capernaum, who was performing mighty miracles. She was desperate. She heard a commotion in the streets and, unknown to her husband or family<\/a>, found her way through the crowds to this one who could heal. One touch. One simple, trembling, child-like gesture\u2014reaching out to the Great Physician. Her life is changed forever.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Chapter 1<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t

Red. Thick and slimy.\nSurrounding her. Smothering her. Choking her. Zahava swam her way to\nconsciousness through the red, oozing stream. She sat up and realized she had\nbeen moaning in her sleep. The fever made her tremble, and she reached for the\nblanket bunched at her feet, pulled it to her chin, and continued to shiver\nunderneath the scratchy threads. Her teeth chattered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gideon turned over\nand continued his soft snoring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ever since Zahava\ncould remember, fever produced the same dream. It started with a line drawn\nhorizontally across her mind with people walking along it, step by plodding\nstep, their shoulders slumped forward. She watched them as they moved across\nher mind\u2019s eye from right to left in a clump. Their legs moved, but they never\nleft her sight\u2014always moving, trying to reach something, somewhere in the\ndistance, but never making any progress. A red trickle of blood oozed from the\nground and pooled around her. It moved like a living thing toward the people,\ngaining momentum as it seeped toward them. The whirling, swirling eddy engulfed\nZahava\u2019s feet and thrust her toward the people. It swallowed all of them in its\nsticky grip. If she could just reach that mysterious object in the distance,\nshe knew she could escape the blood. But she never could. She always jolted\nawake as the suffocating liquid engulfed her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She lay back on her\npillow and covered her face with her arm. Sweat beaded on her lip. She wiped\nher face with the sleeve of her tunic and ran her hand over her swollen belly.\nWas their baby well? She prayed this current malady wouldn\u2019t affect the\nsoon-to-arrive infant. This was their firstborn. She didn\u2019t know how she was\nsupposed to feel, couldn\u2019t tell if anything was awry. Her mother and\nmother-in-law both reassured her everything was fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 A smile tugged at her lips as she felt the\nbaby move within her. Only a few more weeks, and they would know whether she\ncarried a son or a daughter. She prayed it was a boy. A firstborn son made for\na proud father, set the inheritance in good order. Then they could have a\ndaughter later on for her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the oldest\ndaughter, Zahava had taken care of little ones all of her growing-up years. Her\nmother had birthed ten children\u2014a healthy, robust brood from the moment they\nwere born, and they came rapid fire, one after another. By the time her mother\ngot the last one up and walking, along came another little mouth to feed. And\nZahava carried the littlest brother or sister on her hip as her mother nursed\nthe newest baby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She tried to feel her\nhip bone through her expanding waistline. Still there. Soon she would be\nhoisting her own little one onto her hip. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She rolled over and\nwatched her husband sleep. Gideon looked more boy than man when he slept. His\ndark hair curled around his face, thick and shiny. She loved when he wore his\nhair long, but since they married he\u2019d kept it cut shorter. He was young.\nNeither of them were twenty yet. But she was certain he would be a good father\nto their new baby. She brushed his hair away from his face with the tips of her\nfingers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The eastern sky\ndisplayed soft pink through the archways from the balcony of their quarters in\nthe rear of his parents\u2019 considerable estate. They would add on rooms as their\nfamily grew. As soon as the sun rose every morning, so did her husband, with a\nsmile on his face, eager to get to work in his family\u2019s import\/export business.\nHer father had made a good match for her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gideon\u2019s eyes\nfluttered open. He smiled and took her hand, kissing her palm. \u201cAre you feeling\nbetter?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She nodded. \u201cI think\nso. I felt feverish when I awoke, but I feel better now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCome here.\u201d He\npulled her to him in a comforting embrace. Feeling her abdomen, he asked, \u201cDo\nyou think our baby is well?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been a bit\nstill, but I\u2019m sure he\u2019s fine. My mother says babies are stronger than we\nthink.\u201d She snuggled close to Gideon\u2019s chest and ran her fingers through his\nbeard\u2014what there was of it. \u201cDo you suppose your beard will thicken up as you\nget older?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy father says it\nwill. His was thin and scraggly like mine when he was young.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt may be thin, but\nit\u2019s not scraggly. You keep it neat and trimmed. Judah\u2019s is scraggly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gideon let go of\nZahava and sat up, rubbing his chin. \u201cYes, my brother\u2019s beard is pretty sparse\nand thin, that\u2019s for sure. But he\u2019s still young as well. Not much older than\nI.\u201d He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. He touched her cheek. \u201cYour\nskin feels clammy. Are you sure you\u2019re better?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMm.\u201d She nodded and\ngathered the blanket around her shoulders. \u201cI had the dream again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gideon rose from the\nbed and reached for his robe hanging on a wall peg. \u201cIt\u2019s just a dream. Doesn\u2019t\nmean a thing.\u201d He tied his belt around his waist and picked up a water pitcher\nfrom a table beside the bed. \u201cI\u2019ll get you some milk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zahava made a face.\n\u201cThat doesn\u2019t sound good at all. I\u2019m sick of goat\u2019s milk and barley soup.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He laughed. \u201cI won\u2019t\ntell my mother. She prides herself on making the best barley soup in the\nvillage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t mean it\u2019s\nnot good. I\u2019ve just had so much of it this week\u2026\u201d Gideon\u2019s mother, Yenta,\ntreated her well enough, including making barley soup for her when she felt\nill. Moshe, his father, a large man, maintained a quiet dignity about himself\nand remained rather distant from her. He seemed not to know what to do with a\ndaughter now in the house. Gideon had only brothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, I know. But\nMother is convinced it cures all that ails you. So what does sound good to you?\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust a little\nwine\u2026watered down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be right back.\nYou stay there and rest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet the servants get\nit. Stay here with me for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gideon sat on the\nedge of their bed, turning the clay pitcher round in his hands. He chucked her\nbeneath her chin. \u201cI need to get going. It\u2019s my morning to open the shop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, stay. I\u2019ve grown\ntoo accustomed to having you with me all the time this year following our\nwedding.\u201d She pulled him down to her and kissed him. He returned the kiss\u2014long,\nhard and passionate, lingering. Zahava felt her breath quickening as she leaned\ninto him. She whispered in his ear as she pulled his robe off his shoulders.\n\u201cStay with me today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He groaned, opened\nhis eyes, and sat up. \u201cYou are<\/em>\nfeeling better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patting the bed, she\nsmiled at him. \u201cI hate it that you have to leave every morning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gideon stood,\ngrinning down at her. \u201cBut I always come back. And what man wouldn\u2019t want to\ncome home to this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He tossed the pitcher\nin the air and caught it, laughing at Zahava\u2019s gasp. \u201cI\u2019ll send Hasina back\nwith some wine for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVery well.\u201d Zahava\npursed her lips in a mocking pout. \u201cGo on. Leave your poor, sick wife, heavy\nwith your baby, pining away for you. Perhaps that\u2019s all that is wrong with me.\nI\u2019m simply lovesick for my husband.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t be\ntrying to make me feel guilty, now would you?\u201d Gideon returned to the bedside\nand touched her arm. \u201cYou are the love of my life. You know that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His touch sent\nshivers down her back. She covered his hand with her own. \u201cI\u2019m being childish.\nGo in peace, my husband\u2014I shall await your return this evening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He pecked her on the\ncheek and then stood. \u201cThat, my dear, I shall look forward to now that you seem\non the road to recovery.\u201d He touched his heart as he left the room\u2014their\npersonal sign of affection to each other. She touched hers in return, smiling\nas she gathered the blanket around her and lay back on the luxurious pillows.\nClosing her eyes, she quickly drifted back to sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The increasing pain in her lower back clawed at the edges of her slumber. \u201cUhh!\u201d She thought she was dreaming about having her baby. Sitting up, she rubbed her belly. It felt hard. Brilliant rays of the mid-morning sun intruding through the archways of the room stabbed at her eyes like the pain that stabbed at her abdomen. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and reached for the pitcher of wine, untouched on the bedside table. The wine splashed over the goblet as vise-like fingers gripped her abdomen and sent her to her knees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


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