Read Online Temple Boys by Jamie Buxton - Free Book Online

the camel blocking the bridge.”
    â€œI told you to forget that.” Jude looked away.
    But Flea knew he was onto something. “I can’t. You can twist my arm all you like but you can’t make it go away. It doesn’t make sense. I’ll just think and think about it and probably think wrong. There was a traffic jam on the bridge. It was caused by a camel and a donkey. The magician sorted it out, then rode the donkey into the city and everyone went mad. Then you found the owner of the donkey, and the camel was there too. You gave him money…”
    â€œFlea! Back off!”
    â€œSaying ‘back off’ doesn’t work with me. You told me to follow you, so I followed you. If you’d said, ‘Watch out for anyone who’s interested in me but keep away from them,’ I’d have been more careful.”
    Jude rolled his eyes upward. “I didn’t know he was following me,” he said between gritted teeth.
    â€œExactly. You can’t possibly know everything that’s going to happen, so you might as well tell me everything.”
    Jude raised his arms and looked at the sky. “What sort of creature have I hired? All right. All right. But if I’m going to hire you again, it will be for your low cunning and sneakiness, not for your endless questions. Is that clear?”
    â€œYou’re hiring me?” Flea felt a smile creep across his face.
    â€œOne more day.”
    Flea had to stop himself from punching the air. He folded his arms and leaned back against the terrace wall like this sort of thing happened all the time, like he was taking it all in stride. “So, you were about to tell me about the old man, the camel, and the donkey.”
    â€œIt was part of a plan,” Jude said, after thinking for a moment. “It was part of a plan cooked up by Yesh and all the other followers. The trouble is, they didn’t tell me. That’s why I needed to find out about it.”
    â€œLet me get this right,” Flea said slowly. “The others, Yeshua and the others, wanted there to be a big snarl-up on the bridge.”
    â€œCorrect.”
    â€œAnd they wanted Yesh to sort it out?”
    â€œThey wanted to be certain there would be a crowd and, above all, they wanted a donkey.”
    â€œBut there are donkeys everywhere.”
    â€œThere had to be a donkey on the bridge and obviously it had to be the right donkey, so the donkey owner didn’t make a fuss. It was all set up. Remember the guy with the water pitcher? I think he was probably the signal that it was all arranged. It meant everything was in place: the camel, the donkey—everything.”
    Flea felt dizzy. It was like peering into a pool of water. You saw the surface, but then, suddenly, you could see below the surface, farther and farther down.
    â€œBut why?” he said.
    â€œThat’s a very short question that has a very long answer. Do you really want to know? Good, so sit down and listen, because I’m going to tell you a story.”
    Jude settled down with his back against the pomegranate tree and Flea sat next to him. After a quick look around the little garden to make sure they were alone, Jude began.
    â€œA long time ago when the world was young, me and Yesh used to travel around the villages of Gilgal doing tricks. Doesn’t sound like much, but it was a living and the best time of my life. Sometimes he did the patter and I did the magic, and sometimes it was the other way around, but people paid us wherever we went—maybe with coins if we were in a town, maybe with a meal and a place to bed down if we were in a village. Sometimes we’d wind up in a huddle of huts in the middle of nowhere—howling desert all around and wild dogs and lions. You couldn’t imagine how anyone scratched a living from the rock and sand, but there’d always be a bite or two to eat and a pile of hay to sleep on and the stars up above in the desert