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The building projects will suffer. Why has Pharaoh done this to his subjects?”
    “If your people have enough time to ask for three days off to party in the desert to worship your God, then they have too much time.”
    The foreman looked stunned. “Did we ask my lord for any such thing? It would never cross our minds to think about a long weekend. Who brought such a request to Pharaoh’s ears?”
    “Moses.”
    Well, you can guess what happened. The slave masters went back to the brick pits and told the people what Ramses had said. When Moses and Aaron showed up a little while later, the whole Hebrew population had turned on them. The brothers were flabbergasted. God had never given the slightest warning this might happen. From their ashen look, it was clear they hadn’t expected things to go quite this way. Neither said very much in the face of the verbal assaults being hurled at them by the throng, but once they got out of earshot, Moses began to cry out to God.
    “O Lord, I tried to tell You I wouldn’t be very good at this. I’ve made things worse for the very people You are trying to help.”
    “Tell the Israelites I will bring them out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free them from being slaves, and I will bring them to the land I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to them as the inheritance I promised.”
    Aaron was in a quaking heap on the ground in the presence of the Lord, but Moses just kept talking to the Creator of the universe as if they were old chums.
    “O God, here’s my idea how we can turn this around. Would You mind doing the burning bush thing one more time? I told the Hebrews about it, of course, but I could see in their eyes that they didn’t believe me. But if You could just fire that bush up again right there in the middle of town where the Egyptians and the Hebrews can both see it, I’m pretty sure we can be out of here by morning.”
    God didn’t think much of his idea, so Moses and Aaron went to the Hebrews and told them what the Lord God had said. Moses was right. They didn’t believe one word of it.
    Satan squealed with delight when I gave him this news. He walked over to the edge of the second heaven and looked off into the distance.
    “Where are they now? Hightailing it back to the desert for sure. Who does God think He’s messing with by sending two country bumpkins into my territory?” Satan swung his fist in an uppercut for effect.
    The other demons were congratulating themselves on running Moses and Aaron out of town, but I just stood there saying nothing at all and looking at the floor. I just knew Satan was going to comment on my silence.
    “You don’t see anything here to cheer about, moron? The deliverer and his sidekick are on their way back to the sticks. It’s over.”
    I chose my words carefully. “Did anybody actually see them leave the city gates, sir?”
    Satan looked at the demons, and they looked at one another. When the heads started shaking in response, Satan dispatched one of the lower-ranking devils to scour the city streets for them. They weren’t hard to find, and it was only minutes before the scout was back, reporting what I knew all along. Moses and Aaron had gone nowhere but to bed.
    I spent the rest of the night perched on the ledge above the door of the house where Moses and Aaron slept.
    “Dog their steps,” Satan had hissed at me as he sent me out on the graveyard shift.
    The next morning, God appeared to them again. “You are to say everything I command you. Tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. Aaron can help you.”
    Well, I can just tell you that Aaron’s face fell like a rock when he heard that bit of news. He knew he was to stand behind whatever Moses said, but his idea was to stand about forty feet behind and under a rock if one was available. Aaron had zero plans to get in the line of fire between Moses and Ramses, much less to actually enter into the conversation.
    “I will harden Pharaoh’s