Zion's Children - pt 18

"I worry about you."

They had this conversation every morning. Miri smiled as she sat down next to her grandfather at their wooden table. Her father had made it from trees from the forest long before she had been born, a betrothal gift when he was courting her mother, Levi's daughter. "I know you do, Grandfather. It is how I know that I am loved."

Levi Davidson snorted. "You work too hard amongst people who do not share our faith, Miriam."

"I'm trying to keep our families from dying," she protested lightly as she bit into overcooked eggs. Not only did her grandfather overcook them, he never seasoned them to her liking either. She sprinkled salt and pepper on them even as he continued his arguements.

"Our people have always been dying. Even before Hitler Exiled us to the wasteland of space. God sent plagues in the desert long before we were sent into the desert of the stars." Levi sighed, knowing that he would loose the argument as he did each day, no matter what new twists he put into it. "This is just one more Plague sent by God to try our faith and weed out..."

"This illness does not come from God!" Miri actually slammed her fork to the table. "And you cannot tell me that God would count the children I have seen die as unworthy! I have read the scriptures just like you, maybe not for as many years, but I know that He loves the children! He scolded his own disciples publicly when they tried to send the children away."

Levi was quiet, conceding the point.

Suddenly, her breakfast no longer appealed to her. She ought to be used to his disaproval of her work in the Post hospital, but it was a tiring subject. Why couldn't he just be proud of her? She slid the plate away and stood. He caught her hand, and held her back from leaving.

"Do you go for the people, Miriam? Is it a burden given to you by God? Or do you go because you like the off-worlders? Because they praise you and stroke your ego?"

This was the newest twist to her grandfather's disapproval. And it cut her to the core that he would think such things of her. But, she answered all the questions truthfully with just one word before pulling free from his gentle grip. "Yes."

Levi sighed, unsure how to interpret her willfulness. "It cannot be yes to all Miriam...pride goes before the fall and I do not wish to see you fall."

"Yes, I go for our people...if I can help find the natural reason for this illness, then I will. Yes, it is something I believe God wants me to do. Yes, I like the off-worlders...Many of them are kind good people. I have seen Marcus...Doctor Alexander weep for the patients he has lost. Lily Bennett is a colony girl, Grandfather. She might not be of our world, but she is of our people and our faith! Yes, they praise me...they encourage the giftings in me, and make me believe that I can be something more than a man's property. It is not pride to acknowledge who I am. And it is not my pride that will doom our people." Miri sighed, then planted a light kiss on his wrinkled forehead. "We really need to find something new to argue about, Grandfather. But later. I must go now if I am to be on time."

Levi sighed in the silence. Knowing his granddaughter as he did, he had no doubt that it wouldn't be long before she supplied him with something new to argue about.