Free Signs and Wonders by Bernard Evslin

to return straightaway to Canaan with the girl who was chosen.”
    “So soon?” said Rebecca’s mother. “I pray you, not so soon. She is my only daughter.”
    “She must leave you and go to her husband,” said Eleazer.
    “Canaan is so far. I do not know when I shall see her again. Stay ten days.”
    “Please, Mother,” said Laban. “The man knows what he is doing.”
    “Only ten days!”
    “Let us ask the girl,” said Eleazer. He turned to Rebecca, who had been sitting there, silent. “Will you follow me now, or must I seek another to be Isaac’s wife?”
    “I am ready,” said Rebecca.
    Isaac was walking on the plain, and he was full of sorrow. His father had just died and had been buried in the cave at Hebron beside Sarah. Now Isaac was alone. He went to sit in the portals of Sarah’s tent, which Abraham had never taken down, although she had been dead for many years. Sitting there, he seemed to see his mother again, and to hear her. He saw the brilliance of her eyes, felt her touch upon his hair, and heard her laughter. He bowed his head and wept.
    Then he saw a boiling of dust on the plain, as of a caravan coming, and went to meet it. From afar he recognized his father’s camels, which were his now. He saw the white beard of Eleazer and, riding a camel next to the old man, a maiden veiled against the dust. He stood watching.
    The camels came near. The girl raised her hand and flung back the veil. There in the dust and fiery shadows he saw his mother, Sarah, alive again, but young, younger than he had ever known her, young as his father’s memories and the tales of her beauty. For Rebecca’s great black eyes, her floating hair, the brilliance of her smile were very like Sarah’s, but also strange and for the first time.
    Isaac knelt in the dust. “Thank you, God, for what you have sent me,” he said. And he arose to claim his bride.
    Jacob and Esau
    Isaac was rich, possessing flocks and herds, gold and silver and precious stones, caravans of camels and donkeys, and many servants to do his bidding. Nor did he busy himself to increase his wealth, for Eleazer was his steward in all things, his man of business. And there was no man shrewder than Eleazer. Rebecca was Isaac’s sole occupation; he loved her beyond his own knowledge, and she returned his love. And they were all in all to each other—for they had no children.
    Isaac raised his voice to heaven. “God Almighty, God of Abraham, the one God, maker of heaven and earth, I am not the man my father was, and do not hold easy converse with you. But my wife, Rebecca, is barren. She grieves because we are childless. I do not understand how this can be, for you made a covenant with my father that my sons would inherit this land. That sign was cut into my flesh when I was eight days old. Have I misunderstood your intention, O Lord? If so, I pray, enlighten your servant.”
    God spoke: “Your mother was barren until she was ninety. She knew how to wait. Your father knew how to wait. Rebecca is young.”
    “She grieves, being childless.”
    “Go to her tonight.”
    That night Isaac planted a seed in Rebecca’s womb, and that seed quickened into life. She grew very big; her belly swelled to a size never seen, and she was in great pain.
    “Twins,” said the old midwife. “Perhaps more. And they are wrestling in there, causing you this pain.”
    Rebecca feared for her life and inquired of the Lord, who answered, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples shall be separated from your body. One people shall be stronger than the other. The elder shall serve the younger.”
    The struggling infants almost tore Rebecca apart, but she clenched her teeth and uttered few moans, for the Lord had told her she was to live, and she did not wish Isaac to know her pain. She labored a day and a night in great agony, and delivered twins. The first one came out with a pelt of red hair like a fox cub. And, holding onto his brother’s heel in a way never before