Free Eden by Keith; Korman Page A

out!”
    Then Judas would pause by the roadside to scratch under his cloak, searching his clothes, examining his arms and legs as if they were crawling with mites. Eden and Samson felt the burden of an extra mind constantly tormenting him, as he argued with some creature who wasn’t there. Muttering:
    â€œGet away.”
    â€œI won’t!”
    â€œYou can’t make me!”
    For their part the animals let Judas talk, letting the troubled man unravel the knots within until he fell silent of his own accord. Of course the companions noticed too and Eden’s master most of all, but no one thought badly of Judas. Or wished him cast from their circle. He was one among friends. And over countless miles the man’s endless arguments with himself seemed to lessen. But whether Judas calmed the storms within or smothered them by force of will, no one could say.

Signs and Wonders
    Now a time of wonder changed all things known as Eden’s master drew the improbable from the hopeless like thread off a spool. By the touch of his hand, a glance, the flicker of a smile … he altered what could never be to that which stood beyond a shadow of a doubt. The companions rubbed their eyes and gaped like fools.
    While the animals—
    Eden, Samson and the lambs, being innocent of all corruption—
    Accepted everything as it happened.
    For like the mice who crouched behind every rock and gnarled root, the animals needed no herald to tell them what they saw with their own eyes. And as the travelers walked from hovel to hut, from meadow to orchard, the dog, the donkey and the lambs watched the mice come out of hiding. Lining the roadside the little creatures waved green blades of grass as the companions passed. For countless throngs and tribes from every pasture had heard of the strange tidings, the tale of the many strangers who feasted, the tale of the lambs set free … and the mice cried in their high voices, “We have heard of you from afar, from our cousins in every ditch and field.”
    Then the many mice laid the thin green spears on the dusty roadway so all might tread on soft ground. Eden looked boldly at them and Samson stiffened his ears, both animals amazed that so many had heard of them, that so many noticed.
    The lambs snuffled shyly, “It wasn’t our doing, not us, not us …” but still pleased to be praised simply for walking by, murmuring lamb to lamb, “What admirable mice there are in the world. Do you think they are right? Perhaps we are amazing!”
    Even a fox paused on his endless hunt for dinner, ignored the mice at his feet and wondered out loud, “Can it all be true? These signs, these marvels?”
    â€œJoin us and see,” Eden called out to him.
    But the fox, perplexed, shook his head and muttered, “No, I think not. I will have to ponder what this means. Though I shall not walk with you today, I shall never be far.”
    Of the many miracles known and counted, the animals saw only a portion. So some great works were forgotten, while those remembered lived on as spoken tales the animals may not have heard and in scrolls the animals could not read. But as Eden and the companions marched from hill to vale, or rested beside tree or stream, no ailing creature went untouched, no sick thing ignored if it came before their master’s feet.
    In all that time three great moments stood out in Eden’s mind.
    They had come to a village at dusk with nowhere to sleep.
    Nothing unusual in this …
    They often wandered into places and were rarely turned away during the day. For their master’s name had spread far and wide, going before him like those blades of grass waved by the field mice. But people closed their doors against strangers after dark, thus the night was no time to come begging for shelter.
    This place was much like Eden’s own town of the carpenter’s shop. On the outskirts date palms and pastures, sheep and cattle in pens