Chapter 2: Is ruined
All I remember after that is a blur of screams and people, a whack on the head, and total darkness. I woke to a violent shaking, for a minute forgetting where I was, and tried to roll over, suddenly I was jerked up and found myself staring into the face of Abdul Rasheed, the most feared raider in the east.
“Where is your gold?” he asked, spitting into my face as he talked.
“What gold?”
“What gold?” he mimicked, “the gold your caravan was carrying you silly!”
“We carried no gold, we were fleeing from… oh never mind.”
“Who were you fleeing from?”
“WE weren’t fleeing from anybody, what would give you an idea like that?” I said with a forced laugh.
“You know perfectly well where I got that idea! Now tell me or I shall inflict pain on your friends!” He gestured to Sarah, Aaron, and Luke huddled in the shade of a camel.
I gasped, they were alive! It was more than I had hoped for, the raiders would hardly ever take captives, but I guess they thought we would bring them money as slaves.
“We were fleeing from the synagogue leaders; they were trying to kill us because we follow the Way.”
“I will get more money from this than I imagined, there is blood money for Christians!”

I was soon thrown on a camel with Luke, they thought we were siblings, I tried to have them put me with Sarah, but they just slapped me for talking and placed me with Luke. It was midday, the sun is at its zenith, scorching hot, humid, and windy, I had sand blowing in my face, making my hair slash my cheeks; I didn’t think life could get much worse, but of course it could. I soon got bored of the landscape of sand doons, and tried talking to Luke. “How long do you think they will…? AAAH!”
Before I could finish my sentence I felt a searing pain in my leg, I looked down to see one of my captors returning his whip to his belt.
“What was that for?” I asked in an irritated voice.
“You must not talk, that what I give you is only warning.”
“Well…” I started to say, but Luke put his hand firmly over my mouth.
I turned around and gave him a questioning glare, he put his finger over his mouth and then let go. I was really bummed about this, I mean, they can understand us, it isn’t like we can plan an escape or anything, and they can hear us! I pouted for most of the day, then I realized what I was doing, I was complaining, I remembered a verse that said to do all things without grumbling or complaining. Sorry God, I shouldn’t be complaining, I should be praising you for all you have done. Thank you for sparing our lives and letting us ride camels instead of walk, even though I can’t talk to Luke and I have lost my earthly father, you are here for me to talk to, and as a father. When the guard saw me smiling he was alarmed and poked me, I looked at him and smiled. He looked repulsed and asked me why I was smiling.
“Because even in the worst times there are things we can thank God for.” I replied.
“What do you have to be thankful for?” He queried.
“Many things, that I am alive, riding a camel not walking, have a good God who listens to me and loves me, he even gave his son that I might live forever with him.”
“How do you know you will live with him forever?”
“Because he told me so.”
Another guard started coming over to check on us.
“Can you tell me more another time?” he asked
“Of course!”
He ran off to report to the guard. Luke squeezed my shoulder, he always did that when he was proud of me, it sent a shiver through me when he did that, it reminded me of my father, he did that too, I missed him so much already. I leaned back on the camel hump and closed my eyes, the sun had set so it was a little cooler, the humidity didn’t drop though, it never did. The rocking of the camel soon put me to sleep.