Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8 If you are ever forced to walk from Nazareth to Ein Karem, your best bet would be to travel most of the way along the Nativity Trail. It's said to be the path Joseph and Mary traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the very first Christmas. Dusty, as a career Bible tour donkey, had made the 100-mile, 11-day trek dozens of times, but he had been quite enjoying his retirement and was none too happy to have to make the journey again. Ruben, while also not happy to have to walk, was eager to get to his final destination as fast as possible. "C'mon, donkey!" Ruben groaned as he pushed a shoulder against Dusty's tail end. "Faster!" "Hee-haw!" Dusty brayed. In donkey that means, "What's the rush?" Meanwhile, Merle and Pearl lounged comfortably in their shaded birdcage atop Dusty's saddle. "This is every bit as comfortable as the airplane ride," Merle commented as he rocked on the bird swing, remembering their business-class flight from a couple of nights before. "When's the snack cart come by?"

"Grrrrr," Ruben growled, not amused. Pearl, sipping on a lemonade, examined the trail map they had been given by Jacob. "So, it looks like we'll follow this trail all the way to Jericho and break off there toward Jerusalem?" "That's right," a voice answered over Ruben's grunts. Pearl jumped, startled. She glanced up from the map to Merle. "Did you say something, Merle?"

"Nope," Merle answered. "Wasn't me." The two squirrels, in unison, raised an eyebrow and turned slowly toward the back of Dusty's head. If they hadn't been on his back, they would have noticed the donkey's scrunched-up face. It was the kind of look you get when you say something you wish you hadn't. Like when the teacher asks, "Who wants to help me... clean up?" and you say, "Me!" before you realize what the question was. "Ruben?" asked Pearl cautiously, but Ruben was too busy pushing and grunting to hear. "Hee-haw!" Dusty hastily brayed, which in donkey means, "Nope. Wasn't me either." Merle leaned down to Pearl and whispered, "Was it Dusty? Can he speak human?" Pearl, her eyes still wide with surprise, shrugged. "I heard the words, 'That's right.'" "I heard them too," Merle replied quietly.

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