Chapter 5 - Ridicule

 Joseph walked into the tavern for his usual daily few drinks. He looked no different from any of the other men here, but when he arrived nearly all of the customers greeted him with a friendly wave or shook his hand. He had made his way through the crowd of people at the inn. He had already noticed that there were more people here than there would normally be. He thought that maybe they were celebrating something that he had forgotten, or had not been invited to, either way he was a little confused by the fact that his quiet afternoon sabbatical had been invaded by all of these people. Of course he knew all of them, but to find them here at this time of day was most unusual.

 “Busier than usual Joshua” he said to the innkeeper,

 “Morning Joseph, the usual is it” Joseph nodded his head and waited for his drink and an explanation for all the people.

 “Yes, its great for business, I must get old Eli to come in every day he is really funny”

 Joseph was now more confused than before. Joshua composed himself and told him to listen. He turned around and leaned on the bar with both of his elbows and grasped his fingers together around his stomach.

 “Eli, Eli, Joseph is here now tell him what you have been telling us”

 Joshua handed another drink to Eli and encouraged him to recount his adventures.

 “Oh Joseph, you should have been there, I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life.”

 At this, the entire bar broke out into fits of laughter.

 Eli was known to drink a little, and it was generally accepted that since he had arrived in town he had been very secretive about his past. No one knew if he had any family or where he came from. He was an inoffensive sort of bloke who had got to know people around town and had chosen this particular inn to spend as much free time as he could. He lived alone on the outskirts of town, and for a living he would do almost any work that was offered to him on a casual basis. His hygiene was probably not the best, but all in all he was accepted for who he was.

“Joseph, it was like nothing I’ve ever seen. I left here last night and, ok, I probably did have one more than I should have, but I wasn’t drunk. I know when I’ve had enough but last night I was just merry. It was a hot evening and I wasn’t ready to go home, I just needed to go for a short walk to clear my head, so I could get a good night sleep. I was supposed to be at Joab’s smithy this morning to work for him today.”

 He looked over at Joab who raised his glass in agreement and laughed.

 “I didn’t go because I never got a wink of sleep last night after what I saw. I went out through town past my house and walked down to the sea. I wasn’t going to be long; I only had a little oil in my lamp. Anyway I got to the beach and I sat on the big rock, you know the one I mean, the one I always sit on when I’m thinking. Well it wasn’t long before I fell asleep. I suppose I’d been out for about…well not long, when I woke up my lamp had gone out, but it was a clear night and the moon was full so it was still kind of bright out there so it didn’t matter. But the thing is… I saw something that was not of this earth, I don’t know what it was but it was definitely not from here.”

 At this there was more laughter which Joshua interrupted and said,

 “Hold on, hold on, fellows, please Carry on Eli” Eli took a large mouthful of his drink and continued.

 “Listen, I know you think that I am a little nut’s and that it sounds stupid, but I know what I saw. It was fantastic. I woke up and just sat there staring at the sky there wasn’t a cloud up there it was as clear as anything, it was beautiful, all of the stars twinkling in the night. Then I saw it. At first I had no idea what it was, in fact I still don’t. So I sat there and watched. At first I thought it was just a shooting star but as I watched it got bigger and bigger and it was coming towards me. I was starting to get worried then all of a sudden it changed direction and started to go in circles and as it did, it set on fire, not for long just a little while. The light from the fire lit up all of the sea and then it went dark again. There was a long cloud where it had been, and for a while I lost sight of it. When I saw it again it was heading straight for the sea. Then suddenly there was a great splash and it was gone. I think its down under the water somewhere, but I don’t really know”

 By the time he had finished his story the entire bar was in uproar, for most of them it was the funniest thing they had ever heard.

 At this Joshua went outside. He was gone for a few minutes, and then he returned to pour a drink for a customer who had stayed outside. When he returned for the second time he stood back next to Joseph and asked if he had missed anything whilst he had been serving the stranger, Joseph said that he hadn’t and Joshua told Joseph about the newcomer outside. “A really strange man with an equally strange accent, probably from out of town” 

He then turned his attention back to Eli.

“So Eli, what exactly did it look like then” he asked.

 “Well…its hard to describe it was like… erm…like…like a chariot, yes that’s it, like a chariot on fire, screaming through the sky”. This description bought about the loudest round of laughter yet. He continued,

 “Yes screaming through the sky heading towards the sea and when it hit it was like a hundred pure white horses jumping for the sky”

 By now the laughter was louder than ever and Eli had realised that he had got a captive audience and if he milked the situation he could get free drinks all day. By now his imagination was kicking into high gear. He needed to prolong this situation and so he started to elaborate.

 “And then…and then I found myself being lifted by a strange force into the sky, towards the heavens. I could not resist, I fought but it was useless, I just carried on going up. I could see all of the town and the next. I shouted and shouted but no one heard me. It must have been hours before the great unseen hand bought me back to the shore and set me down on the beach. I was so frightened I just ran and ran. I even left my lantern on the beach” he paused for a while, thought to himself and then said out loud, “must get a new one…” he continued, “and the next thing I knew I was sitting outside waiting for Joshua to open”.

 Everyone in the bar just laughed, Eli knew that he had gone too far with the hand thing but he had said it now and he already felt too foolish to even try to take it back.

 “I know you don’t believe me and I’m not asking you to, but I know what I saw and I tell you, it was not of this land, it was something beyond anything we know about, and I for one am going to be watching everything from now on”. 

With this the innkeeper went outside again to see if the stranger required any more to drink. When he returned he had a big smile on his face, he went back behind the bar and spoke to Joseph.

“Today just gets better and better”

“How come” asked Joseph,

“Well you know the stranger I was on about outside, he only had one drink and look what he left for payment”

 He flipped the coin in the air put it between his teeth and then slipped into his purse. 

“Oh happy day”

Chapter 6 - Taking Stock