Jake’s Testimony #6

Becca heard all of what happened next, I was already far away.

Esse came home, without a bride but bearing a freshly-killed antelope across his back. He stumbled drunkenly into Izzy’s tent, dropped his kill at the foot of the bed, and demanded his blessing.

Izzy said, “I hear you, and I smell you, Esse. Yet I cannot bestow a second such blessing. I will say the words that would have been your brother’s, for those remain.”

“Away with all of your blessings and cursings, old fool,” Esse rumbled. And he struck at Becca, missing her, as he came out through the tent opening. Then he ran back to his band.

We did not see each other again as a family for a very long time.