My mind stops. I have no thought of what to do, no idea of what to say.
And then I'm angry. "You said nobody would challenge me!" I whirl to confront the General. "Now what do I do?"
The General is calm, too calm. There's even a little sparkle in his eye, like he's actually getting a kick out of this...
And then I know.
"You tricked me." My anger explodes into fury. "You knew that someone would challenge me sooner or later. You never wanted peace at all. You lied to me to get me to go along with your so-called 'plan.'"
"Not so loud!" To his credit, the General doesn't back away, although my anger must be terrifying. "And don't jump to conclusions," he hisses. "You're not as smart as you think you are, young man."
"I'm smart enough to know when I'm being played for a fool." And since I can't think of anything else to say, and since there's really nothing left to do, I turn and start to walk back to camp.
"Where are you going?" The General is frantic. "Get back here! You're humiliating the entire Philistine nation!"
I stop and turn back to face the General. For full effect, I walk over to where he stands, until I'm staring almost directly down at him. To see my face, he has to lean backward so far that he nearly falls over.
"I'm going back to camp," I say, as calmly as I can. "I'm taking off this ridiculous armor. I'm going home."
"You can't do that!"
"Who's going to stop me?"
"You... you can't just walk away now." He's so upset that he spits at me as he talks. "We're into this thing too deep. What are you thinking? Are you thinking? Do you have any idea of what will happen if you... if you..." He can't even say it.
"I won't fight. I told you I wouldn't fight. I don't care what happens."
"Oh, yes you do," the General says, with surprising confidence. He glances over at the shepherd who waits, leaning on his staff, wearing a puzzled frown. "If you run away now..."
"I'm not running, I'm walking."
"...the entire Philistine nation will think you a coward."
"Let them think what they want."
"The Philistine army will panic. And the Hebrews, those smug bastards, they'll say that their mighty god has saved them. They'll swoop down from the hills and destroy us. They'll rape our women, they'll kill our men – by Dagon, I swear they'll murder us all."
"And, what – if I kill him, won't our people do the same to the Hebrews? Is that any better?"
A wind has risen in the valley. Small clouds of dust whirl through the bushes, like dancers, then disappear. The General lets the shield fall to the ground, wipes the sand from his eyes, then looks up at me again.
"If you walk away now," he says, slowly, "you condemn your entire nation to death. Hundreds of thousands of people. Women. Children. I don't think you want that on your head."
He's got a point there. But I don't much care for the alternative, either. "So what do you suggest, General? You're the one with all the answers."
"Frighten him."
"What do you mean?"
"Frighten him." He motions to the shepherd, still waiting patiently. "Go roar at him. Tell him of all the terrible things you're going to do to him. Do your stuff. He'll back off. Then you can go home."
"Go home? But you just said..."
"I said that you can't walk away from a fight. But if he walks away, then we can call the whole thing off. We'll say that we got tired of waiting for the Hebrews to find the courage to meet our challenge, so we decided to send you home. Plain and simple."
"But that doesn't leave us any better off than we were before," I point out.
"It doesn't leave us any worse off, either."
"Then all this would have been for nothing."
"At least we tried, son. At least we tried."
"So what do I say to him?"
The General smiles and visibly relaxes. I really had him worried.
"I have faith in you, son," he says, motioning me toward the puzzled shepherd. "You'll think of something."
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©1996 Henry Charles Mishkoff