A/N This chapter is just in time for Easter! The inspiration for this chapter is from Mark 8:22-26.

With arms sore from rowing and legs sore from sitting, the apostles wandered about their makeshift camp. The sun was low, but not quite sunset. Judas and one of the others decided to walk to the nearby town, presumably to buy food for breakfast in the morning.

Hope, as was her custom, sat up against a tree and let her foot rest straightened out. Her sock was filthy from both the dried blood and walking everywhere. She gently pulled the sock off and examined the splint. Her ankle was still held in place and the swelling had gone down. Pushing against the bruise, she still felt a sharp pain. Still not fixed. Maybe it's all this movement.

Hope considered crawling to the water and washing her filthy sock, and wondered how to get over there without drawing attention. The water was about 10 yards away. The other apostles were milling about chatting and getting ready for bed.

"It's nice to have a night alone, though I do wish it were inside."

"The crowds would find us inside like in Tyre and Sidon."

"But we are easily exposed outside. Just wait. In the morning, if not before, someone will show up: either a sick person needing the Master's healing or some Pharisee coming to complain."

"Is that a prophecy, Thomas?" he said with a laugh.

"No. It's a trend," Thomas said seriously.

All others within earshot laughed. Even Hope sniggered.

"You laugh now, but just you wait," Thomas said with a wagging finger.

Hope decided to take advantage of the distraction to crawl to the water. The water was nice and cool this time of day, and Hope couldn't help but shiver. She attempted to do a deep scrub of her sock with just her nails, but it wasn't working. How do people do laundry in this time period? Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen anyone do laundry the whole time I've been here.

Eventually, three people came back from town, one with a bundle in their arms, and another leading the third by the hand. The third man nearly stumbled twice on the way over. How odd. He's staring straight ahead and not paying attention to where he is going. Is he…oh dear he's blind isn't he?

Judas set his bundle in the middle of camp. "I got what you asked, Teacher."

The others got up and approached the blind man. "Who is this?" one asked.

The apostle who was leading the blind man replied, "This is Jasiah. We found him sitting in the market. We couldn't just leave him."

Judas huffed, "We probably could have. The Teacher doesn't want attention right now. We came here for rest."

While they were talking, Jesus took Jasiah by the hand and led him further away from the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked, "What can you see?"

And he looked up and said, "I see men like trees, walking."

Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. A big smile came to Jasiah's face. "I can see you clearly, Lord! I can see everything clearly!"

Then He sent him away to his house saying, "Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town."

Jasiah danced a little jig and ran…towards the town. Jesus sighed. The skeptical apostle looked on, "You see?!"

Meanwhile, the other apostles were examining the bundles Judas brought. Among the loaves of bread, there was a lump of something white. Peter picked it up, saying, "You know, it has been awhile since we washed our clothes. Who wants to join me?"

Most of the others agreed and started stripping their robes and putting them in the water. Hope averted her eyes. Behind her, she could hear a lot of splashing and scrubbing. As the sound of water quieted, she heard slaps of wool on the nearby rocks. Hope risked a look and saw clothes laying out to dry, along with the lump of white which was quite smaller than it had originally been. Is that soap?

She cautiously crawled over to the lump, careful not to look at the men gathered back at the center of camp. With it, she started scrubbing her blood-soaked sock vigorously. After about ten minutes and two broken nails (how did I let these get so long?), the blood was gone. Hope found a bare rock to place her newly-cleaned sock on and crawled with her bare foot lifted up back to her tree.

A/N I think I'm getting better at writing slice-of-life scenes. I was even able to throw some humor in this one!

Research notes: Today's lesson is on laundry. I collected a lot of info about this topic from the web, but I'll cut it down to the bits I used:

Wool comes from Judea and linen comes from Galilee, although the best linen comes from Egypt at the time. The disciples most likely wore wool. No, wool and linen could not be combined.

I originally had the disciples buy soap that was used in sacred washings which is made of lye, hyssop oil, cedar oil, and scarlet wool, but then I realized that particular soap would probably not be available to the public, much less sold in the market. The soap I used here is just lye. For those of you who don't know, lye is made by pouring water through ashes.

Review responses:

ScribeofHeroes: I'm glad you get to learn some history along with the story. That is part of why I write this story. I seem to really enjoy the research aspect of it. Also, I love adding little details that actually could have happened. I like having this story as historically accurate as possible (with the addition of Hope).

Sophiamay and any other potential art commissioners: Thank you for the offer, but I am not interested. Please stop asking on either my stories or PMs.

Please Read and Review! Also, if you have any history/culture lesson requests regarding this time period, I'll accept the challenge. Granted, it may not be in the very next chapter, but I can add where I find appropriate.