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Choice #3: Using the words “chariot, strength, victory, compassion, patience” – write and share a personal story that has meaning for you. Think of this as an open-ended possibility – it could be a humorous story about your first 2-wheeled bike ride, or on a serious note, it’s about your first speeding ticket. Perhaps it’s an emotional piece where you first experienced compassion in a desperate time of need. Once again, let’s try to keep it within 1000 – 1500 word limit.

It had been one hell of a week.

The usual humdrum of life had been taken over by religious zealots and the authorities wanting to stamp their authority on the goings on of late.

It all started with the meeting on the mount outside of town where the Christ from Nazareth had spoken a philosophy not many had heard before.

Mania and Depressus had been caught up in the hysteria that followed.

They had gathered along with friends at the foot of the mount to hear what the Christ had to say.

There was a lot of socialist stuff about sharing and caring the usual thing the zealots had been sprouting for years. A few wags in the crowd had tried to make fun of him shouting out things like “Blessed are the cheese makers?” and ‘the meek shall inherit to dirt?” and so it went on. The true believers fell upon every word he said and bowed their heads whenever he looked their way.

He was an incredibly patient man I thought for all the rabble-rousers that were in the crowd.

When it was over Mania and Depressus went back to their chariot only to find that one wheel had a flat. On closer inspection they discovered that one wheel was missing the third and fourth spokes. Bloody vandals thought Depressus as he hauled out the spare wheel and had Mania use all her strength to hold up the axle so he could fit it and they could get home for their tea.

On the way he stopped at Chariots are Us the repairers and builders of Chariots to the Gods. Well so they claimed but no one had ever seen a God in one of their chariots, the odd important Roman who thought he was a God but never the real thing.

The story was that you’d know a God was in a chariot by the glow around him has be drove along. The stench of unwashed Romans was hardly what anyone thought of as a glow.

At home that night as Mania laid out the table and as it was getting close to the feast of the Roman God Edipus God of all things non Roman she put out her best clay plates careful not to drop them and smash the table.

They discussed the afternoon’s event and both decided that this Christ figure was not much more than a flash in the pan. A fad they said that would soon die out, though they did conclude that the feeding of the crowd with a few loaves and fishes was a very good party trick and they wondered if the Christ did birthday parties as they had Uncle Festius’ eightieth birthday coming up.

By the end of the week things had really hotted up. The Christ had been arrested for stirring up the crowd and selling fish without a fishmonger’s license.

There was talk of a crucifixion.

Roman’s loved a good crucifixion.

Mania had heard all about it and had rushed off to the store to buy a new toga and sun hat for the occasion.

There were always plenty of beggars and thieves for a crucifixion but this year the talk was the Christ was going to the star attraction. If he was God they said he’d save himself.

Mania made a picnic lunch and she and Depressus set off to get themselves a good vantage point near the top of Golgotha so as not to miss a moment of the action.

Usually crucifixions were run of the mill but there was a rumour that the Christ was such a heinous villain they were going to nail him up instead of the usual tying up.

Mania carried a small table with her so the picnic could be laid out and the afternoon enjoyed.

It was around midday by the time the procession of criminals arrived and the crucifixions started.

There were the usual protests of innocence which the crowd always found entertaining, after all said Mania to Depressus no matter how guilty you were you’d always claim innocence, made you look better as they tied you up.

All in all about ten thieves and beggars were crucified that afternoon and the front spots were where the worst of the criminals were raised.

The last was the Christ who lay down and let them have their way. Mania being a sensitive soul winced as the hammer drove in the nails and had to stop eating her sandwich of asparagus and nose thistle.

Once he was nailed they raised him up and they could hear his breathing as he struggled against his own weight to breathe.

That’s the thing Mania was explaining to Depressus, death was slow and in the end the poor sods suffocated. Usually they didn’t wait around for the deaths as the guards got tied of waiting and would break the legs to hurry up the deaths.

Mania and Depressus went home satisfied the afternoons entertainment and been satisfactory.

They awoke the next morning to the news that the body of the Christ had been stolen from his grave.

Well what a to do they both exclaimed and settled down to their breakfast and the morning news tablet delivered to their door.

Around noon there was a knock on their door and upon opening it they saw what they didn’t believe. There stood the Christ, as they’d seen him on the mount, not like they’d seen him yesterday, scourged and nailed to the cross.

Mania gulped, Depressus blinked, for once they were speechless. The Christ asked for a drink of water and explained that he had risen from the dead and that event alone was going to change the course of human history. He asked if he could sit for a bit as his disciples had gotten wind of his resurrection and were pestering the life out of him, which in itself was ironic, as he didn’t have any life, as we know it in him anymore.

He sat for a while chatting about one thing and another while Mania and Depressus sat speechless. They were thinking they really had to get him for Uncle’s birthday.

By evening there was not much going on, the streets were quiet and the Christ decided to go and find his way back to his good friend Mary Magdelan’s house where he knew she had a lamb roast cooking for him.

He thanked them for their hospitality and went on his way leaving in their cellar a sign of his gratitude and compassion for them.

Mania and Depressus sat in their house for three days before deciding that there might be money to be made from his visit. When news arrived that the Christ had ascended into heaven they went out into the streets and began to tell their story.

Of course no one believed them and despite every trick they could conjure they remained a laughing stock and penniless.

But to their grave they went, believing they had had a victory one afternoon with the Christ and no one really believed the never ending supply of wine they served was made by the hand of God.

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2016/03/27/writing-prompt-march-27-2016/