Sal"s mother got tears in her eyes. She hugged Sal hard. Sal"s little sister clapped her hands and crowed.
"Mama, Mama, come on! He"s almost here!" Sal pulled on his mother"s arm.
Sal"s mother kissed Sal"s head.
"Lamb, he won"t come here right away," she said.
"Mama, why? He"s home," said Sal.
"I know, Sal, but first he must go to the temple."
"Why?" asked Sal.
"Well, for Daddy to come back and eat with us and love us and live with us, he has to get the war and fighting off him," said his mother.
"How, Mama?" asked Sal.
"Well, Astarte"s priestesses will take away his war clothes and bathe him and feed him holy food and hug him and sing to him. Then they will give him home clothes and he can come back to us," said his mother.
Sal"s little sister crawled across the floor and a neighbor burst into the room.
"They"re home, Rebia!" she said to Sal"s mother.
"Did you see your daddy, Sal?" she asked.
Sal stopped.
"No, but he"s coming," Sal said.
"Sal!" said his mother. Her voice sounded high and anxious.
"I thought you said you saw him!"
"I saw them, Mama," said Sal.
"I know he"s coming."
Well, Sal was right. The days it took seemed very long, but Sal"s daddy did return home. He gathered Sal and his mother and little sister into his arms and held them all very close.
"How I"ve missed you!" he said, and wiped away his tears.
"Daddy!" said Sal.
"Did you kill the invaders?"
"No, Son," said his father.
"There are many, many invaders, and they move in small groups, so they are hard to find."
Sal"s little sister gurgled, and Sal climbed on his daddy"s lap.
"Rebia," said Sal"s father to his mother.
"The invaders are burning whole cities."
Sal"s mother picked up her little girl. Sal could see that his mother"s eyes were frightened.
"People say that the invaders have a G.o.d that wants all the land."
"And the people on the land?" whispered Sal"s mother.
"It"s bad, Rebia," said Sal"s daddy.
Sal looked at his parents" faces, trying to understand.
"Daddy, why?" said Sal.
"Why can"t they share the land? Why can"t we all live here?"
"Sal, that"s a very good question. And I don"t know the answer," said his father.
"Rebia, I want us to bury our Astarte."
Sal"s little sister began to cry. Sal"s mother"s lips turned very pale.
"What are you thinking?" she asked.
"Rebia, I"m thinking that no matter what happens, I want to save the idea of our Great Mother," said Sal"s father.
That night Sal"s family stayed very close together. After they ate, Sal"s mother and father dug a hole next to the oven. Sal got to put the little figure of the Mother with the baby inside Her into the ground and help press dirt on top of Her. Sal"s mother many times chanted the name Astarte and some other words Sal couldn"t understand.
"Daddy?" asked Sal.
"Why doesn"t Astarte want all the land, like the invaders" G.o.d?"
"Sal, Astarte is the land," said Sal"s father.
"She is all the animals and all the plants and all the waters and all the sky. She is the soil and the wind."
"And the stars too?" asked Sal.
"The stars too," said his father.
The invaders did not come right away. But they did come. And they burned the city Sal lived in and all its people.
Why? you might ask.
It"s very hard to understand, and we don"t really know the answer to that question. But Sal"s father had a very good idea when he buried the figure of Astarte. There have been many invaders and many wars since that time so long ago. Many people have lived and died, and many people have hurt the Earth because they did not know about Astarte.