But not to return to her tent in the darkness. No, there was one more apology she had to make.

Laban did not respond to the clapping of her hands, but she was not about to let that stop her. She pulled open the flap of the tent, intending to go inside and make him listen to her apology. But even before he could have seen who she was, his voice came roaring out of the tent: “I forbid you to come through that door!”

Startled and a little afraid at the pain that was still audible in his voice, she pulled back and was about to go back to her tent when she realized that she could not, could not let him go to sleep tonight still hearing her foolish words in his mind.

So she went to the back of his tent and, careless of how dirty it would make her clothing, not to mention her face and hands, she wriggled under like a snake.

If he heard her he gave no sign. It took a while for her eyes to get used to the darkness—he had no lamp burning, and it was full night, with only a tiny bit more moon than there had been last night. At best all she could make out was a faint silhouette, and even that she found by listening for the sound of his breathing.

“Laban,” she said, “I need to talk to you.”

“I told you to stay out,” he said gruffly. But not shouting. That was a good sign—that when he knew who it was, that it was Rebekah, he did not yell at her.

“Actually,” she said, “you forbade me to come through the door.”

“And you figure crawling under the tent wall makes you obedient?”

“Perfectly.”

“For a sister.”

“Absolutely.”

“I can’t show my face out there, Rebekah. Never again as long as I live. If I could dig a deep enough hole, I’d bury myself so I could skip the whole funeral step. I want to die.”

“Nobody thinks ill of you for crying, Laban.”

“‘Who’s the big baby?’ Someone said that, and it was true.”

“A stupid person said it,” said Rebekah. “Even though you were weeping, you were the one speaking sensibly to me. You were the one trying to understand and be fair to everyone, trying to get me to stop saying such cruel and unjust things. Not only that, but you were the only one brave enough to try to talk to me. Everybody else wanted to run away from the ravening she-bear.”

Laban laughed, but it was still pretty grim sounding. “That’s not what they’ll remember.”