Zahra heard the men approaching. She turned to face them, lowering her shawl so they could see her face. The mob stopped before it was upon her. The men writhed, unsure how to proceed, until someone, deep within the crowd, shouted, “Old woman, you are accused of slandering the name of God and practicing evil on our women and children. How plead you?”

Zahra looked up. Her eyes were calm. “You have come to kill me,” she said. No one answered. She leveled her stare. “You have come to kill an old woman. Where is the hope in that?”

A charge ran through the crowd. “Do not let her speak!” someone shouted.

“Stone her!” another cried.

Anna kept hidden behind a bush. Her mouth dry as dust.

Zahra thrust a trembling hand into the sky. The men recoiled. She lifted her voice. “I have done nothing to harm you, yet you wish to destroy me. Have you lost all respect for life?” She challenged them, “Let he who is without human blood cast the first stone!”

The crowd stood silent, muted by doubt and shame. Anna felt something drip down her chin. She wiped her mouth and drew away blood. She had bitten her lip.

The middle of the crowd began to shudder. A single man pushed his way to the front. Anna recognized her father. Yoseph strode out of the crowd and stood before the old woman. His eyes blind with rage. A large stone weighting his hand. “You have spurned the Lord,” he said, “and brought evil into our homes. You are in no position to counsel us, old woman. For you have snuffed out new life with your own hands!”

“Yes! That is so!” the crowd shouted, its vigor renewed.

“With this,” Yoseph said, “I avenge the death of my only son.”

The stone struck its target, smashing into Zahra’s face, crushing her nose to a bloody pulp. Zahra did not cry out, but swayed, disoriented and broken.

“Stone her! Kill her!” the others shouted, unleashing an angry flock of stones into the air.

Anna felt urine curling around her legs.

A stone hit Zahra in the neck, cracking her windpipe. The sound of her wheezing infuriated the crowd. “Silence her!” they shouted. The more the old woman bled, the more bloodthirsty the crowd became. Stone by stone her cheeks were sliced, her eye sockets shattered, her jaw splintered, the ears torn from her head, her organs pounded. Slowly, she folded, boneless, to the ground.

Anna watched in horror as the man she called Father kicked through Zahra’s battered remains until satisfied she was dead.