If only Judas could keep himself together until then …

At that moment, a fearsome wailing leapt from the darkness beyond. Solomon rushed back to the group. The men remained still as stone, listening as the howling came again.

Akbar raised his head, reading the tonal cries. “They are circling their prey,” he said.

Peter looked up and caught a flash of fear crossing Solomon’s eyes. He was shocked. He had never known Solomon to be afraid of anyone, or anything.

How he now wished he had not abandoned his friend!

The wolves’ howling rose again, its intensity quickening.

Some of the shepherds bowed their heads. Others scanned the horizon in silence.

Working quickly, Jesus threw himself to the ground behind the ewe. He fluted his fingers and scooped a hand into the sheep’s birth canal, as he had seen Solomon do. He then shimmied his arm deep inside her. He closed his eyes, trying to see the unborn body with his fingers. The ewe’s muscles contracted around his forearm, numbing it. He followed down along the damp, familiar shape of the lamb’s rear leg. He grabbed hold of its rump. He waited until the ewe relaxed between contractions. When he felt the pressure subside, he pushed the newborn back into the mother. The ewe panted with exertion.

Jesus closed his eyes. He thought of his own mother. “Please help me,” he whispered. Bit by bit he began to realign the unborn lamb, fighting membrane and muscle, turning it slowly inside the womb. The ewe’s side caved and bulged with his manipulations. When he had rotated the lamb fully around, he sat up, braced his legs on the mother’s backside, and pulled with all his strength.

The ewe’s mouth opened wide and soundless as a wet knob started to emerge from behind her. A pair of shiny black hooves broke first through the sack of blood and water. Then the forelegs. Elbows. A head. And, finally, an entire body, slick and trembling, slipped into the night. It was female.

Jesus cradled the newborn and gave a shout for joy. His jubilation was cut short when the ewe’s insides flooded out behind her, gleaming like wet gems in a growing pool of blood. He sat wide-eyed, holding the damp lamb in his lap. The ewe gasped for breath, her side contracting with spasms. Jesus stared in disbelief. In all the births he had witnessed, he had never seen the ewe expel her guts. He did not know what to do. And her blood kept spilling, the stain spreading fast across the ground.

In a moment, it was over.