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Family Reunion
by Albert Russo

Joseph gave the largest plate to Benjamin, showing in this manner that he considered the ladder the most worthy of the brothers. After the banquet, he told them that they could go back to Canaan with their sacks full of grain and other goodies.

They had just left the city when, to their surprise, a chariot overtook them and the driver shouted “Stop! One of you guys has stolen my master’s silver cup. You’ll pay dearly for that.”
“ … wha … wha … wha,” wailed the eldest of the brothers, “we’re not thieves.”

“That’s what we’ll see.” answered the driver, nastily.

He had them opened all the sacks, until the silver cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.

“This must be a terrible mistake,” cried the baby brother, “I’ve never seen that cup.”

“My master has ordered me to bring back the culprit,” added the driver with fire in his bulging eyes - they seemed ready to pop out.

The brothers begged him to allow them all to accompany Benjamin, in order not to leave him alone, if he had to be punished.

Soon the ten of them stood before the Egyptian guv’ner, who then said:
“I’ll be merciful, while the rest of you can go back to your home country, I’ll keep the thief as my private slave.”

The brothers started hiccuping, stuttering and drooling all at once, in an awful cacophony - that’s when you can’t put words in their right order, like so: ‘we … not … father … crazy … die …’

But, if you remember, good ‘ole Joey had the gift of interpreting dreams. Here too, he could make sense of the gibberish he was hearing.

That is when, with tears in his eyes, Joseph told his brothers who he was. They were as flabbyghosted as they were ashamed, remembering how, so many years ago, they had left Joey in the wild to a certain death. They all started to sob and to tremble. But Joseph ordered them to come back to their senses and to stop their shenanigans.

“Listen to me,” he said in a gentler tone, “there is going to be a famine, lasting five years. Go and fetch our dear father. You shall all live here where there is an abundance of food, and we will finally be reunited as a family.”

When Jacob finally saw his son, whom he believed to be dead, guv’nor Joey cried so much that he felt like the little boy he once was, crying, spluttering and sniffling, with tears flowing from both his nostrils and his tongue. He was so shook up that he began to snort and to pee - he was wearing a white linen robe without underwear, like all the hifalutin Egyptian princes -, something too gross for a personality of his rank. Thank Goddess he was alone with his father and his brothers.

Pharaoh welcomed and entertained them in his palace. He generously gave Jacob and his sons the best pastureland of Egypt, so that they could live off it comfortably and prosper.