The city darkness is very different from the hillside darkness. Out on the hillside, where the shepherds work, the darkness gently settles upon the landscape. It is a quiet dusk that melds into deeper shadows and finally, after so long a stretch of time, becomes the dark in which the stars are the only light. But in the city, the darkness comes as if some giant curtain was suddenly pulled tight, blocking out all illumination. It was in that darkness that Ely slowly made his way home through the maze of Jerusalem's streets. He had played too long, and too far from his home. Now two consequences lay ahead of him. One was the beating he would probably receive in arriving home so late. The other was the problem of getting there!

Ely turned onto cobbled streets that he thought were familiar, som…