By Julia C. Schulz
Written for the “Sinners & Saints” sermon series
NOTE: When I began to consider retelling Gideon’s story to a modern audience, I wondered how to handle his multiple wives, concubine, and numerous children. Whereas such behavior might have been more acceptable in an ancient culture, the closest thing to such a situation in modern times might have been a childhood friend of mine whose father was a prominent figure in the American mafia. Her mother was his legal wife, but he had a mistress and second family living in NYC. Although Gideon was prone to anger and seen as wavering in faith, I wondered if we can truly comprehend the fear he faced in carrying out God’s commands?? So, I Googled the topic of people who stood up to organized crime and lived to tell about it and came across many stories of people living in Calabria, Italy, who were bravely resisting the 'Ndrangheta. I had originally intended to depict Gideon as a womanizing man being drawn into cooperating with the mafia due to financial circumstances and threats, but many articles that I read were about women bravely resisting organized crime despite a very oppressive patriarchal society. Instead, I made Gideon the wife of such a man.
Writing this story has been a sort of crash course for me, so please forgive me if I err, especially in my understanding of Catholic practices, Italian culture, marital relations, geography, etc. I tried to research the meaning of Hebrew names and transcribe them into Italian, which I never studied. While I based the storyline on some actual events in Italy (the Madonna of the Mountain was replaced with the bust of the slain priest by the government in an attempt to prevent the ‘Ndrangheta from crowning a new leader at the festival), I based the mobsters in my story on the invaders portrayed in Judges. The mafia’s control of Calabrian agriculture seemed to parallel the story of invasion in Judges, although it is the “bad guys” who burrow underground in my story. Finally, just like the Bible, my story contains references to adultery and violence.
Gideon was pounding out her frustrations into the barley bread she was kneading down in the wine cellar of her father's vineyard in Cerbiatta. It was quiet down with last year's vintage, but she was seeking the peaceful quiet… the quiet she felt in church as a child, smelling the incense and gazing up into the eyes of Christ on the Crucifix by candlelight... full of awe, majesty, and the faithful anticipation of good... not the suffocating omerta of so-called respect, the loyalty that turned a blind eye to theft, extortion, drug-trafficking, money-laundering, exploitation, and murder.
Slam! Gideon rolled the dough across the wooden surface and repeatedly pounded it out. The local mafia had come through the area a few years ago, demanding protection money from the farmers. Their ultimate goal was to bankrupt each family business and then purchase it cheaply to benefit from the EU subsidies. Gideon's family business made more money than most of their neighbor's farms, so the mob bosses demanded large sums from her father.
At first Giosia had refused, but the mobsters set fire to his vineyard, burning most of the harvest that season before Gideon and her many brothers were able to extinguish the blaze. Then came the threatening decapitated sheep left on the doorstep, and Giosia felt he had no choice in order to keep his business. After all, his sons had wives and children to support along with the children born to his daughter Gideon and her husband.
Slam! Gideon dusted her hands with more flour. The "cattle mafia" had donned rustic clothing and descended upon the entire rural area like locusts, using illegal grazing to destroy crops and often setting fire to agricultural areas. They cut the irrigation pipes for olive and citrus groves and even targeted the farm run by three unmarried sisters, poisoning their dogs, destroying two threshers, and dumping dozens of cattle carcasses on their land.
Gideon thought of the few sheep her youngest brother kept on the edge of the vineyard. Lupo, a local mafia boss, now demanded a lamb dinner with his family's finest wine whenever he dropped by, unannounced. The Powerful mafia clans were called 'Ndrangheta or "valiant men." The title sickened Gideon.
Slam! She began to shape the loaf of barley bread. Many of her neighbors tried to hide small bits of their produce in caves and cellars as the protection money pushed them further and further into poverty. Gideon's husband had numerous children to feed, including a son to his mistress in the city. Yes, he thought Gideon was unaware of his fondness for other women, and he generously spilled his seed about the region, all the time trying to hide his numerous affairs and illegitimate offspring from his sweet, devoted wife. She was running his household and watching over the vineyards while he wined and dined his pretty little ballerina on so-called business trips.
Two days ago, Gideon had found a love note and photograph of the very attractive and toned red head in her husband's luggage, but, upset as she was upon that discovery, he was standing in the living room with Lupo, about to leave for a week in the city. She would not confront him in front of the mobster. Yet, Gideon could not help but picture her spouse kissing, embracing, and undressing her perfectly made-up and coiffured rival while she wiped the sweat from her brow, pulled back the loose strands of her unruly tresses, and wiped her hands on her dirty apron.
Gideon began to punch out the air bubbles in the dough. Yes, her husband certainly broke the seventh commandment regularly. Yet didn't Jesus view sin very differently than humans? Unchecked anger was as evil as murder, lust as guilty as actually having sex with mistresses. Perhaps she was guilty of cowardice, accepting the role of the silent, devoted wife to a fault.
Moreover, Gideon had a secret, too, a child born out of wedlock to a local boy in a town thirty miles away. She was only thirteen when her Aunt Teresa invited her to visit with the cousins in Palla that summer. She met the boy at a festival. One thing led to another, and, when her aunt noticed the tell-tale signs of her niece's pregnancy, she kept the situation as secret as possible and requested that Gideon stay the year "to help with her younger cousins." After Gideon's son was born, her aunt offered to raise him along with Gideon's cousins. Her heart breaking but feeling powerless, teenage Gideon headed back to her parents' house, leaving her infant under Teresa's care. Her aunt had named the boy Rex and promised to treat him like a king if Gideon severed all ties with him.
The intolerable silence again! Gideon could still taste the salt of her own tears as she waved goodbye to her precious son so many years ago.
Maybe she wasn't the one to judge her husband… or even the mafia bosses? At least they had the courage to accept prison sentences rather than rat out other mafia members and were not weak and scared every day like she was. Much as she loved all the young children she bore to her husband, maybe she had been serving her own prison sentence in silence as well.
Gideon knew more about her husband's "accidental children" and his efforts to financially support them in exchange for their silence than he ever imagined. And she knew, in some twisted but tender way, he never wanted to speak the truth and risk hurting her even more than he feared losing her.
She knew, from whispered conversations in the living room and boxes of ammunition she came across in the barn, that Corvo, a local boss, had asked her husband to smuggle weapons out of the city for them for a generous wad of cash that she would never see. The money would go to her husband's favorite ballerina to support his son in the city.
Yet, what killings might the mobsters commit with those guns?? And how long before her husband might be complicit in murder???
Gideon mounted the stairs and placed the loaf in the hot oven, wondering if it would come out okay. Then there was a sudden blast of light, not from the oven or even the kitchen but from the wine cellar. Terrified, she tiptoed down the stairs and saw an immense, muscular young man stooping under the massive oak beams, quite a contrast to her 5'2" frame. Despite his olive skin and deep brown eyes, the youth appeared to have walked straight out of the paintings in the Sistine Chapel. Gideon rubbed her eyes in disbelief. The man called out, "The LORD is with you, gibbor chayil!"
"Gibbor chayil???" replied Gideon, incredulously. "I think the nearest Kosher deli is at least one hundred miles north of here!"
"Gibbor chayil.. mighty warrior," asserted the visitor.
"Is that what Lupo calls me when I turn a blind eye to my husband's affairs? Or to him running guns for Corvo??" muttered Gideon under her breath. She was afraid to speak the words aloud. What if the muscular youth was one of Corvo's soldiers?
"Your Mamma called you—her youngest and smallest girl—strong, faithful, and beautiful when you delivered your Papa's best wine for the priests to bless for Mass, but GOD calls you a woman of valor," explained the young man.
How would the mobsters know what Mamma said to her when she was eleven?? Her visitor must be relaying a message from God!
"My Mamma taught me to trust God for a blessed future, but then so-called 'valiant men' came and ruined everything. They have control over all the citrus and olive groves around here. My husband is running errands for them in the city where he sleeps around with other women. Even Papa is a shell of his former self, paying Lupo protection money so they don't torch our harvest and threaten us," Gideon lamented.
The LORD turned to Gideon and declared, "Go in the strength you have and save your community from the mafia. Am I not sending you?"
"But LORD, how can I save the land? My family is growing weaker, and I am the youngest and weakest ..only a woman in a man's world," pleaded Gideon.
The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down the local mafia as if they were only one soldier."
Gideon was starting to wonder if stress and the wine she had been drinking went to her head. "Please give me a sign that you are really from God. Please do not go away until I return with a gift for you."
The youth agreed to hang out while Gideon roasted some mutton to accompany the barley bread she had been baking. The normal response for a housewife, she presented the visitor a lovely meal at the kitchen table and poured a glass of her father's best wine. The young man climbed the stairs and stood before the banquet which then mysteriously caught fire like a flambe but was entirely consumed, leaving the family china unscathed. Immediately afterwards, the visitor vanished.
Gideon began to realize she had entertained an angel. "Oh LORD! I have seen your messenger!" she exclaimed.
Then a Voice cried out, "Shalom! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die!" as a sense of reassurance washed over Gideon. She then did what she thought any good woman from her hometown should do after having an angelic vision: she lit two candles, placed the peace prayer card on her kitchen wall, and began reciting the prayer.
Somehow the words about mutual assured atomic destruction seemed relevant to the current situation. She recalled her husband taking her to a village on their wedding anniversary and seeing a newly painted fresco in the local church depicting the members of a mafia family (slain in a massacre by a rival clan) as martyrs along with the Madonna clasping Christ's dead body. "Those who live by the sword die by the sword." And didn't the mafia co-opt anything holy about devotion and sacrifice and twist it into a distorted reflection of truth???
Later that night, as Gideon lay in bed alone, she heard the voice of God again. "Go to the remote village where the Festival of the Madonna is held. Remove the stone statue of the Madonna where the mob bosses plan to crown their next leader in a ceremony mimicking the bishop's crowning of the larger, wooden Madonna statue. Replace the stone Madonna of the Mountain with the bust of Father Giuseppe who was murdered in an ambush by the mafia. He is a true martyr of the church. Father Antonio, the newly appointed local minister in that town has succeeded a priest caught in criminal activity. This new priest fights against such corruption and has the bust of the martyr inside the local church. Go soon because the festival is only days away."
The next morning Gideon packed up her sons and daughters and headed for the village, telling everyone that she was offering some of her father's wines to the local businesses prior to the festival and strategically growing the winery's fine reputation. Fearing anyone but the local priest learning of her true mission, she brought her sons and daughters inside the village church and headed into the confessional.
Gideon's hands shook as she crossed herself and began her confession, listing her most recent sins. When she was fairly certain of priest's identity from the comments she overheard about him from the locals (most of their descriptions were wary and negative), she haltingly began telling the man of God about her strange visitation and message from the LORD.
Father Antonio was silent for a moment.
Gideon's mind raced. Surely the priest thought she was mentally unbalanced! Or worse, even the confessional did not protect her from being overheard by the wrong people.
Father Antonio began slowly and deliberately, "I believe that I made the right decision in holding the coronation of the recently restored large Madonna two years early. God was sending us a sign after Covid cancelled the festival two years in a row. Come to the rectory after sunset. I do have the bust of Father Giuseppe there, and I will find us some helpers to move the heavy stone Madonna of the Mountain so we can replace it with the bust."
Gideon agreed to the plan and informed her young children that they would be helping the priest move some statues as part of a secret surprise and could not tell anyone about it.
She then took her sons and daughters with her to a local tavern to sell some bottles of the vineyard's best wine. The establishment was noisy and crowded, filled with boisterous young people dancing and folk singers performing ballads praising outlaws who lived in the woods. Older men sat talking quietly at tables in the dark corners of the room. She and the children ordered the traditional meal of roasted goat while Gideon began her sales pitch. The owner laughed when Gideon offered him several bottles of the vineyard's best wines.
"You mean you travelled this far and only bought two suitcases of wine? Of course, I'll buy it, but I'll sell it all within a couple of hours!"
"Well, there is always next year if you are pleased with our product," smiled Gideon as she continued her ruse.
As the children finished their meal, she glanced at one table to the right, near the door and, to her horror, caught sight of Lupo and Corvo deep in conversation. She tugged at her brood of children, and, pulling her scarf across her face, headed out the door and into the street, where she was almost knocked over by a teenage boy.
Gideon stared into a face that eerily resembled her own. He and several other boys were dressed in very expensive designer clothes, and a nearby girl called out, "Rex, are you playing Morra tonight?"
"Yes, until after sun-up," the young man replied.
Rex??? Was it just a coincidence? It seemed like maybe God was orchestrating something mysterious.
"Young man, were you raised by Teresa and Paolo in the town of Palla?" Gideon inquired.
The cocky youth gave her a look of disdain and replied, "Yes, but why do you want to know?" Gideon knew that young men dressing in expensive clothes in a poverty-stricken area and playing Morra, an aggressive verbal game, were hoping to be selected as the next generation of mafia leaders.
Gideon's face lit up and she blurted out, "Teresa is my aunt. We are related! I want to hear all about you. How are you doing?"
He stared at her with a blank expression and then came right to the point, "Are you my biological mother?" Apparently, Aunt Teresa's silence had not prevented the boy from learning the truth.
"Yes! I am your mother!" Gideon cried and threw her arms wide open to embrace him, but Rex pulled back.
"Why didn't you ever try to contact me? Why should I care about you after you abandoned me?"
"It wasn't like that. I was your age when I gave birth. Aunt Teresa and Uncle Paolo promised to provide a decent life for you if I promised not to contact you," Gideon passionately explained, but Rex ran into the thick crowd and disappeared among the many colors of clothing worn by the festival attendees. She glanced at her children who all stood in shock, looking at their mother after she finally revealed her secret.
They walked back to the church and, despite the children's tender ages, engaged in long overdue conversations with their mother until time for prayer at sunset.
Gideon had heard that even those playing Morra respected the women pilgrims praying at sunset and gave them a wide berth. While the children rested, she decided to focus upon the Magnificat at vespers.
AND MARY SAID: “MY SOUL PRAISES THE LORD AND MY SPIRIT REJOICES IN GOD MY SAVIOR, FOR HE HAS BEEN MINDFUL OF THE HUMBLE STATE OF HIS SERVANT. FROM NOW ON ALL GENERATIONS WILL CALL ME BLESSED, FOR THE MIGHTY ONE HAS DONE GREAT THINGS FOR ME- HOLY IS HIS NAME. HIS MERCY EXTENDS TO THOSE WHO FEAR HIM, FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION. HE HAS PERFORMED MIGHTY DEEDS WITH HIS ARM: HE HAS SCATTERED THOSE WHO ARE PROUD IN THEIR INMOST THOUGHTS. HE HAS BROUGHT DOWN RULERS FROM THEIR THRONES BUT HAS LIFTED UP THE HUMBLE. HE HAS FILLED THE HUNGRY WITH GOOD THINGS BUT HAS SENT THE RICH AWAY EMPTY. HE HAS HELPED HIS SERVANT ISRAEL, REMEMBERING TO BE MERCIFUL TO ABRAHAM AND HIS DESCENDANTS FOREVER, EVEN AS HE SAID TO OUR FATHERS.” (Luke 1:46-55)
The familiar words grabbed at her heart in a new way. Mary was no meek and mild teenager, no silent wife-to-be; she spoke of God humbling the proud and powerful. Mary was a rebel!
Then, as darkness began to settle in the village, Gideon instructed the children to quietly accompany her to the rectory to avoid attracting unwanted attention. When they knocked upon the door, Father Antonio answered flanked by the security officers. He had invited the Carabinieri to the festival this year in order to dissuade the mafia from meeting. Now the locals distrusted him and distanced themselves from the priest. Oddly, the officers embraced Gideon's message about replacing the stone Madonna of the Mountain with the bust of martyred Father Giuseppe, so they brought the needed equipment and accompanied Gideon, her children, and Father Antonio to the site where the switch would take place in the dark of night.
Gideon sensed the anxiety of all involved, but she did not glimpse anyone suspicious watching her or the children as the statues were swapped. Then she and the children headed back to the church to grab their things and drive away on the only road out of town before sunrise. She thought wistfully of Rex, but fear for her other offspring propelled her to drive quickly away from the village.
When they arrived back home, everything seemed calm at first. They resumed their usual routines; the children with their schoolwork and Gideon running the household and helping in the vineyard. Then she began to notice that her neighbors on the nearby farms would not return her greetings or accept her usual invitations for coffee. Even at Mass she no longer received the warm greetings of many lifetime parishioners.
After about ten days, her husband's car drove up to the house. Gideon was in the kitchen with Giosia, pouring his morning coffee. Her husband silently carried his luggage into the house, kissing her in a cool and perfunctory manner. "Gideon, I need to talk to you."
Giosia hesitated a moment, unsure if he should leave, but his son-in-law's mood quickly escalated as he almost shouted, "Gideon, did you have something to do with that radical priest replacing the Madonna of the Mountain with a bust of a clergyman killed in an ambush??"
Gideon stared in shock at the accusation.
"Because Lupo and Corvo said they saw you there with the priest as the statue was being moved. Gideon, these are dangerous men!"
Gideon steadied her voice, "Yes, you might not believe me, but I actually saw an angel who told me to switch the statues. I went to the village and met with the priest. God specifically told me to go to him."
"But I never gave you permission, Gideon! You are my wife, and now you are talking like a crazy woman!"
Gideon also raised her voice "Your permission?? To fulfill a direct calling from God ...delivered by an angel! I knew you wouldn't understand. Your wife?? Did you tell your little red-headed ballerina that you had a wife before you got her pregnant?? What about all those other women whose children you fathered?? You think I don't know!?!"
Gideon's husband looked stricken for a moment, but then his rage continued. "Corvo and Lupo told me that I need to control my family ..or they will. Gideon, you are messing with things you don't understand!"
"So are you, dear husband. So are you!" Gideon was having trouble controlling her own anger.
Her husband raised his fist and went to strike her, but Giosia inserted himself between them and said, "Don't beat my daughter! If Corvo and Lupo want to harm her, we will do what we can to protect her. That is what a father and a husband do. I know you married Gideon came into our family after being an orphan, so maybe no one showed you how to be a husband and father. And if God is truly speaking to Gideon, no one can stop her."
Giosia's son-in-law slumped into a seat and sighed. He had never struck his wife before, and he deeply regretted trying to hit her ..even if Corvo and Lupo told him he beat her. The idea that Gideon had known about his infidelities began to sink in and he felt terrible.
"I'm sorry, Gideon. I really do love you. I just am weak and lonely when I am away from you. I'm not sure why I do it. Maybe I caused you stress and you hallucinated about the angel."
"I did not hallucinate," Gideon replied and then continued, "and I don't want you in my bed until you stop sleeping around. I don't need an STD from one of your encounters. But I have never been completely honest with you, either. " Gideon admitted.
His eyes grew wide, and he began to plead, "Please don't leave me for another man. I don't think I could bear it!"
"No, I never cheated on you. But I had a son long before we met... when I was only fourteen... with a boy I met at a festival in Palla. My aunt and uncle raised him in exchange for a promise that I would never contact him. I think I met my son in the village right before we switched the statues," Gideon explained.
All three sat in silence, absorbing everything said.
"I guess gossip about the statue switch might be why the neighbors are shunning me now," suggested Gideon.
"Probably. I hear you have a new nickname, 'the Contender' because you messed with the mafia. Gideon, you put a target on yourself... and the rest of the family," replied her husband.
"And what do you suppose Corvo will do with any weapons you smuggle out here?? We will have blood on our hands!" pleaded Gideon.
"Gideon, I had no choice. Unless I play nice and give Corvo what he wants, he'll destroy the vineyard and ruin the family business... or worse."
"I think God is showing us another way," countered Gideon.
Her husband and she continued to have arguments and heated discussions over the next few days while Gideon refused to share a bed with him. Eventually, despite Gideon's pleading, he left on another business trip.
While he was away, Gideon was preparing breakfast when she looked out the kitchen window and spotted several trucks driving along the valley roads to the various farms on the adjacent hills. There was no mistaking Lupo and Corvo's soldiers as they swaggered out of their vehicles and paid her neighbors each a visit. Gideon suspected they were trying to collect more protection money. When they arrived at the vineyard, Giosa demanded that she stay inside with the children while he went out to meet them. She complied and hugged her youngest ones while silently praying for Giosia.
She heard the truck pull away as her father, ashen faced, came back into the kitchen, but he refused to divulge much to her except that they had demanded even more money than last time.
The next day Gideon was awakened to the smell of smoke and ran outside to see the olive grove on a nearby hill on fire. She summoned her older children and headed over to assist her neighbors in extinguishing the blaze. When they finally succeeded, about 2/3 of the crop had been destroyed. She consoled Aida and her husband who owned the grove and promised that she and the children would help them replace the trees they lost. No one had to say that the mafia had engaged in arson in order to bankrupt the couple and buy the land cheaply.
Two days after that another neighbor, Grazia, found her farm equipment destroyed, and the irrigation pipes to Vira's citrus grove were cut. Again, Gideon and her children volunteered to help Grazia and Vira and their family farms in any way they could.
Gideon felt a stirring in her heart that she suspected was from God. She grabbed the megaphone her husband had left over from his soccer days and headed over to the farm her distant relatives owned on the other side of the valley. The place had a funny name, Padre Dell' Aiudo, and her cousins were struggling to pay the hired hands. She stood on the hill over the field and spoke into the megaphone, calling everyone, from the owners to the field workers, to band together and help each other repair the damage.
She also sent her older children to enlist her friends Aida, Grazia, and Vira and to go through "Terra Dimenticata," quietly gathering supporters to band together against the mafia. Vira arrived first, bringing a freshly baked cake to share.
Yet, the trucks full of burly looking "soldiers" kept appearing. In fact, Gideon heard rumors that more and more farmers were pushed to the brink until the clan bosses took over their land. Then the mafia tapped into the waves of desperate asylum seekers immigrating from Africa and exploited them as harvesters.
Building materials piled up near a number of bosses' walled but luxurious homes. Nobody discussed the dust and roar of construction equipment ...the noise of jackhammers and the sound of silence.
Gideon was feeling overwhelmed as she hung both a sheepskin and a bathroom rug on the clothesline to dry. She began to pray and found herself asking God to confirm that He was directing her to save the land from the mafia by allowing her bathroom rug to dry overnight while the fleece remained wet with dew.
The next day her rug was dry, but she rung out a bowlful of water from the sheepskin.
Well, maybe the fleece would naturally take longer than the polyester rug?? Gideon asked God to reverse the results and make the rug wet while the sheepskin remained dry. God graciously answered her prayer with a wet rug and dry fleece.
Gideon had been secretly messaging many in the area, and early the next morning numerous farmers, mostly women, showed up with snacks, flashlights, camping gear, and boomboxes near the Primavera di Stupor for a mass demonstration. Everyone was ready for action, but again God spoke to Gideon, telling her that she gathered too many followers! The LORD explained that if He delivered the mafia into her hands, everyone would rely upon their own human strength. God told her to permit anyone who felt fearful to go home, and more than half the crowd left.
The LORD said there were still too many. (By this point, Gideon's daughter, ever the tree-hugger, was upset with all the people bringing single-use plastic water bottles.) God told Gideon to move all the people who brought reusable water bottles to one side. There was only a small fraction of the crowd with reusable bottles, and the LORD instructed Gideon to only use these people to deliver the land from the mafia. She sent the rest to their tents and convinced them to leave their provisions with her for a more "mobile unit" as there were rumors that some mafia bosses were held up in hidden underground bunkers. Yet, everyone could see the tell-tale trucks parked around an encampment in the valley.
That night God told Gideon to go down to the mafia encampment because He was going to deliver it to her, suggesting that, if she was fearful, she should take Leonardo, her young, hired hand from the vineyard, with her and listen to what was being said by the mafia. She and the youth crept down to the outer edge of the camp, behind the trees to avoid detection, and saw a vast number of cars and trucks. They hid behind a pickup and heard the voices of two men in conversation.
"Hey Aldo, I had the weirdest dream last night. We were all in the large tent with Corvo and Lupo, drinking wine and discussing business when this loaf of barley bread came tumbling down the mountain. It struck the tent with such force that it collapsed on top of us! Must have been some dense bread, eh??"
"Giraldo, I've done some dream interpretation. Barley bread represents common people. Your dream can only mean that God is handing victory over all our clans to "the Contender," that housewife Gideon, the daughter of Giosia the vineyard-owner."
Gideon wanted to shout praises to God aloud! She and Leonardo headed back up to spring and gathered the small group with reusable water bottles. She told them to grab their boomboxes and high-powered flashlights.
The group circled the edge of the encampment at 10pm, just as the lookouts were changing shifts, and blasted Christian heavy metal music on their boomboxes and shone their high-powered flashlights while shouting, "A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!"
When the sound of the loud boomboxes reverberated through the encampment, the LORD caused the men to attack and shoot at one another. The mobsters fled the area, going through the woods and briar patches and out into Prato Danzante. Aida and Vira's families and all the people from "Terra Dimenticata" joined in flushing out the mafia with noise and lights, and Gideon sent her children to gather her neighbors from the productive farmland.
These farmers were pursuing Lupo when he lost his footing on a steep slope, fell onto the rocks beneath him, and fatally fractured his skull. Likewise, Corvo ran into a winery and climbed the ladder to the top of a tank to hide. He slipped and fell onto a winepress, breaking his neck and instantly dying.
Word spread and Gideon learned of their demise, but the farmers from the further away fertile land asked her why they were not summoned when she ambushed the encampment. She pointed out that God gave them the victory over Lupo and Corvo, and their resentment subsided.
As the sun rose, Gideon and her band of followers were growing tired and hungry. After passing the ramshackle shelters of migrant workers, they came into a large town and went into the police station, asking to refill their water bottles and if the nearest restaurant or grocery store would open early. Gideon explained that her group needed help as they were in hot pursuit of two prominent underworld bosses... the ones nicknamed "La Vittima" and "Uno Privito di Protezione." (These men feigned being innocent citizens, persecuted by the anti-mafia police.) Sadly, the officers refused to give any assistance as they had not already captured the mafia kingpins.
Gideon thought of the hungry migrants living in squalor, and dealing with her own hunger and exhaustion, grew increasingly angry. A young teenage migrant worker from Ghana saw how she and her followers were being treated and secretly offered her his last two oranges.
Gideon gratefully accepted the fruit before confronting the town officials. "Are you all in collusion with those criminals?? When God hands them over to us, I will be a thorn in your side as the government starts prosecuting them and all those looking the other way!"
The next town over, Gideon went to the parish church and inquired of the priest for provisions. He also refused to help them in their quixotic quest for fear of reprisal from the mafia. Again, Gideon was furious as her followers were growing weaker by the minute. She shouted at the minister, "This church will not stand if it aligns with criminals instead of Christ!"
A plane passed overhead as the ragtag "army," still pursuing the cars and trucks of "soldiers," headed into the woods to rest a moment. Sunburnt and exhausted, Gideon and her eldest son born to her husband, Emil, heard a dog's yelp and followed the creature into a seemingly abandoned home. They began scouting for food and found a tin of anchovies, an unopened box of crackers, and a jar of preserves that weren't even expired.
Suddenly they heard a noise and a trap door opened from beneath the floor. The two froze in silent fear as two men ascended a hidden staircase into the room, followed by a slighter figure. "So, the legendary "Contender" and her so-called firstborn son, unarmed! I finally have the privilege of meeting you face to face, " said the one man, smirking.
Gideon and Emil immediately recognized the men as La Vittima and Uno Privito di Protezione. Both were armed and pointing guns at Gideon and Emil. The third, youthful figure came into the half-light and Gideon recognized the face of Rex, her actual firstborn. Rex's facial expression was cold and deadpan.
For a moment, Gideon was astonished that these rich and powerful men were hiding like rats confined to an underground bunker in the dusty, falling apart ruins of a house.
"Let's see, it will cost us many bullets to dispatch you both with all the damage you've caused." La Vittima was referring to the tradition of using a bullet for each clan member jailed or killed in a grisly execution. "Rex, go get me a more powerful weapon," La Vittima said, directing the youth back down the stairs.
La Vittima and Uno Privito di Protezione directed Gideon and Emil into the stone courtyard outside the old house at gunpoint.
"Well, I guess we did repay some of your collateral damage when one of our young wannabes set fire to your father's vineyard at dawn. How was he to know that your brothers were working on the delivery trucks nearby and that the gas tanks would explode, killing every last one of them??" Uno Privito Di Prontezione sneered.
Gideon was aghast, hoping the gangster was as much a liar as a murderer.
Rex appeared, looking a bit frightened, "The lock on the crate of assault weapons is jammed. I tried the combination several times."
Suddenly there was movement in the woods, and uniformed officers descended upon the courtyard shouting, "Drop your weapons! We have you surrounded!" Two guys in full tactical gear pulled Gideon and Emil to safety as Emil shouted, "Mom, it's the Cacciatori, the hi-tech police who go after the 'Ndrangheta!"
Realizing that there was no escape, the two mafia kingpins and their young accomplice dropped to the ground and relinquished their weapons. The Cacciatori quickly apprehended them and carried them away. Gideon was somber when she saw Rex carted off in handcuffs.
An officer graciously wrapped Gideon and Emil in a blanket and shepherded them away so the paramedics could attend to their exhaustion and shock. He came over to check on them after a while and whispered, "Ever since about 10pm last night our internet, phone lines, and sophisticated equipment have been malfunctioning ...working on and off, which probably meant the 'Ndrangheta have also had trouble tracking us and everything they control. We had been watching you from the air and trying to find the secret underground bunker of those two mafia kingpins. You led us straight there!" His superior scowled at him, warning him about revealing too much information. Yet, Gideon did overhear that all those connected to these crime bosses had gone into hiding or fled the area.
Sadly, Gideon learned that the tale of her brothers' fiery deaths was true. Only Giosia, her sisters-in-law, and their children remained. Gideon's own husband was still out-of-town. Still, in her anger and intense grief, Gideon was even more determined to bravely testify against La Vittima and Uno Privato di Protezione.
She gladly gave the officials information about both the large town and parish church that refused to give her followers food, suggesting that they might be complicit with the mafia. Gideon described the young teenager from Ghana who gave her the oranges, and the authorities happened to encounter him when they visited the town. In exchange for some real protection and legal assistance from the Cacciatori, the young man gave them information leading to the arrests of seventy-seven town officials charged with corruption and collaborating with the mafia.
The priest who also refused to help Gideon and her followers was arrested and charged with being complicit in mafia crimes. The church was struck by lightning and caught fire after his arrest but was eventually rebuilt. The new clergyman preached against corruption and started a ministry for migrant workers.
When it came time for the trials, a large call center was transformed into a courthouse with high security. Sometimes, justice was elusive. The case of the three single women who owned a farm and were repeatedly harassed by mobsters was dismissed for lack of evidence.
The prosecutors wanted Emil to testify against La Vittima and Uno Privato Di Protezione, but, despite Gideon's encouragement, he was very frightened and experienced panic attacks, especially after learning that all his uncles had perished in an arson attack at his home. Gideon asked if she could bear the bigger burden of testimony.
Gideon's husband came forward and testified about his dealings with the now deceased Corvo. She was very proud of his change in heart.
The trial of Rex came before the trials of La Vittima and Uno Privato di Protezione. Gideon was asked to give testimony along with several officers of the Cacciatori. She was never sure if the padlock was really broken or if he had feigned it to delay her murder and that of her other son. Rex maintained his silence, and Gideon pleaded for mercy and some sort of rehabilitation for him until he was no longer deemed dangerous. She prayed unceasingly for him. His sentence carried the possibility of changes after so many years were served, and she began writing to him and visiting him in prison, assuring him of her love and that of God. (He was eventually released, but he never shook the need to act tough and prove himself, which ultimately led him down some dark paths.)
When the big day arrived for the trials of La Vittima and Uno Privato di Protezione, the defense had a hard time portraying them as innocent, honorable men, given the testimony of the Cacciatori alone. Knowing that both they and the authorities were dealing with scrambled surveillance equipment, the attorneys tried to portray Gideon as some loose, scorned, uncaring woman who was trying to gain fame and get at her abandoned son's money as her father's wine business failed. They also had a field day with her supposed angelic visitation. They never mentioned that the winery had been sabotaged several times by the mafia or that the Carabinieri assisted her and the priest with the statue switch.
Then the tiny housewife took the stand. "Let me remind you, ladies and gentlemen, that I am not the one on trial today, but these so-called 'valiant men' are." Gideon was questioned, and she testified that she and her son were nearly murdered by the defendants.
The defense began to question her about her followers and their movement across the mountains, trying to poke holes in the idea that hardened criminals would flee at the sight of high-powered flashlights and sound of heavy-metal religious music blasted on old boomboxes. Surely, she had hired some mastermind to block the internet and interfere with the authorities' sophisticated equipment.
Gideon openly chuckled at the suggestion, "So, while making lunch for Aristide (my youngest child), working in the vineyard, brewing coffee for my father and husband, doing the laundry, cooking dinner, and helping my late brother with his sheep, I made plans with an unknown mastermind hacker?? I have trouble texting. I don't know a thing about the cyber world!"
The defense attorney looked her straight in the eye, "Then how do you explain the holograms of huge airborne soldiers hovering over your followers in the night sky?? Many have described them in written testimony."
"I truly do not know what you are talking about," replied Gideon.
The trial dragged on for a few more days, but it didn't take long for the two defendants to receive life without parole for extremely long lists of charges such as murder, drug and labor trafficking, and extortion.
Gideon and her husband went back home under police protection and helped Giosia rebuild the winery and provide for his sons’ widows and children. The government confiscated some mafia-owned farms and equipment and gave them to newly formed co-ops to combat the poverty in the area. Giosia's winery joined such a co-op and earned a brave "mafia-free" stamp on all their products, allowing them to charge more and better pay any hired help.
Being under government protection, Gideon's husband could no longer go into the city to promote the family wines. Hence, he no longer visited his mistresses and worked on salvaging his marriage. The new co-op caused the winery to flourish even without travelling to make contacts.
The neighbors, who had gone from shunning Gideon from fear of the mafia to loyally following her, now asked her to run for office and lead them into the future. When she declined, they suggested Emil might be groomed for politics. Gideon replied, "Don't look to me or my son to continue to lead you and protect you from the mafia. Look to God. He was the One behind driving the mob from our community. I will make one request of you. As we go through the things left on the farms confiscated from the mafia, please bring me any gold chains or jewelry you find hidden away."
Her neighbors happily surrendered gold jewelry they found hidden in secret compartments or buried in barns, as well as some stashes of cocaine. Gideon did not surrender the jewelry or cocaine to the authorities, even despite the thought that some of the jewelry might be stolen. She left the cocaine in a chest hidden in the winery's barn, and had the gold melted down and sculpted into a statue of a boxer, a "Contender," to remind everyone of their victory over the oppressor. She placed the statue in Cerbiatta's town square, and it caused the people of the town, as well as Gideon's family, to trust in humans more than God. The cocaine left in the barn also entrapped a number of people into years of addiction.
Gideon lived another forty years, and her neighbors enjoyed peace and freedom from oppression during her lifetime.