Voice in the Wind: The Worldly Woman Returns

Voice in the Wind, pp. 404-407

This week we turn more fully to Julia. Calabah has come to town.

Phoebe found Julia’s visitor impressive and disturbing. the woman spoke pure Latin, denoting her class, and though she appeared young, she carried herself with an elegant poise that bespoke worldly experience far beyond Phoebe’s own years. And the visitor was stunning, not because of the perfection of her features, for they were far from perfect, but because of the arresting quality of her dark eyes. Their intensity was almost unnerving.

Phoebe knew Julia had once considered this woman a close friend. It seemed strange, for they were so different. Julia was passionate about everything; this woman was cool and controlled.

What does Rivers mean by “worldly experience”?

Julia was out when Calabah arrives, but when she returns Phoebe goes out to tell her she has a visitor. Julia is very concerned about what Calabah might have said to her mother—Calabah knows she poisoned Caius, after all—but Phoebe assures her they just talked about hum-drum things. Julia seems discombobulated and Phoebe is worried that something is wrong. Julia says everything is fine.

“I’ll see her, mother. It’s just that I can’t see Calabah without thinking of Caius.”

“I didn’t know you still grieved him. You’ve seen more yourself the last few months.”

Phoebe, seriously, what the heck. People don’t stop grieving loved ones they’ve lost just because they start acting more normally, or seem to be moving on with their lives. Grief doesn’t work like that!

Anyway, Phoebe is relieved when Julia asks to talk to Calabah alone.

Calabah made her uncomfortable. She wondered what her young daughter had in common with such a worldly woman.

So, here’s my issue. The real issue with Calabah is that she’s not a good friend. She manipulates Julia into doing exactly what she wants her to do. But in evangelical speak, the problem with Calabah is that she’s “worldly.” That’s a buzz word that is never really defined. What I hate about this entire story line is that it’s a lost chance to discuss abusive friendships. We aren’t allowed to really delve into why Calabah makes Julia nervous, because we’re to assume that it’s just because she’s “worldly” and somehow vaguely demonic. That is not helpful.

Unsurprisingly, Julia is freaking out about seeing Calabah. She tries to keep her cool, but Calabah can tell her smile is fake and says as much. Calabah scolds Julia for not saying goodby to her before she left Rome, and Julia says she couldn’t face her, and admits that she was afraid, because Calabah knew that she had poisoned Caius.

“Did you never stop to think? Darling, I knew everything. You shared your torment with me. I knew what Caius did to you for his own pleasure. You showed me the marks on  your body. And we both knew what Caius would’ve done in anger. Julia, who else other than I could have understood what you were going through and the difficult decision Caius forced upon you? You should have trusted me.

Julia felt weak before the stare of those dark, fathomless eyes. Calabah covered her hand. “Ours is a true friendship, Julia. I know you as no one else knows you. I know what you’ve done. I know who you are. I know what you’re capable of doing. You are very special to me. We are bound together.”

As though drawn by a power stronger than her own will, Julia leaned into Calabah’s embrace. “I’m sorry I refused to see you in Rome.” Calabah stroked her gently, whispering encouragement. “I felt you had some hold over me. It made me afraid. I know better now. You’re the only real friend I have.”

Do you see what I mean? Calabah comes in and sweet-talks her way back into Julia’s life, and all we get as explanation is slight suggestions of demonic power at work. Calabah is bad because she is literally evil, not because she is manipulative and abusive in her friendships. Explaining things away as demonic or “worldly” rather than examining problematic patterns—that is a pattern we see within evangelicalism that goes beyond Rivers and her writing.

We could create more boxes to put these things in. Evangelicalism comes with a moral system that deals in absolutes and makes decisions that often run contrary to other ethical systems in surprisingly significant ways.

Julia and Calabah go on to talk of lighter things. Julia complains that Marcus controls all of her money. Calabah tells Julia she shouldn’t waste herself on gladiators. She knows about Julia’s affair with Atretes. She tells Julia that rumor of it is already spreading across Ephesus.

“I don’t care what people say!”

“No?”

Julia’s expression fell. “I love him. I love him so much I’d die if I couldn’t be with him. I would marry him if he were free.”

“Would you? Would you really? Is it love, Julia, or his beauty, his brutality? Atretes was captured in Germania. He’s a barbarian. He hates Rome with a passion beyond your understanding. And you, my dear, are every inch a Roman.”

“He doesn’t hate me. He loves me. I know he loves me.”

Just when I thought we were supposed to see Julia maturing, playing the crowd at Marcus’ parties and doing everything she’s supposed to as a host and Roman noblewoman, we get this. Um Julia, your infatuation with a gladiator is infatuation. It’s not as though Julia has him brought to her storage room for conversation. We can already tell that Julia is going to end up burned by yet another man.

It’s almost too bad Calabah isn’t concerned about Julia’s infatuation for Julia’s own sake. It would be nice to see someone trying to steer Julia in a more healthy direction out of actual concern for Julia. As evangelical readers, we’re to see the problem as having sex outside of marriage. Once again we’re denied the opportunity to examine issues and relationship patterns that are actually quite complicated.

Calabah soon leaves, mentioning that she’ll be attending Marcus’ party that evening with Primus, a nobleman Julia calls “handsome and amusing.” When Phoebe comes in after Calabah leaves, Julia assures her that everything is fine.

Everything is not fine.