Sunday, August 29, 2010

The Savior

Part 22

But since there was no blood he didn’t think much about it, although he didn’t want to go into a church looking that way. But he was being urged by mysterious people and mysterious forces so he went to get dressed.

When he opened his closet door he saw a rack of suits that were new to him. He took out a dark, two piece charcola gray and looked at it. It seemed appropriate. Before closing the door he looked down at the bag full of money with a suspicious look. It was a problem for him to have that much money in his apartment even if he was led to belive it was his.

He finished dressing, with the new suit and a clean shirt, He stuffed a handkerchief into hi rear pocket and took his keys.

Out side the sky was gray and it looked like it might rain. Adam was dreading this trip to the church. He didn’t like churches. There was no much false about the way religion was conducted in them, he thought. That’s why he didn’t go to churches. The few times he was inone he wanted to shout “You’re all a bunch of phonies.” But he kept walking prompted by curiosity about what was next in this fantasy world where nothing made any sense. He wouldn’t be surprised to find a Mad Hatter somewhere.

But as he was approaching the block near the church he was stopped by two street urchins, a girl and a younger boy. The boy was crying.

“Please Mister, help my brother, He hurt his hand.”

The boy held out his hand and it was a horrible si9ght. The little finger was smashed, the bone was sticking out and it was bleeding. Adam reached under the hand and held it. He didn’t ask how it had happened. He looked at it and realized he would not be going to the church if he had to take of that. He covered the boys hand with his other hand and closed his eyes. He felt a surge of pity and compassion for the young fellow. As he did that the boy stopped crying as if he knew with Adam he would be alright. When Adam finally had the courage to look back at the boy’s hand he was amazed to see that it was completely healed. The finger had straightened out, there was no sigtn of the bone and the bleeding had disappeared.

(To be continued.)

Friday, August 27, 2010

The Savior

Friends, there is a lot of research that has to go into making this story. That's why it's proceeding slowly. I hope you can stay with me. D

Sunday, August 22, 2010

the Savior

Part 21

He didn’t remember how he got the scratch, he couldn’t remember bumping his head. But maybe it was when they got in the car quickly escaping the animals on the hill. It wasn’t a deep scratch and it wasn’t bleeding so he decided to ignore it.

He went for another bottle of Nilsvater and heard the suck of air into the bottle as he pried off the cap. Then he returned to the table and opened the book at random.

“…and when Azezel was brought from its stall….”

He flipped to another page. He didn’t want to read words he didn’t understand and it was too late to bother looking them up. Now he read “He stood upon the cliff and watched as the forests were set afire, as the mountains of the west were cast down, as the sea rose in pillars and as the cities trembled and fell. And through it all he held his peace. ‘Not yet’ he said. ‘Not yet.’

The twirling lights grew brighter and laced his bearing with hot winds. ‘Too much to pay. Too much to earn back’ he said. And now he heard the harsh distant siren sound. The last siren sound all would hear that told him the time was approaching the time of seven.”

The time of seven, he thought. What the hell does that mean?

He closed the book again and pondered the last words he read about forests, mountains and seas. He wondered if the twirling lights were the same lights he saw on his bathroom ceiling. Nothing was making any sense to him.

Tomorrow would be Sunday and he was supposedly expected in church even though he never went there and knew no one in that congregation. He checked the paper for church listings and found the Saint Joseph’s Sunday Mass was at 7:30. Maybe there will be some explanation for him if he went to it, he hoped. So he finished his beer, set his alarm and went to bed.

In the morning it wasn’t the alarm that woke him but the telephone. He answered it and the familiar voice said “Adam.”

“Yes.”

“See you in church” and then hung up.

Adam thought there was something comforting about that, as if he would have a friend there. He took a shower and when he went to shave he found another scratch on his head, on the opposite side of his forehead, deeper than the first one.

(To be continued.)

Monday, August 16, 2010

The Savior

Part 20

A bright burning ball of fire was coming right towards him, behind it appeared a face covered almost completely with white cloth but with dark, piercing eyes looking down at him and at the same moment a sharp, severe pain wracked his body. The vision lsted for only a second but it left him sweating and shaking.

He quickly closed the book and headed for his new bedroom to lie down. On the way the phone rang. He tried not to answer it but he grabbed it anyway.

“Hello.”

“Pay no attention to that Adam. He won’t hurt you.”

“Who?”

“The man in the white cloth. It’s only the anointing.”

“What?” but the caller had hung up.

Adam sat down. He was exhausted but angry. He was damn tired of these strange phone calls, things he didn’t understand coming to him faster than he could sort them out. Bloody feet, an injured dog, a list of people he never knew, a lion, a bear and a leopard on the loose and not fighting, a bag full of money, a new apartment, comments made about angels, kidnapping, nets and olive trees, twirling lights ont eh bathroom ceiling that spoke to him and now an “anointing” and a “returning.”

He went into the bathroom to look at himself in the mirror. So many things in his life had changed all of a sudden he wanted to see if he was still the same man, if he still looked the same. He looked at himself in the glass for a few moments and saw the same face he had seen that morning. Except for a small scratch on his forehead.


(To be continued.)

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The Savior

Part 19

“’What manner of man is this?’ they asked. No one knew him. He emerged from a humble place, a forgotten fish tank. His parents carried him as idea across many dangerous miles He was, to them, an offering, a sacrifice to one they had no knowledge of, a motive, a mission, a time machine secretly hidden in bowels of hope and placed where no one would know him.”

So began “The Returning” by Richard Tepler. Adam placed the book down on the table but left it open.

A bell rang telling him that his food was ready. He went to the kitchen where he found new plates in the cupboard. He took one down and removed his food from the stove. Fish cakes and corn, from “a forgotten fish tank” he thought. The food was very good and he thought he would like to have a beer. He opened the refrigerator to see if his invisible benefactors had given him any beer. He saw two bottles that looked like they could be beer. He took one out and read the label Nilsvater Beer.” It was a brand he had never heard of. He looked at the label and all around the bottle to find the name of the brewer but found nothing but the bright blue label that said “Nilsvater Beer.” He wondered who Nils was. He would have to check his list, he thought, with a grin. But at this point Adam was growing to trust the strange things that were happening to him so he got a bottle opener and a glass, pried the lid off the bottle and poured some of the beer into the glass. It was delicious. He filled the glass.

He took the glass back to the table where the book was lying open. As he approached the table the pages of the book started fluttering open. They stopped at a place part of the way into the book. He looked down and read “He came with the storm. He was there when the rain poured down and splattered the dusty ground, when the long fingers of water flowed into the furrows and revived the dying crops and when the troughs overflowed as the wretched suffering livestock drank at last.

But many were incensed at his appearance. They wanted him to be grand. He was a ruler. Why wasn’t he ruling? They wanted….”

Just then Adam heard a siren in the distance and had a frightening vision.


(To be continued.)

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The Savior

Part 18

Adam looked at the opposite page where there was a full spread for Genesee Pleasure Boats. He closed the paper with a sense of relief. The scientists said there was no threat to the Earth from the asteroid. On the front page he glanced again at the story of Archbishop Califano visiting Saint Joseph’s and remembered how Ron Levine had said he was expected there.

Adam Zelf was not a religious person. His parents had emigrated to the Untied States from Holland, had Adam and after he graduated from high school and enrolled at Worthington’s Business School, they went back to Holland. After graduating from the business school he went to work as a bookkeeper for Zebb and Fischer, and never went to church. But, after all that had happened to him over the past few days, he thought it likely that he would be expected at Saint Joseph’s for some strange reason.

He glanced over again at the pile of money and was thinking about where he could hide it when the phone rang.

“Hello.”

“Adam Zelf?”

“Yes.”

“We know what you are going to do.”

“What?” but the caller hung up. For the first time in his life Adam thought of disconnecting his phone. But he didn’t. He went back to the pile of money, put it back into the bag and hurriedly stashed it in his closet,

Now he was hungry. He went to the refrigerator and opened it. In the freezer he found some fish cakes and frozen corn. He took them out and started the stove to heat them up.

Curiosity took him back to the table where the book was. He looked at it again. “The Returning” by Richard Tepler. He opened it and on the front page was an inscription “To Adam Zelf, may all praise and honor be bestowed upon you for what you have done. With gratitude, Richard Tepler”


(To be continued.)

Monday, August 9, 2010

The Savior

Part 17

Adam opened the paper to page 4 and there was a photograph of the asteroid looking like a large noodle. The headline read “Scientists unable to explain strange movements.”

(International Press) Houston, TX. The Chernov asteroid, so called because it was first discovered by Russian scientist Boris Chernov, in 1824, is officially named Romos 980. It is believed to have originated from the expulsion of matter from the planer Neptune millions of years ago. It was probably once a comet but had burned up its outer layer of dust and gas and now was a solid mass of rock and metal. Since its discovery it has been known as a “minor Planet” but more officially as a “small solar system body.” IP learned that astronomers speculate if it maintained an orbit it could eventually assume an elliptical shape and become a planet or if it were attached by gravity to an existing body, another moon.

But, as a result of a recent NASA probe, Romos 980 is seen to be behaving in an unusual manner. Instead of turning slowly on an axis, it is twisting and turning sometimes violently causing scientists to speculate that it is being influenced by conflicting gravitational effects and perhaps by sonic waves.

NASA observations have also confirmed that Romos 980 is much larger than had been predicted, now measuring some 460 miles across approximately, at best estimate. Also of concern is its proximity to the Earth. Though not within the Earth’s gravitational pull it’s erratic movements are rapidly changing, realigning its position relative to the Sun and our place in the Solar System. Scientists were quick to assure IP that there is no apparent danger to the Earth, whatsoever. Romos 980 is too far away to be a threat.

Because of its serpentine appearance it has been nicknamed “Worm.” Romos is Greek for Worm, or Wormwood.


(To be continued.)

Friday, August 6, 2010

The Savior

Part 16

When Adam heard the word “asteroid” he had a quick flash of memory about something. He sat up in the tub and just as he did all the lights went out. He was in total darkness. He wanted to get out of the tub but he couldn’t remember where the towel was in his new bathroom. He sat there thinking about where his flashlight might be or some candles. But then the lights came back on again and when he looked up the twirling lights above him were gone.

He finished his bath, got out of the tub and dried himself off. He then went into the other room to look for the newspaper he had brought with him from the job. It was still in his Jacket pocket. He sat down, opened it and saw the story about the hit and run driver being arrested. He remembered the mangled dog that was miraculously healed as he held it. He saw the story of the escaped lion with the phone number to call and remembered that when they saw the lion he dialed the number and it was out of service. He saw the article about Archbishop Califano coming to Saint Joseph’s on Sunday and remembered how Ron Levine told him to go to the church then because he was expected there. And then he saw it, a small item at the bottom: “Chernov asteroid behaving erratically NASA scientists say. Story page 4”


(To be continued.)

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The Savior

Part 15

Adam returned to the bathroom and looked again at the tub. It was a big one, big enough to stretch out in. He turned the tap and water started to fill the tub. He went back into his new kitchen and opened the refrigerator door. It was filled with food and so were the cupboards. He walked around his apartment in a daze, opening drawers and closing them again, unable to grasp the situation. He went back into the bathroom, took off his clothes and stretched out in the tub.

He closed his eyes and relaxed as the warm water flowed up around him. After a few minutes he heard something that sounded at first like a whisper or a shushing sound. At the same time he became aware of a light. He opened his eyes and there were lights twirling over his head on the ceiling. He thought it was a reflection from the water in the tub but the whispering sound began to sound more like a voice. It was faint and girlish, a combination of a small voice and a whisper.

The voice spoke “Adam.”

“Yes.”

“I was there with Noah when the rain came down. Were you?”

“No.”

“Yes you were.”

Adam was having a conversation with a slowly twirling light on the ceiling. After what he had been through over the past few days he was ready to believe anything.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“I was there when the sea parted for the children. Were you/”

“No.”

“Yes you were. I was there when the temple fell. Were you?”

“No.”

“Yes you were. I was there when the plague destroyed the children in Europe. Were you?”

“No.”

“Yes you were. I was there when the big bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Were you?”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“Yes you were. I was there when the men walked on the moon. Were you?”

“No.”

“Yes you were. Were you there when the asteroid destroyed the Earth?”

“No, no.”

“You will be.”

(To be continued.)

Monday, August 2, 2010

The Savior

Part 14

The bag was filled with money, one hundred dollar bills, stacks of them. He looked up but Murray Bonner had vanished. Adam was frightened. He couldn’t understand this bag of money. He wondered if it was stolen. Maybe the people on his list was a gang of thieves and they were using him to hold stolen property. He decided to hide it somewhere. He fished the key out of his pocket, put it in the lock and opened his door to another shock.

He stood at the door for a moment thinking he had entered the wrong apartment. Everything was changed. All his furniture was there but it was much bigger and there were things in it that weren’t his.

He went in, put the bag down on a table and looked around. It looked as if a designer had come in and filled his apartment with things that matched Adam’s own purchases. More furniture, pictures on the walls and in the kitchen he found appliances he had wanted but couldn’t afford. He went into the bathroom and there, in fact, was a bath tub. He went back into his living room and sat down on a new chair. He didn’t know whether to feel frightened or delighted. After what had been happening to him it was hard not to believe his good fortune, even though it was totally unexplainable.

He opened the paper bag again and took out the money. There were thousand s of dollars, enough to pay all his debts and have plenty left over. He felt like a rich man, if the money was really his.

At the bottom of the bag he found a book and a note. The book was entitled “The Returning” by Richard Tepler. The note was from Ron Levine. “I told you money was no object. Dick Tepler is on your list. Now take a bath and look at it later.”

(To be continued.)