Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The Savior

Part 35

That experience had a very unsettling effect on Adam. Now he thought he was hearing things that weren’t there. Why should he hear a phone ringing out in a field where there was obviously no phone? And why should that Ben say Adam was probably hearing a phone when there was no phone? Was he going crazy and they all knew it?

He needed to be by himself to try to straighten things out in his head. He walked down to the stream which was now looking more like a small river. He stood at the edge of the water and watched it flowing over the rocks, gushing around them in small whirlpools and listened to the splashing sound and the deep rumbling of the rushing water.

Suddenly something struck him like a blow in the back of his head. He stepped out on a rock just to make sure. Yes, he said, I’ve been here before. I don’t remember it. I don’t remember when it was but I know I’ve been here, I’ve seen this river before. I’ve stood right here before.

He stepped off the ledge he had been standing on down to the rock below but was astonished that he was in the water which was now gushing around his feet in a cold and fast embrace. He stepped back. Where was that rock? he wondered. He knew he had stepped down onto it before or thought he had. But now there was no rock.

Apart from him a few feet the river was gushing around a large stone. Could that be the rock, the same rock, broken off and filling the side of the river? It was smoother than the one he remembered, but it could be the rock that once he stood on when… When?

He felt his own presence standing there, a person like himself only different, someone important, someone with authority, someone with a purpose.

He removed his shoes and socks, rolled up his pants legs and stepped with both feet into the cold river. Standing in the middle of the river he looked up. He saw swirling lights above him and a whispering childlike voice said “Hello Adam. Happy to see you again.”

From the bushes on the other side a bird, light blue in color, flew over to him, circled around his head and then flew off.


(To be continued.)

Saturday, October 23, 2010

The Savior

Part 34

No more questions, Adam decided. Every time I ask a question I get a strange answer I don’t understand and which pushes me further into this nightmarish vortex. I’ll be safe if I just play along with this game and see where it leads.

But the vortex was about to deepen.

The little dog jumped out of the van and went over to greet Ron who gave him a scratch on the head. Then the dog went over to check out the lamb who was quietly nibbling on the grass and who paid no attention.

Something caught Adam’s eye and he looked off into the forest to see a bright red light. As he watched it got larger and he was alarmed. He thought it was a fire.

“Look” he said and pointed.

A few of the men looked over but were unconcerned. Just then the light grew very large and bright and emerged from between the trees. As it did it took the form of a horse and rider. It was a brown horse and Adam guessed that the bright sun had given it a very red color. The horse and rider trotted off in another direction.

“There will be more horses” said Semyon.

“Oh” said Adam. He wasn’t going to discuss horses. He turned to look at the stream which seemed much larger now than when they crossed it. It was more like a small river. He started to walk down to it when he heard a phone ringing.

“Where’s the phone?” he asked.

“There’s no phone” said Ben.

“There must be.”

“No. No phone.”

“But I hear it ringing.”

“Probably” said Ben, “but there’s no phone.”


(To be continued.)

Monday, October 18, 2010

The Savior

Part 33

Adam held the lamb out to Ron who draped it around his neck and then headed for the van. Adam jumped down from the tailgate of the truck followed by Saul, Ben and Sy.

They were in a large field with rolling hills, a forest in the distance and behind them the stream flowing briskly along. As they approached the van the other men came over to them and Ron introduced them to Adam: Matthew Lott, Jacques Penseur, Ben Bonner and Dick Tepler, the author of “The Returning.“ Alex stepped up and reintroduced himself as Alexander Andropolis.

Ron took the lamb from around his shoulders and put it on the ground. It immediately began nibbling at the grass.

“Well” asked Saul “are we all here?“

“We are” said Al.

“Good” said Matthew Lott. “Let’s party.”

“Hold on. Where’s Jules?” asked Saul.

“You know he can’t be here while I’m here” said Matthew.

“You two don’t get along?” asked Adam.

“It’s not that” said Ron. “It’s that they occupy the same space and time.”

“What does that mean?”

“One is the positive and one is the negative. They would cancel each other out. They would devour each other. They would disappear.”

“Oh” said Adam,


(To be continued.)

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

The Savior

Part 32

It was Sunday afternoon and there wasn’t much traffic so the truck moved along quickly down the main road and after about 20 minutes turned off into a side road.

“Where ae we going?” asked Adam.

“Egypt” replied Ron.

Adam didn’t respond to that. At this point in his few day’s experience he was reedy for anything to be possible.

“Alex knows where we’re going” said Saul.

Adam settled back to wait and enjoy the countryside as the truck moved along. He vainly tried to put pieces together and sort things out. A fire truck that came out of nowhere, bloody boots but no injury, bleeding hands in the church with wounds that quickly vanished, a fiery sermon by a mad archbishop about destruction and
God‘s Great Worm, a strange woman who gave him a list of names under the title of “Actuarial Report for the Babylon Bridge Product” and now he was meeting the people whose names were on that list.

There was the injured dog who was quickly healed and the boy with the broken hand. A magically new and bigger apartment, a bag of money hidden away in the closet, Nilsvater Beer, visions on the bathroom ceiling, “The Returning,” a lion, a bear, a tiger, then what? This is like a giant nightmare, he thought.

The truck turned onto a country road and in a few moments was traveling alongside
A stream. They came to a bridge over the stream and took it The Babylon Bridge? Adam wondered. On the other side of the stream the truck pulled up next to a van and parked.

Alex got out of the cab, came over and pulled down the tailgate. Ron jumped out and said “Adam, hand me the lamb.”

Adam picked up the lamb, which made one small noise. Holding the lamb against his chest Adam remembered an injured dog he held the same way. Ron’s dog. Where was the dog?

The dog was there, in the van. But there were more animals waiting for Adam. His eyes and his mind were about to open.

(To be continued.)

Sunday, October 3, 2010

The Savior

Part 31

Adam walked over to the truck and found the tail gate down. So he sat on it and pulled his legs inside. A stranger stepped to the back of the truck and closed the tail gate. He looked at Adam with a grin and said “Hello. I’m Alex. I’m on your list” then he went to the passenger’s side of the truck and got in.

Adam looked around and saw some unfamiliar faces, but Ron introduced them. “This is Murray’s brother Ben, that’s Caesar Parantha, we call him Sy. And over there is Saul Kesler. They’re also on your list.”

Standing in the truck between the men was a lamb. Pointing at it Adam asked “Is that our lunch?”

“No, no” said Ron. “They stopped eating meat a hundred years ago, at least. No, he’s our guest.”

“Our guest?”

“Yes.”

“For the picnic?”

“Yes.”

“I see” said Adam although he obviously did not see.

“It’s his wedding day” said Sy Parantha with a smirk.

Adam assumed he was making a joke. Adam was wrong.

(To be continued.)