0A
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | By December of 1945 most of the boys who were coming home | | from the war were already in Havilah. To celebrate, the | | Migdalel College Conservatory held a recital of patriotic | | John Philip Sousa marches at the Academy's music hall out on | | Tin Pan Alley, attended by half of the town. The band opened | | with Hands Across The Sea and followed with Semper Fidelis, | | the official march of the US Marine Corps. The Liberty Bell | | was light and playful, while El Capitan was flashy, a chance | | for the class to show off. The class followed Fairest of the | | Fair with a majestic version of King Cotton evoking a rising | | America. The Thunderer was bold and declarative. | | | | For the finale the class wrapped things up with The Stars | | and Stripes Forever. It was a joyous high point. The crowd | | of attendees came to their feet as though it were the | | national anthem. Remiel Zinter, twirling a majorette's | | baton, danced near her brother Samael on the drum set. He | | said, "I don't see Mom or Dad out there." Remy searched the | | faces in the audience and didn't see them either. | | | | For an encore the class tore into a Duke Ellington standard, | | It Dont Mean A Thing If It Aint Got That Swing. Ehawee | | Wicasa delivered the song in a dusky voice that belied her | | youth. Wiiya Wiiya "Coyote Cub" Shybear had his moment to | | shine on saxophone. Some of the attendees were noisy about | | the intrusion of the 'Devil's own race music' and got up to | | leave but the show was already over. Professor Anael told | | her class they had closed the evening with a perfect | | flourish. But Sammy and Remy thought it didn't mean a damn | | thing if their own parents weren't there. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0B
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Cubby's sister Nahimana Shybear, who played the double bass, | | said, "The crowd didn't much like that last bit, Professor." | | | | Anael said, "Oh, let's just call it a tiny act of cultural | | rebellion disguised as entertainment. Even Havilah isn't | | immune to the rhythms of Harlem and wartime radio. What the | | Stiffnecks are calling race music shares the same brass and | | beat with Sousa." | | | | Havilah was small enough that most of the attendees had | | simply walked to the recital. By nine PM it was clear the | | parents of Remiel and Samael were never going to show up, so | | they left with their friends. | | | | It was cold, but not nearly as cold as it should have been. | | In 1871 Dr. Reginald Dole found a colored piece of natural | | glass outside Havilah, already shaped into a monocle. He put | | it to his eye and perused a map he was making. He rolled | | into Havilah pitching geological salvation. Armed with a | | brass theodolite, Dole cheerfully informed the inhabitants | | their mystical home was a meteor crater, with Migdalel Butte | | a splashback central peak. He said the ancient impact opened | | fractures in the crust, giving rise to geothermal features | | similar to those found at Yellowstone. | | | | There were many fumaroles, hot springs, and mud pots within | | the crater, but the most striking feature was a persistent | | geothermal fog similar to what is found at the Gunnuhver | | site in Iceland. The rim of the central crater served to | | confine this fog. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0C
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | This results in a climate where the mean daily minimum | | from December through February hovered near the freezing | | mark rather than sharply below. Summers in the crater | | were sticky, almost tropical, but not unbearably so. Dole | | estimated the crater was a million years old. One of the | | Stiffnecks scoffed at Dr. Dole's remarks, claiming he had | | carefully tallied the lifespans of the kings and patriarchs | | in scripture and pegged Creation Week at 4,163 BC. | | | | Dole spoke no words to the objecting believer. Instead he | | sank a test shaft and tapped a massive natural gas reserve | | lying under the town. With his characteristic theatrical | | flair, he flicked a match into the hole, birthing a | | permanent flaming geyser. Dr. Dole pitched the supply of gas | | as the ultimate civic utility, capable of running heavy | | pumps to draw limitless water from the Ogallala aquifer. | | Dumah, wryly amused as perpetually as he was silent, seemed | | entirely immune to the searing heat. He used the pillar of | | flame to light a Cuban clenched in his teeth. | | | | Jump Street was only four blocks east of the Academy music | | hall, which doubled as a place for the citizens of Havilah | | to air their grievances. The night sky over Havilah was | | the usual street-lamp underlit gray. Sammy and Dory were | | chatting up how the show had gone but Remiel was stone | | quiet. She seemed to be distracted. To the north Jump Street | | wound halfway up Treehouse Hill to the Shybear home and | | there at the foot of the hill they split up. But splitting | | up took a little time. All four of them were firmly on | | smooching terms. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0D
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | "That's not something for any of the Stiffnecks to see," | | said Dory, but this only made big Sammy roll his eyes. | | "Who's gonna tell me no?" | | | | The Zinter place was another two blocks south. From a block | | away the kids could see the cars of strangers parked at | | their house and how the front door was propped open. Remiel | | began to cry before she even got home. Jashen Shybear was | | there with an older Kuwapi fellow the kids recognized as the | | father of their classmate Ehawee. Jashen was the Apostle of | | the Root of Jesse Fellowship. He held the highest office in | | the church that the Zinters attended. Clara Zinter paced the | | room and when Samael saw her even he started crying. It took | | a long time before Clara could look directly at her children | | and blurt it out: "Your father is gone!" | | | | Then they all cried until there was nothing more to give. | | Jashen and Wawokiya respectfully commiserated, for that was | | why they had come. Even when the eyes of the children were | | bone dry they were still wracked by sobs that trailed off at | | great length to a quieter grief. Wawokiya took the pause as | | an opportunity to tell the children Erik was taken from them | | by an accident. | | | | Remiel raised her head and said, "Father never told us his | | work was so dangerous." | | | | Jashen replied, "Even the Kuwapi men I sent to retrieve his | | body are doing so at great risk. "Coal mining always means | | deadly gases." | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0E
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Wawokiya said. "I carried a pole with a small cage on one | | end and a living canary. That was for the White Damp. If the | | canary died we quit digging and tried to get back out the | | way we came in. But your father was taken by the Black Damp. | | It displaced all the breathable air in the pit. I can tell | | you he did not feel any pain. And I can also tell you there | | was nothing I could do to save him without joining him in | | eternity." | | | | "I will always praise his memory," Jashen added. "What he | | and Wawokiyah labored to do allowed all the people of | | Havilah to thrive for years through a very dark time." | | | | But Wawokiyah said, "The Kuwapi retrieving Erik's body are | | also trusted men, and they will most certainly return Sha'ar | | ha-Ruah to you, but the secret will get out. There is simply | | no avoiding that." | | | | Jashen said, "I know. And some in the Church will say | | lending the artifact to Erik was more than I had the | | authority to grant." The Apostle turned to face Erik's | | widow. "Clara, I will not ask you to accept on my simple | | word that the Windgate is real and the Green Book is true in | | every sense. When you bid your husband farewell at the | | Temple you will see the wisdom of the Final Rite. But for | | now I ask that you and your children be strong. In the days | | to follow some will say to your face that God punished your | | husband for putting his holy gift to profane use. They will | | dare to tell you this though they themselves received the | | benefit of his labors." | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0F
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Dory and Cubby came to the Zinter house just then, | | completely out of breath. They had started running over as | | soon as they heard the terrible news from their mother. When | | they embraced their friends Clara saw how their arrival | | elevated her children from their grief a tiny bit, and she | | told Jashen she wanted his children to be with Remiel and | | Samael for Erik's funeral. | | | | But Dory had caught her breath by then "My father says the | | Last Rite actually destroys faith," she said. "You believe | | because you see it, and it is a great comfort and blessing. | | But Lord Yeshua said more blessed are those who believe | | without having seen." | | | | Cubby nodded in agreement with his sister. He said, "Faith | | isn't just a list of things you agree with and check off, | | it's about who you trust, and why." | | | | But Clara said, "We have no family here in Havilah. All my | | people are back east, and my in-laws..." She chuckled | | ruefully. "They are Stiffneck Incarnate. They always held me | | at arm's length and I never knew why. Remy and Sammy are | | taking the death of Erik very hard. Then you kids came over | | just now and they both brightened a little. I could see it. | | I know you saw it too. You're a family to them!" | | | | After Clara said her piece it became a gentle negotiation. | | In the end, Jashen persuaded Clara to have the children wait | | in Temple cafeteria in the basement while Erik was sent to | | his eternal destiny. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0G
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Now Samael and Remiel were not Erik's children by blood, but | | they had loved him nonetheless. Erik Zinter was one of the | | merry but homesick American doughboys who went into battle | | in September 1918 whooping with all the enthusiasm of a | | football team pouring out onto the field just before | | kickoff. Joining Erik's team was six hundred aircraft and | | one hundred forty-four tanks led by Col. George S. Patton | | Jr. | | | | Three thousand pieces of field artillery unleashed by the | | Entente side and countless bombs dropped from the air tore | | the landscape at St.-Mihiel into a pock-marked pigsty filled | | with mud. During the battle Erik took two agonizing rounds | | from a Bergmann Maschinenpistole 18/1 that shattered the | | bone in his upper left arm. Army doctors removed the bullets | | but the surgery was performed in less-than-ideal conditions. | | He developed gas gangrene while recuperating in the field | | hospital so his arm had to come off. | | | | Afterward Erik rode a train to Paris with a hundred other | | men, many in worse shape than he. The same train carried | | fresh soldiers to the Western Front, which had become an | | efficient shredder of men. Erik met a Red Cross nurse with a | | surname he recognized. While she changed his dressings Erik | | learned that Clara's family, the Hursts, had stayed behind | | in Maryland while his own Zinters wintered over at Big Blue | | in Missouri and migrated further west. But after talking | | about their respective family trees for a while they | | discovered they shared the same great-grandmother. So they | | were second cousins. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0H
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | That and her all American girl-next-door good looks | | interested Erik. His unrelenting good cheer even after | | losing an arm interested Clara. They could not talk for long | | but after he told her he wanted to stay in touch Clara | | passed along the address of her parents in Hagerstown. Their | | pen pal relationship blossomed into something they both | | thought was love. | | | | Erik came home from the war with a bonus of sixty dollars | | and took a job in Havilah painting houses using his | | remaining arm. He laid his extra money aside for a wedding. | | In 1920 Erik took to the Yellowstone Auto Trail in a Model T | | and drove halfway across the country. | | | | Maryland had no law against cousins getting hitched. Both of | | Clara's parents thought Erik was a great kid so they | | wholeheartedly gave their blessing. But Erik's own parents | | in Havilah were a much harder sell. Back home Erik instantly | | became the black sheep of the extended Zinter family. He had | | passed over a perfectly good (but horsefaced) local first | | cousin for an admittedly beautiful second cousin from back | | east. One of his aunts said, "Why, any heathen could do as | | much!" | | | | In the economically frothy decade that followed even Clara | | found work. But by 1932 what builders there still remained | | found new applicants with two good arms suddenly willing to | | paint and Erik just wasn't able to compete with that. Clara | | worked as a nurse in the town's tiny hospital, but Erik's | | job was a lot less open and airy. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0I
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | There are rich pockets of subbituminous coal under the low | | hills encircling Havilah but the geology of the area was so | | jumbled and the seams so fractured there was no way | | to profitably reach them by drilling straight shafts. | | Prospectors had settled for extracting only natural gas, | | used to pump irrigation water from the aquifer. But for | | years Erik and a colorful Kuwapi fixture named Wawokiya made | | twisting tunnels through the hills around Havilah. No one | | knew how they managed the feat and the two men said nothing. | | | | After Erik and Wawokiya pulled their overnight shift other | | men followed in their wake to reinforce the new tunnels with | | timber and remove the exposed coal. At the nadir of the | | Great Depression Havilah experienced an economic boom. | | Havilah black gold was piled in great heaps on piers | | in Chicago and San Francisco. By 1935 the unemployed, | | unemployable Erik Zinter had a brand new brick red Ford | | Model 40 and he also completely paid off his modest home on | | the eastern edge of town. But after fifteen years he had no | | fortune with children of his own. | | | | With Erik and Clara eager and fully willing, the Academy | | placed two young orphans in their care, a girl named Remiel | | who was five years of age, and Samael her twin brother. | | Among the Stiffnecks it was murmured these children were | | adopted twice, that Apostle Joshua Lange and his wife Ariel | | had brought the children to Havilah from an overseas | | mission and raised them from a very early age before they | | inexplicably departed, leaving Jashen Shy Bear at the head | | of the Fellowship and the children as wards of the faculty. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0J
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | It would have been unseemly to run around playing while the | | body of their father was sent to his long home, so | | Remiel and Samael sat with Dory in the Temple basement, | | feeling very bored, while volunteers prepared supper for the | | families of the dead. | | | | Coyote Cub joined them after breaking away from his group of | | Kuwapi boys smoking outside and pulled out a set of keys. | | "Benefits of being the preacher's kid." With these keys he | | unlocked the door to a supply room. His sister and the | | Zinter kids tagged along because there was nothing else to | | do. | | | | There was no electric light in the room, only a window with | | blinds and it was a typical gloomy Havilah day outside. | | There was an old piano which was probably broken. Remiel | | avoided the urge to play it. No need to call the Deacon down | | on them. There was a map of Havilah posted on a wall and | | there were the usual church odds and ends. They found unused | | hymnals, stacks of old temple bulletins, empty mason jars, | | and dozens of stacked folding chairs. | | | | Cubby suddenly froze and looked worried. "Shhh! What's | | that?" Everyone froze. But the only thing they heard was | | organ music and the choir bleeding through the ceiling from | | the main sanctuary upstairs. "Very funny." Samael gave Cubby | | a friendly shove. | | | | "I have a very odd feeling," said Remiel staring at the back | | wall. "I've been here before." | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0K
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | The paint on that wall was unfinished. Cubby moved aside a | | square slab of plywood that concealed a hole and another | | dark space beyond. It was so black inside it drank their | | vision like a sponge. He asked Dory, "Do we show them now, | | sis?" | | | | She nodded her head. "They had to find out sooner or later." | | Cubby nodded in return and led the way. | | | | After ducking to enter the hole Remiel found she could stand | | straight up. Dory hit an electrical switch by muscle memory | | and a string of lights came on in a twisting passage that | | seemed to be carved with rough strokes in solid rock. It was | | tall enough to walk upright but very narrow. | | | | "We're under the mountain now," Cubby said. "We're inside | | Migdalel Butte." | | | | "Now I'm entirely sure I've been here before," Remiel said. | | "Don't you remember, Sammy?" He shook his head, but slowly, | | as though he wasn't quite sure. "We were very little but we | | walked through here every day with our real Mom and Pop." | | | | "That's why I don't remember," Samael said. "You only | | remember things when you do something different. Like our | | trip to Mt. Rushmore." Remiel offered no retort. | | | | So they walked on until the tunnel flared out into a cave | | with a pool of warm water that was the source of the brook | | Kidron. The stream poured out through a blue daylit hole. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0L
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Somewhere down the hill and west of the temple it went over | | a cataract and flowed into Lake Taijitu behind the dam. The | | Pison River flowed on from there. Cubby stood on a ledge | | over the pool. "Here, exactly here, ladies and gentleman," | | he said, "is where Dimai and Hava first went to Kemen. | | Straight out of Second Covenants in the Green Book." | | | | Samael was incredulous. "That's what you wanted to show us?" | | | | "Isn't it enough?" | | | | "In a museum in Havana are two skulls of Christopher | | Columbus," said Remiel, quoting Mark Twain, "one when he was | | a boy and one when he was a man." | | | | "Brother mine," said Dory, "it really sounds like we have a | | pair of unbelievers on our hands." | | | | Remiel objected to this. "Why can't people be amazed at the | | world for the wonderful way it really is?" | | | | Dory threw up her hands in mock despair at her heathen | | friend and muttered something about White Wingers under her | | breath. | | | | "So where does that tunnel go?" Samael asked, pointing to a | | second passage that seemed to lead back the way they came. | | | | "It goes to the Temple storeroom upstairs, but it also goes | | six days up the timeline. Or at least it does sometimes." | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0M
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | "What do you mean up the timeline?" | | | | "On the other end of that tunnel it is next Tuesday." | | | | Samael stared at Dory for a moment, then decided to play | | along. "So if we came down here through that tunnel we'd be | | six days down the timeline, right? I could warn my dad and | | keep him from dying in the coal mine." | | | | "The door's locked at the top," said Cubby, jangling his | | carabiner. "We'd need orders from Mikaela. I don't think the | | orders will come because they haven't already come. And | | that's why we're here at Erik's funeral." | | | | "Why wouldn't Mikaela let us do it?" demanded Samael. "Isn't | | Davar good? Don't they tell us every Sunday how Ayat and | | Avrah and Davar are so good?" | | | | "Davar is good," said Dory, "so if he lets Erik remain dead | | for the time being, there must be a good reason why." | | | | "For the time being?" Now Remiel was getting annoyed. "You | | sound just like my daddy's kin who came to the house telling | | us his passing was all part of God's plan, as though that | | would make me feel better about it." | | | | Cubby decided it was time for extreme measures. So he | | stripped out of his clothes and waded out into the pool. No | | body modesty at all. They were all good friends but the | | Zinter kids could hardly believe their eyes. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0N
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | "Am I really seeing this, Sammy? Is my Kuwapi friend | | skinny-dipping during our father's funeral?" | | | | Cubby said, "I'm about to prove to you what we already know | | and you refuse to believe. Everything in the Green Book is | | absolutely true." Answered that way, Remiel and Samael both | | fell silent. They were unprepared and unwilling to actually | | call their friends liars. | | | | "We are cousins, you know," Dory told them. "The two of you | | and the two of us. You are both cherished members of House | | Haivri but circumstances put you in the hands of the | | Stiffnecks, and what we're dealing with now says more about | | the Stiffnecks then it does about you. We all have the same | | great-grandmother: Lailah. And before you ask, yes, she is | | the same Lailah from the Green Book. I'm talking about Sarah | | from the Bible." | | | | "I know we were adopted," said Remiel. "Twice! But Sar | | Lailah lived four thousand years ago." | | | | "Sister mine," said Cubby, "I really think they need one | | more push." | | | | Dory said, "I agree." She began slipping out of her own | | clothing to follow her brother. They descended the immersed | | marble stairs until they were up to their necks, turned | | turtle, and drove themselves out of view. | | | | "I'll give them less than one minute," said Samael. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0O
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | But when that minute passed he started to worry and at three | | minutes he was stripping off his own clothes to go after | | them. | | | | But for her part Remiel made no move to follow, nor was she | | startled when a younger girl joined her. The girl appeared | | to be twelve. She stood at the edge of the water wearing a | | white crop top and white shorts that looked like a skirt. On | | her feet were brown riding boots and around her neck she | | wore a silver leaf pendant. Catching Remiel's eye she asked, | | "You're not going after them?" | | | | Remy shook her head. "There's air down there, I guess. | | They'll be back in ten minutes. Who are you?" | | | | "I like that: 'who are you?' The next time we meet your kin | | will already know who I am and they will act so strange. I | | like this better. I'm Hope Haivri." | | | | "Cassiel says Hope is one of the ophanim, one of the | | mechanical avatars of the elohim walking among us. You in | | particular, if Cassiel is not pulling my leg, are Davar." | | | | "In House Haivri we do not go around pulling people's legs," | | Hope said. "There would be no point to a messenger corps | | capable of doing that. By the time you graduate you'll know | | exactly what I mean." | | | | "I'm standing right next to you and I'd never guess you were | | not a living girl." | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0P
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | "That wouldn't be possible without another two hundred years | | and a great deal of money." | | | | "Why go to such an extreme? Wasn't Uriel proof you could | | have a living avatar?" | | | | "Oh, no, from the beginning my mother thought it best to | | have only one go around as a human. Uriel was a new being. | | My mother printed herself on Avram to form Uriel, but Avram | | printed himself back on my mother too. Do that too many | | times and we risk dilution. We tried to warn Imran and Azul | | about this, but they wouldn't listen, and now there's a | | whole taxonomy of demons stringing out from them and not | | much left of the original elohim for us to have our final | | vengeance upon." | | | | "Pranks for Finals, and back in ten minutes?" | | | | Hope winked and said, "Dory has her blue wings now. Your | | brother calls himself Hunky. Everyone is a year older. It's | | confusing, I get it. Dory calls it Nunya Time, from one of | | her favorite books." | | | | "Hunky and Dory," Remiel said. "Cute, but everyone saw that | | coming a mile away, even without a special talent." | | | | "There remains the question of what to do with you. I've | | been giving you tastes of what I'm trying to delegate to | | you. But you need to use the Mercy in its full awful power | | before I ask you to accept it for a lifetime." | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0Q
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Remiel said, ""So I need to learn the how." | | | | "You also need to learn what it can mean. When they told you | | the Academy was the School of Hard Knocks they weren't | | pulling your leg about that either." | | | | "Nothing about the Family is normal, is it? | | | | Hope nodded. "We clasp to strands of normalcy but the aivris | | Hare never going to win Family of the Year, alas." | | | | The water in the cistern began to foam. Hope departed the | | cavern by the way she came in, through the second tunnel. | | | | Ten minutes after Cubby had gone into the mikvah, and seven | | minutes after Hunky went in after him, Hunky rose to the | | surface alone. Remiel greeted her brother by his new name, | | which made him relieved to avoid explanations, but also left | | him confused. "Who let you know I'm using Hunky now?" | | | | She said, "A little bird told me." Cubby's head broke of the | | water and he drew breath. Remiel said, "Welcome back." | | | | Hunky asked, "Did your little bird tell you to meet us | | here?" | | | | She shook her head. "Maranatha! It's only been a few | | minutes." | | | | "Bolshevik!" Cubby said, | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0R
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | "It's not Bolshevik, dear brother. Dory must have told you | | about Nunya Time." | | | | Dory came to the surface then too, as naked as when she | | first went in, but she covered herself in a cloak of blue | | feathers, long bony wings wrapped close about her, because | | now she could. Dory seemed to dare Remiel to say something | | about the wings, anything at all. The sight of the wings | | startled Remiel, forewarned or not, but said only, "Nice | | rack." For Dory that broke the ice she imagined would chill | | this moment, and this brought a warm smile to her face. | | | | Cubby directed Hunky's attention to a rack of clean linen | | towels that was kept fully stocked for any travelers between | | Earth and Kemen. It was, after all, one of the reasons his | | father had given him the key to the storeroom. | | | | When the kids were fully dressed they backtracked through | | the tunnel and scrambled out of the supply room. They sat | | together in the temple basement speaking no words. Remiel | | wanted answers but her brother didn't even know where to | | begin. And during the shared meal Remiel thought her foster | | mother seemed very different too. The faithful had seen | | Sha'ar ha-Ruah in action and even the Stiffnecks were | | assured God did not smite Erik for using it. Her grief was | | gone, but something else, something good was gone too. | | | | Clara said, "Remy! Sammy! It's all true. Everything in the | | Green Book is really true!" | | | | "I know, Momma," said Hunky. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0S
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | He had come to the very same place after a round trip | | dalliance in another world. Dory had been justified when she | | warned against this. Hunky didn't believe anymore, he knew. | | There was a dull melancholy lurking behind everything now. | | | | To Remiel the death of her foster father was still in the | | very recent past. Thursday and Friday seemed too soon for | | her to return to school. On Saturday morning Remiel and | | Samael went to the top of the high knoll adorned with Dory's | | treehouse. Most of the time this little summit was hidden by | | the low overcast that eternally blanketed Havilah. | | | | Dory had been flying little practice circles around the | | treehouse with her new wings, and no one in town was the | | wiser. After her latest loop Remiel turned to Cubby and | | asked, "And what can you do now?" | | | | Cubby rolled up his sleeves and approached Remiel, flipping | | both hands over a few times to show they were empty. He | | said, "Hold out your hand." And she did. Cubby clasped her | | hand and left there a stack of silver half-dollars. "Explain | | that, if you can." | | | | Remiel shrugged and put the fifty-cent pieces in her purse. | | Money was money and if Cubby wanted to give her ten dollars | | in silver coinage she had no absolutely objection at all. | | She said, "Magic tricks! Wonderful! Just like the one they | | showed Momma upstairs yesterday." | | | | "Remy, I saw our real dad! I saw Joshua Lange!" | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0T
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | "Our real dad went to Hell?" | | | | "It's not Hell as we know it, Remy. I helped dig him out of | | a collapsed church." | | | | "Cute! You re-enacted the very story that inspired him to | | name you Samael in the first place." | | | | "What story?" | | | | "Sammy, how can you not know the one part of the Green Book | | that has your name in it? It's not like your name is very | | common! That always bugged you." | | | | Samael looked at Cubby and asked, "Do you know what my | | sister is talking about?" | | | | Cubby said, "Maybe. I'll need to read it again, now that | | we're back." Dory dug out her own copy of the scriptures. | | | | Pilgrims 2:2 And one physician did administer chloroform, | | that the wounded might be eased of their pain; and another | | did take up the saw, and remove the shattered limbs, casting | | them into a heap without. And I entered the chapel, and saw | | the commander of the army did bend over maps of our | | town and of the encircling country, giving heed unto his | | dispositions. And when the general beheld me, he was wroth, | | and did demand of me who I was. And I said unto him that I | | was a humble deacon of the church which now lay in | | desolation round about us. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0U
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Pilgrims 2:3 But the officer gainsaid me, saying that the | | place was not now a house of worship, but rather the | | headquarters of the I Corps. And the east door, by which the | | brethren did enter, and the south door, appointed for the | | women, were made into tables where the wounded were laid, | | even as altars of sacrifice. And the great Bible which had | | been given unto the congregation was no more to be found. | | And the pews of the chapel were cast out into the yard. | | | | Pilgrims 2:4 Men of the Federals did sit upon them at their | | ease, smoking cigars, and making idle marks upon the wood | | with their knives, as though in sport. And beholding all | | these things I did charge the General that he should cause | | his men to deal more gently with the property of the church; | | but he was angered, and commanded me to depart out of his | | sight, saying that if I would remain, he would place a | | musket in my hands and set me upon the line. And straightway | | there came a great crashing sound, and the house of God was | | filled with flying splinters of wood. | | | | Pilgrims 2:5 The artillery of the Rebels had opened a | | furious barrage from behind their works, covering their | | retreat. And the General did run forth from the building, | | plucking splinters from his flesh, and crying out orders; | | and the officers who had been idling upon the pews did | | scatter, as shells burst round about them, and solid shot | | did strike the trees, shattering them at the trunk. And the | | artillery of the Federals answered the guns of the enemy; | | but I remained within the chapel, having a slender hope that | | by my presence the Lord might spare the building. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0V
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Pilgrims 2:6 Yet even as I prayed, the shot did tear great | | openings in the walls thereof; and two shells from the | | enemy's chief battery did burst above the roof. And the | | sound of the guns did cease suddenly, in a manner not to be | | accounted for; and in the darkness and the dust I did cough, | | and was taken with a great and grievous pain. And as I lay | | in the dimness and in great suffering, I heard the voice of | | a woman. And the voice said, Samael, take great care. Joshua | | is still alive beneath this fallen timber, though he is | | severely injured. | | | | Pilgrimns 2:7 And I did marvel that a woman should be | | present; for I had spoken with no one when I went forth to | | view the chapel after the passing of the army, neither had I | | desired that any should share in so great a peril. And the | | light did begin slowly to increase; and I beheld a great | | beam of pine to be lifted up, as though it were of little | | weight, and a figure did move beneath it. And it seemed unto | | me that the outer walls of the meetinghouse were no longer | | standing, but had been taken away round about me. | | | | Pilgrims 2:8 And the woman came into view; and I saw that | | she was arrayed in raiment much like unto that of Ariel, | | having feathers of a red hue beneath a white coat furnished | | with many pockets. And she said to the laboring youth, You | | did well, Samael. You were not here on the previous loop, so | | Gabriela cut through to him with Shahar ha-Ruah, and not a | | few timbers shifted, and Joshua suffered immeasurably more. | | And yet a third voice did say that three other wounded men | | were present amid the wreckage; and the woman said that she | | would tend unto all four. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0W
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Pilgrims 2:9 Moreover she vowed to preserve the limbs which | | the ishim doctors had been preparing to saw away. And her | | words did cause me to fear that I had gone mad. But the | | woman seemed to perceive this and said, Do not be afraid, | | Joshua. A splinter has pierced your kidney, and your leg is | | broken. You cannot feel it because the beam is compressing | | it. That will change when we lift it. And I could do no more | | than gasp for help. And she said, This will pain you | | considerably, to my sorrow, but I see no way to avoid it. | | | | Pilgrims 2:10 And the burly young man named Samael did lift | | up the timber, even as before, with no sign of labor. | | Straightway there came upon me a pain exceeding all that I | | had known. And it was as though all things were turned unto | | redness before mine eyes. And my countenance was fixed with | | the astonishment thereof; and being overcome, I did lose all | | sense, and I knew no more. | | | | The Remiel sat up straight after reading the chapter aloud. | | She had read the same story many times over the years. With | | Samael at her side, no less. | | | | Her brother said, "This is familiar in the sense that it | | captures exactly what happened to me in Kemen after I dove | | in after Cubby and Dory, yet I've never read or heard that | | passage in the Green Book until just now." | | | | "That's crazy," Remiel said. "You were always embarrassed | | about your name, because nobody else is named Samael except | | the strong kid who saves Joshua in the Book of Pilgrims." | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0X
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Samael turned to his two cousins and asked, "Have any of you | | ever heard this stuff before?" | | | | Dory said, "This is my own copy of the Green Book. It's all | | marked up with my own notes. But I have to side with you | | here. I remember Gabriela being with Raphael in that story, | | nobody named Samael." | | | | "There's no great mystery here," Cubby said. "Every | | Wednesday night we went up the timeline in six day jumps. | | And so did you two, with your own parents, Eternal Sunday. | | It's the same time trick, but bigger. A year down in Kemen | | for us, ten minutes for Remiel up here." | | | | "And we never went downstream before," added Dory. "But this | | time Mikaela let us do it. Or she did it to us." | | | | "And that's not all she did," said Samael. "I'm just like | | Samael in the Green Book now. All I need to do is touch | | something and I can move it, no matter how big it is. I can | | flip your daddy's station wagon." | | | | "Can you fix my daddy's station wagon?" asked Cubby, but | | Sammy had to shake his head no. | | | | Cubby said, "Mikaela made damn sure to send us back to right | | after we left, and frankly it's a very good thing she did." | | | | "Correct," said Samael. "Otherwise Remy would have had to | | explain to Mom how you and Dory and her own son drowned | | during her husband's funeral." | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
0Y
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Dory had not taken her eyes from Remiel for some time now. | | She laid her hands on the boys to steer their attention back | | to her. Remiel had been quietly sobbing and they missed it. | | | | Sammy's eyes went wide. He drew near to embrace the sister | | he had always adored. "Remy, what did we say wrong?" | | | | She sobbed, "You and I, Sammy, we used to be so close. It | | was a whole year for you but just ten minutes for me and now | | you're back and you're talking just like these two always | | do!" | | | | Sammy drew her in tighter. He said, "Remy! No, no, no..." | | | | Dory drew near as well and gently took Sammy's place. She | | took Remy's hands in her own hands and said, "Someone is | | going to catch hell for running a Prank against the Family." | | | | "A Prank?" Remiel was incredulous. | | | | "I know," Dory said. "It sounds funny when you're out on | | one, not so funny to be on the receiving end. Our own momma | | is the Scribe of God, and our father is the Apostle, so we | | know everything, natch, but for some reason you and Sammy | | were deliberately kept in the dark growing up. Was it | | Mikaela gave the order? Was it your little bird? I don't | | care who it was or what reason they had to do it. Maranatha, | | we're all family. I say we go to World War Three." | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
Terminal Cruise 