Chapter 12 - The Return of the Light
Hezekiah Suther, armed with his 'miracle sheets of life,' left our village early next morning on his sojourn to other communities within the region. Meanwhile, everybody in Deer Park was still astir, eagerly awaiting the next coming of the Light. It was only three weeks away, yet anxious as I was, it seemed more like an eternity. However, finally the great day arrived. Late that afternoon, I was with Cory on the lush green grassland hills opposite our village. There I whooped with delight when I first glimpsed that giant shaft of light coming down from the sky. I sprinted back to the village, constantly glancing upwards, the Light seemingly growing ever larger and brighter with every strode I took.
By the time Cory and I reached the village, the Light had descended. Everybody had already gathered; emotions were in overdrive. I found my parents near the end of the line, then told Cory to go back home. Shortly after, amongst the gasps and squeals of delight, an opening appeared at the Light's base. For a second or two, everybody seemed too excited to move, but then slowly, reverentially, one by one and two by two, the people started moving and vanishing into the Light. When our turn came, my mother clutched my hand, who in turn clutched my father's. My heart thumped, my pulse raced, and then all bodily sensations ceased as I felt myself immersed once more in that boundless power of love. Again light radiated all around me, not just from the Divine Light, but from everybody, each seemingly radiating their own unique aura of light. However, as always, the strongest and most brilliant aura of all came from Carlos, as he was perched upon that magical beam of violet light in front of us. A glazed, almost unearthly look was in his eyes - a sure sign that he was aglow with the Spirit and ready to utter majestic words from the Divine.
"So, my friends," he jubilantly announced, "tonight's the night we've all been waiting for, the night that will start off the Great Resurrection!"
Although not a word was uttered, we nonetheless felt each other's surge of excitement. Carlos then commenced to pray, and once more we felt ourselves united in God's love, lifting our hearts together to the One who could make all things possible, even to raise the dead from their graves. After prayer, we sang a hymn of praise:
"Although sleeping in a cold and dismal grave, the time is now at hand for the dead to...." I now knew this hymn and I joyously sang along with those wonderful words: "Arise you who have fallen asleep in death, arise and drink the sweet water of God's Paradise...."
As the words flowed on, our emotions rose ever higher. Then something truly astounding happened. A shimmering white light appeared above us, bright and beautiful, laced with streams of gold. Surprisingly, it first hovered towards me, and as it did it, it slowly formed itself into human form. It materialized, and instantly I recognized him as the angel I had encountered during that first momentous day in Paradise.
Awestruck, I asked: "Are you Jesus?"
"No," came the telepathic reply. "I am only just another fellow servant and messenger from another higher realm, a realm you know as heaven."
I thought of Jenny and suddenly a great surge of excitement swept over me.
The angel read my thoughts and smiled serenely. "Soon, David," came the reply. "However, two people that you know will enter into this world before her. One is already here, the other is yet to come on another day. But now begin your first mission, and go to Anastasis and help Harry Marston."
The angel departed and drifted towards Carlos. I somehow sensed he was relaying the message of Marston's resurrection. Carlos then looked at me and I knew it was time to go. I loosened the grip of my parents and made my way out of the Light. Still in this altered state of consciousness, I proceeded up to Anastasis. Upon reaching the plateau, my trance began to lift. Yet still, for several moments, I simply stood there staring at the intensity of the Light.
My thoughts then turned to Harry Marston. So, it was him after all. But why him? Why me? I only knew him as a passing acquaintance.
I also knew he had an interest in religion, but only as a scholar, not as a devotee. In fact, I knew him to be an atheist. So why was he resurrected so early, even ahead of Jenny? It just did not make any sense to me. However, like it or not, I had to accept my first mission. Resigned to this fact, I resumed my journey towards the Resurrection Sanctuary.
And there he was, in front of a small Greek-like temple, from which a thin shaft of light stretched up towards the Divine Light. Mesmerized, he stared up towards it. He looked totally bewildered, as if he had been bodily abducted by aliens and beamed onto another world. Yet, how else could a person feel, I reasoned, one who had never been nurtured in the belief of a bodily resurrection, or even in an afterlife of any kind? I then recalled my first experiences; the initial denial of my death, even believing it to be some fantastic dream, and that was despite my religious, millenarian upbringing.
However, was this really Harry Marston? I certainly did not recognize him. I had only known him as an elderly, gray-haired, slightly stooped history professor who had originally come from Australia. However, now in front of me was a man in his prime. Gone were the gray hair, stoop and wrinkles. Instead, his hair was black, his body erect, and his skin tanned and tight.
I continued walking towards him, yet all the while he continued gazing into the Light. Then, standing almost directly in front of him, I softly asked, "Harry, is that you?" Trance-like, he turned his gaze towards me. "Harry, it's me, David Eliot."
Although my words were intended to be soft and gentle, to Harry they were like a thunderclap that shocked him out of his dreamy state. "What the hell is going on?" he shrieked.
For a moment I was speechless. How do you tell an atheist that he had died but was now alive in Paradise? However, finally I replied, "Harry, you're now in a much better world."
His face contorted. "What do you mean, better world?"
I hesitated and then added bluntly, "Harry, you've died, but now you've been resurrected back to -"
"No!" he bellowed. "This is just another crazy dream!"
I slowly shook my head. "No, Harry, this is no dream." I then sympathetically reached out my hand towards him, but he angrily pushed it aside. "Harry, don't you remember me?"
"Yes, I remember you. You're that guitar player, aren't you, that religious bloke?" He then violently shook his head. "No, you can't be, you're dead! You're just a character in another crazy dream. Another fantasy, that's all!"
"No, Harry, I'm no fantasy, and this is not a dream," I gently replied. "Harry, don't you recall what's happened to you?"
"Of course, I know! Do ya also think I've gone off my rocker?" He now spoke cruder, with a far stronger Australian accent than I ever remembered him having. "I went to bed last night and fell asleep, and now I'm dreaming about you. It must be a dream because I know you're not real, mate. You're dead. Stone dead!"
I nodded and smiled sympathetically. "Yes, Harry, that's true. I have died." Then more softly, I added, "But so have you."
He vigorously shook his head in denial. "No!" he bawled. "I know that can't be true!" He paused for a moment as if in reflection, then added, "It must be like that weirdo friend of mine in the psychology department had been telling me, that I'm having more lucid dreams." There was another pause, and then he added, as if to reassure himself, "Yeah, sure, that's all it is, another one of those crazy lucid dreams he kept raving on about."
"Lucid dreams?" I asked, confused.
"Yeah, lucid dreams. You become fully conscious inside your dream. For me, it's been absolute hell at times. However, I'll be damned if I'll let myself go through this one tonight." He then violently shook his head several times whilst pathetically shouting, "I got to break free! I got to break free!" Finally, he stopped, then stared at me with both horror and disbelief. He cursed, then shouted, "My God, I'm still here!"
"Of course, you're still here. You're not dreaming!" I repeated again.
"No! No! I'm still in one of my blasted lucid dreams." Still, with that glazed look in his eyes, he then started rambling like a lunatic:
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"They're a proven psychological fact, so Roger assures me. To some poor blighters like myself, dreams can seemingly take on reality. However, normally in lucid dreams, you know you're dreaming, but still everything around you seems to be so very real, although you usually know it's only a dream because things happen which you know are impossible, like talking to a person who you know is already dead, or being in a fantasy looking place like this, which you know couldn't possibly exist. Or like the time I was back in the days of my childhood, or on the Titanic, or in the Wild West, even more crazier, in someone else's imagination, like I was in More's fantasy world of Utopia. Much worse, I even once found myself in your blasted religious Apocalypse, a nightmare that seemed to go on for days. I virtually had a nervous breakdown after that." He cursed once more, then looked pathetically at me as he continued with his frantic flow of irrational words. "As if experiencing the real life nightmare of 9/11 wasn't enough! Mind you, I don't hallucinate when I'm awake. I know what's real and what's not. Yet some shrink even asked me if I was taking LSD, or some other hallucinogenic drug." Then, as if catching his breath, he abruptly halted his rambling monologue, rolled his eyes in disgust, then moaned, "I don't know why I'm telling you all of this since I know you're just a character in my dream, and thus a figment of my blasted imagination." He then laughed like a lunatic. "So, in a few minutes, or else at most a few hours, I know I'll wake up, open my eyes and you and this whole blasted scene will have vanished!"
I shook my head and once again smiled sympathetically. "Harry, this is no lucid dream, or whatever you called it. You know, at first, I also thought I was dreaming. However, I have been here in Paradise now for a month, and so I know this world is real and not just a dream. The Earth has now become a paradise ruled by God and Christ."
He scoffed at this. However, I continued explaining as patiently as I could: "It may have happened like this, Harry. You may have died in your sleep without you realizing it, perhaps even whilst you were in a dream." His eyes widened further, and he now glared at me with not just disbelief, but with outright contempt.
I heaved a sigh. "All right. I guess the only way I can prove it to you is to show you this world." I then pointed towards the sky and asked, "Do you know what that is?"
He again stared up towards the Light, then bellowed: "It's just some fantastic light, which I know could not possibly exist, except in dreams, or hallucinations of crazy mystics."
I pitifully shook my head. "No, Harry, it's the Divine Light of God."
"The Divine Light of what?" he asked mockingly.
"Of God. Or sometimes we just call it 'The Light.' It's of course not God, but it's like a manifestation of -"
He again laughed sarcastically. "The Light! You must be crazy!" he declared. "It's like I already had said, they're nothing but crazy hallucinations that Tibetan lamas and masochistic medieval Christian mystics used to have."
"But why can't you believe me? Is it only because you don't believe in God?"
He shook his head and scoffed. "No, mate, I don't. I know too much ancient and medieval myth and history to be persuaded by that sort of tripe!"
I winced but remained calm. I pointed towards the Light. "So how do you explain this?"
He sniggered. "You ignoramus, I've already told you twice that they're only just hallucinations or wild dreams, like I'm having now, only this one is obviously Christian." He again mockingly laughed. "Unlike you, I'm no fool, you know!"
I sighed with frustration. I realized this was going to be much harder than I thought. However, he had to face the reality of his death sooner or later. I therefore reasoned that the best way was to simply give him sufficient time and let him experience Paradise firsthand. However, it took considerable effort even just to coax him into coming down to our village.
"All right, mate, I'll come," he finally said. "Who knows, but it might even prove to be interesting."
"It will be!" I assured him.
Therefore, along the way, I would stop and point out an animal with some special characteristic, or some exotic plant that only existed here in Paradise. However, to my annoyance, he showed little or no interest in anything. He merely shrugged his shoulders and remained silent. A few times he even yawned. Not even the sudden appearance of a cougar crossing our path not ten yards away could capture his interest. In fact, he even closed his eyes and seemed to pretend to fall asleep out of sheer boredom. However, to my amazement, I quickly discovered that he was not pretending at all. He truly fell asleep whilst walking. I could not believe it. He was actually sleepwalking! What in the world was going on? I had no idea but I placed my arm around his and guided him down towards Deer Park.
By the time we reached the outskirts of the village, the Light was already ascending back into the sky. We stopped. I now forced his eyes open and made him watch the spectacle. Yet, incredibly, he continued sleeping. Was this man a zombie? I asked myself. In sheer frustration, I shook him, trying to break the seeming trance he was in.
"Hey, wh...what ya doin?" he sleepily slurred.
"Harry, come on, buddy, snap out of it! Can't you see it?"
"See what?"
"The Light! The Light!" I yelled.
"Oh, yeah, it's dis...disappear...." He paused as if to gather his senses. "See, I told you, it was just a dream."
Once more I heaved a heavy sigh. "All right, have it your way. It's all just a dream. But first meet some dream characters, and then I'll take you to bed. When you wake up in the morning, you'll then see whether it's all just a dream or not."
In response, he again closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep. Thus, once again, I held the somnambulist by his arm and led him to the place where the Light had been.
However, upon arrival, the community was quick to realize that something was gravely wrong. Not only did he not respond to the usual Paradise greetings of love and affection, he acted as if these people did not even exist. For a long time after the Light had already ascended back into the heavens, and the community had returned to their normal waking consciousness, they were still milling around us, staring in disbelief at the sleepwalker that was still in front of them.
"What's wrong with him, why doesn't he respond to us?" my mother asked, dismayed.
"He's asleep. When I wake him up, he thinks it's all just a dream. He refuses to believe anything I say, or even what he sees." I then turned towards Carlos. "Do you know what's going on? Because I sure don't!"
Carlos sagely nodded his head. "Within the Divine Light, an angel told me there would be difficulties. It seems the difficulty, as you say, is that he does not believe he has died and been resurrected."
"Resurrected!" I retorted in frustration. "He can't even believe that he's out of bed and not dreaming!"
Carlos rubbed his jaw and grinned. "Of course, we need to understand that he never was one of us, and never shared our belief in a resurrection, and everlasting life in Paradise. I'm sure after he goes to bed and wakes up tomorrow morning, he'll realize that he's not dreaming." He then paused for a moment's reflection, then chuckled. "Well, if not tomorrow, then at least eventually! We simply must trust in the wisdom of God."
We all assented to this final statement, yet even so, it was obvious to everybody that something had gone terribly wrong tonight. We were all expecting the start of the Great Resurrection, and to see many of our loved ones come back to life. Yet, all we had in front of us was a man who thought he was still in a dream. However, nobody complained; we all implicitly trusted in the wisdom of God. So, we all lingered a while longer, and before long, we all bounced back to our natural, happy and buoyant selves. Finally, everybody went back to their homes. As for me, I led the somnambulist by the arm and led him to our home, with my bewildered parents following closely behind. Along the way, I told them all I knew about Harry, and what had happened within the Divine Light and upon Mount Anastasis.
"So, it's supposed to be your mission to look after him? In our house?" my mother asked, seemingly alarmed at the
prospect.
Dad reassuringly grasped Mum's shoulder. "Now, Margaret, don't fret yourself. I'm sure everything will be just fine. If that's David's divine mission, we'll just have to go along with it. You wait. After this guy wakes up in the morning, he'll be like a new man."
However, when we stepped inside our house, to our surprise, Harry suddenly awoke and gruffly yelled: "Oh, no! Not again!"
"What again?" I asked, shocked by his sudden outburst.
"That dream, and by God, you're still here!"
"Of course, I'm still here, and so are my parents. This is our home, the place where you'll sleep tonight, and for the next few nights. In fact, as long as you like," I said, trying to sound as amiable as I could. I then pointed towards the dinner table and asked, "Do you want to sit down and eat. My mother will cook up the best meal you ever -"
"No, I don't want to darn well eat! I want to wake up from this wretched dream!" he said, almost pleadingly.
"Sure, Harry, whatever you say. I'll take you to bed, and in the morning you'll feel much better," I replied, trying to sound confident.
However, in reality, I was anything but confident. For the first time since my arrival in Paradise, I dreaded the coming of the next day.