Chapter 2
Answers
I never accepted the idea that God plays tricks. To me, believing in Christ worked—it brought me into relationship with God. Perhaps because of that, my life had always been easy to plan and generally functioned without a lot of difficulty. Sure, we’d had our trials, everybody does. But this was extreme. I mean . . . what do you do when a one-hundred ton dragon wants to play Twenty Questions and acts like he’ll eat you for breakfast if you take a wrong step?
—It’s not that . . . Ace’s expression was saying as soon as I looked at him, which is what I did as soon as I realized my blunder. Submitting to a dragon isn’t something I had ever considered a part of my Christian duty. Had I not been so acutely aware of and in control of my facilities I’d probably be wondering if I was dreaming. But now I had to watch even the way my thoughts flew around because Ace could read my mind. Oh, what to ask him . . .
I could think of two things I wanted to know right now, so that’s where I’d start. “Where are we, and have you always been able to read people’s minds?”
With a look that I might call nonchalance, Ace communicated,—We’re hiding, and yes, always.
That’s nice . . . I thought sarcastically, making me more anxious, but the hiding part took precedence and I needed to change the subject.
“Hiding from what?”
With a look of incredulity that I didn’t know what he was hiding from, a look that that underlined his feelings stronger than words would have, Ace’s expression said,—Men.
“Men? Why hide from men?”
—Haven’t you read fairy tales about men slaying dragons?
Those fairy tales were real? And dragons, plural? There was more than one of these? Not to mention the fact that modern man never found them! I didn’t enjoy being this far out of my league so I said, “Please forgive me, Ace. How many dragons are there?”
With a look that was bashful and contrite at the same time, Ace communicated,—Thirteen.
Thirteen? What an unusual number. It was like every question could branch into two new questions. It’s also like I never got back to the branch I didn’t choose. I thought I’d try to be more cautious about what I asked him. Carefully I searched for a really good question. Coming up with what I hoped was a good one, I said, “Where are we hiding?”
For the first time, he smiled. Fortunately it wasn’t a vicious smile.
—We’re between, and under, and above.
Frustration tempted me because he so often refused to answer the question the way I wanted him to. But I was getting used to not understanding on the first go round so I prompted, “Between?”
With exactness, Ace’s expression conveyed,—Between earth’s realm and the deep, in the overlap. He let his face relax, sizing me up, taking in my confusion and added, —The overlap is beyond the reach of men.
Well, I could think of a few places beyond the reach of men—heaven, hell and the place where the angels tread. Then Ace barged in on my thoughts and expressed, —Those places are not the overlap. But we are aware they exist.
The way he answered my questions left something to be desired. But it wasn’t like I couldn’t keep probing. In my mind I tried to picture where he meant we were. I really hadn’t ever thought of an ‘area’ beyond the reach of men, but I’ve always known full well angels operated around us. Then Ace volunteered more information.
— Jesus would have cast a legion of devils into the deep. He stared at me intently, sizing me up before he added, —They begged to be allowed into a herd of swine.
Contradicting him I said, “You mean a far country?” That’s the way I remember the story. The demons had implored Jesus not to cast them far away.
—No, your bible states both places. The deep the demons shunned is a spiritual dimension. He flipped his long snout towards the ceiling —Beyond earth’s material realm. We are between that deep and earth’s material realm.
It figured things would get ‘deeper.’ Shaking it off, I got back to his explanation. “Then we’re under . . . ?”
—It’s the ocean we’re under.
I know I should have been able to guess that. So we’re in a ‘no man’s land’ between earth’s realm and the ‘deep,’ we’re under the ocean, and we’re above . . . ?”
—The Lord’s stones, he offered.
“The Lord’s stones? What are they?”
—Special stones.
“Why are they special?”
And Ace got ticked. Or maybe I should say he began to lose his patience, because he started looking angry. But he answered,—They’re alive.
Living stones? Seems I’ve heard of that before, too.
Not sure what it all meant, I tentatively accepted it. When it rains it pours, they say. And it sure looked like this was going to be one of those times. Going back through his answers to make sure I had them right, I rattled them off.
“We’re under the ocean, we’re between earth’s material realm and ‘the deep,’ and we’re above the Lord’s stones.” I looked up at him to see if I had it right and his expression said,—Correct.
With all of that explained, roughly, I decide to try some other questions. Pondering what to ask next, I decided the most important thing was the other dragons. With an attitude of respect I said, “Ackseekcelong-Sayessa, where are the other dragons?”
—They are here hiding also.
Well, I can tell you right now I didn’t see any other dragons. I also didn’t want to ask any questions I didn’t have to. For all I knew, they could be invisible. Acting more casual than I felt, I decided it was about time to figure out how to accomplish this task. But just for a second, I had to admire the color of Ackseekcelong-Sayessa’s scales. They were the most intense shade of green I think I’ve ever seen. Even though there wasn’t any noticeable light source other than the muted glow which came from everywhere, his scales softly glittered and shimmered as if there was more light in the cavern than there actually was. I wondered what they’d look like in broad daylight.
He noticed my admiration and stretched his wings out and up, they were huge wings, unbelievably huge! And then he folded them back on his body. They were the same shade of green and the wing span was gigantic—it must have been close to two-hundred feet. The whole time he stretched his wings, his serpentine tail moved about. It too, was the same tantalizing green and almost as long as his body.
The shape of him was generally what you would expect a lean, muscular dragon with a deep chest to look like, only bigger. How much bigger? How about the size of a Boeing 747? No doubt, he could fly. But the cavern we were in wasn’t big enough for that, so yet more questions arose. I didn’t want to sound stupid and figured if I just waited, some of the questions would answer themselves.
I decided to ask him about the task. “Ace, you said it was up to me where I started, but you didn’t tell me who I was going to tell the story to.”
Ace looked at me and narrowed his eyes, —Your posterity.
“And it’s up to me where we start?”
—That’s correct.
“And it’s about what happens after Christ returns?”
—Yes.
Boy, did I feel lost.
Ace must have noticed my confusion because his face said, —You’ll go with me. He seemed to have his mind elsewhere. —How do you think we got here?
Being clueless didn’t mean I had to give place to silly ideas, and that just made me frustrated. “I don’t know.”
Ace looked at me and communicated, —Through the lap gate.
I don’t have to tell you I didn’t know what the lap gate was, but on top of that, I was beginning to get the feeling the dragon wasn’t adept at long sentences. As soon as I thought that, he stared at me with a look that measured how long it had taken me to realize it. The precision of his gaze seemed to measure things about me I was unaware of. Being that he left the ball in my court I had to ask, “What’s the l
ap gate?”
Except apparently, he decided it was his turn to quiz me. —Where did I say we were?
“Between?” I said, and as I said it, I tried to imagine a place between earth and the ‘deep.’ When I did, a much different idea came to me than what I first imagined. In my mind, I saw a crystal clear picture of earth as seen from space. The beautiful planet was brightly lit by sunlight but seemed to be pressing against a dark area. It wasn’t just the blackness of outer space, either. The dark area reminded me of the illustrations of a bowling ball on a trampoline used to describe gravity. Upon seeing it, I knew the dark area was ‘the deep.’ I also knew that the place where the earth and the dark area touched was the lap gate.
Intuitively, I understood that a lap was formed in the area where the earth and the deep mingled, a pocket that neither area could claim as its own. Yet from within that boundary, both areas were accessible. I also realized the dragon’s had gone into one of those pockets.
Now the only thing I couldn’t figure out is how they got under the sea. It was a short step to ask, “How did you get here?”
Ace ignored the question and pressed on,—How do you think you’ll go with me?
Not wanting to ride on his back in some kind of a saddle was a given. I was a pilot, not a dragon rider. Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of anything. Stuck, I said, “How?”
—There are other ways to travel, Ace expressed. Then an idea formed in my mind of a golden hued bubble surrounding me while I stood within it. I could reach the top if I stretched my arms and I was quite comfortable being inside it. About the time I got to the part about being inside it, I realized the bubble was somehow Ace. Man! Talk about paranoia of being eaten by a dragon!
When that thought dissipated, I again felt certain the bubble was somehow Ace. For the second time, I just looked at him.
Then he showed me,—No man has ever traveled dreaming with a dragon.
An explosion of fascinating dreamlike images blurred through me, too fast to catch. Naturally and with obvious displeasure, if only because I’d already thought I wasn’t, I found myself asking, am I just dreaming?
As quick that, Ace locked his eyes on me and snapped his head to the right—and like a fish on a string, my whole life jolted past me with the movement. Not very important was ditching the plane at the end, though even the short amount of time afterwards was included. The review gave ample proof I wasn’t dreaming. I decided to stay away from the sadness this time.
Ace expressed,—Why do you think men have never traveled dreaming with a dragon?
Naturally, I was stumped. How was I supposed to know? For the third time, I just looked at him.
Irritation flashed over him while his face said,—Don’t get lazy on me, think!
It jolted me so much I asked myself, ‘Why do I think men have never traveled dreaming with a dragon?’ I didn’t know, and I was sticking to that. So holding that in my mind, I gave Ace a hard stare right back. Which made me feel like a minnow before a whale.
But his answer came back, as clear and as unfazed as can be,—Because the devil interfered, and men and dragons have never gotten along since.
Immediately an intense picture of what had happened sprang into my mind. It began in the Garden of Eden, an oasis of perfection in an otherwise rough and untamed world. Then in a blink—the devil worked his chicanery, mankind got the boot and Eden was off limits. Next a riot of unrest boiled over and The Flood happened. But the dragons were safe because they could escape into the overlap.
When the flood dissipated, the dragons returned to earth, but quickly, much of mankind feared and hated the dragons. When it escalated to murder, the dragons fled the abode of man.
Feeling just short of shell-shocked from the jarring adjustment to my understanding of world history, I thought an apology would be appropriate. But immediately knowing in my heart he sensed that, I tried to do it one better by offering the next best thing I could think of. “Will you ever come back to the earth?”
Smiling and projecting love with more devotion that any dog has ever shown for an earthly master, Ace projected,—When Christ returns.