the offices of the Democratic Party’s main headquarters. When Gerald and Jamal last saw each other, it had ended in a very angry fight; and neither has ever spoken to each other since that event two years past.
Colleen is the middle child. She too worked her way through college, and has just graduated the month before. When she came home, she told everyone at her coming-home party that she just received a job offer from Boeing as an Assistant Engineer. Tim remembers Gerald jumping out of his chair and running over to the slightly shorter young woman. He hugged her so tightly that Liz had to pull him away from his daughter, who was waving her arms for help.
Malcom sits in his chair next to his mother holding the other hand that Christa does not have. Tim and he had talked only two months ago about his decision to go into a seminary. Malcom had wanted to talk to Tim because he knew that he could be objective about which school he would attend. They discussed every type of school available, and the pluses and minuses of each one. Tim remembers trying not to influence him in any way, and how proud he was for the young man when he made his final decision.
The rain begins to slacken as the coffin is lowered into the ground. Christa reaches over and hugs Liz, who returns it. Liz looks at the only white couple and thanks them for coming as Christa asks her to call if she needs anything, and Liz shakes her head. Tim then hugs her and then Colleen as his wife had done. As Timothy begins to approach Jamal, the tall black man turns and walks away. Tim looks into his eyes as he turns and sees the hatred written deep within them. Malcom then walks up to Tim and hugs him, thanking him for being there. Tim returns his thanks as he shakes the younger man’s hand.
:May 27
:11:57 p.m.
The three weeks since Gerald’s death have been hard on Timothy, but he is glad a new week has started. The passing of his friend hurt him because he had become a good and trusted companion. Gerald had been Tim’s only real male friend he has had in a long time. Tim had tried to reach out to Jamal, but the slightly younger man would have nothing whatsoever to do with him. Things are not going well at work either. His father has just leased another store in the Mall of Memphis, and sales are not what had been anticipated. So all four of the businesses are starting to hurt financially. These thoughts bother Tim as he lies in bed until the point that his body practically shuts down on its own.
His eyes open to a bright gray sky over head. He looks about him at the jungle-forest-like foliage and a family of spider monkeys. As he looks about he witnesses a lioness pouncing upon her prey on a large plain, which is behind him. In the far distances before him Tim sees something that does not fit into this picture of what he thinks is Africa. He rubs his eyes, and then looks again at the huge form grazing off the leaves of a large tree. Its legs are like those of an elephant, but its long neck and tail reveal it for what it is.
“Yes, that is what you call a Brontosaurus, more accurately an Apatosaurus,” the now familiar voice of Gabriel says. Tim looks to his right and sees the large angelic form knelling beside him. Then Timothy returns his gaze to the large figure as it walks diagonally past him as it pays no heed to the now gathering pride of lions to the fresh kill. His gaze becomes more instance as the behemoth passes by. He looks at the fin like growths going down the large creature’s back. Puzzled by his thoughts he turns to his guide and begins to verbalize the question he knows he need not say.
“You’re correct. That creature is also called a dragon.”
“Where am I?” Tim asks, after a short pause he uses to absorb what he has just heard.
“This is the time of Noah,” Gabriel answers as he stands and both beings vanish from the point they stood upon.
In the moment it takes, Timothy does not even blink as he becomes accustomed to this swift mode of transport. He finds himself upon a hill overlooking a town. From where he stands, he sees what he thinks is a celebration. He begins to walk toward the town, but stops when he feels a portion of the large hand on his shoulder.
“No! You cannot go down there for that is a place of Satan. For you to see it may cause you to become weak in the Lord and open to Lucifer’s deadly grasp. Look from here and listen to what I say!” Gabriel says sternly.
“All right,” Tim says as the angel begins to speak.
“It has been a long time since Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit of knowledge. All of these are their off spring, as you are, but not all are of humankind. Look closely at the streets below.”
Timothy does as he is told. He sees people running, walking singing, and screaming. Then he sees what Gabriel wants him to see. Three giant forms walk arm in arm with huge urns in their hands as they sing a song.
“Are they angels?” Tim asks.
“No! They are the offspring of the fallen half human, half angel, born by a sin worse than adultery. For we angels are not human, just as you are not animals.”
“Then this sin is akin to Bestiality?”
“Yes,” Gabriel answers as Tim notes the abhorrence in the angel’s voice.
“Look.” He gestures, as Timothy looks in the direction the giant form points.
There, in the distance, upon the top of another hill is a huge object. An object that is out of place as it sits not far from the village, but with no water in sight. The immense curving bow and stern beams hold the half skeletal form together, as the small forms of four men move around it.
Within the next moment Tim finds himself standing beside the eldest of the men working on the monstrous vessel, his salt-and-pepper hair not showing his true age. Timothy watches as the individual works as hard as his three sons, then stops and looks toward the village below. In turn Tim does too and sees a group of well groomed, colorfully dressed people laughing and pointing at the men. They watch as the men prod a couple of elephants in harnesses attached to several ropes and pulleys, making them move forward raising a large timber towards the top of the vessel.
Tim watches the eldest shake his head in a disappointed fashion, and then return to his work.
“This is almost as I pictured this except for the way those people are dressed,” Tim comments.
“How did you expect them to look?” Gabriel asks.
“Like barbarians. Hardly dressed, drunk and evil looking.”
“Most people do, but tell me how do they look to you now?”
“Like people from my time, almost,” Tim says confused.
“That is not a coincidence!” The angel says in a forth right tone as Tim looks up at him in a shocked manner.
“The people of this time think of God in the same way they do in your time. It has been a few thousand years since Adam and Eve first came into being. As the people in your time have forgotten the miracles of Jesus, they have forgotten God himself. All they are concerned with is their own self-satisfaction. They do things that will only reward themselves, not others. They seek for beauty. So they always look to improve themselves and things about them because the true beauty is missing from their lives. It is missing because they have chosen not to accept the love of God, and so they find themselves wanting.”
“But why?” Timothy asks puzzled. “Wasn’t God at His most visible, or most known in this time?”
“Yes, but these off-spring of Adam know that God was their creator as no others of the offspring would ever realize. Because of this they rebelled. Their desire was to be their own beings, much like those who say man evolved from the apes. They are rejecting God as their originator. They seek to be their own creator so they can seek their own pleasures, no matter how grotesque that taste may be so as to remove their guilt for these sins they commit.”
Lightning flashes across the sky, and Tim looks up at the now dark gray sky. Stunned by this sudden change he looks at the Ark to see that it is totally completed. The rain begins to fall slowly at first, but soon turns into a torrent. Lightning flashes repeatedly. Sometimes it hits trees and even buildings in the village below. Tim feels as though half an hour has passed and he sees that the vill
age is half flooded as people from it are forced from their homes into the continually heavier rain. They start to climb the hills upon either side of the hamlet, but soon find it hard to work their way up the muddied hillsides.
Again a bright flash of lightning blinds Tim a moment. When his sight adjusts to the darkness once again, he sees that the waves of the water splash against the side of the huge craft. He looks at a few people that have made it to the Ark as they pound upon the side of the ship, but there is no response from within.
:6:40 a.m.
The buzz of the alarm goes off and Tim turns it off as he sets up to start a new day.
The Island
:June 17
:5:03 a.m.
It is a gray day as Tim drives his car into Southwind. He reduces his speed to as slow as the cruise control would allow him to go without losing its effect. To him it is a compromise for what he feels is a safe speed of thirty in a neighborhood and the twenty that is posted and has no children within it.
Two cars and a van pull out from the clubhouse as he comes to a stop at the intersection. He shakes his head at the fact that none of them stopped at the sign. As he drives on, he slowly passes the last two vehicles. Again he stops at a stop sign as he thinks the lead car of the threesome will do, but instead it rolls through the sign. Timothy starts to go