One Thousand Years
Genesage
“Caleb"
(Chp 8:1)
An odd sound stirred him from his reverie.
Instantly he was alert. Quickly Thomas grabbed a rose branch limb. he got up from the fire, heading over to where he heard the noise. It was in the pile nearby.
He began poking around in the fallen petals where he heard the noise. The rose petals still lie softly as deep as three feet in some places, maybe four. Soft as snow, for those who knew what snow was.
Stabbing a few times he wasn't positive but he suspected this was where the noise had come from. He stabbed several times before just about giving up.
Finally with a sudden poke, the snoring Thomas had heard suddenly stopped.
"Ow!"
"I suppose you heard everything Caleb?"
Thomas stood with hands on his hips staring down at where he assumed Caleb to be. Thomas knew that sounded familiar. So it was no great surprise when out of the depths of blooms rose Mr. Quaker Oats himself. Looking rather sheepish all he could say for himself was,
"I fell asleep just as Eben brought out the wine"
Caleb looked around noticing the empty wood cups. He saw the plant sack that served as a "bladder" for wine. Not quite a wineskin thought the Quaker. But Caleb thought the idea of a wineskin gross. Who would want to drink something being held by a dead animal?
His parents tried to explain, but that didn’t get far.
He was looking at “bladder” hoping something was left. Now that he was awake he was hungry… and maybe a little thirsty.
Picking up the bladder he shook it.
Caleb was born into the Kingdom. So every time he was around an Old World Survivor his parents had taught him to be on the lookout for some treasured artifact. Some “precious”, according to his parents, “heirloom”, like a “pocket knife” or a “Leatherman multi-tool”.
Mom and Dad were always looking for anything they could refer back to the "Old Days" with. Often they said things like “cars”, “canteens”, “silverware”, and Caleb had a hard time remembering what any of those were. Or even what they were for. Since he had not seen them, he didn't use them, he really didn't know what to look for.
His parents were convinced that some survivors were holding out on the others. Surely there must at least be a watch or a ring or a writing pen, something left over from before. His parents had taken years looking..., “without looking.”
So sometimes Caleb hung out with Survivors hoping to one day find something that would make his parents happy.
This was not one of those times.
"Tell me what happened."
Caleb sat down by the fire and Thomas joined him there.
"It was the Son of Man.",
"I didn't recognize Him" ,
"He was too different",
it all flooded out of Thomas like a damn burst.
"How so?",
"What did he say?",
"What did He do?",
Not to be out done Caleb was too curious to not talk and ask as quickly.
The age difference between Thomas and Caleb could be measured in decades. Sometimes Thomas felt like He was Father to this youngster.
Sometimes though, the way Thomas acted Caleb wondered who was the younger and who the older.
It was true that Caleb had been born in the Kingdom and didn't know much about the previous world and the way it was, he still felt like the 'Survivors' just didn't seem to get it as easily as the children of the kingdom did.
Thomas never commented one way or the other.
"He seemed, normal and peaceful, almost gentle but not in a gay sort of way."
Thomas almost kicked himself.
"Gay?",
again a term he was unfamiliar with. But since he did have parents who had survived also He was familiar with “strange words.” They also talked the same archaic way. Caleb was used to it.
"Never mind"
"I know what you mean I'm not as young as you think, "
Yes you are,
thought Thomas.
For a moment Thomas indulged in speculation thinking about these "kids of the kingdom".
What is the world coming to? They certainly aren't like any child I was or knew when I was growing up, but then again, if you knew if you were careful you could live a full thousand years…well. Television, radio, football season, he looked down at the "robe" he was wearing provided by Eben, designer jeans, boots, shoes, the list went on and what these kids were missing out on.
"Eben told me I had to stay here three days and to keep the fire going with…,"
"Rose?"
"…the branches till all is passed away."
Caleb strolled a little around the fire thinking to himself.
These oldsters don't get it. All they had and seem to want and crave for was wrong. It was so selfish and they all seem so absorbed on, what was the word his mother had used…addicted…to what they had.
They abused everywhere they went. And they didn't care about what was happening to the world or themselves. It had to have been bad for his mother to admit something like that.
I mean think about the fact they could have wound up like Eben. Not that anyone really understood Eben completely. Still, instead they go through the judgment of God.
Just the thought of Creator judging made Caleb wonder at how much gall they must have had.
How do you go against nature?
There was a lot Caleb was still trying to understand. And then they are spared.
And still don't get it.
They blew it. Screwed up, messed up. Didn’t do the “right thing”. Caleb just couldn’t understand what they were thinking. Most of the time in class it seemed like all they wanted to do was argue. Argue and talk about how much better it had been.
They didn’t get the idea that back then was what caused them to be judged.
and seems like they still don’t,
Who would have wanted to live in a world like that?
debated Caleb in his mind.
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