One Thousand Years
Genesage
“Caleb’s gift"
(Chp 8:2)
"So do you want to hear what happened or not?"
asked Thomas
Caleb had that knack of getting almost everyone in the group talking to Him. Everyone needed an audience sooner or later, Caleb was a good listener. He kept his opinions on what he heard mostly to himself.
In private was he a likeable kid. He always wanted to learn. He was about early twenties. He was funny. witty and had the knack for listening intently. He looked you in the eyes as if interested.
Never mind his private thoughts, he had the gift of listening and he tended to hear more than what was being said.
He seemed to have age beyond his years.
Perhaps because he listened.
Thomas by contrast, normally quiet, seemed to have become a “talker.”
"You know Eben chose me to get an offering of roses for him and sent me to get them."
Well
thought Caleb,
it was to take an offering of the petals from Rose but it's your story so do tell.
I'm all ears, thought Caleb.
"So I'm walking along the path to go do as I was told and I feel the South wind blow up a little breeze and I started thinking about the Old Days."
Uh oh, thought Caleb, every time someone brought up Old Days now days it never seemed to be good. Yet listening to the stories certainly seemed to distract those who came from there. The only problem was once they started on that track it would go on for hours.
If someone who hadn’t been there commented, then the person would say “you don’t understand.”
Caleb thought that what they did not understand was less important than what they did understand. And that was the here and now was here and now, so why bother with what was.
"I walked along thinking that if I had a knife I could cut a dozen long stem roses or maybe two dozen and give one dozen to you to give to Delilah. I have seen how you look at her."
Thomas sat in the shadows away from the fire and suddenly he seemed distant to Caleb.
Caleb felt uncomfortable. Not because He had feelings for Delilah or that what Tom was saying was true, but because it was a lie.
Born in the Kingdom, some had the ability to hear lies told and know them for such.
Caleb had never revealed this to anyone except to Eben. Eben had spent quite a long time trying to explain lying and how Old Timers made up lies in order to hide the fact that:
“a lie is a lie is a lie,”
and that a lie by any other name is a still a lie.
White Lies; holding the facts; sparing the feelings; exaggerating; using for effect; Eben had given him quite a headache. It seemed to Caleb that the Old World had figured out many ways to lie.
When Caleb asked about just saying what you mean and meaning what you say, Eben explained about “Sparing them the Truth” which was another way to lie. When it came to telling the Truth or Lying, Caleb figured the Oties (Old Timers) were better at lying.
That was why few in the New World could tell when a Lie was the Truth or the Truth was a lie when the Old Worlders talked about the Old World.
“Television and watching “it” for hours, that had to be a lie with flying machines”, but who knew?
All Eben had to say in the end was to "Trust" in the gift God had given Caleb, even if he did not know at times what the lie was.
He said knowing something is Knowledge, knowing what to do with something is Wisdom. Caleb had never forgotten that.
Eben had never mentioned the gift again.
There had been several times with his parents that he had felt uncomfortable. He knew instantly they were lying. Which when it was said only once didn't really bother him too much but if they kept on talking about it, Caleb would have to leave. He could only handle so much lying before it actually made him ill.
Once before Tom had started lying to him. Caleb had tried to get away from him and Tom not knowing what was occurring had pursued him. Caleb had gotten pale, weak dizzy and finally nauseated.
Tom always figured it was Caleb’s age. Caleb never told him the “Truth”.
Caleb being born in the Kingdom had never been sick. Ever. No one born into the Land or living in the Land knew any illness' at all. Survivors seemed to still have some emotional issues and nightmares, but the children born here were healthy, extremely so.
Tom was not ignorant so he had deduced a lot from several experiences he had watched Caleb in. Eventually, intuitively, Tom came to grips with Caleb’s “gift”. Tom never mentioned it.
Tom saw Caleb fidgeting so he said,
" Ok I made that up. Here's what really happened."
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