Many Waters

by Madeleine L'engle

  "I love Grandfather's stories!"

  "I, too, Yalith."

  Yalith, that was the name of the amber-eyed one. Yalith and Oholi. Dennys was vaguely aware of something cool touching his skin, something that numbed the pain.

  The one called Oholi continued. "I always enjoy it when it's my turn to take him the night-light. And at least your mother feels as we do. She'll always manage to get the oil for us to take to him."

  "When did it change?" Yalith asked. "People need to sit at the feet of the old people and listen. But now--I heard Anah say that her grandfather was put out in the desert to die, and his bones were picked clean by vultures."

  "Oh, El, what are we coming to!"

  At the trouble in the dark voice, Dennys opened his eyes.

  "He is still so hot, so hot," Oholi said. "I wish we knew who had hurt him."

  "But what could we do?" Yalith asked. "What in El's name could we do? People are ugly to one another today. Were we this cruel before the nephilim and the seraphim came?"

  "I don't know."

  "And who came first?"

  "I don't know," the dark-eyed one repeated. "There is much we don't know. Where did this young wounded giant come from, for instance?"

  "The other one," Yalith said, "the one in Grandfather Lamech's tent, said that they came from some kind of Nighted Place."

  "United States," Dennys corrected automatically. Then Yalith's words registered. "Where is my brother?"

  "Oh, good, he's coming to!" Yalith cried. Then said, kindly, to Dennys, "He's in my Grandfather Lamech's tent, being cared for by Grandfather and Higgaion. He's sun-struck, too, but not nearly as badly as you are."

  The words began to buzz into meaninglessness as Dennys slid back into unconsciousness. He knew that the combination of too much sun, of being thrown into the pit, of scraping himself with sand, had made him ill. Very ill, indeed. This was far worse than when he had flu and a temperature of over 105deg. Then he had antibiotics to fight the fever. Heaven knew what had been in that garbage pit. Heaven knew what horrible infection might follow. He thought that he was probably dying from overexposure to the sun, and he didn't much mind, except that he wished he was at home, on his own planet, rather than here, wherever in the universe here was, with these strange small people. He wished he was young enough to call out and wake his mother, so that she would come in to him and she would wake him from the nightmare and take off the knight's helmet that was pinching his skull and giving him a terrible headache.

  He drifted into darkness.

  For the first few days in Grandfather Lamech's tent, Sandy was miserable. His reddened skin bubbled into blisters. Where he didn't sting, he itched. But as his fever abated he began to look for Yalith in the evening. She did not come, and he felt only a weary indifference to the older women who brought the light, often staying to chat with the old man so that they would have an excuse to stare at Sandy.

  He knew now that Dennys was safe in a tent near Japheth's, and that he was being well cared for. He knew that he and Dennys were objects of intense curiosity to the women who came each evening.

  "I've never seen anything like it!" the oldest one, called Matred, exclaimed. "Except that our giant is burned so much more badly, I would not believe that they are two."

  Anah and Elisheba took their turns taking the night-light to Grandfather Lamech, whispering over Sandy and his likeness to their own twin, still burning with fever in the women's tent. But they shyly held back from talking with Sandy, speaking softly so that he could not hear what they were saying.

  Adnarel came each day, at least long enough to drip fresh herbs or powders into the water with which Higgaion continued to bathe the burned skin. The pelican kept the water jar filled, and when Grandfather Lamech thanked the great bird, he treated it as more than a pelican, causing Sandy to wonder. The old man spent hours cooking concoctions to tempt Sandy's appetite, and the ones that tasted best were the ones which reminded him of his mother's Bunsen-burner stews. Sandy wanted to ask the old man about the women who came in the evening and, most importantly, to ask him why Yalith was not one of them, but he was embarrassed and held his peace. And slept, and slept, healing.

  On the first night when it was apparent that Sandy's fever had left him and he was weak but recuperating, Lamech suggested that they go out of the tent and sit under the stars. "Their light cannot harm your healing skin. Your skin is so fair, so fair. No wonder you had the sun fever." He held out his hand and Sandy took it, letting the old man pull him to his feet. His legs felt weak and unused. Lamech pushed through the tent flap, holding it aside for Sandy, who had to bend over to go through. Not far from the tent was a large and ancient fig tree, too old to bear fruit any longer. One root had pulled up from the ground and formed a low seat, before it dipped down into the earth again. Lamech sat on it, and beckoned to Sandy to sit beside him.

  "Look." Lamech pointed to the sky.

  Sandy had already been staggered by the glory of the night sky on his nocturnal visits to the grove which served as outhouse. He had tried to question the old man as to where he was, what planet, what galaxy. But Lamech had been bewildered. Sun, moon, and stars revolved around the oasis and the desert, put there by El for their benefit. So Sandy still had no idea where he and Dennys had ended up with their foolishness.

  Now he simply looked up at the sky in awe. At home, even in winter when the air was clearest, even deep in the countryside where they lived, the stars were not like these desert stars. It seemed that he could almost see the arms of spiral galaxies moving in their great circular dance. Between the radiance of the stars, the blackness of the firmament was deeper and darker than velvet.

  Except at the far horizon. "Hey," Sandy asked. "Why is it so light over there? Is there a big city, or something?"

  "It is the mountain," Lamech said.

  Sandy squinted and could just make out a range of mountains against the sky, with one peak higher than the others, a long way off, much farther off than the palm tree which had led them to Japheth and Higgaion and the oasis. "A volcano?" he asked.

  Lamech nodded.

  "Does it erupt often?"

  Lamech shrugged. "Perhaps once in every man's lifetime. It is far away. When it goes off, we do not get the fire, but we get a rain of black dust that kills our crops."

  The light tingeing the horizon was indeed so far away that it did not even dim the magnificence of the stars. Sandy asked, "Is it always this clear?"

  "Except during a sandstorm. Do you have sandstorms on the other side of the mountain?" Lamech had set it in his mind that the twins came from beyond the mountains. That was as far away as he understood.

  "No. We're nowhere near a desert. Everything is green where we live, except in winter, when the trees lose their leaves and the ground has a good cover of snow."

  "Snow?"

  Sandy reached down and picked up a handful of the clean white sand. "It is even whiter than this, and it is softer, and it--in winter it falls from the sky and covers the ground, and it's called poor man's fertilizer, and we need it to make sure we'll have good crops in summer. Dennys and I have a big vegetable garden."

  The old man's face brightened. "When you are better and can go out in the daylight, I will show you my garden. What do you grow in yours?"

  "Oh, tomatoes and sweet corn and broccoli and brussels sprouts and carrots and onions and beans, and almost anything you want to eat. We eat what we can, and what we can't, we can." Then he realized that the old joke would mean nothing to Lamech. He amended, "We can some of our produce, or freeze it."

  "Can? Freeze?"

  "Well, uh, putting by food that we've grown in the summer so that we'll have it to eat in the winter."

  "Do you grow rice?" Lamech asked.

  "No."

  "You don't have good enough wells for it?"

  "We have wells," Sandy said, "but I don't think we have the right kind of growing conditions for rice." He was going to have to look up rice cultivation when they go
t home.

  "Lentils?" Lamech pursued.

  "No."

  "Dates?"

  "It's too cold where we live for palm trees."

  "I've never been on the other side of the mountains. It must be a very strange place."

  Sandy did not know how to correct him. "Well, where we live, it's very different."

  The old man murmured. "You are the beginning of change. We are living in end times. It can be very lonely."

  Sandy, looking at the stars, did not hear. "Grandfather Lamech, is my brother really getting better?"

  "Yes. That is what I am told."

  "Who tells you?"

  "The women, when they bring the night-light."

  "Do the men never come? I haven't seen your son."

  "It is only the women who care." Lamech's voice was bitter.

  "Japheth--"

  "Ah, Japheth. Japheth comes when he can, my youngest grandson, my dear boy." He sighed, wearily. "When my son, my only son, was born, I predicted that he would bring us relief from our work, from the hard labor that has come upon us because of the curse upon the ground."

  Sandy felt an uncomfortable prickling. "What curse?"

  "When our forebears had to leave the Garden, they were told, Accursed shall the ground be on your account. It will grow thorns and thistles for you. You shall gain your bread by the sweat of your brow." He sighed again, then all his many wrinkles wreathed upward in a smile. "It is as I predicted. My son has brought us relief. The vines flourish. The herds and flocks increase. But he has grown proud in his prosperity. I am lonely in my old age. I am glad that you have come."

  The mammoth came out of the tent and came to them, putting his head on Lamech's knee. "The women keep telling me that I am welcome in my son's tent. But I will stay here, where my son was born, where his mother died. That is no reason for my son to refuse to come see me, because I choose to remain in my own tent. He is stiff-necked. What will he do in his turn when his sons want his tent?"

  "Does he want your tent?"

  "I have the deepest and best wells on the oasis. I have always given him all the water he needs for his vineyards, but he complains about having to fetch it. Too bad. I will stay in my own tent."

  "Maybe," Sandy suggested, "your son is stubborn because his father is stubborn?"

  The old man smiled reluctantly. "It could be so."

  "If he doesn't come to see you, why don't you go see him?"

  "It is too far for an old man to walk. I have given my camels and all my animals to my son. I keep only my groves and garden." Lamech reached out and patted Sandy's knee with his gnarled hand. "I hope you won't be wanting to leave right away, now that you are getting well. It is pleasurable having someone to share my tent."

  Higgaion nudged the old man.

  Lamech laughed. "You're a mammoth, my dear Higgaion. And while I have deep devotion for you, I am feeling the need of a human companion, especially during my last days."

  "Your last days?" Sandy asked. "What do you mean?"

  "I am not as old as my father, Methuselah, but I am older than his father, Enoch. Now, there was a strange man, my grandfather. He walked with El and then he was not. And he was younger than I. El has told me to number my days."

  Sandy felt distinctly uncomfortable. "How many numbers?"

  Lamech laughed. "Dear young giant, you know that numbers are merely many or few. The voice of El said few. Few can mean one turn of the moon, or several."

  "Hey, wait a minute," Sandy said. "Grandfather Lamech, are you telling me that someone said you're going to die?"

  Lamech nodded. "El."

  "El what?"

  "El. These are troubled times. Men's hearts are turning to evil. It is good that I will be able to go quietly. My years are seven hundred and seventy and seven--"

  "Hey! Wait!" Sandy said. "Nobody lives that long. Where I come from."

  Lamech pursed his lips. "We have not used our long years well."

  Suddenly the starlight seemed cold. Sandy shivered. Lamech's fingers again touched his knee. "Don't worry. I won't leave you until you are all well, and reunited with your brother, and are both able to take care of yourselves and return home."

  "Home," Sandy said wistfully, looking up at the stars. "I don't even know where home is, from here. I'm not sure how we got here, and I'm a lot less sure about how we're going to get home."

  Higgaion raised his trunk to touch his ear, and Sandy noticed that the scarab beetle was there, bright as an earring. Sandy understood that the glorious seraph Adnarel sometimes took the form of a scarab beetle--but of course that was impossible. Now he looked at the bronze glitter, suddenly wondering.

  Lamech mused, "Japheth asked me where I would go when I die." He smiled. Even in the starlight, the skin of his skull showed through the thin wisps of hair. "I thought my Grandfather Enoch might come back, or send some kind of message. I hope my son will put aside his stubbornness long enough to come and plant me in the ground."

  Higgaion nudged him again, and the old man laughed. "Who knows? Perhaps I will come up again in the spring, like the desert flowers. Perhaps not. Very little is known about such things. After living for so many hundreds of years, I look forward to a rest."

  The mammoth moved over to Sandy, standing on his stocky hind legs and putting his big forepaws on Sandy's knees, like a dog. Sandy picked him up, holding him tightly for comfort, and the pink tip of the trunk delicately patted his cheek. "Grandfather Lamech, I think I'd better go back to the tent. I'm cold."

  Lamech looked first at Sandy, then at the mammoth. "Yes. This is enough for a first excursion."

  Sandy went gratefully to his sleeping skins, and Higgaion lay down at Sandy's feet. Sandy tried not to scratch. The pink skin under the paper-like flakes was tender. He closed his eyes. He wanted to see Yalith. He wanted to talk to Dennys. How were they going to be able to get home from this strange desert land into which they had been cast and which was heaven knew where in all the countless solar systems in all the countless galaxies?

  FIVE

  The nephilim

  Dennys was sleeping fitfully when he heard the tent flap move. He opened his eyes and could see only the small light of a stone lamp coming toward him. He called out in alarm. "Who is it?" Yalith or Oholibamah would not have needed the light.

  He felt a gentle pressure, something soft touching his arm, and realized that it was a mammoth. He vaguely remembered seeing a mammoth when he had been in the big tent.

  A bearded man squatted beside him. "We thought you might like Selah, our mammoth, for company, now that you are getting better."

  "Thank you," Dennys said. "Who are you?"

  "Yalith's father, Noah."

  It was not always easy for Dennys to remember where he was. When his fever rose, he thought he was at home, and dreaming. When the fever dropped, he understood dimly that somehow or other he and Sandy had precipitated themselves into a primitive desert world inhabited by small brown people. He remembered Yalith, the beautiful, tiny person with amber hair and eyes who tended him gently. He remembered the slightly older person, and at least part of her name, Oholi, who poured first water and then unguents and oils onto his skin, and who seemed to know what to do to make him feel better. He remembered Japheth, Oholi's husband, who, like a shepherd, had carried Dennys to this tent, which he thought of as a strange kind of hospital.

  He had not seen Yalith's father since he had been taken, half dead, from the big smelly tent to this smaller, quieter one. The piece of linen he had been given to lie on helped protect his raw, healing skin. Even so, it hurt to move. He shifted position carefully. "My brother Sandy, how is he?"

  "Almost all well, I am told." Noah's deep voice was kind. The name had a familiar ring in this unfamiliar world, but Dennys could not place it in his fever-muddled mind. The man continued, "The women tell me he has made new skin. You, too, will be well soon."

  Dennys sighed. That was still hard to believe, with the remains of his skin coming off in painful patc
hes, leaving oozing misery until dark scabs formed. "When can I see my brother?"

  "As soon as you are well. Not long."

  "Where is he?"

  "As you have been told. In my father Lamech's tent."

  "I keep forgetting."

  "That is from the sun fever."

  "Yes. Brain fever, I think it used to be called in India."

  "India?"

  "Oh. Well. That's a place on our planet where the British--people with skin like mine--used to go to, oh, muck around with white men's burdens and stuff, and built an enormous empire. Anyhow, they couldn't take the sun. And their empire's gone. Thank you for taking such good care of me. How did you know the right things to do for burns?"

  "It was mostly common sense," the man said. "Oholibamah can tell with her fingers how much fever you have, and we try to cool you accordingly. And she consulted with the seraphim about the use of herbs."

  "Who are the seraphim?" Dennys asked.

  The stocky brown man smiled. "You are better. This is the first time you have asked questions."

  "You have been to see me before?"

  "Several times."

  Selah snuggled up against him, and he put his arm around her, and his skin was healed enough so that her fur did not scratch and hurt. "And seraphim?"

  "They are sons of El. We do not know where they came from, or why they are here."

  "-Are they angels?"

  "You have angels where you come from?"

  "No," Dennys said. "But we don't have mammoths or virtual unicorns, either. I am not as much of a skeptic as I used to be."

  "Skeptic?"

  "Someone who doesn't believe in anything that can't be seen and touched and proved one hundred percent. Someone who has to have laboratory proof."

  "Lab what?"

  "Oh. Well. I guess you can't prove virtual particles any more easily than you can prove virtual unicorns."

  "What kind of unicorns?"

  "Oh. Just what I call them."

  The man interrupted. "Are you feverish again?"

  "No." Dennys touched the back of his hand to his cheek, which felt quite cool. "Sorry. Your name is--what?"

  "Noah. How many times do I have to tell you?"

  Noah. Noah and the flood. So they were on their own earth after all, and not in some far-flung galaxy. Somehow or other, he and Sandy had been flung through time into the pre-flood desert. That was a lot better than being in some unknown corner of the universe. Or was it? "I wish I had a Bible," he said.