The Ether

by Laurice Elehwany Molinari

  But when Vero looked down, he understood why. They’d landed in mud up to their waists, and they were surrounded by tall, thick grass and reeds. Vero let Ada’s hand drop.

  “Thanks,” Ada said to Vero.

  “You’re welcome,” Vero said.

  “Where are we?” Ada asked.

  “Some kind of swamp,” Pax answered.

  “Gross!” Ada said. “The mud’s on my wings, and it’s so thick that I can’t move them.” She made a futile attempt to fly.

  Vero parted the nearby reeds in the hopes of finding a way out. “Come on, let’s get out of this muck,” he said. But all he saw were more reeds and more marsh, no shore in sight, nothing to orient him. They couldn’t just stand around in the waist-deep mud, so he began walking.

  “Why that way?” Pax asked.

  “We can’t stay here,” Vero answered. “We need to find the others.”

  “I feel like we should be going that way.” Pax pointed behind them.

  Vero wasn’t going to fight Pax over the issue. The voice inside of him wasn’t telling him anything except that he was thirsty again, so he turned and followed Pax, this time relying on Pax’s intuition.

  The mud was so dense that it felt like Vero had cinder blocks attached to his feet. Please don’t let this be quicksand.

  “I hope there aren’t any leeches,” Ada said. “I can’t deal with leeches.”

  “It’s the alligators that I’m worried about,” Pax said.

  “Now why’d you have to say that?” Vero asked.

  “At least I didn’t mention snakes,” Pax said with a shrug.

  This got to Vero. The thought of snakes swimming around made his chest tighten. “Let’s just keep moving,” Vero said.

  “I’m glad we have daylight,” Pax said, looking up at the bright sky above. “It’s weird how the light in the Ether seems to appear out of nowhere.”

  “There’s no sun in the Ether; only God’s light. That’s why the Ether doesn’t follow the laws of day and night on earth,” Ada said.

  After a few minutes of trudging along, the group was exhausted. Pax stopped walking and tried to spread his wings to lift himself out of the muck, but the caked-on mud wouldn’t allow it.

  “My wings are pinned,” Vero said.

  “What if I climbed up on your shoulders? Then maybe I could see over the reeds,” Ada said.

  “It’s worth a try,” Vero said.

  Ada faced Vero and placed her hands on his shoulders.

  “Step on my knee and then try to climb up,” Vero said.

  Pax helped Ada balance as she attempted to hoist herself onto Vero’s shoulders. She kneed Vero in the chest on the way up.

  “Ouch!”

  “Sorry . . . ” she said as Pax attempted to push her up from behind.

  “Touch my butt again and you’ll be missing some teeth,” Ada snarled.

  “I’m only trying to help!”

  Pax moved behind Vero and tried to support him as Ada got situated. For just a moment, Vero imagined they looked like a really bad acrobatic act. And then Ada slipped. All her weight fell against Vero, and all three of them went down in the mud.

  Great, Vero thought. I’ve had sand in my eyeballs, and now I have mud everywhere! He got to his feet first, grabbed Ada under her armpits, and pulled her up. Pax managed to stand on his own. They were completely covered in mud.

  “Perfect!” Ada said with a look of disgust. “I think I'm gonna be picking mud out of places I never knew existed.”

  “Did you see anything before you fell?” Pax asked.

  “There’s land straight ahead of us,” Ada said.

  Vero spit sludge out of his mouth. He was beyond disgusted. “It’s like we’re swimming in a giant backed-up toilet!” Vero tried to wipe mud off his face.

  Wait. What. Was. That? Vero frantically rubbed mud from his eyes so he could be sure of what he was seeing. It was a snake. But it was much bigger than any anaconda Vero had ever seen on the National Geographic channel. It made the snake that attacked Davina look like a night crawler! The enormous serpent was weaving through the reeds and gaining speed. It actually moved the mud with such force that it created a wake. The waves pushed Pax deeper into the reeds and out of sight.

  “Pax!” Vero shouted.

  With its head bobbing in and out of the sludge, the massive snake slithered over to Ada who was completely unaware of its presence.

  “Ada!” Vero screamed. “Look out!”

  Ada turned around, but it was too late. The snake was upon her. It began coiling.

  “Vero!” Ada shouted just before the snake stole her breath.

  The snake violently tossed Ada. Vero broke off a piece of reed, intending to shove the end of it straight into the snake’s eye. But as the horrific creature swam closer to Vero, he saw that it had no eyes!

  The snake started to swim away with Ada firmly in its grasp. As its body swept past Vero, he grabbed Ada’s legs. The snake shook both of them around as if they were rag dolls. It was like an amusement park ride neither one of them wanted to be on.

  It took every ounce of Vero’s strength to hang on while they were being viciously tossed from side to side. But Vero wouldn’t let go of Ada’s legs, hoping his weight alone would be enough to pull her free from the snake’s grasp.

  Suddenly, Vero and Ada were being lifted out of the swamp. They were still in the snake’s embrace, but the height gave Vero a clearer view of their surroundings. And he realized the creature wasn’t a snake at all, but some kind of dinosaur! They were in the clutches of its tail, and Vero wasn’t sure if that was better or worse.

  With one huge flick of its tail, the dinosaur uncurled its long extremity and flung Vero and Ada onto dry land. Ada heaved and coughed as the air came back into her lungs. Vero patted her on the back.

  “What just happened?” Ada asked.

  “I’m not sure, but I think that creature just helped us, Vero said. “But it swept Pax farther into the reeds.”

  “Maybe now we can clean off our wings and then fly out to find him,” Ada said.

  Vero didn’t answer, but seconds later Ada tugged on his arm and pointed, speechless. Vero followed her gaze.

  They were sitting on what seemed to be a bank along a mud river filled with patches of reeds and grasses. Farther inland Vero saw trees that looked like giant palms, and beyond the trees, a herd of sauropod dinosaurs peacefully grazed. Vero watched as their long necks stretched high into the air to eat leaves from the treetops. They moved gracefully, despite their massive bulk.

  Months ago, Vero had gone on a field trip to a museum to see the dinosaur bones. He’d stood next to the display of reconstructed skeletons and reveled in their greatness. But that was nothing compared to seeing those bones with flesh over them . . . and they were moving! The scene before Vero and Ada was nothing less than extraordinary.

  “Unbelievable . . . ” Ada whispered.

  “That must be what had us in its tail,” Vero said.

  Vero pointed to a dinosaur drinking from a pond. “That’s a diplodocus. And over there is a brachiosaurus.”

  Ada stared at them and then quietly said, “Moves like a cedar . . . ”

  “What?” Vero asked.

  “It has a tail that moves like a cedar!” Ada said. “From the book of Job!”

  “A cedar tree?”

  “Yes, they’re behemoths,” Ada said. “Creatures of immense proportions.”

  “They still look like dinosaurs to me,” Vero said.

  “Maybe that’s all the behemoths ever were,” Ada said. “Giant herbivores. And if they only eat grasses, I don’t think we need to be afraid of them.”

  “Unless a T. rex shows up!”

  “We just need to keep a safe distance,” Ada said.

  “How about 200 million years?” Vero studied the sauropods in the distance, and he noticed there were enormous mounds of dirt all around the behemoths. “Do you think those are anthills?” he asked.

  “I h
ope not,” Ada said. “I can’t deal with giant ants right now.”

  Off in the distance, a sauropod lifted its tail, and they both made the connection at the same time.

  “Oh lovely,” Ada said.

  “Hey, at least they aren’t giant anthills.”

  A nearby rustling sound caused them to quickly duck behind a clump of reeds. Visions of Jurassic Park flashed through Vero’s mind, and he expected a T. rex or a velociraptor to appear at any moment.

  Instead, a miserable-looking, mud-covered creature slowly trudged out of the swamp.

  “Pax!” Ada cried.

  Vero couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Laugh all you want, but you guys don’t look any better than I do,” Pax said before he collapsed onto the ground, exhausted. “Why would anyone ever want to take a mud bath? I can’t believe people pay money for this . . . ”

  Suddenly, they heard a low rumbling, and the ground began to shake. Pax instantly bolted upright. “Earthquake!” he shouted.

  “Worse!” Vero yelled. He grabbed Pax under his armpits and pulled him to his feet. “Behemoth stampede!”

  Pax turned his head in the direction of the trembling ground. A herd of sauropods was charging straight at them. He did a double take.

  “It’s no dream!” Vero shouted.

  The booming got louder.

  “Run!” Ada screamed, but the heavy mud weighed them down.

  “They’re gaining on us!” Pax yelled. “An old person with a walker could move faster than us!”

  Vero couldn’t believe that something so big could move so fast! The herd of massive dinosaurs was nearly upon them. Vero tried moving his wings so he could fly to safety, but the hardened mud prevented them from flapping.

  “Pax!” Ada yelled.

  Vero turned and saw that Pax had fallen to the ground and was now struggling to get up under the weight of the mud. “Ada wait!” Vero cried, but she ran back to help Pax. They were sure to be crushed like little insects.

  Then Vero recalled the day’s lesson — allowing God’s voice to guide him. So he did the only thing he could think of. He stood completely still and faced the charging creatures. Vero closed his eyes, placed his outstretched hand over his heart, and listened for the inner voice to lead him.

  Once again, it was not easy to concentrate, but Vero focused and freed his mind of the impending danger. In seconds, Vero felt strength come over him and fill him with courage. He grabbed Pax by what little bit of his shirt collar he could find.

  “Take his hand!” Vero shouted to Ada.

  Ada grabbed Pax as the shadow cast from the charging dinosaurs overcame them, blocking out the daylight. The behemoths were massive at a distance, but up close . . . images of giant redwood trees came to Vero’s mind.

  Following an inner pull, Vero dodged the gargantuan animals, guiding Pax and Ada between the legs of the beasts and through the stampede. They ducked, jumped, and skirted as the herd changed directions, and they were pelted by chunks of earth, rocks, and even dino muck kicked up by the herd.

  Vero stumbled over a cluster of rocks. He was going down and he knew it. Pax and Ada fell with him onto the hard ground. An especially large behemoth charged. The beast’s front leg lifted up and was poised to land on top of them! Vero refused to panic. He prayed hard and a way out presented itself to him — a ditch! Vero pulled Pax and Ada with him, and the three rolled into the safety of the trench. The beast’s leg came down, narrowly missing them.

  Finally, the last of the herd ran by. Safely hidden in the trench, the three angels eyed each other in a tense silence. Anger replaced the terror on Ada’s face. And then she stood up and punched Vero squarely across his jaw.

  17

  THE BOOK OF RAZIEL

  What was that for?” Vero asked, massaging his jaw.

  “Because you made me jump into that hole!”

  “I just saved your life!” Vero shot back.

  “That’s not the point!” yelled Ada.

  Vero and Pax swapped looks, and then Pax shrugged his shoulders. Apparently Pax couldn’t explain Ada’s behavior either.

  “Just look at us! Look what we’re covered in!” Ada wailed.

  A grin spread across Pax’s face, and he began to laugh — shakily at first, but then his chuckles dissolved into all-out hysterical laughter until he was doubled over. Ada and Vero exchanged glances. Then Ada started laughing too. And finally Vero joined them.

  “I don’t know what’s so funny,” Greer said. “You guys stink! I can smell you all the way up here.”

  Vero looked up from the trench and saw Greer and X standing over them. They were perfectly clean — no mud or dino muck anywhere on them.

  “If any of you swine would like our company,” Greer said, holding her nose, “you’d better go wash yourselves in the river. Otherwise, it’s been nice knowing you.”

  Vero, Pax, and Ada climbed out of the ditch and walked with X and Greer toward the river. The behemoths were no longer in sight.

  “You guys didn’t land in the swamp?” Vero asked.

  “No, we glided to a smooth landing under a shade tree,” X said.

  “Maybe if you hadn’t hesitated before jumping, you wouldn’t have wound up in the swamp,” Greer gloated.

  Greer was right, and Vero knew it immediately. He hadn’t listened to the inner voice when it told him to jump into the hole. As he washed himself off, Vero resolved to trust his instincts moving forward because he didn’t want to pull dinosaur poop out of his ears ever again.

  “Any sign of Kane?” Pax asked. They were now mud free, sitting by the river and eating wild berries with their wings retracted.

  “He must be really lost,” X said, shaking his head.

  “That’s his problem,” Greer said.

  “But aren’t we all in this together?” Ada asked.

  “No,” Greer said. “Raziel made it very clear that this is a competition.”

  “No, he didn’t. He said we were to push each other to our full potentials,” Vero said.

  “He also said we’d be judged based on our character and compassion,” Pax added.

  “Maybe, but you can’t follow somebody down the wrong path,” Greer explained. “I’m not gonna risk my chance to be a guardian for anyone.”

  “Did you ever think that maybe Kane’s on the right path, and we’re the lost ones?” Vero wondered aloud.

  “I’m only doing what Raziel told us to do,” Greer said. “And so far it’s been working for me.” She shot Vero a look, “And you’re already on Raziel’s bad side, so I’d recommend that you do what he says.”

  “Yeah, what’s up with that?” Vero asked. “I just met him, and he hates me already.”

  “He doesn’t hate you. Archangels do not hate,” Ada said. “I think he’s frustrated. He might feel like a failure. Did you ever learn about the Book of Raziel?”

  Vero shook his head. He had no idea what she was talking about. The others were also listening closely.

  “Raziel once stood close to God’s throne. He was the Angel of Secrets. It was his job to write down everything he heard into a book made of blue sapphire. The book contained the entire history of mankind — past, present, and future. It included the secrets to the laws of the universe, the laws of creation, everything about the planets and stars, too. It named all of the angels and what they did, and it included information about how humans could summon angels and ward off demons.”

  Even Greer was giving Ada her undivided attention.

  “After Adam was expelled from the garden, he was so upset about what he’d done that God instructed Raziel to give Adam the book. It was partly to comfort Adam, but mainly it was to help him learn how to live outside the garden and show Adam and Eve how to find their way back to God.

  Raziel did as God asked. Through the book, Adam gained great wisdom. He read about every single soul who was yet to be born for all the generations to come. Adam knew some things that many of the angels didn’t know . . . things they’d
never been privy to.”

  “That’s amazing,” Greer said. “When the serpent told Eve that she and Adam would know all if they ate from the tree of knowledge, in a way he was right. Yeah, they got booted out of the garden, but the Book of Raziel really did give them the knowledge and wisdom of God.”

  They all considered her idea for a moment.

  “Anyway,” Ada continued. “Some of the angels got jealous that God had entrusted this book to man, his newest creation who’d already let God down. So they stole the book from Adam and threw it into the sea. But God ordered Rahab, the Angel of the Seas, to retrieve the book and give it back to Adam, who passed it down to his son Seth. It got passed on down through the generations until it eventually reached Enoch, and then it disappeared from man again. But Raziel gave the book to Noah who used it to figure out how to build the ark.”

  “How do you know all this?” X asked.

  “I’ve been studying this for my Bat Mitzvah,” she replied.

  Vero knew a little bit about Bat Mitzvahs. He understood it was a ceremony that was done in the Jewish religion during which a kid becomes an adult. And then they have an amazing party afterward.

  “Noah placed the book in a golden box, and it was the first thing he brought with him onto the ark. Later, Abraham was given the book, and then his son Jacob, and then his son Joseph who used it to learn the secrets of dreams. The book was buried with Joseph after he died. But years later, when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, he removed the bones of Joseph from the Nile and found the book with them. And it was Raziel who made sure the book always got into the proper hands. Eventually King Solomon used it to build a temple for God in Jerusalem.”

  “So where’s the book now?” Vero asked.

  “No one knows,” Ada shrugged. “Some think it was destroyed when the temple was burned down.”

  “Does Raziel know where it is?” Pax asked.

  “I don’t think so. He used to be the archangel closest to God’s throne. Now he teaches at C.A.N.D.L.E. My guess is that it disappeared on his watch. Even though its disappearance must be a part of God’s bigger plan, Raziel probably took the blame for its loss.”