All Living : A Seedvision Saga (9781621473923)

by Humphrey, Michael C.

  Lester looked skeptically at him. It was obvious to Al that Lester was not going to let go of his new pet theory unless Al gave him a good reason to.

  “The giants were not fallen angels, Lester,” sighed Al. “I know this to be a fact because…well, because the giants were…my children.”

  Lester just stared at him, his face registering no change. He was in fact so stunned he might have been in shock. His mouth moved, but no words came out. His hand that had been sitting flat on the table lifted half an inch, paused, then fell back down. All the color seemed to drain out of his face, whether from the revelation that he had just heard or from the fact that his “fallen angels as giants” theory had just disintegrated. Al could not be sure.

  “Lester,” said Al soothingly, “Keziah and I had four children, three boys and a girl. My daughter, Samantha, was our youngest. By the time she was born my eldest son, Arba, was just reaching puberty. It was then that he hit his growth spurt. Until then, they all seemed to be normal children in every way. After we realized what was happening to him, we did not try to have any more children.”

  “What happened to him?” Lester whispered his throat raw with emotion.

  “He grew,” said Al. “He grew, and he did not stop growing. At first, when he grew to be taller than me I was proud, just like any dad might be. But then he grew taller and thicker, adding height and weight every week it seemed. His mother and I grew alarmed. His brothers and sister were frightened. We had no idea what was happening to him. Within a year he was twice as tall as I was.”

  “Twice as tall?” Lester choked. “You mean like twelve feet tall?”

  “Taller. He did not stop there. He kept growing. It slowed somewhat, but by the time he was eighteen years old he was nearly twenty feet tall, a massive human specimen, as tall as a tree. His legs were as wide around as two of me. His arms bulged with muscle like glacial boulders. His voice was as deep and graveled as the shifting of continents. And to be honest with you, he was scared. Don’t get me wrong. More often than not he reveled in his size and strength. But at night, when we would talk, he would confess to me that he just wished he was normal. He was worried that he’d never find a wife, never have children.”

  “Oh,” said Lester, “How did he…”

  “I never asked. I don’t even want to know. But he did marry. He did find love, and he did give me grandchildren, and great grandchildren, all of them giants, though not quite as large as their father. It was also around the time that Arba quit growing that Neph, my second son, started. All of my children, all three of my boys and my beautiful little girl,” said Al, his lips beginning to quiver, “all of them were exceedingly…tall for their age.”

  Lester was quiet, thinking and giving Al a moment to collect himself. After several shuddering breaths, Al continued.

  “Don’t get me wrong. They were exemplary children, though hard to make clothes for, but they never uttered a harsh word to their mother, never had a disrespectful tone in their voice. I loved them very much, but being a giant human being is not just about being big and strong and invincible. They were ostracized by our community. They were feared and reviled as monsters by many. The mighty men that you read about, the men who sought to make a name for themselves as defenders of their families, tried to hunt them down, thinking to establish their own reputations by killing my children. They drove us out from them. Keziah and I learned to live on the outskirts of civilization and my children, my sons and daughter, and their families, moved even farther beyond the boundaries of humanity. They lived in the wild, unmapped regions where men were afraid to go. They grew reclusive and visited us only rarely. Until the years leading up to the flood, that is.”

  “The flood?”

  “Yes, the purging of evil from the face of the earth. When God released the veil of water above and let loose the fountains of the deep. God warned me, like he warned Noah, and my sons and I followed God’s instructions to avoid the cataclysm.”

  “Did you build an ark too?” asked Lester.

  “Something like that,” replied Al cryptically, “but that would be getting ahead of the story. I wanted to tell you about Keziah first.”

  “Oh, right,” said Lester. “I asked you who she was. How you met her? Do you think it was because of her that your children were…so big?”

  “No,” said Al. “I think it was because of me. I think it was because I had swallowed the seeds from the tree of life and changed my genetic makeup. I think the seeds did something to me, made me different somehow and affected my children.”

  “Don’t you think God would have known that would happen?” questioned Lester.

  “I’m sure he did,” said Al. “At least, I’m sure he foresaw that possibility. Remember Les, we are God’s great experiment. He knows us, but we can still surprise him and please him or disappoint him. The one thing God could not do was give us holy righteous character. He could not create us with that, or we would have been no better than robots. He had to watch and hope that we would choose to develop it. Does that mean that God is not all-powerful? No, it does not. But it does mean that God, to some degree, learns about us as we are to learn about him. For instance, before the flood he had created man to live longer life spans, around a thousand years. But after seeing the evil that man could spawn with all that time at his disposal, God shortened our life spans. After the flood we have only a tithe of our original millennia.”

  “A tithe?”

  “Ten percent. About a hundred years, and often times less. I’m sure God knew what might happen when He allowed me to swallow the seeds from the tree, but with God, all things work out for good, so He incorporated that outcome into His perfect plan.”

  “How?”

  “Again, Les, that would be getting ahead of the story.”

  “So then, what happened to your family? Are any of your great-great grandchildren still…?” Lester paused, unsure of how to finish his sentence.

  “Still alive?” Al said for him. “No, they were all killed. Being reviled all their lives made them turn to violence, starting with my son’s sons, Emim and Zim. They lived by the sword and they died by the sword. The last few of my offspring lived for several hundred years after the flood and were actually slain by David.”

  “King David?” asked Lester in astonishment.

  “I never held any grudge toward him,” said Al. “In fact, I knew David better than I knew my great, great grandchildren. They had nothing to do with me, and I felt it best not to reveal to them who I was either. But David was like a son to me, and a great man of God. He had his weaknesses, to be sure, but never have I known a man so heartfelt in his devotion to God.”

  As if on cue, the music that had been playing ended. Lester stood up to change the disc, and Al stopped him with a hand.

  “Perhaps we should take a break. It’s been a long day and I’m sure you’re hungry. I know I could eat.”

  “No, no,” said Lester. “I have to hear about Keziah first. I think I have some leftover spaghetti that I could warm up if you want some.”

  “Sure, that sounds great.”

  As Lester got up and pulled Tupperware containers out of the fridge and spooned the noodles onto two plates, Al continued.

  “I met Keziah when she was nineteen-years-old. She was of marriageable age, and her father was hoping to find her a husband. Still, I was old and had never thought to look for a wife, not since Kesitah. But when I first saw her I was enchanted. She was exceptionally beautiful, exquisite, and her aura shone like the purest of lights. I was tongue-tied, but she introduced herself. She smiled at me like she knew some secret that I was not privy to and truth be told, she did. Sometime after we were married, she told me that she had had a dream about me, that I had flown down out of the sky and given her father a priceless gift, and in return her father had given her to me.”

  “Was tha
t true?” asked Lester.

  “In every detail.”

  Lester looked perplexed, but he let the “flying” comment slide for a time. “So, her father liked you?”

  “We became great friends. For nearly a hundred years, until his death, he was my closest friend. I learned a lot from him.”

  “Who was he?” asked Lester. “Is he in the Bible?”

  “He is indeed,” confirmed Al. “He even has his own book.”

  “Huh?”

  Al turned his laptop around so that Lester couldn’t see what he was typing in. When he finished he turned it back around, so Lester could read the biblical entry. Lester walked over and put a steaming plate of spaghetti in front of Al with a warm piece of microwave garlic bread on the side. He bent over and squinted at the computer screen.

  “Job 42,” Lester said, jerking his head up to look sideways at Al. “You’re telling me that your father-in-law was Job?”

  Al laughed. “Just read it,” he said.

  He had seven sons and three daughters. He named the first Jemimah, and the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. In all the land no women were found so fair as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. After this, Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations. And Job died, an old man and full of days.

  Lester just stared at the monitor, so Al continued his story.

  “Keziah was the ninth child of Job, after his…ordeal. She was beautiful and perfect and amazing, and I miss her every day. Her voice was like warm milk and honey. Her skin was like cream and cinnamon. Her hair was a waterfall of molten gold. Her laughter rang like a fairy harp, and her eyes sparkled like emerald sunlight. And to see her dance…”

  Al was no longer looking at anything in the room except the distant past and his cherished memories. “Oh, how she could dance, like a silk scarf in an underwater ripple, like the flutter of a raven’s wing. She moved in time to the beating of God’s heart. To see her was to awaken from slumber. I was no better than blind until she healed my eyes, no more than empty until she poured herself out to me. My five senses were not enough to perceive the qualities of her beauty. She was twice as alluring on the inside, filled with a winsome grace that bubbled into mirth as she daily beheld the wonders in the world that God had created. She was the most thankful person I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. Constantly bowing her head and lowering her lashes to give a silent nod of thanks to our Creator for some small marvel that she discovered, then looking up at me with a shy, almost embarrassed smile that could melt snow and cause meadows to bloom with wild profusions of color. She loved to be silly, and yet she was intuitive to the meaning of every moment. Nothing escaped her eye, and no thing was too insignificant to receive the blessing of her attention.”

  “So…she was pretty good?” Lester interrupted.

  Al looked stunned into silence for half a second. He drew in a breath to reply and then let it out with a smile. “Yeah, she was pretty good.”

  Lester grinned back.

  “So, how did you two meet?” he asked.

  “Well, I’m going to let you read about that one,” said Al. “But suffice it to say that I swept her off her feet.”

  “And married her?”

  “And married her,” confirmed Al, “but not immediately. We had a rather long courtship. The world was changing around that time. Men were multiplying again. Progress was being made. Knowledge was increasing. There were schools and centers of worship and cities with thriving markets. Job was careful. Few men worshipped the Creator in the way that he did, with his whole heart. Eventually he invited me to live with him, perhaps to keep a closer eye on me. He never suspected who I was, his distant uncle, but he was cautious about who I might become. He wanted his daughters to wed righteous men. They had many suitors vying for their hand. They were renown across the land as the three most beautiful women in the world. And Job was a wealthy man.

  “Even if he were alive today his holdings would be impressive. His land alone exceeded the size of Massachusetts and his authority in that part of the world went unchallenged. He was like a king. And those who came to court his daughters traveled from great distances, to see for themselves the striking beauty of the three sisters and to offer themselves as humble petitioners.

  “It is amazing that Job even let me look twice upon Keziah. I was a successful man by then, if I do say so myself, but I flaunted none of it. I was already by that time the oldest living man on the earth but I looked much as I do now, about thirty years old.”

  “Probably closer to fifty,” said Lester.

  “Oh, thanks.”

  “I’m just saying…”

  “Anyway,” continued Al, “chapter one in the book of Job says that he was the greatest man in all the east; great moral conviction, great intelligence and great wealth. Job acted as a sort of king-priest for his family and mercilessly tested every member of the male species who came within hailing distance of his daughters. But by the time I met Keziah, Job had already settled on a suitor for Jemimah and had promised her to the man; a mighty man, a wealthy man of great intelligence and ambition. One who found many ways to profess his love to Job of the creation and of Job’s eldest daughter.

  “Job was as smitten of him, I dare say, as Jemimah, for the man was smooth with his speech and polished in his approach. He had traveled from the north, and in his homeland he taught mining and smithing, metallurgy and warfare. This alone might not have appealed to Job, but the man was also an instructor of mathematics and the sciences and astronomy. Job was an incredibly astute man in his own right and had a love for numbers. This man, whose mother Zillah was sister to Job’s wife Zorah, would sit with Job for hours and make riddles for him. They would ponder the weight of the world, the size of it, the meaning of it. They were, intellectually speaking, kindred spirits and already had a previous family bond.

  “These factors swayed Job, and he relented and gave his daughter Jemimah to be his wife. But what Job did not realize was where this man’s ambition lay, for where Job balanced his understanding of creation with a Creator, this man sought only the conquest of the created. To this Job was blind, as we all were for a while.”

  When Al paused Lester spoke. “Al, you keep saying this man did this and this man did that. I sense that you’re leading up to something. Will I recognize this man’s name when you reveal it?”

  “Have you not guessed his name yet, Les?”

  “Should I have?”

  “Look,” said Al, typing in a key and swinging the laptop back toward him, pointing at verses nineteen through twenty-two of Genesis chapter four.

  Then Lamech took for himself two wives: the name of one was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah. And Adah bore Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the harp and the flute. And as for Zillah, she also bore Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah.

  Lester stopped reading aloud but was still staring at the screen.

  “That’s right, Les,” confirmed Al, “old Tubal-Cain was my brother-in-law.”

  “Get out of here,” said Lester in disbelief.

  “Oh, that’s not even the half of it,” said Al. “Zillah, Tubal-Cain’s mother, as I said before, was the sister of Job’s wife, both of them direct descendants in the line of Cain. And Tubal-Cain’s twin sister, Naamah, married a man you may have heard of as well…Noah.”

  “Wait. What?” gasped Lester. “Noah? Noah’s ark? Tubal-Cain was the brother-in-law of Noah? And your brother-in-law as well?”

  “That about sums it up.”

  “So what would that make Noah to you?” Lester asked.

  “Oh, I don’t know,” said Al. “Brother-
in-law once removed or something. That’s not really the important thing. What’s significant is that God told Noah to build an ark and Noah, through Tubal-Cain, had access to the finest metal tools around. Because of his family relationships, Noah was able to build an ark that otherwise would have been impossible. He had tools, he had wealth at his disposal and he had manpower. And he had something else.”

  “Dare I even ask?” groaned Lester.

  “Noah’s son Ham married Job’s youngest daughter, Keren-Happuch. So it’s easy to see how Cain’s warped world view lived on after the flood.”

  “Well, it may be easy for you to see, Al,” said Lester, “but I’m going to have to hear all that again to get it straight in my mind.”

  “Of course,” said Al. “Keren adopted ideas from her older sister, Jemimah, who as Tubal-Cain’s wife, was herself indoctrinated with the lusts of Cain and his sons. Tubal-Cain’s aunt was the mother of Job’s daughters, and Tubal’s sister was Noah’s wife. They carried the ambitions of Cain from the old world into the new.”

  “It’s not exactly the Brady Bunch.”

  Al laughed. “No, not exactly. But the point is that I believe God gave Tubal-Cain knowledge and put him in Noah’s life, and mine, to help us accomplish our purpose.”

  “And that was what?”

  “To live through the flood, and to begin again on the other side,” clarified Al.

  “And how exactly did you live through the flood?” Lester questioned, hoping this time for an answer.

  “Nice try, Les, but again you’ll have to wait for that revelation.”

  Lester let out a sigh. Al couldn’t tell if Lester was disappointed not to have the answer to his question or whether all the information that he was trying to process was squeezing the air out of him.

  “It’s been a long day, Les. Let me just add one more thing before I forget because it’s kind of interesting.”

  “Okay.”

  “Tubal-Cain was practically revered before the flood. Like most college professors, his students looked up to him. They came to him for advice, for mentoring, for jobs. Tubal employed hundreds of people in his school, in the mines and smithies, and in secret projects under his mountain.”