The Door

by Lorilyn Roberts

  Daniel glanced at Much-Afraid. “What garden?”

  “The king’s garden,” I replied.

  He leaned on his elbow at the table and seated his chin in the palm of his hand. “The king’s garden? Why don’t you tell me where you come from.”

  I laughed. “You really want to know?” I began from the beginning and explained about the garden and meeting Baruch and Cherios, and how we had ended up at my father’s home. After I finished, Daniel seemed more engrossed in the images carved on the back of the cave wall.

  “You think I’m crazy, don’t you?” I examined his face and reached out for his hand—“I need you to believe me.”

  “No, Shale, you’re not crazy. If you were, I would know. I came from a psychiatric ward.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Daniel Connection

  “What? Please tell me you aren’t psycho.” My heart fluttered. I had studied schizophrenia in biology class.

  Daniel laughed. “Relax. I’m not going to hurt you.” He continued studying the walls of the cave as if looking for something hidden in a crag.

  I scanned his face for clues. “Why don’t you begin with telling me how you have contact lenses when they don’t even have phones or T.V.’s or toilets that flush. What are you holding back? I told you my story, now you’ve got to tell me yours.”

  “First let me see if I can get this thing in,” Daniel muttered as he headed towards a bin of water.

  The mystery of who he was attracted me to him. I brushed my hair back with my hands and wiped the perspiration off my forehead.

  A few minutes later, with the lens back in his eye, Daniel returned to the table. He studied me for a second, tapping his fingers on the table. “I’m going to tell you a mystery,” he began. “Are you okay with that?”

  “Sure.” I leaned forward admiring his beautiful blue eyes—or was it the contact lenses that made them blue?

  “Your father will be here soon. Things aren’t quite like they seem. I mean, you’re confused, right?”

  I nodded. “That’s an understatement.”

  Daniel leaned against the wall and began to tell his story. “I’m from Jerusalem. 2015.”

  “2015?” I interrupted.

  Slight irritation flashed across his face. “Wait until I finish before you start asking questions.”

  “Sorry,” I said, “for interrupting.”

  “Did anyone ever say you’re impatient?”

  “I’m trying to put it all together.”

  “If I stop and answer all your questions, I won’t get through it.”

  “Okay,” I replied reluctantly.

  “It’s 2015, but no more questions.”

  “I come from 2012.”

  Daniel’s eyes widened. “2012—three years ago.”

  “You’re three years into my future.”

  “Wow!” Daniel cleared his throat. “Let me finish telling you about me, and then we can talk about that.”

  “I was in my senior year of high school and wanted to be a doctor. Of course, we have to serve two years in the army, so I knew it would have to wait a while.”

  “I know about the mandatory time to serve in the army in Israel. Rachel told me.”

  Daniel raised his eyebrow surprised, and then continued. “I had some extra time after school and volunteered at a nursing care facility in Jerusalem. It was close to our home—I could ride my bike. I needed some volunteer experience for my application to medical school.”

  “In the nursing home I met a famous general, General Ezra Goren. He was an older man, a brave leader and war hero. May 14, 1948, is the most important day in our history. The last British forces left and David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of a Jewish state. All the major powers recognized us, including President Truman and Joseph Stalin, but the Arabs were unwilling to accept the Jews having a homeland. Within hours, the surrounding nations attacked us. General Goren obtained weapons from sympathetic nations and smuggled them into Israel, enabling us to withstand the onslaught.”

  Daniel stood and walked over to the water barrel again. He returned with a mug of water and took a few sips before continuing.

  His voice was thick with a strong Israeli accent, yet he spoke in perfect English. His eyes were on fire with passion, alive with the determination and strong will I’d seen in photographs of great leaders.

  Daniel continued. “I had the utmost respect for General Goren. He told me stories about the war, how God performed miracles as the Israelis fought back the Arabs. He said no one, not anyone, believed we could win.”

  Daniel exhaled.

  I listened, captivated. “I never knew about all of that.”

  “You’ll learn about it when you take world history in high school.”

  “Sounds a lot more interesting than Georgia history. I hated that stupid class.”

  Daniel’s demeanor darkened. “One day the cat came in and lay down at the end of the General’s bed. We called him Reaper, the death cat.” Daniel stumbled over his words. “Reaper knew when the next person in the nursing home would die. It was as if he wanted to say good-bye. A nurse’s aide told me Reaper was in General Goren’s room earlier that day—the last day I saw him alive.”

  Daniel’s eyes became teary. “I didn’t want to leave because I was afraid I might not see him again.” Daniel whispered. “The cat had never been wrong.”

  He brushed his finger along the mug’s edge. “The General writhed in pain. I ran to get a doctor. Triage came in. They told me he was having a heart attack. We couldn’t get the defibrillator to work. Someone ran out to get another one, but it was too late. Everything happened so fast.”

  “I reached over and grabbed the General’s hand.” Daniel banged his fist on the table. The cup rattled. Propping up his chin with his other hand, he was too choked up to continue. He buried his face in his hands.

  I leaned in and touched his arm. “I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what to say.

  He wiped his forehead with his hand and shook his head. His voice was bitter. “I blamed myself. I know it wasn’t my fault, but he was like a father to me. We knew he was going to die. I should have made sure the defibrillator worked.”

  I couldn’t think of anything to say to comfort him.

  Daniel continued his monologue. “After that, I became depressed. They put me in a psych ward. I’d go days without speaking to anybody. Then I discovered something.”

  “What’s that?”

  “A lot of the people in the ward weren’t crazy. A couple were wacky but most were like me. The staff doped up the patients so they didn’t require a lot of love or care.”

  “The workers wanted to make their job easier. The easiest way to do that was to make the patients passive. Drugged, they could live in an asylum where society could pretend they didn’t exist.”

  Daniel pounded his fist again on the table. “I vowed not to be like that. I talked with the patients in the ward. I quit taking my medications. Of course, I didn’t tell anyone.”

  “My family visited once a week and brought terrible news about the war and how the U.S. wouldn’t help because Washington had too many problems of its own. It was easier to talk about that than to confront me. I was a disgrace to the family name. They had big plans for me, a doctor.”

  Daniel glanced around the cave at nothing in particular. “One day I went into a trance. I laid on my bed looking out the window and a bright light shown though the opening and blinded me. When the light faded, I was somewhere else, far away, though still in a hospital ward—of sorts. Where was I? I had no idea.”

  I stared at Daniel. “You don’t belong here?”

  He shook his head. “I know I’m here for a purpose. I mean, why would I be here? Do you know what the date is?”

  “No,” I whispered.

  “Looking back from 2015, it would be two thousand years ago, and I find you here. I have no idea what’s going on.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t either. How did you end up at
my father’s estate?”

  “After I went back in time, I discovered I could talk to patients. I could read their minds. I had never been able to do this. A prominent doctor noticed me, a kind man. Doctor Luke.”

  “Doctor Luke?”

  “Yes. You say that like you know him.”

  “I saw him yesterday in a small town on the way here.”

  “He travels wherever he’s needed.” Daniel chuckled. “Strange you would see him. Anyway, Doctor Luke has a keen mind. He noticed I could communicate with the patients in an unusual way.”

  “Like I can talk to the animals?”

  “Yeah.” Daniel nodded. “Doctor Luke had a good friend named Theophilus, a prominent man with the Roman government. Theophilus asked Doctor Luke if he knew of anyone who could help a servant whose son was mute. The son’s illness had taken a turn for the worse, sending the boy into fits. The doctor encouraged me to meet Theophilus. When I met Theophilus, he asked me if I’d consider going to Brutus Snyder’s home and meeting his son—your half-brother, Nathan.”

  I nodded.

  “I liked Nathan. Mr. Snyder, your father, asked me to stay. He told me if I’d also take care of the animals, he would pay me a nice wage plus room and board. That was about six months ago. So here I am. Why am I here and when or how will I ever get back—at least to my own time, is the question?”

  I laughed. “That makes two of us. Maybe we were supposed to meet each other.”

  Daniel glanced behind me. I turned around and caught a glimpse of a body that disappeared through the doorway.

  “That was Judd,” Daniel said. “How much do you think he heard?”

  “I told you, you should have shut the door. The jerk hates me.”

  “Shale, he’s not the same Judd from your own time. He’s Judd but a counterpart—he didn’t travel here to this world as we’ve done.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t get it either. It’s like there are multiple realities based on choices we’ve made about issues that are important to us. If we make one decision, we go down one road. If we make another decision, we go down another. Whatever choice we make has a significant impact on the reality we’re dealt.”

  “But he knows me and I know him, so he has to be the same person.”

  “He’s the same person—but it’s like you’re in a parallel universe. Suppose you had been born in this time and in this country? This would be your world.”

  “I still don’t understand,” I confessed.

  “I’m not saying I completely understand either,” Daniel said, “But some things seem to stay the same.”

  “Like what?”

  “Who we are, our souls, our relationships. Perhaps it’s to learn what we’re made of, to come to terms with issues we can’t resolve any other way.”

  “That’s very philosophical,” I commented. “So my father is my issue?”

  “Perhaps.”

  “What’s yours?”

  “I don’t know. My family isn’t here except for one sister in Dothan who runs a small business, though I’m related in some way to Mari, but she won’t tell me how. She’s afraid, like there’s a dark secret she doesn’t want me to know.”

  “The animals—they keep talking about the king, and that the king brought me here.”

  “I don’t know anything about a king,” Daniel said, “except—”

  “Except what?”

  Daniel hesitated. “I don’t know if it’s a coincidence, but many years ago Herod killed all the babies of this area because of a sign in the stars that a great king was born in Bethlehem. Herod didn’t want his authority usurped by another, but I never heard anything more about it. It does clue me in on the year.”

  “How is that?”

  “When you put it into the historical context, it’s a little eerie.”

  I wasn’t sure I understood, but I was more interested in learning about Daniel. “Did you say you come from 2015? Did I hear you right?”

  “Yes.”

  “You are from my future.”

  “And you come from 2012.” Daniel raised his eyebrow. “I’m not sure I understand all of this myself.” Then his face turned somber. “I wouldn’t want to be you and relive the last three years.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Do you really want to know?” Daniel asked. “There’s war ahead. Your country’s lack of leadership and socialistic leanings is to blame. Iran obtains a nuclear bomb. When Israel is attacked, the United States does nothing to help. The President lies and turns his back on the Jewish people. Islam takes over large portions of the world—bent on killing anyone who is an infidel.”

  “Who’s an infidel?”

  “Anyone who isn’t Muslim. I have a friend in America who escaped Iran many years ago and married an American woman, though most of his family couldn’t get out of the country. They were killed—all because they were Baha’i and not Muslim. Anyone who thinks Islam is a peaceful religion is insane.”

  “What is Baha’i?”

  “It’s a religion that embraces the prophets from all the major religions—a religion of unity. Muslims killed his family because they couldn’t even accept a religion of unity in their own country.”

  I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, but I couldn’t resist. “What else happens over the next three years?”

  “War, famine, pestilence, financial collapse. America suffers the most—their military decimated by spending cuts. The dollar collapses because of the mounting debt and Washington’s unwillingness or inability to cut frivolous spending. China takes over as the dominant world power, and Islam seizes control of many governments. The world is aflame. When you reject God, bad things happen, sooner or later. There is always judgment.”

  “You scare me, Daniel. I don’t know if I ever want to go back.”

  “It’s not like we’re in paradise here, though.” Daniel was quiet for a moment and then continued. “In some ways, you’ve complicated things.” Gazing towards where Judd hid, he continued, “Where in the U.S. are you from?”

  “Atlanta, Georgia.”

  Daniel smiled. “One of my distant cousins lives there. I doubt that you would know her, though.”

  “Who is it?”

  “Rachel Franco.”

  “Rachel Franco?”

  “Yes.” Daniel’s eyes lit up. “You know her?”

  “She’s my best friend.”

  Daniel chuckled under his breath. “Wow.”

  I sat mesmerized thinking about all the strange coincidences. Was life a series of coincidences or was our destiny controlled by another?

  Daniel continued. “I haven’t ever met Rachel but I’d love to someday. From the pictures I’ve seen, she’s beautiful.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t understand what’s happened.”

  Galloping horses thundered outside the cave.

  Daniel’s eyes grew wide. “Your father has arrived. A moment of truth for you.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I can read minds. Like this morning by the well. How do you think I knew something was wrong?”

  “I don’t know.” I hoped he couldn’t read mine or he would know I was attracted to him.

  Daniel directed me towards the door. “Come. It’s time for you to meet your father—maybe one of the reasons why you’re here.”

  I nodded.

  Outside the brightness seemed blinding after sitting so long in the dark cave. Daniel walked over to the horse tethered to a post. My father had already gone inside.

  “Wait a second and I’ll introduce you—if it would make you less nervous. I’ll be right back.” Daniel led my father’s horse to the stall and I waited impatiently. The longer I waited for Daniel to return, the more nervous I became. I glanced down at my shaking hands. Suppose this was a mistake? What would my father think of me? I didn’t want to wait. I opened the back door and peered inside.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Moment of Truth in a World of Shadows


  “Shale, is that you?” A large shouldered man with a full beard approached. A friendly grin spread over his florid cheeks. His brown eyes wrinkled at the corners. “Shale!”

  My heart leaped. The sound of my name on his lips. Had Brutus, my father, ever said that when I wasn’t around? I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

  He hesitated, then opened his arms and took three quick steps towards me. I leaned in as he hugged me. Could that be sweet love?

  “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to do that.” He stepped back leaving his hands on my shoulders and studying my face. He chuckled. “It’s good to see you don’t have the Snyder nose.”

  “The what?”

  “Oh, never mind. A joke.” He laughed. “At last I can see you and touch you.”

  “Uh.” I looked at his large nose. “It’s good to be here with you, too.” My fingers toyed with the egg in my pocket. He didn’t appear to be like my mother described him. Could I trust my feelings? We grinned at each other. As if in a mirror, I stared into his brown eyes that reflected back a part of who I was.

  A door slammed behind me. I turned around.

  Scylla glared at us. “Oh, excuse me.”

  Not catching her expression, my father beckoned to her. “Come here and meet Shale.”

  Scylla laughed. “We met yesterday.”

  I had hoped to have this moment with my father all to myself. I didn’t want to share it with her.

  My father glanced over to Scylla. “Oh, that’s right, yes.”

  She glided smoothly through the room towards a bench close enough to hear us. She tossed me a fake smile and ran her hand along his broad biceps.

  My father picked up a silver cup from the table and poured some wine. “Love, would you like a sip of wine?”

  “Of course,” Scylla said. “We must honor our visitor with a toast.”

  My father handed her a cup and popped a surprise kiss on her cheek.

  “Love you, honey,” she said.

  He then walked over and sat on the bench by Nathan. Leaning back, my father stretched out his legs. “Tell me about your trip, Shale. Everything went well? No problems?”