The visions have never taken him
forward before and this one felt different. Neither the Angels, if
angels they be, the bear Mordechai, or more rarely, the other beings
and those visions devoid of any creature, have taken him forward in
time and none have ever felt so real while feeling so ephemeral. For
a moment he saw the girl kiss him, but not her. “Ester. . .?”
Daniel casts around for the Reverend’s
daughter and sees her at the back of the boat. Wasn't she just
talking to me? Before the vision started, he thought there was a
conversation, but it's getting harder and harder to differentiate
between the visions and real life, between the present and the past
and maybe even, now, the future. The future with. . .
But there she is, helping Thurgood
untie the boat as he looks over his shoulder quizzically at Daniel,
the fisherman whispering to Elijah all the while. “He always ac'
funny like that, 'Lijah?”
The Reverend Elijah Thompson shakes his
head wearily to his cousin's concern and amusement, “That he do,
that he do.”
“Is he?” Ester turns as she pulls
the last rope and sees Daniel's eyes fixed on her, and she looks
away, whispering to her father as well. “Papa, he look like he seen
a ghost, and now I know that ain't how he always look when he come
out of one of them visions.”
“I know honey, but we getting' close
to the point he needs to be, so they ain't no tellin' what he gone
do. Le's just be here for 'im, whatever he need. Now, come on.”
Elijah brings the crew back to the
front of the boat as it embarks, putting his strong hand on Daniel's
shoulder and ignoring the requisite flinch he gives in return. “It's
gone be okay, son. It's gone be okay. Now let's go see what the Good
Lord got for us today.”
Pulling out into the calm water, the
high tide helping them along, Daniel points to a spot far out in the
water that looks no different from any other, but he knows it is the
right direction. He can see that it will be several hundred yards
from shore but he knows they will keep the dock in distant sight. He
knows it because he has seen it many times in the last few days.
Thurgood looks again the Dane and the
merriment leaves his face as quickly as the sun is leaving the sky.
“Son, I don't got no clue what y'all lookin' for out there, just
open water 'less you wanna throw the fishin' lines in.”
Daniel sighs and closes his eyes to
focus better, as he always has. “No, today we are looking for
something other than fish, though I know not what it may be.”
“Sure. . . I'll jus' keep followin'
yo pointy arm there, then.”
Daniel is silent as the boat moves ever
forward, his eyes closed and his outstretched arm shifting a little
this way, a little that as Thurgood steers the boat by eye. Ester is
the first to notice the humming noise coming from Daniel and the
first to realize that it is not the sound of a man humming, but
something like heavy machinery in the distance, droning with a steady
buzz. All three are silent as the watch Daniel's back with the
skyline in the distance before him.
The yards go by quickly and as they do
the humming grows in pitch until finally it drowns out the sound of
the motor, giving no doubt that while it comes from inside the man
Daniel Christiansen, it originates elsewhere. Daniel's hand begins to
come upward in a sign to stop and the boat slows to a gentle rest as
he takes a single step forward to the very front of the prow, his
foot mere inches from the tip of the boat, his head held high and
staring, eyes still shut into the distance.
“Here.”
And he jumps from the end of the boat.
As Daniel's feet leave the edge of the
boat all three passengers jump after him, Ester's hand nearly touch
his shoe as it leaves the boat, but as it does, he move upward. He
flies from the trawler and into the air, straight up into the sky and
begins to glow a sickly orange light as he does.
The light grows brighter as he flies
and when he is barely a spec in the sky the ocean is drowned in the
light of mid-day, light pouring from the spot where Daniel's body
hung like the brightest sunlight of summer in a cloudless sky, all
centered on the man Daniel Christiansen as they see his body high
above, his arms outstretched and his body spinning slowly.
Ezekial can feel his skin pulsing with
a warmth like none he's ever felt and this is no vision. He can see
infinitely into every direction and towards the shore he sees the
city of Miami, but he sees it as it is now, as it is a hundred years
from now, and as it was a hundred before, a thousand before. He sees
all time and he sees the ocean full of ships, ephemeral but real,
from every era. Two man duggouts compete with futuristic aircraft
carriers and all manner in between as he sees pristine beaches
overlaid with tall skyscrapers and charred ruins. He sees everything
and he feels whole.
But there is work to be done.
As Ester, Elijah, and Thurgood shield
their eyes from the bright lights, their mouths agape and sweat
forming quickly on their now warm faces, they see him there, like a
being of pure light as he slows his spin and darts off towards the
shore, gliding a hundred feet in the air. The land is illuminated
there as bright as daylight, as is the ocean, and they can see him
clearly as he pirouettes and dances on the rail of brightness on
which he slides.
Daniel begins to feel the rays of light
bend to his will and each glimmering piece of iridescence bend around
his fingertips as he begins to weave geometric patterns in the air
which coalesce into organic shapes and forms. Reaching the shore he
starts there, pulling gossamer webs of light into streams of form
which begin to build on each other to form an ornate structure out
from the shoreline and into the ocean, building to a crescendo of
wires out where the boat still lies, the three passengers staring in
wonderment as he glides through the air.
The lines of light begin to build a
magnificent portal, long and undulating like a tunnel of light and
wind, toward a specific point, far out in the ocean. Through the
strands of the structure Ester can see what looks like girders and
beams supporting it, holding its structure up as if it were a man
made thing, maybe one of the radical art sculptures she's seen in the
books of European architecture. Some sort of man made colossus built
to mimic the wind as it flows from the shore to the ocean.
But in this instance it is built of
light and gossamer wind made of individual photons and electrons and
within it Daniel can feel the molecules singing in his blood as he
bends the material of the universe in his fingers and as the angels
watch on, sagely nodding to the tune of his ministrations.
The humming builds to a deafening level
as he spins, feeling the present, the past, and the future moving
within him, feeling the angels, the others, the memories and the
premonitions all dancing within his mind, Daniel feels at peace as it
all comes together and below him his friends see the structure come
together for an instant as hard, material pieces suspended above them
before. . .
Before it is gone.
And the light is without, and the
structure is as dust, and Daniel is as a wisp of fog on the wind.
And there is a splash and he is gone.
Gasping.
Struggling.
Reaching towards the darkness which may
be the surface or the deep Daniel is casting about, reaching for
anything to save him. Still feeling the faint whispers of greatness
as he grasps at the strings of desperation, he reaches out to find
nothing but the bubbles swirling around him.
Soon all is lost but for a moment he
doesn’t care. For a moment he knows he has done what the angels
wanted and he can rest now. For a moment his legs stop moving and his
eyes slide shut, knowing that it is over.
But then it is not.
There is more work to be done.
And like lightning the feeling of
unfinished business shoots through him and his eyes open.
Through the green, murky water there is
a hand above him and it is reaching.
And he grabs it.
* * *
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