Ezekial's Train, Chapter Six

The Reverend's home is not far from the church and a short enough distance that Daniel remaining quiet would not be thought of as rude but far enough of a distance that Elijah remaining quiet would be.

“Like I’s been tellin’ ya, Brother Ezekial, my sweet Phyllis makes the finest chicken and biscuits ya ever did have.” This is the fifth time Elijah has mentioned his wife's cooking to Daniel on their walk and he wonders if perhaps the Reverend thinks he did not hear him before. Elijah knows that all of these black outs are weighing heavy on Daniel’s shoulders so maybe he trying to bring levity to the situation or perhaps Phyllis’ chicken and biscuits truly are the best Daniel ever did have.

“Phyllis was askin’ after ya before she left the church,” says Elijah, “She done scolded me for not brinin’ you home last night. Said it wasn’t very Christian of me to let a friend go to a hotel without a supper in your belly! She and Ester were excited to know ya had agreed to come on over for some late afternoon lunch!”

“Ester?”

“Papa!” cries a woman's voice from around the corner. Daniel turns and a young black woman stands waving  in front of what must be the Reverend's unassuming little house, painted a pale yellow with white trim about the framework. She leans over the porch banister to get a better look at her father and his companion approaching.

Walking up to his daughter Elijah hugs her tightly before introducing her to Daniel. “Brother Ezekial, I’d like ya to meet my darling daughter, Ester.”

“Pleasuh to meet ya, suh.” Ester wears a simple pink dress and a matching ribbon in her hair which is tied back into a neat bun. Daniel is surprised by how captivating Ester’s smile is and cannot help but be embarrassed to think that he cannot recall the last time he's smiled so unapologetically as this girl Ester.

“Yah. . . No,” stammers Daniel, “The pleasure is mine.” After a moment Daniel nods his head towards the girl and looks away.

As she bursts out of the front door though, Phyllis saves Daniel from having to look anyone in the eye. “What are ya’ll waitin’ out here for?” she says, “I ain’t been cookin’ for two hourahs to be waitin’ out here to be makin’ ya dinner cold!”

The Reverend smirks at his wife. “Ah, but Phyllis ‘Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord-‘”

“Don’t ya be startin’ with me now,” snaps Phyllis in a tone that only seeps of affection, “Even Christ himself knew at the Last Supper, ya can’t be keepin’ your dinner guests waitin’!”

Elijah has a good hardly laugh and enters in after his wife. Ester keeps the front door open for Daniel but Daniel blushes. “No. Thank you,” he says, “Ladies first.”

Ester smiles and obliges, but takes Daniel’s hat and coat without asking to hang on the coat rack promptly upon entering after her. “Mama’s prepared a special place at the table for ya, mistah Ezekial.”

“Uh, it’s Daniel-please.” Daniel does not want to be rude, so he forces a smile at Ester looks about the entree hall. It’s a narrow room painted white with only a wooden cross hanging on the far wall.
“The dinin’ room is right through there, mistah Ezek-” Ester stumbles over her words. “I mean Daniel.”
“It’s alright, Ester,” says Daniel, “I haven’t quite been able to keep it straight in my own mind.”

Daniel has never experienced such abrupt visions as he has in the past two days. It honestly frightens him but he does not think it in the forefront of his mind. It only remains as a whisper in the far back. Far past his memories of the war. “Might I use your restroom?” he asks.

Ester nods. “To your left, mistah Daniel.”

“Tak- er Thank you.”

Daniel closes the door behind him. He turns to the sink and plugs up the drain with the rubber stopper. He turns the faucet, which is water stained and a bit rusted but still in good condition and the sink basin begins to fill itself with cool water. Daniel stoops over and splashes himself with the water, trying to clean his face before eating. It was something his mother had drilled into his head since he was a small boy.

Daniel stares into his broken reflection in the water still gathering in the basin. None of his features are his own.

Break

Petra Christiansen slaps her hand across her son’s head again. He forehead is red from her previous slap and she feels no remorse for the second whack. Or the third.

“Young boys should not lie to their mothers!”

“But Mother! I telling you the truth!” little Daniel protests, trying to shrink away from his mother’s wrath.

“You cannot see angels, Daniel!” she shouts before whacking him again. “Angels do not speak to little boys who lie to their mothers!”

“But they look like angels, mother! They look like angels and they ask me to do things!”

Whack! “Why would you lie to your mother, you selfish child! The lord’s angels do not speak to lying boys!”

“But they spoke to man before! Pa Lars told me so! I am not the first-”

Whack! WHACK!

Daniel is knocked back onto the ground. His head is pounding and it aches. He defiantly tries to hold back the tears gathering in his brown eyes but he fails. Petra stoops down to her son’s eye level and stares him directly in the eyes. “Angels do not speak to man anymore, Daniel! Whatever Pa Lars said does not matter! He is dead and you should not be filling your head with these silly day dreams!”
Petra reaches out and grasps her son’s head to bring it closer to hers. “An idol mind is the devil’s playground, Daniel! You might think you are seeing angels but Satan can take on the form of anyone he wants!”

“But-”

“They are not-”

Shatter

Adult Daniel stands before the being with four wings, four arms and four heads. All four heads, the head of the ox, the head of the bird, the head of the lion and the head of the man are staring directly at Daniel.

“Ezekial.”

Daniel almost jumps backwards. “No! Stop!”

The being does not stop. It raises all four of its hands into the air and beings to singing “An experimental geometric design, designed in an attempt at determination of certain possible mathematical interrelationship existing in the pattern arrived at here on the other side.”

As the being sings its bizarre song, a giant mechanism rises up behind it. At first is appears to be clockwork of some kind. Ticking and moving within itself. Its purpose unknown.
The mechanism seems to tick on beat with the being’s song. “May it be observed that certain interconnecting lines intersect at points coincident with intersections of times of the basic square pattern!”

The mechanism begins to turn in mid air. It turns itself ninety degrees to that Daniel may see the workings underneath. Along its metal eyes, giant eyes stare at Daniel but pay no mind to the awesome gears clicking and ticking to keep the mechanism working. Some piano-like keys on the outer rim of the mechanism chime with every clockwise tick. Every other piano key is played by an invisible hand. Strange orbs in the inner rim spin in place as this rim ticks counterclockwise. The inner-most rim is concealed by a colossal semi-circular beam holding the enter mechanism together. In his heart of hearts, Daniel knows he does not want to see the inner-rim and that his mother would only approve of such candor.

The being only sings in words Daniel cannot understand now. Still, it stares at him and so do the eyes of the mechanism. They demand of him one simple task.

Break

Ester shakes Daniel to his senses. He lies sprawled out on the Reverend’s bathroom floor, his shirt soaked through with the tap water now over following from the sink’s basin. Ester’s eyes are terrified and so are Phyllis’, who stands behind her husband. Elijah kneels down and brings Daniel to sit upright. There is nothing really to be said.

“I’ll fetch a towel,” says Ester before she steps out of the small bathroom.