Stilth: The First Sphinx

STILTH: THE FIRST SPHINX

Jackson Fever

PROLOGUE

They all looked at his thin face as if he was speaking a foreign language, their foreheads creased with wrinkles. None of them imagined that he was serious. They believed that he was either pulling their legs, or was just being sarcastic. But, he was serious, and he was devoted to his cause. The three elderly gentlemen murmered whispers amongst themselves, though Thomas stood in their midst. The dictionary he had just read from, New Webster's Dictionary And Thesauraus had explained it for the most part, but none of the other three truly understood the magnificent quality of his idea.

Two books were on the cherry-wood desk in the office of the Central Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library. The one on the left was the paper-back dictionary, and unbeknownst to its own thin pages, its relevance to the situation at hand, was more than Webster, himself could have ever imagined. The second book, was much larger and more ancient, and was previously found on an anthropolgical dig about six years ago, somewhere near Luxor, Egypt and Thomas was more than pleased to have payed the Smithsonian Museum more than seven-hundred thousand U.S. dollars for this book just three years ago. The book was so big, that it was twice the size of Thomas's own heaviest Bible. Thomas was never sure why he owned a Bible, perhaps it was romantic sentiment, because it had been given to him by one of his major loves in life, Jessica Creaton, the whimsical cheerleader who was in his Buisiness Administration Class at Butler University, when he was much younger. He was not a Christian, and although he had gone to Church a few times here and there in his lifetime, these were extremely rare occasions. He also, had never read the Bible. Sure, he might have run accross a verse or two, or read an article about the Bible in a magazine once in a blue moon, but he just never had the desire to read the Holy Book of Christianity. He wasn't exactly an Atheist, and not exactly an Agnostic either. Perhaps he was searching. Perhaps he was nothing. He didn't know, and he didn't care.

Thomas had taken three years to translate the book. It was entirely written in Hebrew, with the exception of a Spanish word, 'deshonora' that was located at the bottom of the page, anywhere there was a picture or graph or blue-print. These graphs, and pictograms, and blue-prints appeared to be incosistent with one another, when Thomas first studied the book. He spent much time in his Stuart Manor Estate, contemplating in solitude the aspects of the actual text in reference to the graphs. But he could never imagine the real genuis foresight that the authors of this book had made. It was a very descriptive and detailed instruction manual on how to breed an actual Sphinx. Had they done this before? He doubted it. But as far as he could tell, they were on the verge of innovation from bringing myth to life. He was more than amazed, and more than astounded by what these ancient authors were on to.

The other three gentlemen that were with him, were his friends and collegues. The four of them had worked together previously on several scientific projects, but never anything with this level of magnitude. Would they decide to work on this project, or would they decide that it was too far-fetched of an idea? Thomas could sense that they were intrigued by the prospect, but he also believed that they thought him a fool. He could only hope that at least of them would comply with his eccentric ideologies. "Just one of them, that's all" he thought. "Perhaps, Gus or Vern?" he mentally crossed his fingers behind his back, just before opening up the Hebrew Book, and pointed to a picture of a Sphinx laying down on the ground next to a much smaller man. And he said, "This... This is what I want to create."