Zabett's Encounter

"Two nights there had passed, since Zabett and his son, Elijah, had espied a levitating article above them as they returned from gifting Zabett's nine year old acquirement, Ninnut, to his recently widowed brother, fifty miles up hostile river in a forsaken and diseased town that had claimed his siblings third wife.



The fertile river cities and dwellings which neighboured Zabett's home, had one by one fallen to the invisible poison dealt them by a land quickly becoming unfamiliar. The undertaking, had been with unprecedented incident.



Zabett vividly retold the happenings of the journey to friends and strangers on the street corner where he lived. He told his story humbly, and it was all the more believable and beguiling because of Zabett's renown - he was known for his honesty, and he would allow no embellishment on his part, nor Elijah's; he knew what he had seen, and what he had seen was God."



"It was truly the Lord Himself" Elijah had beamed.



"It surely was my boy. He guided us along the river on a treacherous journey, and only by the Lord were we delivered under-wing and untouched by death.  He protects the approaches to this city for all who dwell, for it is the city of God!"



"Even some of the elders, who were stooped in the shade around the edges of the grid-like alleyways of the market, goosed their necks and made their way through the gatherers to investigate the commotion and drama whipped up by the impressionable and gullible."



"Zabett, did you see the face of God?" someone shouted.



"Did he speak to you?" said another.



"No, of course not!" replied Zabett, humbly dismissive. He stood up.



"The Lord moved amid the sky like a seed upon the wind, and resisted the clutch of the ground so as to move as he pleased. He rode upon wheels that moved within wheels, but not like an Oxen pulleth - for these wheels did turn about themselves, to traverse and move amongst the larger wheels. It was frightening, but beautiful...God's throne. He kept the land from taking me and he kept the plague demons from following me, he held them back beyond our gates. God is great!"



"The streets around the market began to hum louder and louder, oscillating with epochal tidings in the stifling heat of mid-day. Arms were thrown in the air submissively as men and women alike mimicked Zabett's actions as he protected his eyes from the skyward imprint of God.

Some of the audience turned and ran excitedly, presumably in the direction of their homes to inform family or absentees, and others called to passers by on the hillside and bade them to listen."