Lost Time (Time Out)

by Joshua Grant

  “Stand back!” their leader shouted at Lot. “Who do you think you are? We let you settle among us, and now you are trying to tell us what to do! We’ll treat you far worse than those men!”

  To my dismay, the leader, along with the rest of the crowd, started forward, trying to push Lot out of the way. Lot slammed the door closed behind him. I stood frozen for a moment, stunned by the sudden ferocity of the crowd outside and the fact that Lot was out there, facing the crowd alone. I saw several men in the crowd pitch forward, reaching toward Lot, cursing him, his house, and his family. The grumbling of the men outside grew louder, and I stood, defenseless, unsure how I could help Lot. I had no weapon, nothing to use to repel the crowd. My heart raced and I’m not afraid to admit that adrenaline caused by fright surged through my veins. My hands began to shake as I stared wide-eyed at the crowd surging toward Lot, convinced that he would be trampled by the men in their focused desire to grab the two men inside.

  Suddenly, the two men – angels – stood and calmly walked toward the door. They flung it open, grabbed Lot and pulled him inside. Then, once Lot was safely inside, they slammed the door closed and bolted it. That’s when I finally saw the angels in all of their glory. It was as if the two men had disappeared completely, and in their place stood two of the most magnificent beings I had ever seen. Their faces shone with righteous anger, their grey eyes shining with resolve. Though they appeared calm, with jaws firmly set and their mouths turned downward in their fury, they controlled their movements with military discipline. In a word, they looked ready for a fight. Their golden hair looked as smooth and glossy as a jar of freshly whipped cream, and they now wore flowing white robes made of a fabric I had never seen. Beneath their robes, I saw the outline of swords. One of the angels then lifted his arm and pointed his index finger at the door. Instantly, I heard a great cry rise from the crowd outside.

  “My eyes! I can’t see!” one man screamed.

  “Where am I?” another shouted. “I’m blind!”

  The crowd quickly dispersed and in moments, all was quiet once again outside Lot’s house.

  The other angel turned to Lot. “Do you have other relatives here in the city?” the angel asked.

  “Yes, my sons-in-law,” Lot replied.

  “Get them out of this place, whether they’re sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone else. For we will destroy this city completely. The stench of this place has reached the Lord, and he has sent us to destroy it.”

  The voice of the being rumbled the confines of the home, and I marveled at the change in sound, appearance and demeanor of these formerly docile men who had first entered Lot’s home. I continued to stand by the window, transfixed by the sight.

  “I must go warn my daughters’ fiancées!” Lot yelled, hurrying to the door.

  Lot quickly left the house, the door slamming shut behind him. I watched him disappear down the street, and then turned toward the angels, unsure. I was in the presence of angels! What did one say to an angel? How was I supposed to act? My heart thundered so loudly in my ears I was sure everyone in the room could hear it. Then, one of the angels turned to me.

  “There is nothing you can do here,” he said. “Go to bed. We will wake you up in the morning when it is time to leave this evil city.”

  Go to bed? How could I go to bed and sleep as if nothing were happening? At the same time, I realized I was powerless to do anything to help, either Lot, his family, or Sodom. They did have a good point. So, having nothing else to do, I made up my pallet in a corner of the room, completing the task I had started before the crowd had begun pounding on Lot’s door. I laid down and tried to relax as I listened to the sounds of Lot’s wife and daughters cleaning up in the kitchen. Soon, their voices also faded. Peeking from beneath my eyelids, I didn’t see the angels anywhere in the room. Where had they gone? Had they left? I sat up, my thoughts reeling with disbelief at the events I had witnessed here. Lot’s offering up of his daughters disturbed me on a very deep level. Although I was not a father myself, I couldn’t imagine ever offering up my children to anyone, much less as sex slaves. I shook my head. This truly was an evil city.

  As I lay quietly on my pallet, I thought back to many of the bad things I had done in my life. I remembered the time I was ten years old and I stole money from my mom’s purse to buy that video game I wanted. Why did I do stuff like that? I mean, it was such a trivial thing that I can’t even remember the name of the game. I’d ditched school, lied to my parents about where I was going, who I was hanging around with. I’d even come close to stealing a car once, on a dare from my best friend at the time, who, I recall, is in jail now for grand theft auto and armed robbery. No, I wasn’t the best kid on the block, but I didn’t think I was that bad. Could I have been better? Sure. Even now, at my age, I resorted to stealing a test to get by at school.

  I sighed in disappointment – in myself. Why did I do things that I knew would hurt others if they knew? If I were to be completely honest with myself, why did I do things that disappointed me – in myself, my failures to do the right thing, all the time. Was it so hard to be good and productive?

  As I drifted off to sleep, the one thought that I couldn’t shake from my mind was why God would allow such a dysfunctional man like myself to have ever been created in the first place. After all, what did I offer my parents, my teachers, or my friends? What the heck did I offer humanity or society in general? A goof-off? A lazy young man who always looked for the easy way to get things done, or one who continually sought to escape responsibility?

  I felt limp with exhaustion, in that place between sleep and wakefulness, when I felt a poke in my shoulder. My eyes shot open and I found myself looking up into the strong visage of one of the angles.

  “Wake up, it’s time to leave,” the angel said, softly nudging my shoulder.

  I sat upright, instantly awake and aware of the sound of Lot, his wife and his two daughters, gathering several sacks of belongings, They filled sacks full of food and other items such as clothes as well as personal items that must have had sentimental value to them. The angel turned and spoke to Lot.

  “Hurry,” the angel said, his voice insistent. “Take your wife and your two daughters with you. Get out of here right now, or you will be caught in the destruction of the city.”

  “Where are your daughters’ fiancées?” I asked Lot.

  “Sadly, they wouldn’t believe me when I told them about the coming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. It’s a pity that they’re going to perish in the destruction; they were really nice men.”

  Lot sighed heavily, shaking his head, his voice filled with disappointment and sadness. I was on my feet now, watching as the last-minute packing concluded and Lot, his wife and daughters turned to the two angels. The angels stepped to the door and herded us out. It was pitch black outside, a cool breeze giving me instant goose bumps. We hustled quickly toward the city gate. As we neared the gate, I heard a huge explosion right above my head. I instinctively crouched, covering my head with my arms. The next instant, a gigantic, flaming chunk of rock crashed through the overhang of a roof nearby and landed where I had been only moments before! God sure is looking out for me on this trip, I thought, quickly rejoining the others. It wasn’t until then that I realized the worst, that this flaming rock that had fallen from the sky, this burning meteor was blocking my way to the city gate; there was no way to get around it! Before I grasped the concept that I could very well be trapped in Sodom, another flaming rock fell from the sky and exploded on a house a short distance down the street. In the ensuing roar and sound of startled screams came another, then another of the flaming missiles, all aimed at Sodom and the neighboring town of Gomorrah.

  My first instinct was to try to make light of my situation. “Talk about being trapped between a rock and a hard place,” I muttered. My ill-timed attempt at sarcasm failed miserably to amuse even me. Was this to be my demise then, to burn in punishment along with the wicked inhabitants of Sodom?

  L
ot’s wife and daughters had made it through the gate before the first fiery rock landed and blocked the gate, but Lot noticed my predicament and ran back to try and rescue me. One of the angels stepped in front of him.

  “Don’t worry. He’ll be okay.”

  “How could he possibly be okay?” Lot argued, trying to get around the angel. His voice rose in desperation. “He may be only seconds from being crushed by another one of these flaming rocks!”

  I glanced at the angels and felt a wave of calm come over me. The realization assured me that this was not my time to die. “Don’t worry, Lot,” I assured the distraught old man. “The angels are right, I’ll be okay.” I spoke as calmly as I could under the circumstances.

  Lot’s expression grew confused, as if he had just seen something happen that he couldn’t explain, but that confused look soon changed to a look of realization. With a slight smile on his face, he gave me a quick nod goodbye and turned to join his family. Waving goodbye and wishing me well, Lot and the angels managed to scramble past the burning rock and disappear into the dark wilderness.

  Once they were out of sight, I felt my pocket and then reached inside for the T.O.M. device. My hands shaking, I pointed it at what was left of the wall beside me, trying to ignore the sound of screams and horror erupting from the houses and streets of Sodom.

  I felt extremely jittery, natural, I suppose, due to the literal hell raining down around me. My hand spasmed, and I know I must have pushed a button, because the portal appeared in front of me, undulating, inviting, waiting to ferry me to my next destination. Just as I was about to step through the portal, I heard another explosion above me. I glanced up and saw another meteor rushing down, so fast the air around it crackled and boomed, much like when a rocket breaks the sound barrier. I could tell by the trajectory that the meteor would land very close to where I stood. At that instant, the meteor exploded into the ground close by, and I felt a wave of searing heat and debris from the rock. Chunks of burning rock pelted my body, causing me to pass out from the pain. The last thing I remembered before succumbing to unconsciousness was losing my balance and falling backward through the portal.

  Chapter 5

  Dung… lots of dung. That was the first thing that came to mind as the smell surrounding me aroused me from unconsciousness. I awoke in a pile of hay. I slowly sat up, brushing strands of the stiff stuff that clung to my clothes, my face and my hair. Another whiff of the pungent straw caused me to violently sneeze, exacerbating my already pounding head. I felt really dizzy, partly from my near miss with the meteor and partly from the fact that this place smelled so strongly of manure, I waited until the room stopped spinning.

  When the vertigo slowed to a somewhat acceptable dizziness, I slowly rose to my feet, grabbing onto the wall behind me to prevent my knees from buckling and tossing me back down into the smelly mess. Looking around, slowly mind you, I realized I was in some sort of stable. The wall behind me was constructed of rough stone and mortar, stalls formed from makeshift pieces of rough-hewn lumber, woven stalks of olive branches forming semi-solid walls for individual stalls.

  A glimmer of light shone through a small window but high into one wall, and I stared for a moment at the dust motes floating down on the ray of light, mesmerized by their movement. After about a minute of this mindless staring, my sense of balance returned and I felt I could stand unaided. I pushed away from the wall, satisfied that my legs would indeed bear my weight now with no lasting aftereffects of my last portal leap. All I saw around me were empty horse stalls and what appeared to be a pile of rotten horse feed in the corner. Piles of manure littered the inside of most of the stalls, attracting flies, beetles and other winged insects that I could not, even if I wanted to, identify. My eyes stung and watered from the acrid scent of animal urine. Flies buzzed all over the place, the air was so thick with them that they were getting in my eyes, attracted to the moisture. Where was I now? I glanced around the interior of the stable again and…

  I suddenly heard a faint sound coming from beyond the closed stable door. Was that screaming I heard? My head began to pound – again. I had noticed it the last time I had stepped through the portal, but didn’t give it much thought, thinking it was random. However, again, my head pounded fiercely, as if I were getting a migraine. For a moment, white zigzags appeared in my vision, until I blinked and they were gone. I felt the blood pounding through my veins, steady, constant, as if reaffirming life itself. I frowned, wondering if I was beginning to feel some weird effects of going through the portal. Would the professor have suggested me do so if he had thought it harmful? I wasn’t sure. After all, I wasn’t his best, or most fondly regarded student—

  BAM! The door to the stable flew open with such force that it almost shattered when it hit the wall behind it. I stared at the soldier standing in the doorway, his massive bulk outlined by bright sunlight behind him, casting his face and features in shadow. One thing I noticed right away was his size. His massive arms hung at his sides, his biceps as thick as tree trunks. His forearms were heavily muscled as well. I stared at the huge and heavy short sword he grasped in his right hand, the sinews and tendons of his arm and wrist pumping with blood, bathed in sweat, and trembling with anticipation. In his other hand, he held what appeared to be some sort of spear. I glanced as he stepped into the room, my eyes widening when I saw the expression on his face. He looked very enraged.

  “Are there any children in here?” he yelled.

  He jabbed his spear in my direction, as if to tell me what my punishment would be for lying to him. I jumped at the harshness of his voice, again amazed that I had no trouble understanding his language, as I had experienced in my other ‘portal jumps’. I rapidly shook my head. “No, there aren’t any children in here— I promise,” I stammered, my voice shaky despite my attempt to be brave. I hoped that he would believe me and not impale me with his spear or hack off my head with his short sword just for the fun of it.

  After staring at me for a few seconds as if to determine whether I told the truth, he snorted, perhaps with distaste, or perhaps because of the odor permeating the structure, and then stormed back out into the street. I stood still, thinking to wait a few minutes to make sure I wouldn’t run into him again. Another scream, this one closer, propelled me to the side of the door. More screams followed, so filled with horror that I cringed back, away from the opening. What in heaven’s name— a heartbreaking shriek came from just a short distance away. I heard wailing, the sound of children screaming, men shouting and women sobbing. I stepped to the door, preparing to confront what my subconscious was telling me was out there, but that I hoped to God wasn’t.

  Sadly, it was exactly what I had thought. My heart plummeted into the pit of my stomach while bile rose in my throat. The screaming surrounded me now, coupled with the charge of horses, orders shouted by Egyptian soldiers, the begging of women and children running for their lives. I heard screaming everywhere. In front of my startled gaze, I watched several women fleeing from a group of armed soldiers. I gasped in horror and almost vomited as I witnessed a soldier bisect a baby lengthwise as if it were a side of beef (and if that weren’t enough, the baby was still in the mother’s arms). The woman collapsed in a heap over the remains of her dead child. The other two women raced madly along the path through the structures, cradling infants to their chests as they scrambled away, only to be caught by an Egyptian charioteer and a soldier on foot who commenced to slaughter the infants along with their mothers. One of the other mothers turned just as a solider on a horse thrust his spear forward, turning her back to him in an attempt to shield her baby, but both were impaled on the spot. Tears rose in my eyes and flowed down my cheeks at the horror of it all, and my breath came fast and hard. I heard screaming coming from inside almost every house, where soldiers were undoubtedly killing more innocent babies. Words could not explain the horror I witnessed. I saw and heard countless mothers screaming in terror as they watched their children slaughtered right in front of their eyes. I
stood there shocked, praying silently that God would make this horror stop, but I knew that He wouldn’t.

  As I sank to the ground, my heart heavy and sick to my stomach, my knees settled into a puddle of what I thought was mud. “My knees suddenly felt warm, not cold as they should be with drying mud, and only then did I realize that I wasn’t kneeling in water… I was kneeling in the fresh, warm blood of innocent newborn babies and toddlers! I leaned over and finally vomited, my cries muffled by the sound of my stomach heaving bile. I knelt doubled over for endless minutes, the sound of screams, shouts and wailing assailing my ears from every direction. I heaved until nothing more came from my stomach, my body weak and drained, my shoulders heaving with my silent sobs. I couldn’t take it anymore. “God!” I shouted. “Enough! Please take me away from this quest you’ve sent me on!”

  I screamed to no one in particular as I rose to my feet and turned in several directions, looking for an escape. No, the soldiers were not after me, but I couldn’t take this anymore. I took off running down a narrow street to my right, weaving my way blindly along the dirt path, stone houses lining it filled with crying women, sobbing men and screaming children as the Egyptian soldiers charged through the town, leaving death and devastation behind.

  I didn’t really decide where I wanted to run; I just kept running until my legs couldn’t carry me any further. My own sobs echoed my despair, and my heart literally ached from the pain these parents must be feeling. Death was not alien to me, but this? This was nothing but a massacre, a cold-blooded and vicious massacre that had no rhyme or reason. Those poor babies and toddlers would never have a chance to grow up; their bubbly laughter never to be heard again, their inquisitive minds shuttered for all time. I ran, warm tears blurring my vision, my sobs leaving me gasping and choking for air. I don’t know how far I ran, but I was still in the town, no escape from the screams, my legs burning with weariness and cramps. Finally, I saw a distant wall and I staggered toward it, hoping that beyond it I could find the escape for which I so desperately longed. I had never felt so alone, so hopeless, in my life.