There were so many tears in it already. And she remembered a verse about how God does, indeed, bottle our tears; saves them. How did that passage go, again?
“You’ve kept track of my every toss and turn through the sleepless nights, Each tear entered in your ledger, each ache written in your book,” she whispered from memory, the words of The Message pounding through her head. Psalm 56, was that it?
And then, more words came flooding in on her; Scriptures from throughout her life of faith that had touched her heart and she had memorized. They intertwined with the images that continued to reel through her mind, like a film spliced together that, while you knew the sound wasn’t original to the imagery, they somehow worked together.
Images of the Holy Land melded with Scriptures, highlighting various events in history and creating a quilt of thought within her that was altogether new.
“But you’ll welcome us with open arms when we run for cover to you. Let the party last all night! Stand guard over our celebration. You are famous, God, for welcoming God-seekers, for decking us out in delight,” she quoted again from memory. Again, from the Psalms. Was it Chapter 5?
And it was true.
She sensed that, while she saw no physical arms, He had indeed embraced her; she was within a body of water, and a passage from John 9 danced inside of her, to the point she felt she must speak it. And this, from the Amplified.
“As He passed along, He noticed a man blind from his birth. His disciples asked Him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind,” she began.
“Jesus answered, It was not that this man or his parents sinned, but he was born blind in order that the workings of God should be manifested (displayed and illustrated) in him. We must work the works of Him Who sent Me and be busy with His business while it is daylight; night is coming on, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the world’s Light,” she continued as the water came into greater focus.
She could sense moisture in the air at the very thought, and shivered a moment before continuing.
“When He had said this, He spat on the ground and made clay (mud) with His saliva, and He spread it [as ointment] on the man’s eyes. And He said to him, Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam—which means Sent. So he went and washed, and came back seeing. When the neighbors and those who used to know him by sight as a beggar saw him, they said, Is not this the man who used to sit and beg? Some said, It is he. Others said, No, but he looks very much like him. But he said, Yes, I am the man. So they said to him, How were your eyes opened? He replied, The Man called Jesus made mud and smeared it on my eyes and said to me, Go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and I obtained my sight!”
She felt invisible hands touching her eyes as she finished speaking, as though Jesus had worked the mud against her own eyes; that the Savior of the world had opened her eyes for the first time, and that she hadn’t even known she was blind. “Go to Siloam,” she said again. “Go to Siloam.”
Her pulse began to race within her, and something inside of her breathed that this is what she needed to hear; that these words, these words of healing and grace had been meant for her.
Go to Siloam, her mind repeated over and over again.
But how?
When, and where from?
And for what purpose?
An image familiar as her own hands came to mind: Timothy’s mirror, topped by angels.
Wasn’t it created in Jerusalem?
She recalled something related to the water used for creating it, and, tears still flowing, just allowed the thoughts to bubble around in her spirit. And then, as if she hadn’t been there at all, before the thrones, kneeling at the feet of the Triune God, she felt herself spiraling.
Spiraling, as though her insides would turn outside and her outsides would flip inward until, at the second she didn’t think she could hold together any longer, she sensed the atoms of her being unformed and reformed; fizzing away into nothing and being recreated.
How could she be sensing that, and still be alive?
Is that what happened when someone stepped or fell through the mirror? This sense of nothing and everything, all at once?
She had always wondered if it would feel like one of the transporters on Star Trek had looked like when she was a kid. That all the molecules would just get slurped up into this machine and, somehow, be regenerated somewhere else.
A very specific somewhere else.
And at the memory of that thought – how could she have memory if she wasn’t fully together? – she heard her own laugh as if from afar, then tumbled into hard grass.
Looking up, she was in her yard again, Edward a few feet from her, rubbing the back of his head. Jason then fell next to her, and Masao, and Justice, as though the five of them were marbles dropped from the hand of a small child.
There was moisture in the grass, and night had fallen.
The mirror was still against the back wall of her office, covered over with drapery to keep out the elements. How long they were gone was any of their guess, but it didn’t seem it had been long at all.
She stood on wobbly legs, moving toward those who had traveled; had journeyed with her, and together, with slow care, they moved toward the house.
If she hadn’t known any better and couldn’t still hear those ghostly words about Siloam ringing within her soul, she would have thought she’d had a vision.
And in some ways, she really had.
“Did we just-?”
Justice had taken the half-sentence right out of her mouth.
Part Two:
Return and Renew
Twenty
Vancouver, Washington… May 22, 2025
“Mama, Papa, is that really you,” Edward heard his daughter say as they walked in the back door. Maneuvering quickly around the seating area furniture, she flung herself toward them. “You were gone so long, we-”
“How long were we-?”
He glanced to his wife, then looked back down into Cherish’s eyes. Was she the only one at the house, this late at night?
“Papa, it’s the twenty second now. You’ve been gone for twelve days, and we were beginning to think that none of you were ever going to come back, and I just…” She paused, moved to hug Paloma, Jason, Masao, and then Justice. “How long did it feel like you were all…?”
Edward looked to his wife; glanced over to Jason – still white as fresh-fallen snow – and Justice, and Masao.
None of them looked like they’d been wearing the same clothes for that long; and they certainly didn’t smell like it, thank God! And it hadn’t really felt it was more than a day, at most – at least to him.
How could they have been in a non-time state for so long?
Or was it that time, being time, runs faster than non-time simply because non-time was exactly that? Timeless.
“Time did not seem to exist, where we were,” Masao finally spoke. “It was as if we were gone mere hours, but even that does not seem to suffice to say what it felt like. It was,” he paused a moment, tilting his head and smiling. Edward could see the gold caps gleam within. “It was nothing short of a journey, and we were not likely thinking of time very much. Or,” he clarified, “I was not.”
And that was just it, wasn’t it?
Most of the time, he had not thought about what was happening on Earth, either. He had been concentrated on what was taking place before and within and around him. When Jason had called Mark, minutes after they had passed into the portal, he’d wanted to stop him, but what would the point have been?
Non-time had called time and succeeded.
Was that how prayer worked? That was one of the things he had wondered after that, before his heart and mind got so busily intent on their walk, and then, on the angels.
My, the angels had been something, but God had, of course, been so much greater.
“Well, where did you go,” Cherish wanted to know.
“What were you doing here, alone? I thought you were staying
with-”
His wife’s words, spoken at the same time, meshed with their daughter’s, causing him to laugh.
“You first,” he pointed to his daughter, who he now noticed was wearing clothes he’d never seen before.
A pink sweatshirt with the words “I Heart REAL Radio” were paired with a chocolate and cream-colored, plaid skirt that just grazed her knees. And with it, matching pink hi-top shoes.
Since when did she listen to REAL? He had never known her to listen much to rock, emo, or alternative.
“Eugenie, Majesta, Midge, and Izzie went to get some pizza. I didn’t want to go with them. I needed some time by myself. And we were here because… well, we decided to stay here, since Mark’s still in the hospital, and-”
“Wait, what? Since when was Mark in the hospital,” Justice interrupted, moving in closer to where she was.
“Let’s go to the living room, shall we,” Paloma suggested. “We don’t all have to crowd in right here,” she continued. “And what is this about Mark?”
“You couldn’t tell when you all called him from… well, from wherever you were? He had a seizure. More than one, actually; a set of them, and then even with medication, still, he’s had several more since then. They’ve been monitoring him because he isn’t making any sense. Like, he talks, but we only understand one word of every, maybe, ten or twelve sometimes,” Cherish told them.
For a moment, as they moved to the living room and found places on the old green velvet couch, and the recliner, and a couple of other miscellaneous chairs, Edward was shocked.
Had so much really happened since they’d walked through that rainbow eucalyptus door? They had climbed stairs, most assuredly, and had conversed with angels. They had stopped at each of eighty-eight stairs called the Keys of Praise and praised the Father of Heaven, and, finally, had decided on the least brilliant of doors at the top landing, only to move into a field of multicolored glory and toward the very thrones of God Himself. Had the journey taken so much time?
Then, he had to remind himself, we were not inside of time. The angels said that, and it is, indeed, truth.
It gave new meaning to God’s timing being different from that of people, and made him wish to worship Him even more for the new insight.
“Why don’t you call the ladies and let them know that we’ve returned,” he suggested. “And when they’re back, and some of the others are here, we will explain what we are able.”
He could sense in his heart that not all that had occurred was meant for the ears and hearts of others, and, looking to each of the others who had journeyed with him, nodded. “Yes,” he said again. “Call them, and the rest of those who knew we were gone, and why, and ask them to gather in the morning. I think some sleep, and some prayers, are in order.”
Edward glanced at the clock on the hearth. Just a few minutes past ten thirty. “Tell them about eleven in the morning, that we can all sleep and prepare, alright.” he instructed Cherish, whose elation had turned to confusion.
“Alright,” she finally said after several moments of what seemed to be either deep thinking or zoning out – he wasn’t sure which. She moved toward the kitchen to make the calls, and he took the time to explain his thoughts as succinctly to the others as possible.
“I don’t think all of what we have seen is shareable; I don’t believe everything we experienced is necessarily for the whole of our loved ones. There was a reason we were the only ones who went, and there are things we still need discuss amongst us as-”
He heard a shriek from the kitchen, and he jumped in his seat.
“Daddy?!”
“We’re really back, Sweetheart,” Justice called loudly to his overjoyed daughter. “We’re sitting in the living room at this very moment.”
More squeals met Edward’s ears, and then, he heard the phone disconnect. For the next few minutes, he heard more joyous shouts and utterances coming from the other room as Cherish continued making calls, and then, finally, she came back into the room, beaming.
“I didn’t get to tell them to wait, so I think,” she cringed. “I think most of them are on the way now, except for the Californians,” she said. “And even then, maybe they’re coming, too. I, um… should I call the Fakhourys, or wait? Considering what all has…”
She let the words fall away, tears coming to her eyes.
“I was so scared I would never see you again,” she said, moving to hug Paloma again, and then her Dad. She smiled at Jason, Masao, and Justice. “And I know I wasn’t the only one.”
“Let’s wait until tomorrow to let Malik know,” Jason told her, and Edward sighed in relief. “If others are on the way, we may as well get this over with, though I, for one, am all of a sudden rather exhausted. Just thinking that I was awake for twelve days and never knew it is making me sleepy,” he said, laughing.
And it was then that it hit Edward.
If they’d been gone for that long, and had remained awake, they would be going crazy right now, wouldn’t they? So in the time they had turned to nothing and then come back together again, had they also been mentally regenerated? Or had they fallen asleep at some point, and never known it?
Or, since they had been in a timeless place, did the twelve days matter only to those on the earth, and not themselves? How did it apply? How did it work?
“This is the best thing,” he heard Masao agree quietly.
And with that, all they could do was wait and see how things would unfold as people who had learned of their return came over and wanted to know what, exactly, had happened.
But how they would come up with just the right words, without saying too much, was beyond him.
“Lord, help us, and have mercy,” he prayed, barely above a whisper, as he reached for Paloma’s hand.
“Amen,” she agreed.
Twenty One
Seal Beach, California… May 22, 2025
“Honey, who was on the phone? You sounded so excited,” Melody asked as she rounded the corner into their bedroom. Her hair was still wet from the shower, and she was just cinching her robe as she came in. Their daughter, thankfully, was staying with friends for a few days; a couple whose kids went to school with her and who didn’t mind giving them the occasional break.
Brice glanced up at her and smiled, doing his best to contain his excitement. He certainly felt like shouting!
“Cherish Stuart just called to say they’re back. They’re still alive, and she found them walking into the house a few minutes ago.”
Melody moved to sit near him as he pulled their worn, old King James Bible out for their devotional time. His heart was still racing in joy at the thought of the conversations he would be having with the group. Only momentarily did the thought of chewing Justice out for leaving them hanging by a proverbial thread with potential new clients- thankfully none of whom had popped up in the week and a half since he’d stepped through the portal – occur to him.
He was more thankful that they had all come back and were able to share what they had learned with those who cared.
“Back from where, though?”
The question hung between them as readily as a hammock between palms.
Where had they gone, indeed? And what had Cherish meant when she said they hadn’t been aware of the time that had passed while they were gone?
“I guess we’ll know if and when they tell us,” he acquiesced. “She didn’t really say very much. But something came to mind while we were talking, and I wanted to read it before we begin our planned devotions, if that’s quite alright.”
She nodded and ran a hand through her still somewhat-damp hair.
He moved to flip through the pages of the Bible and, after a few moments, found what he had been looking for: 1 Peter 4.
“And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of t
he manifold grace of God,” he read. “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”
“Um, Brice?”
“Yeah?”
“What does that have to do with everything that’s happening around us? What does it have to do with Justice Morrison joining a small group of others and disappearing for twelve days,” she asked him, putting her head against his shoulder.
He could feel the moisture from her hair seeping into the cotton of his undershirt as he answered.
“You know, I’m not sure, I just…”
How could he explain what was on his heart? How he had been thinking?
“I just got so upset with Justice and Jason; I thought of it as irresponsible, and didn’t see the benefit of running off after some crazy – but maybe it wasn’t so crazy after all. I wasn’t charitable in my thinking, and I’ve begrudged them. I saw them as bad stewards, but how would I know? I have certainly heard of this mirror, and of what it can do, but without seeing it; without comprehending what it really does in a way that doesn’t endanger someone, how can I…?”
“There’s no need to be so hard on yourself, Honey,” she assured him, holding a hand out for the Bible. He gave it over, and she flipped through it until she was at the Psalms.
“This is from Psalm 36, alright,” she told him. “There’s no need to beat yourself over the head about something you didn’t – and still, perhaps might not – understand,” she continued before reading. “Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and beast. How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart.””
The Angels' Mirror Pack 2: Books Four through Seven Page 72
