From the Beginning: The Old World

by Kurtz, Timna

  “Yes, sir!!” I joked and extended my arms to undress him. He did not wait for me to finish, and lifted me naked into the water, getting all wet when he laid my body in the basin. I splashed him with wet jets of holy waters, and he impatiently took off his clothes and joined me with a quick leap, spraying water on my face when he landed in the cool water. I splashed him back, mischievously teasing him, and he immediately pounced on me laying me back into the flowing basin.

  But the holy waters had other plans for us.

  The minute we lay in the water, the vibe ignited at once! My body tensed, and an electrifying powerful surge went through me, arching my back. My stomach clung to Connor’s abdomen, magnetizing him to my vibe, flowing electricity to him as well, turning on a vibe of his own within him.

  Each of us had our eyes embedded in the other’s, wide open, penetrating deep into the soul—his to mine and mine to his—while his body connected to mine, he penetrated into me, sliding into my being. When he touched deep inside me, another wave of vibrating electricity surged, pinning us tighter to each other.

  I dove into Connor’s eyes, deepening more and more into the green, when the vision I was waiting for came towards me from the depths of his clear gaze.

  The puzzling lines and arrows that fascinated me ever since my first vision, appeared one after the other, sliding from the top of the island to its slopes, drawing themselves onto the coast line and from there poured into the water, marking their path under the waves and the sea level. Each new line or arrow that was drawn, made the lines before it disappear, without leaving a trace.

  Slowly the arrows advanced to the first island, which was the closest to ours but much smaller. Only one summit rose from it, and very thin vegetation was seen on that side of the island. On the shore line, the arrows suddenly slanted and went around the island to its right. To my surprise, another island was revealed, that was hidden behind the first island since it was lower than it. Shallow waters separated the two islands, creating pools, lakes and swamps that didn’t seem too deep. Here, on the other side of the first island, there was thick vegetation, a small forest and thicket.

  The arrows kept on advancing, crossing the swamps and pool, arriving at the second island, which was wide and had luscious vegetation. The symbols led to the center of the island—which was a kind of a small crater that its shape resembled the mouth of a small volcano that was old and dormant, creating a round ring at the heart of the island. There stood a large stone table that had a striking resemblance to our sacred flowing stone alter. A black stain became visible on the stone table. The lower I flew, the more the stain grew, shaping into a horrifying familiar shape! I was terrified when suddenly I saw the black bird, fiercely flapping its wings. My heart started to pound in fear. I struggled to ascend up into the sky, to get away from that damned place, following the arrows that kept on going, marking their path back to our island. My distraught spirit eased the farther away I got from the hidden island.

  When the markings arrived at the safe and familiar shore, the arrows surrounded it as well, to the other side of the island, leading me to the small vibrating cave. Inside, the markings penetrated deep into the cave, revealing another space, filled with tiny little niches. Suddenly dozens of rolled-up parchment scrolls started pouring and ejecting, spread out before my surprised eyes. They were ancient maps, with the records of all the paths I had just flown over drawn on them. I knew that with this scene the voyage of my current vision was over—the mystery of the vibe in the little cave had given the answer I was looking for.

  While still drifting back from my vision, I managed to catch a glimpse of the maps of other islands that the symbols and arrows drawn on them would be used when we went out to explore them.

  The vision started to fade with clear waves that rocked me at a throbbing and increasing pace, pulling me back to Connor’s lucid eyes, whose body was actually rocking me as he was making love to me during the vision. I could see in his eyes that he too dove into a vision and was returning from a magical journey of his own. His pupils dilated with wonder as he noticed I was watching him with love.

  “Grace!” he called out with excitement and leaned to me with great passion, kissing me and continuing the act of love we were both trapped and bound in, increasing the rhythm of his body movements, penetrating me again and again, his lips never leaving mine, until the tremor shook us both in a large wave of great satisfaction.

  “Grace…” he whispered again a few minutes later when we managed to catch our breath, both spent from the inflaming experience we just had. “What was that?!” he asked. The question marks clearly showing on his face. I smiled and patted him with love.

  “You saw a vision too. Unbelievable! But in fact, that is what brought us together from the start, the same wonderful mystical abilities, and you were so scared of it…”

  “It really doesn’t matter now, my love. I told you more than once, it will not affect my love for you whatsoever! But now I need you to explain to me what I saw,” he lifted us both into a sitting position in the water, our limbs still intertwined.

  “Remember the puzzling lines and arrows I told you about? Well, they came out of here and marked their path down the slopes of the island, and from there to the nearest island that can be seen from the observation point on the roof of the sacred cave—” I started describing my vision.

  “That is not what I saw!” Connor cut my speech. “I saw completely different things!”

  “Very odd! Is it possible you saw another vision completely different than mine?” I wondered out loud. “Please tell me what you saw and after that, I will try and interpret the symbols,” I asked him.

  “My journey started here too—” he opened. “But I flew high above the island and came back to it—as if many years had passed I flew ahead in time into the future. I saw many people standing in half a circle celebrating with great joy. In the center of the circle stood two little and pretty birds—one white and one blue—both glowing and enchanting. They wrapped one another with their wings and twirled in a beautiful love dance. Suddenly a flock of twelve small black birds appeared out of nowhere. Their size was the same as of the pretty birds, and they swarmed on them savagely, tearing and ripping them apart from each other, separating them violently. The black birds carried the blue bird far away when they left the island, and the white bird was left on its own, bruised and hurt, its feathers ruffled and the magical shine in them disappeared. I was then pulled back in time until I saw the island and the cave, and your beautiful eyes looking at me with endless love, as deeply as possible,” Connor concluded his story, worryingly checking my expression, when he saw my eyes were wide open with curiosity and amazement as I heard his spectacular and yet terrifying story.

  “Are you sure you saw a flock of black birds?” I asked with panic, trying to disguise it with a curious expression, hoping he would not sense the tension that had started to spread in my body and the fear that was seeping into me, surrounding my heart again.

  “I am positive. Twelve black winged birds—no more, no less, as I pointed out earlier and why are you trying to hide from me the fact that you are terrified of these birds? What do they symbolize for you?” He pinned his clear gaze on me, and I smiled, embarrassed by the face of his disclosure.

  “I can’t even hide my feelings from you. Nothing escapes you. We used to sit and talk, and you would burn holes in me with your eyes, your gaze piercing my looks, penetrating my soul, stopping my breath. I never felt as naked as that in lieu of a gaze. I used to ask you to stop drilling me with your look, embarrassingly begging you to stop looking at me like that, afraid you would read me like an open book and know my feelings even before I was ready to admit them to myself…” Again I revealed pieces of the past without meaning to. “I don’t know what is happening to me. It is like something inside me insists that I tell you of the past,” I confessed the weird feeling I had.

  “This is very nice of you—but I will not let you get out so easily f
rom giving me an explanation as to your stress from the moment I mentioned the black feathered birds. You can tell me of the past any other time, even though I am really not interested. But the present—and probably the future too, according to what I saw—interests me a great deal!” He again focused my attention on the place and moment we were in.

  “You are right. It’s time I tell you too about the black bird, because from what you told me of your vision, the past will return to haunt us in the future…”

  * * *

  Chapter 34

  Only the sound of the flowing waters was heard throughout the sacred cave when I concluded my story about Cole and the events that had taken place and of Jamila’s awful prophecy. Connor kept quiet, listening attentively, as he always did, not interrupting the flow of the story. Even when I was done, he did not rush to react.

  Only after a long minute, after he had pondered the information I gave him, he finally answered, “I am glad that you shared this with me. Now I can help you too if needed. Promise me one thing only: if God forbid the prophecy comes true—don’t you dare go on the chase on your own! No matter where I may be, you come and call me for help—and there is no debate on the matter! I will not allow you to go after Cole exposed and vulnerable. I hope I made myself perfectly clear?!” His eyes skewed me with much seriousness when he extracted a promise from me. I was aware that I would not be able to keep this promise, but I shook my head in affirmation anyway, hoping that there was a slight chance I would keep it somehow. After all, he wasn’t with me during the chase, I knew this was a mission I would embark on accompanied only by Violet. Common sense told me that if Connor was beside me, I would feel safer and braver.

  “Good. Now I will be happy if you will interpret the other symbols I saw in my vision,” he asked with enthusiasm.

  “I’ll be glad to, but before that, I think we better start heading back to the tribe. It will be dark soon, and we didn’t bring any source of light with us. I wouldn’t want to go down in the dark.” I rushed him to get out of the water and started interpreting his vision.

  “I assume the dozen black birds are some kind of fighting force commanded by Cole. Which makes me wonder, did he drift to an island that had other survivors?! But why are the birds small? And the white bird and the blue bird…?” Nothing from his description added up with the information about the future that I had. “I can’t understand the connection,” I exhaled with frustration when he helped me get down from the sacred basin. “Maybe all of this is really meant to happen in the unforeseeable future? You did say you were pulled forward in time, right?” I asked as I was putting on my shirt.

  “Yes. True. That is what it looked like, like a flight into the future,” Connor repeated what he had seen.

  I pulled up my pants and was about to insert my legs in them when a dark trickle coming down my thighs caught my attention.

  “Blood!! Connor, I am bleeding!!” I called out in excitement. Connor was startled and jumped to my aid.

  “What’s wrong? Did you get hurt? Let me see!” He kneeled to check the source of the bleeding, and I burst out laughing. He looked up at me confused.

  “My sweet, lovable, silly man—” I smiled at him happily. “It’s my period! Finally, it arrived!!” I called out in joy. I lifted my arms into the air and burst out dancing and jumping ecstatically, pouncing on Connor, who was astounded. After a few seconds, when he regained his composure realizing what had happened, Connor grabbed my prancing waist and lifted me up into the air, twirling me with cries of joy and happiness of his own. Then he lowered me back to the ground and hugged me tightly kissing me with excitement.

  “Oh, Grace, finally we can bring children into the world!” He was so excited that he kissed me again and again, squeezing me tight and laughing with joy together with me…

  This time our moon cycle gathering was more cheerful and exciting than ever when I went up to receive the traditional ritual immersion that I used to give to the women of the tribe up till now. The blessings and sanctification was entrusted to Jamila, and she had filled her task with much respect and excitement. Later on, they all blessed me. One by one they came up, hugging and kissing me happily.

  There was something symbolic and encouraging in the fact that I had received my menstruation and was now able to conceive like the rest of the women as if my powers were intensified at once. The frustration I had felt in the past few months was washed away by the purifying baptizing waters.

  As long as I was waiting impatiently for the arrival of my menstruation, the entirety of my leadership as a wise woman, healer, leader, seer and psychic was clouded as one who could not bear a child. With time, I knew, it would have diminished my femininity and my ability to lead. I climbed onto the flowing stone altar and kneeled while Jamila was mumbling the prayer I had taught her, which she had learned by heart throughout the day. As she poured the holy waters on my head, and the stream of water was dripping on my face sanctifying me, sharp images flashed before my eyes: a raft, boat, maps, a little cave, of Jamila crying and panicked people running all over. In the last flash, a shadow of a black wing passed before my eyes.

  “Cole!!” I shouted with fright, bringing the joyous and gay ceremony to a halt. “Jamila—it is about to happen! The black bird is getting ready to strike!” I turned my distraught gaze to her. Jamila’s big black eyes were wide open with surprise and horror. Her hand froze in the air for a second, then shook and dropped the sanctifying bowl into the water. “What you see, Grace?” she asked as she dropped to her knees next to me. “You tell me now what you see, Grace!!” Fear caused her voice to tremble when she urged me to tell her what she already knew—even though the time that had passed had nearly caused us to forget the dark prophecy.

  “I saw exactly what you saw then, when you just came to the island. And I saw other things too: I saw a raft, which we will probably have to build, and I saw a boat and darkness. I also saw you crying and frantic people running around in the dark. He will come on one of the moonless nights when everything is dark and black, and we will only catch a glimpse of his shadow. And maps! I saw maps!!” I suddenly remembered the vision I had only yesterday, which slipped my mind with all the excitement of my moon bleed. “The small cave! I have to get to the small cave!” I called out leaping from the altar, all wet putting my clothes on in haste. “Jamila, you keep running the ceremony. Violet, you come with me to the small cave. We have work to do!” I hurried to give out instructions, ignoring the curious and terrified looks that surrounded me.

  “Grace!” Jamila’s decisive voice stopped me. “You not go like this! The womens, they not to know what to happen and they to be scared a lot. Look!” She turned my attention to my friends’ shocked and terrified faces.

  “I am sorry, my dear friends…” I apologized for my hasty and urgent behavior. “Something dark and terrible is about to happen, so I need to prepare a few things beforehand in anticipation of that night. Jamila will tell you everything. But remember! Under no circumstances will you tell anything to the men! They are not supposed to be in on this. If any of them know about it, it will very quickly spiral out of control, and the violence we were so careful to keep at bay—will take over even before a new moon will rise. Again, I apologize for the urgency and haste. I am sure that you will understand the whole picture more clearly in a few moments. Right now I have to go,” I concluded my words and turned to leave, dragging Violet behind me, who looked as confused as the rest, leaving behind me a troubled silence and many concerns.

  In the next few days, I understood well why in ancient times the women would retreat to a special abode during their menstrual period. Without a means of absorption, I found myself running to the pool again and again to wash myself each time a trickle of blood came down my thighs.

  Still on the same night of a full moon, Violet and I arrived at the little cave. A flashlight I had taken from one of the old supply crates without anyone seeing, was used to light up the dark cave. Secrecy was important, and
I took advantage of the fact that no one would suspect us being there.

  As far as the men were concerned, all the women were now in the sacred cave, celebrating our moon fertility rituals.

  “What exactly are we looking for?” Violet asked, examining the back sealed wall of the cave.

  “Maps!” I answered with determination, also checking the wall, pressing on it in different places hoping that maybe like in my favorite adventure movies—a secret door would open and the lost treasure would be revealed.

  But no door opened.

  “Maps??? How will there be maps here Grace? Don’t you think that it is completely impossible?” Violet expressed her disbelief in our strange search.

  “I would be forced to agree with you if I hadn’t seen it in my vision. But what was revealed to me—was an extra space in the cave with dozens of little niches in it, their size was no wider than a fist, and inside them, there were rolled up maps drawn on ancient parchment scrolls. That is how the vision was presented, and so far, everything I envisioned has come true, so there is a good solid reason to believe that if we find the opening to that hidden space—we will find the maps too.” I kept on going over the hard rock, tapping and scratching, searching for a soft spot that I could start digging from. “Without the maps, we will not be able to track Cole to his shelter island!” I shot out the confidential information that only Jamila Connor and myself shared.

  “Cole?!?! I thought he was already dead!” Violet freaked out, shocked. In an automatic gesture, she placed her hand on her bulging stomach as if she felt a strong need to protect the baby in her womb. I looked at her, stopping my search for a minute, my eyes resting on her protective hands.

  “It is not your baby that is in danger. Cole will come to take little Jonathan (Attalla). He isn’t aware of the fact that there are several pregnant women amongst us, but he probably tracked us when Jamila and Ibrahim came to the island. He saw the hope that was awakened in us with the presence of this sweet baby, and if he was to take that baby from us, our hopes will be shattered again, and we will forever live in fear of the future. I don’t know…” I exhaled my doubts and concerns. “One thing is certain! Cole is looking for revenge. This I know without a shadow of a doubt!” I shared with Violet a brief account of the events and let her in on what’s going on. After that, we both resumed our vigorous search for the hidden opening. Violet now knew as well the importance of the maps and understood well what our fate would be if we did not find them.