The Towers Of Jerhico

by Peter Sargent

  “She remains, her bones wrapped in her sleeping gown. Now the Lord has seen fit to take me in this storm as he did Jonah and like Jonah he will allow me to sit in darkness to ponder my crimes. Now that that sea has spit me out against I may speak my words.”

  When I lifted my face, I saw Andy Wilson standing by the open porthole, as if to jump through it. He stretched a hand out to me. I stood and grasped it and pushed my body through and then I fell.

  * * * *

  I awoke in the hospital again, just like the first time. My wife stood by me. I moved my feet and felt the rough hospital sheets falling over my bare skin. Some people nearly die and they go to see the angels and the face of God. That wasn't my place to go. On that day I felt for the first time that I belonged in the world where I lived and that I could taste the air in my lungs.