Ark (35 page)

As Jim neared the ark the buzzing became much louder and seemed to come from inside himself, from the very center of his mind. He became afraid as never before and began to say the only prayer he knew. He’d learned it as a child in Sunday school so long ago. “Our father, which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name ...”

The buzzing sound grew even louder. A single word came to his mind. Soft and in the distance, as though echoing between the stars: “REMEMBER.”

The veil before him seemed to get thinner as he stared at the pulsing light beyond. Shadows of the wings of the cherubim played on the ceiling and the decorated tapestries that lined the sanctuary. No longer did Jim feel lost and alone. He was standing amid multitudes of beings whirling around between the shadows and the flickering light. He remembered the music he’d heard while watching Aaron fashion the Mercy Seat. Was he hearing that too?

He was standing only a few feet from the glowing ark. Now, almost as though it had burned through the curtain, he could see it in detail. He saw the pulsing orb of intense white light between the cherubim, and he heard the word repeat over and over. “REMEMBER,” it said to him, in a voice he now recognized. It was his voice and it was everyone’s. Perhaps it was consciousness itself.

Jim was bathing in the light of a hundred suns. His body felt warm, no longer burdened by the robes and the golden armor that covered them. There was something else, a feeling of comfort and love. He wanted to ask, “Remember what?” but he couldn’t speak.

When he found himself outside the Tabernacle staring at the surprised faces of the General and the Levites, he still hadn’t understood what the voice had meant. Maybe there was nothing to do but “remember” as the voice had said.

Everybody ran to him.

“Are you okay, Jim?” General Wilcox called to him from behind the altar.

“What happened?” asked Gene. “What took so long?”

Jim was still dizzy. Part of his mind was still in the Tabernacle, examining every detail of its surface and the fiery orb that shone from its lid. Yet another part of himself, the one that missed family and friends, had already put the ark behind him.

He knew he had to leave. Without any desire to look back, Jim left the Tabernacle and walked toward his friends.

#

The General wouldn’t let anyone near Jim. He directed him toward a group of soldiers gathered at the entrance to the courtyard. They waved Geiger counters all over his body.

“No rads, Sir,” said one of the soldiers. “He’s clean.”

“Good,” said the General. “Jim, I have to debrief you.”

With the armed soldiers as an escort the General accompanied Jim back to the Levites’ trailer. Once inside he closed the door and told Jim he could change into his street clothes.

“You were in there a long time,” said the General.

“Really?” said Jim. “Hmmm, just like the first time I went in.”

“What happened?” The General was almost twitching with anticipation.

“Nothing.”

“The General exploded with anger. “God damn it to Hell, Wilson, don’t give me that shit. You were in there forty minutes and you say nothing happened?”

“I saw the ark,” he replied quietly. “I’ll never forget it.”

“You looked behind the curtain?”

“No, it showed itself to me.”

The General fixed a beady eye on Jim. “What does that mean?”

“I’m not sure. It was sort of like the curtain became transparent, or it disappeared.”

The General looked away. Then he walked to the window of the trailer and looked out at the tabernacle. The Levites had closed the curtain. The cloud still hovered above the sanctuary.

“Did it speak to you?”

“I’m not sure.”

“What did you hear?”

“A humming, or a buzzing sound. It came from the ark.”

“No words?”

“I heard one word, but it could have been from my own head.” Jim carefully folded the robe he’d taken off and placed it neatly on the chair, putting the ephod and the crown on top. “I thought it said, ‘remember’, but I can’t be sure.”

“That’s it?”

Jim realized that since he left the Tabernacle he’d been holding the General’s lighter in his left hand. “Oh,” he said, handing the tiny gold and black lighter to the General. “Thanks for letting me borrow this.”

The General took it, examined it for a second, then put it in his pocket. “So that’s it? Nothing else?”

“I’m not making this up,” said Jim. “Sorry if it’s a disappointment.”

The General turned and left the trailer without another word.

When Jim got outside he saw General Wilcox hurrying toward the communications trailer.

Gene was standing at the foot of the steps to the trailer, waiting for Jim. “I think the General is angry.”

“Livid is the word I’d use,” said Jim.

“What did you tell him?”

“Nothing much,” said Jim.

“Well, that explains his anger. You should have seen him pacing back and forth while you were in the Tabernacle. Twice he talked about sending troops in for you.”

Jim smiled. “He said I was inside a long time. Forty minutes?”

Gene nodded. “At least. How do you feel?”

“I’m fine,” answered Jim, talking a deep breath of air. He looked at the Tabernacle, still veiled by the cloud. “What did the General say to you just now when he came out?”

“He was cursing you.”

“After what I did?” Jim was genuinely surprised. “And it was all his idea. That doesn’t seem fair, does it?”

Gene looked at Jim. “You seem different. What is it about you?” He looked him over, head to toe, a couple of times. Then he looked closely at Jim’s hair. “Did you have that gray streak before?”

“Gray streak?”

Later, in the communications trailer, Jim went into the bathroom to find a mirror. Gene was right. He had developed a streak of gray above each temple. “Well, I’ll be...” he said. “Never noticed that before.”

As Jim came out of the bathroom Gene was telling John about Jim’s hair, but John just glanced at Jim and shrugged. “So? We all get gray hair. He had that before, I’m sure. You’re not suggesting he got gray hair in the Tabernacle, are you?”

“Maybe I never noticed.” Gene didn’t pursue the point.

Jim tried to get the General’s attention, but the General was ignoring him. He waited around while General Wilcox talked on the radio to various people. Finally, during one conversation that seemed particularly important, the General looked around and, seeing Jim, stopped talking and pointed to the door. “I don’t think you’re needed in here, Wilson. Take it outside, please.”

Jim felt spurned, but when he got outside he realized that the General’s negativism really only amused him.

He went over to a rock and sat down facing the Tabernacle. For some reason his curiosity was gone. What he now saw was a thing out of time and out of place, like a dinosaur. He wondered what the General was planning now. Would the thing stop resonating long enough for him to reclaim his gold?

He stared at the iridescent white cloud above the sanctuary and tried to conjure what it must have been like for Aaron, the brother of Moses, four thousand years earlier, when he first faced the fire above the ark. Had he been as frightened as Jim, or did he come from another world where skepticism didn’t rule? Perhaps in Aaron’s world it was easier to simply accept mysteries for what they were and leave it at that. Did Aaron even entertain the notion that there might be a pragmatic explanation for the workings of the ark?

He thought again of the General, still in the trailer hoping that his instruments would reveal something, anything, that might be of use.

As he sat on the cool rock and thought over his experience, Jim realized that he no longer shared the General’s curiosity or enthusiasm to probe the secrets of the ark. Now all he wanted was to go home and see his family.

It was an hour before the General emerged, frustrated, from the trailer. Obviously Jim was now far from his mind for when he saw him seated on the rock his face reacted with displeasure. He paused a moment, then approached resolutely.

“Listen, Wilson,” said the General. “I’m sending you home. I hope you’ll accept a bonus check. Hazard pay, I guess you can call it. Forty thousand dollars. We have all we need from you, but while we have a moment here, I want to be candid with you, Jim. I appreciate what you’ve done. God knows, but I want you to remember that all you did and everything you witnessed was for America, not me. I think I was wrong about you. I wanted you to cover our ass on the God thing because of the voice and all that maybe you had ... divined?”

The General paused and looked at the Tabernacle. Then his eyes returned to Jim. “But it’s obvious I was barking up the wrong tree. Whatever this thing is, it’s something new, and we’ve got to watch it for a while. You did provide Thunderbolt with the key to how the cherubs on the ark were built. And the thing worked. I’m ... we’re all grateful to you for that, but now it’s time for the techies to take over.”

The General laughed. “I hope you’ll read about it in a journal someday, and you can bet we’ll use your drawings in it if we do.”

Jim smiled but said nothing.

“The money we’ve given you,” continued General Wilcox, “it’s all tax free. You know that, right?”

Jim shook his head. “No, I didn’t. Really? That’s great.”

The General held up his hand. “The money is for your absolute promise not to reveal what’s happened here to anyone. Do you understand that? Can you do that, Jim?”

“Sure,” said Jim. “Who’d believe me anyway?”

The General laughed. “That’s for damned sure,” he said. He shook Jim’s hand. “You’ve been a sport, Jim. I appreciate that. I doubt if our paths will cross again, so...”

“It’s been interesting,” said Jim. “I’m ready to call it a day for sure.”

In an hour a helicopter settled onto the temporary tarmac. Jim, Gene, and the General got aboard and they took off immediately. As the chopper turned in midair to speed off, Jim looked back at the tabernacle and the cloud rising above it. The cloud looked golden in the setting sun. Soon it was out of sight behind a rocky mesa. Jim promised himself to remember everything.

The three were quiet for a while, then Gene turned to face Jim. “I guess I’ll be staying on for a while,” he said.

General Wilcox interrupted Gene before he could continue.

“I notice, Jim, you have notebook. I assume it’s in your room?”

“Yes, Sir,” said Jim.

“That will have to remain here, with us, Jim. You understand that it’s U.S. property?”

“Yes, Sir. You’ve more than paid for it.”

Jim didn’t care. There weren’t that many notes in it anyway. He was more than glad to leave all vestiges of Thunderbolt at Los Alamos. Besides, he knew that if anyone saw the notebook he’d have some lying to do.

The General didn’t waste any time getting Jim out of Los Alamos. There was barely enough time to pack and say goodbye to Gene before two of the General’s aides came to escort Jim to the airstrip.

While the two aides waited at the door Jim shook Gene’s hand. “It’s been fun,” said Gene. “I really wanted to talk to you about what happened in the Tabernacle. I mean you’re the only person who’s been that close to the working ark.”

“Sorry to say there’s not much that I can tell you. It was a weird experience and I’m not sure I can describe it. Certainly the General seemed disappointed when I tried. Angry even. I guess he’s sick and tired of having me to deal with.”

“Screw him. I enjoyed our time together.” Gene shook his hand firmly. “I want you to know I really mean that.”

“Give me a call when you get home,” Jim said. “Maybe I’ll have figured out what happened in there by then.”

“I sure will.”

#

On the military jet from Los Alamos to Washington, Jim was in the company of two other Thunderbolt castaways, Aaron and Marta.

They seemed just as pleased to see him. “Jim,” said Aaron. “They threw you out too?”

Jim shook hands with Aaron and chose a seat across the aisle from them. Outside the window behind Marta he saw their luggage being carted to the plane.

“Yeah,” said Jim. “He threw me out all right, but that’s A-okay. I’m more than ready to bail.”

Aaron’s eyebrows raised. “But you went into the Tabernacle. You saw it working.”

“That’s true,” said Jim.

“What was it like?” asked Marta, leaning forward in her seat to listen. The whine of the airplane’s engines were getting louder.

“Weird,” said Jim. “I’m not sure that I could explain the feeling, but there was definitely a feeling. Of course I was scared to death. Maybe that was it. It was also tough wearing that getup. Psychologically too. I mean, Rabbi Levi died wearing those robes.”

Marta looked away, but Aaron was riveted. “What did you see? Did you look behind the curtain?”

“For a moment it was like I could see through the curtain, but I never touched it.” Jim paused a moment to recall his experience. “The General had an idea about me. He thought my link to the ark made me special. I guess he was wrong, but if he hadn’t I wouldn’t be here. So I guess I should be grateful. I think I told you that I’ve been bugged by this thing most of my adult life. For a while there I was convinced that I’d never see the drawings I did become reality. I mean, who am I? An artist. Why should the General want me around?”

Aaron smiled. “I wondered that about myself, too,” he said. “Why choose me as the goldsmith?”

“You did a great job,” said Jim. “You created something truly beautiful.”

“My hand was guided, Jim, and so was yours, I think.”

“At times it really seemed like that.”

The automatic seat belt gong sounded warning them of the Learjet’s takeoff.

“We were all guided, I think,” said Aaron.

“Nature rules, I guess,” observed Jim. “But I’ll certainly remember this experience.”

“No, it’s more than just nature,” said Aaron. “Something or someone rules, and it rules nature also.”

“That’s a little deep for me, Aaron. I can tell you this, though. I can’t argue one word you’re saying. I haven’t figured any of this out yet, and I think the poor General will never figure it out.”

Aaron smiled and sat back in his seat as the jet started down the runway.