Chapter Seventeen
The Adventure Continues
I ate my food in the small roadside diner as Zora already done with hers stared at me as if I was an endless occurrence of fascination for her. I saw her eyes light up as another question to pepper me with occurred to her.
She leaned forward and keeping her voice low so as not to be heard by others in the diner she asked, “Did you ever see dinosaurs?”
“Sure lots of them. Even rode a few of them.” I said nonchalantly as I continued to eat.
“Really?” She asked in a hoarse whisper, as if she couldn’t believe what I’d just said.
I glanced up and reiterated, “Really.”
Shocked she sat back in her seat, “So I guess all the claims about them being extinct for millions of years is a bunch of rot?”
“The concept of millions of years in general is a bunch of rot. Since creation was started by God you have only about six thousand years to play around with give or take a few.”
I let her digest that for a moment before saying, “Besides who said they were all extinct.”
Her eyes got really big, but I pretended to not notice and kept on eating. Her hand touched mine and I glanced up grinning, “You want to see one don’t you?”
She nodded her head vigorously and I chuckled.
“Well let’s see what happens after lunch shall we.”
She looked disappointed, but nodded obediently.
I made a very special request then to God, but I heard no answer in return.
I finished my meal and we got up to go after I had paid.
I stepped outside followed along by a silent Zora. Endless cornfields beckoned, but I felt the answer to my request.
Smiling I turned to Zora and offered my hand out to her. She stared at my hand in a nervous daze.
“Really?” She breathed out.
“Yes Mrs. Gideon.”
She brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear nervously, “We’re not going to be eaten are we?”
“Highly doubtful, but being squashed flat is a possibility.”
She looked hesitant and so I wiggled my fingers beckoningly, “Oh come on where’s your spirit of adventure my love?”
She put her hand in mine.
Gasping Zora stepped closer to me as she stared all around at the dark cast jungle foliage of the Congo at twilight.
“Welcome to the Congo.” I said pulling her along through the noisy jungle all around us.
I wondered if she’d ever get over the shock of this experience. I brushed past a few more leafy fronds to stand on the edge of an unexpected clearing. I pulled Zora around in front of me delighting in her look of perplexed awe.
“It’s grass! Why would there be grass in the middle of a jungle?”
“In the deepest parts of the Congo there are many such swampy islands of grass. It is a mystery.” I said breathing in the smell of her hair not overly concerned with what was about to happen as I was with the feel of her against me.
The sun was down, but the twilight glow in the clearing made everything visible.
“Wait for it.” I said into Zora’s ear in a thematically tensed tone of voice.
The usual sounds of the jungle were interrupted by the loud stentorian cry of a beast like no other. The cry was echoed by others all along the far edge of the jungle that bordered the clearing. One loud cry echoed out very near to us.
Trees began to crack and strain loudly as they gave way to something that shook the ground beneath our feet. Zora’s jaw had long since dropped open in astonishment by the time the great lumbering behemoths pushed clear of the surrounding jungle and out into the swampy marsh.
“That’s a……”
“Dinosaur.” I said filling in for her.
“Yes!” She exclaimed all eyes on a creature that the world had thought long since dead.
“The word dinosaur is a modern word. In the Bible this beast has a different name. It’s name is behemoth.”
Distracted sounding Zora asked, “Dinosaurs are talked about in the Bible?”
I quoted directly from the Book of Job to her,
“Look now at the Behemoth, which I made along with you; he eats grass like an ox. See now, his strength is in his hips, and his power is in his stomach muscles. He moves his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are tightly knit. His bones are like beams of bronze, his ribs like bars of iron. He is the first of the ways of God; only He who made him can bring near His sword. Surely the mountains yield food for him, and all the beasts of the field play there. He lies under the lotus trees, in a covert of reeds and marsh. The lotus trees cover him with their shade; the willows by the brook surround him. Indeed the river may rage, yet he is not disturbed; he is confidant, though the Jordan gushes into his mouth, though he takes it in his eyes, or one pierces his nose with a snare.”
After a long moment of reflection she nodded her head and said, “The pretty well captures the picture I’d say.”
Together we watched the greatest of God’s creation browse in the meadow beyond as the evening shadows thickened. After a while Zora turned around to me and said, “Thank you Elon.”
Then she said, “Never a dull moment with you Elon is there?”
She leaned up and started kissing me and I returned the kiss, but I was surprised when she shoved me back against a tree and ripped the front of my shirt open.
I broke the kiss and grabbed her hands, “Whoa! Time out here! Zora are you seriously trying to convey to me that you want to make out in this bug infested, snake ridden environment in the midst of nature in all of its decaying rottenness as opposed to a nice clean Iowa wheat field?”
Her tone was exasperated, “Elon you really know how to kill the mood sometimes!”
I grinned as I grasped her hands, “How about we go about…….”
Our surroundings abruptly changed and Zora looked around in surprise at finding herself in front of the mansion on the Greek island that we had celebrated our first time together intimately just several weeks past.
Her eyes swung to mine and I finished my statement, “……making a baby somewhere more comfortable?”
She giggled and grabbed a hold of my torn shirt front to lean up and kiss me passionately before breaking off and backing away with a wild look in her eyes, “You have to catch me first!”
She tore off then shrieking playfully without a concern or care in the world and I followed along after her in the same spirit. I’d catch her eventually, as it was an island with no boats. I was due to enjoy a very long vacation.
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The sun was setting over the horizon casting and orangey glow across the pillar at my back as I held Zora in my arms before me as we both watched the sunset unfold before us. Zora’s hands lay over top of mine that were splayed wide on her pregnant belly.
In a reflective tone Zora asked as she leaned back against me, “How do you think it will all end?”
I didn’t really have to think about the question much. “Scripture will be fulfilled and the end will be as it is written in the Word of God. Whether I will live to see that day and see my Master return for me I cannot say. I have begun to age physically again as the way of all creation since the curse was begun in the Garden of Eden.
“So have I.” Zora commented softly.
She glanced up at me and smiled, “So what are your plans for your now diminishing life?”
“To lovingly care for you and the family we’ll raise together, even as I continue to be an agent for good and do whatever the Lord would have me to do.”
Zora continued to smile, “That’s a good answer, but what are your immediate plans oh diminishing one?” She asked tartly.
I gave her a stern look even though I knew she was just jesting, “I think you will find that I haven’t diminished any my love across all important parameters.”
“Prove it!” She said her face seductively challenging in her invitation to me.
We both missed the sun set below the edge of the horizon, as we were consumed with the passion risen in each of us for each other, which burned more intensely than the heat of the sun.