Chapter Twelve
Chocolate
Rising through the water banded by molten strands of liquid rock was an experience unlike any other. I didn’t choke for lack of air and yet my lungs were full of all the air I needed as if it was being pressed into me.
The journey upward was wondrous and it ended far too quickly. At some point far into the journey the bands of lava arced off elsewhere and the water alone continued to rise to the surface.
It was dark for only a little while. Above was a watery blue blur of color that grew bigger and brighter, until with a gasp of air I burst free of the water and felt the light of the sun rain down upon my face once more. Now that I had missed.
Swimming my way to the edge of the water I was pulled clear of it by Tolak. Smiling at him I took his hand and stepped out into the ancient setting we had quietly invaded from below. The difference however in our passage into this place though was in the fact that we wished to destroy no one or even hinder them in the slightest from living in the way that they wished to.
We brought no weapons of mass destruction with us and our only means of survival was by the mercy we found within the good grace of our God, who would provide for all our needs even as He had promised, as His Word is true.
*****
Eli looked about the deep valley that stretched all around and that opened up deeply before him. What was this place?
The cliff like walls and steep sides of what must be a caldera of epic proportions rose steeply all around to the point he doubted that the thousands upon thousands of large African grazing animals that he saw for as far as the eye could see could even leave this place of sanctuary if they had wanted to. Samantha had said this was the Garden of Eden, while it didn’t look as he had imagined that it would, he felt that she was correct somehow.
Admittedly a lot could change in the passage of several thousand years, along with the advent of a global flood. Reaching down he dug his fingers into the soil and straightening up he viewed what he held with a sense of awe.
Glancing to Keturah standing nearby he said, “Can you believe that once man existed as nothing but this red dirt I now hold, until God molded it and breathed the breath of life into him so that man would become a living soul?”
Smiling Keturah said, “I can believe it my husband as I walk by faith and not by sight.”
Giggling she dodged out of the way has Eli through the red dirt at her, but she didn’t escape his embrace of her, for why would she want to.
*****
Tolak kept looking about in wonderment. The sun above all else seemed to be his sense of biggest marvelment and walking beside him I enjoyed his ever evolving interest with his new surroundings.
Coming upon a group of the others that I now all called my friends I was assaulted with questions of, “What is this place?”
Chuckling I said, “Just what I told you it was, the plain of the Garden of Eden. Where Adam and Eve actually walked with God I do not know for sure, but there was a special land in which the actual garden was located in and this could be that land. The clues that Scripture has given us that many have failed to see and decipher through the years are the four rivers that originate from just one river. Every river at its beginning starts as from either a trickle of runoff water or an underground spring. Nowhere in the current topography of our world do we see four rivers come from one as is laid down in Genesis 2:10. ‘And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided and became four riverheads.’ Clues about the four rivers are given along with their names: Pishon, Gihon, Hidequel, and the Euphrates. Although there is a river today named the Euphrates in antiquity the Nile River was first called Euphrates. It’s the only apparent river of the four that is still easily traceable, but if you reassemble the landmasses as they once were and strip away the hiding layers of the ocean waters, the old river basins are apparent even today. The island of Madagascar was once situated off the north east coast of Africa and just to the east of Saudi Arabia and the channel between it and those land masses was one of the rivers. Another of the river basins went north up along the coast of modern-day Israel. As I said all you have to do to see the old river basins is to strip away the layers of seawater to view the underlying topography. Before the fountains of the deep were broken up at the time of the global flood there was far less water upon the surface of the land than there now is. Indeed, Undersea, was likely entirely full of water upon the Earth’s creation as the Bible says God laid the foundations of the land on top of water. The fourth and final river basin traveled out around the top of Africa towards the Atlantic and would have outletted near where the Amazon flows into the Atlantic Ocean today, but in those days South America and part of North America were pressed up against Africa. When the land was divided in the days of Peleg both Madagascar and the American continents sheared away at where the crust had been worn thin by the great rivers which once flowed. The spring behind us once flowed in far greater volume then it does today and yet it is still some twenty acres in size. It watered this whole plain and from here it flowed outward and became the initial source of water for all four rivers. This place is known today as the Ngoro Ngoro national Park located in modern-day Tanzania. Another clue if you need it is that in reference to the early days of creation the Bible says that Satan walked among the stones of fire until iniquity was found in him. The volcano you see over there is the only one like it in the world. The lava is hundreds of degrees cooler than any other lava found in other volcanoes and yet it remains viscously molten. It is even possible for a human to walk near the open lava activity, because the temperature of the lava is so much less than anywhere else on Earth. The ancient people of this land call the volcano, The Holy Mountain of God, and have oral histories passed down to this day that speak of the presence of God in the form of a cloud descending upon the mountain and residing there. This whole basin has been declared a sanctuary and it’s no secret among the world elite of the ancient significance of this place. Why they didn’t go ahead and run with that knowledge to realize that the spring is a portal to the land below I do not know. As this is a very special place, perhaps they were not permitted to desecrate it. All along the rim of this basin are resort establishments built to serve both the vacationers interested in viewing the rich animal diversity of the crater as well as those come to visit the cradle place of all humanity. Even with that said this is a very remote area of Africa and we shouldn’t be bothered too much if we hold together.”
In shocked reverence the group broke up in order to explore for themselves the birthplace of their own shared origin. For myself I headed off towards what appeared to be several buildings, which the sunlight blazed off brightly, as it was about midday.
Tolak and the people of his village followed along. Reaching the buildings I wondered about the premises that were deserted. It was a ranger station, and from all appearances it had been quite active until recently.
I located a generator and startling Tolak I gave it a crank and the thing roared noisily to life. Tolak’s people looked a bit overwhelmed, but I was very curious about something.
I motioned for them to stay outside and then I went into the interior of the main building. Walking through the rooms I located a computer and I turned it on. That done I tried to engage the Internet.
The screen flickered and gave me a readout stating, ‘Not Available’. I looked away from the computer thoughtfully. There was plenty of outgoing signal, but apparently no Internet to connect to.
Becoming more intrigued by the moment I went to a table and picked up a radio. I flipped through all the channel frequencies only to be rewarded with static each and every time.
Going to a desk I picked up a satellite phone. Turning it on revealed that it had battery life, but that there was no signal. I powered it off and set the phone back down.
It would seem that all forms of communication and perhaps even all of society had fallen. By what means I did not know for sure, but whatever it had been appeared to have been all-inclusive.
Going to a wall I picked up a walkie-talkie from off a charging station and engaged it, “Anyone out there? I repeat does anyone read me?”
I let off on the mic and waited, but nothing answered me but static. I laid the walkie-talkie aside and made my way back outside only to be greeted by the sight of a group of African tribesmen standing by Tolak, Eli, and his wife. Kim and her family were also there.
Joining the group I listened to Eli, who apparently knew enough of the language that he could communicate with the men. Eventually he turned to us after a long and quite animated discussion and said, “They say that several days ago everyone fled. Even the staff of the resorts located along the crater’s rim. One ranger told them that they should hide in the caves along the crater’s edge, because rocks were going to fall from the sky and hit this place. The headman here says his people knew better than to do that as this is a holy place so they stayed out in the open. Two days ago they said the night sky lit up as rocks on fire went that way towards South and North America. Then not long after that the world shook and all the caves the rangers told them to hide in collapsed in on themselves, but that is all the damage that occurred here. He says he thinks it is much worse elsewhere. He says we are welcome to stay here as he knows that we came from below and that for us to reach the surface that we must have found favor with the Creator. He says he doesn’t think any of the outsiders will return. They were very fearful and said that the surrounding volcanoes of this place would likely all erupt, but that doesn’t seem to have happened. I thanked him and he says his people will help ours to settle in and make homes within the crater if they so wish to. I told him we would accept his generosity on all counts.”
All of us felt a little in shock at how our lives and futures had so artfully been cared for and in a daze the process of settling the survivors of Paradise into their new home was begun.
*****
The sun was starting to set over the one side of the crater’s rim and finding a moment to take a break from the hard work we’d been engaged in all day I found myself paired off with Kim and Keturah. Admiring the sunset together we noticed the fading sun glint brightly off of the windows of one of the resorts located along the rim.
As if speaking to herself Kim said, “I wonder if they left any chocolate bars lying around.”
Seconding her comment I added, “And ice cream.”
“What is this chocolate and ice cream you speak of?” Keturah asked curiously.
Both Kim and I looked at her sympathetically as she stood between the two of us completely clueless as to what she was missing out on in life.
“What?” She asked, questioningly glancing from one to the other of us.
All of a sudden a lightbulb seemed to flash in both Kim and I. Kim leaned forward to peer around Keturah to look at me as I did likewise, “Do you think they left the electricity on?”
“If they didn’t I bet I can figure out how to turn it back on. I just hope all the ice cream hasn’t melted.” I responded back with in earnest sincerity.
“Those commercial freezers are pretty well insulated. I bet stuff would stay frozen in there for days regardless of how hot it was outside.” Kim responded with helpfully.
“You’re right!” I breathed out.
Both of us then sadly came back to reality as our eyes fell along and traced the expansive distance that separated us from our desired culinary nirvanas. The resort was a very long way away.
Morosely we all three leaned back against the wall of the ranger outpost.
“Dessert aside it would be worth it just to have a hot shower right now with a set of clean linens to sleep on for about a week straight.” I said mournfully.
Kim groaned and said, “There might even be some left behind clothing with which to make some decent clothes out of.”
“Now I could go for even that!” Keturah commented with in emphasis.
Kim’s husband had come up unnoticed by the three of us and upon clearing his throat all of us looked over to him. Wearing a bit of a mischievous look about him he asked, “Any of you ladies interested in getting a bath and maybe something cleaner to wear?”
All three of us came away from leaning against the building and Kim threateningly said, “Spill the beans Mister!”
“Well it just so happens that I have found some gasoline and a beat up old Land Rover to put it in. With Eli’s help I’ve managed to get it running.”
Kim bounded forward with a scream of triumph. Colt attempted to put on a serious face as holding one finger up he said, “Now the deal is you have to take your husbands along.”
“Did he forget to mention that we’ve also set up babysitting for the evening?” Eli added, as he and Tolak came up behind Colt.
All three of us chuckled. Men!
Kim sidled up to Colt and said, “Who else would I share chocolate with but you Sugar?”
Colt looking entirely enamored with his wife pointed off to the side and said, “Your chariot awaits.”
She grabbed his hand and yanked, “Well come on then!”
Keturah sidled up to Eli and said, “I find that I very much want to try this chocolate they speak of.”
Eli’s eyebrows rose and he said as he raised one hand to purse at his lips, “I’m not sure you should have any my love. It might spoil you.”
Keturah drew her fist back and laughing Eli said as he held up both his hands, “Okay! Okay! I will take you to the chocolate. See what a monster you’ve already created Kim.”
The two couples laughed together as they headed for the old Land Rover, which sounded as if its last two legs had already given out on it and all that remained was the memory of former life. Together holding hands Tolak and I trailed along behind the others.
Leaning down Tolak whispered, “I don’t understand any of this. Am I going to like where I am going?”
I chuckled and looking up to him I said, “Tolak, if I can guarantee you anything in life, it would be that you are very much going to enjoy everything that transpires this night.”
“Everything?”
“Everything.” I stated firmly, as I made up my mind to make tonight an extremely special one for my man.
“Then it will be the same as every day I am blessed to spend with you, as the addition of you in my life has made everything better.”
With a choked up sounding voice I said, “I can never repay Kim back enough for her teaching you how to speak the English language, but I sure am going to try!”
Kim looked back with a smile and said, “You don’t owe me a thing Sugar. To God goes the glory for everything.”