Deluge: Book Two of Two - Death Rode a White Horse

CHAPTER ONE

Creator leaning over the parapets of Heaven, watched them coming. Descendants of Adam and Eve naked except for brief loincloths, young men and women, they followed musicians over Ur’s brick-paved streets. Gyrating to sounds of trumpet, cymbals, castanet, and rattling gourds, they leaped and ran in unison.

Women, their pubic hair showing from under narrow, golden fig leaves, with breasts swaying, nakedness added to sexual desires. Glittering blue, green, and gold in the morning air, sequins caught sun glints and dazzled spectator’s eyes. Men had the briefest of leather straps covering their swaying gonads. Behind the dancers, by twos and fours, they came. Elephants from steaming jungles of Africa followed by long-necked giraffes, the famous white stallions originating in Paradise came pulling red and orange carriages filled with snarling lions and tigers. Lucifer’s circus from Canaan was in the great City of Ur. Sumerians and Creator’s people mingled together.

On top of a gray circus elephant a male rider mounted a naked female performer. Bobbing figures glued together, the two were oblivious of the screaming crowd. Their sexual act was much more interesting than howling, flag-waving spectators.

Nothing would stop them. Two by two, male and female, male and male, female and female, couples in the parade convulsed together in tune with the gyrating music.

Creator looked down in disgust. Squashing a grape he sent sprinkles of moisture from a cloudless sky.

I should horsewhip them. He turned to Arch-Angel Gabriel and the one who was not at the creation and fall of Adam and Eve.

Son, he said with sorrow in his voice, I should never have created Adam and Eve.

Magnificently dressed in silver and gold, the Son stood sternly looking at the spectacle Creator’s people were making of themselves. Fornicating in public was not bad enough. Some in the crowd started raping and pillaging. Innocent women and children became victims of those stronger than they were. Screaming young maidens ran from brutal men in various stages of undress.

Father, if it had not been for that new creation on Mars, I might have been able to control Lucifer. Father and Son, created and un-created from everlasting to everlasting, the two stood unbending together.

The Son said sadly, Perhaps, we should do what we did to the rebellious people on that planet. We could fry them by moving the sun two degrees closer. By a similar maneuver we could bury them in cakes of ice like we did the dinosaur.

He said, Ah, no matter how tempting it is this is a different situation, altogether. On Mars all the inhabitants were my creation.

The Son sighed. Here your hands are tied by Baal’s creation. You can destroy your own, but by creation law you cannot completely destroy another’s creation.

Creator took another disgusted look at the scene below him. My powers are limited. This ungodly generation must die.

And the Canaanites? Gabriel asked.

Creator answered sadly, A parent does not punish another man’s children.

Couldn’t you just destroy those who are sinning? the Son asked.

All of them are sinners. Even the old woman, Ai, sitting watching from her apartment, enjoys the spectacle. No, we shall destroy all those living in this land between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers.

Gabriel knew he would have to carry out Creator’s plans. Not particularly desirous to kill those he was watching, he knew Creator must punish. He turned away from watching to listen.

Creator thought it out before he gave his command. An asteroid cast off when the planet, Sunus, exploded shall be directly over the Persian Gulf next year about this time.

You plan to squash those you created? the Son asked.

No. The asteroid will cause a tremendous tidal wave to surge up the Euphrates. A wall of water over a thousand feet deep shall sweep along the valley floor drowning everything in its path.

Gabriel was the only one of the Heavenly host who dared question the Creator’s plan. Even the Son did not have this privilege. Are you sure this will accomplish your purpose?

Perhaps a typhoon? Check on what it will take to make it rain for say forty days and nights. Also, put enough pressure on the valley rift to make underground waters burst forth and help flood.

You will save no one? the Son asked.

The Creator thought a moment. Certainly, we must save Lamech’s son, Noah, and his family.

Gabriel groaned quietly. He knew he was about to receive another tremendous task to carry out. Have you thought about how to save Noah? He is an alcoholic. And how about animals? It will take centuries for new ones to drift back into the region. Eastward and northward there are mountain barriers. Westward there is a great desert.

The Creator waved his hand. Have Noah build an ark big enough to carry remnants of all the land birds and animals.

That should keep him and my staff busy for at least a year, Gabriel said. He was already tired.

When Gabriel turned to walk away the Creator gave his last command. Make sure ben-Able and his family are high in the Zargos Mountains with their herds. Have him take two or three hundred herdsmen with him. Those who care for animals are more willing to carry out my commandments than are farmers and city dwellers.

Gabriel called his staff together. Presenting the problem, he took the best solutions for carrying out Creator’s plans. One unknown factor worried him. What would Lucifer do?

Talking to a guarding angel on disability leave, Gabriel said, Because of Lucifer, Creator is planning to destroy all but a remnant of two nations. Before the circus came to Ur, Sumerians and Adam’s descendants feared Creator. We in the Heavenly Host never found out who he made this pact with never to destroy those of other gods without using their people.

Guarding Angel spoke meekly. I was in the mountains when Adam and Eve almost froze to death. I have been with ben-Able and his group. These mortals have a hard life.

Gabriel realized his companion was not going to continue. A hard life?

A hard life, Gabriel. Very seldom does Creator speak directly to them anymore. When his spirit communicates the mortals never know but what it is the wind blowing. They think they do Creator’s will only to find out their message came from a glass of new wine, or, an over-filled stomach.

Guardian, Gabriel said, someday Creator must set up direct communications with his people.

Every year we drift farther apart, Guardian Angel said.

We do, Gabriel said sadly. Someday, Creator is going to be forced to pay a great price to make contact with the people on earth.

And not just the descendants of Adam and Eve, Guardian Angel said wisely.

You are right, Gabriel said. All the earth’s people are suffering. Some of the heathen give their children to appease their gods. Adam’s descendants follow every stray wind. No, someday Creator is going to have to communicate in such a way the people on earth will know he loves them.

How can he do that? Guarding Angel asked.

Gabriel thought a moment. He may have to send his only son to show the people he loves them.

It may cost the Son his life.

Gabriel agreed. It may cost Creator his only begotten Son. It may just do that.

CHAPTER TWO

Large clusters of purple dates hung grotesquely under a fringe of covering palm fronds. Heat of late summer lay over the city of ancient Ur. The rainy season would not start for another two months. Cicadas made their rasping noises. Heat, insects, and a heaviness in the air caused descendants of Adam and Eve to wish they were in the eastern mountains with ben-Able and his herds of animals.

Ai, mother of the Sumerian herdsman, dwelt in a large, comfortable apartment building. According to oral tradition, it was first built by Adam founder of this ancient city on the Euphrates River. Once there had been two cities. Now the descendants of Adam were coming into one gigantic conglomeration.

She could look out on rows of stately buildings built of dried, mud bricks strengthened by chopped pieces of straw. Adam and his descendants had joined forces with the Sumerians to found a magnificent city.

Peering through openings in heavy drapes, she looked out a window facing north and idly watched worshippers climb outside ramps leading to a temple on top of the tower the first Adam had started building shortly after his exile from the Garden of Eden. Once, when she was a very young maiden, she had walked to the small mud hole where the famous garden was traditionally located. Smells from animals wallowing in the slime had sickened her. After her first visit she had never returned.

She wondered how her famous ancestor’s tower had come to be called, ‘Ziggurat.’ Perhaps it was a Summerian word. Her namesake generations ago had married Able. Her son carried the name. It was unusual for a woman to name an offspring after her people. Ai came from a family of five girls. An official decree written in the great library of Hammurabia the Fifteenth stated the ancestral name must be perpetuated. Ai’s dead husband had agreed.

A stately woman whose bearing was proud but not haughty, gray streaks in her coal-black hair made her olive skin appear much lighter than it really was. She carried more Sumerian genes than her son. Ben-Able was light skinned like the ones called Hebrews who still kept their ancestral purity through the intermarriage of Seth with one of his sisters. Ben-Able’s father had been of that descent.

As much as Ai missed her son and daughter-in-law, Ruth, she missed her three grandsons more. Seven, five and three, the oldest one named after her son had her wrapped around his heart. She caught herself caressing his head at least once a day. Twice a day she prayed special prayers to the Creator. Always, she asked him to keep a close watch over her favorite.

Ai’s thoughts were broken by a loud voice crying in the street. Every day at this time a crazed one who lived by the riverbank came preaching the same message. She did not have to go to her balcony to know what his message would be. She went anyway. It broke the dull day’s monotony.

Repent, the voice cried out. Soon the ancient city of Ur will be covered with water. From the depths, fish shall strip rotting flesh from water-soaked bones. Seaweed shall wrap its green slime around the baby’s head. Old people’s skeletons shall intermingle with those still soft and pliable. Grandfathers shall still cuddle their grandchildren’s bones.

Ai thought of her grandson and felt a quickening of her pulse. Her heart raced with increased anxiety. Where were Able and his family today?

The old harbinger’s voice spread anxiety throughout the city. Water from the deep shall spring forth. For forty days and nights rain shall pour from the sky. Creator shall drown this wicked and perverse generation. The time for beating your chests and tearing your garments is over. Build boats and ride out God’s punishment.

Ai looked out on a similar scene to what she had looked at for all of her sixty years. Was this generation anymore sinful than previous generations? she wondered. Surely not. Around the marketplaces there were always the riff-raff who begged, stole, prostituted themselves, and some who killed innocent people. But had it not always been this way? Had not her Uncle Cain of many generations ago killed his brother, Able?

The Creator’s mercy was something Ai would never understand. Scribes had written on clay tablets that Cain killed without provocation. Still Creator had let this cold-blooded murderer live to found a great city in the neighboring providence of Nod. Surely, in anger Creator would not drown innocent infants still wrapped in swaddling cloth. A foolish man this kinsman, Noah, must be insane.

Ai was not allowed to finish her thinking. A knock on the door and she forgot about the harbinger of bad news. Before she went to welcome her visitor, she took a quick glance at the sky. No clouds were in sight.

Ai’s visitor was her cousin, Leah. Those who carried Adam’s blood in their veins lived in a section of Ur where their famous forefather laid his first sun-dried bricks.

Ai took her cousin in her arms. A frail woman, Leah lived in an adjoining apartment. Not a one of Adam and Eve’s descendants wanted for material things. Sumerian neighbors remembered the kindness of Adam to their ancestors. The chosen ones who would one day go westward to conquer Canaanites were not only leading professional people, but they sat in council with royalty.

Cicadas still made their loud noises on the hot, muggy air. Come, we shall sit on the balcony, Ai invited gently. There is little breeze, but in the shade there is some coolness.

Leah fanned herself with a dry palm fan. Never strong like Ai, Leah was full of aches. A chronic worrier, she began on her favorite subject. The Canaanite circus is coming to town tomorrow, Ai. With Cousin Noah preaching about a flood, I wonder our king should allow such carrying on. Why last year more babies were started in the five days of revelry than mothers can take care of. Some of those little girls who lifted their skirts were no more than children.

Ai enjoyed it when Leah titillated her with sexual talk. Her body growing old, seldom did her mind turn to a subject that used to warm her most of the day, and nights with her husband, she seldom let him sleep for more than four or five hours.

The king invites the circus to help increase our dwindling population. Ai’s brother-in-law still worked on the city’s planning committee.

Leah’s light-blue eyes flashed with pleasure. Oh, Ai, you wicked thing. Never in our days did pornography have to be used to make us want to please our husbands. My, it seemed like it was something we did every night until we had eight children.

Ai shook her head sadly. After Able, we had no more.

But it was not from the lack of trying, Leah reminded her. These young people are so busy with their careers, they seldom have time for each other. With prices so high it takes more to live on than one parent can earn. The way things are going in another generation there will not be enough young people to take care of their old parents.

Ai sighed. We must find two more men friends. We seem to kill them off too soon. She lifted her slender, but muscular arms, and stretched. Her every movement started with her still firm thighs and ended at her shapely breasts.

Leah knew what her companion wanted. Maybe while the circus is here some of our friends will search us out.

Ai voiced her doubts. Only men who are bedridden would fool with women as old as we are.

It does seem every old goat wants to start another child, Leah said. Some younger men are raising children who are not theirs.

It doesn’t matter that much, Ai said. Our young men are very civilized about such things.

All except the trash drifting down the river. They can’t seem to understand our people’s point of view. Lean men from Babylon, they are most virile.

And jealous of their women. Ai knew some of Able’s people descended from the Babylon orphan, Ruth. By Cain the poor woman was said to have borne thirteen children. Some of the more adventurous ones come back here to settle.

Yes, Leah agreed, and they are every bit as murderous as their infamous grandfather was. Glancing at the long shadows, she stood up. I must go. Ahi’jah, my eldest, is bringing his family to eat the evening meal with me.

Ai said, I envy you having a family to visit. Say, why don’t you come over Monday and watch the circus with me?

Your view is better, Leah agreed. You are fortunate to have a balcony opening over the street.

Sometimes it is noisy, but it occupies my mind. There are so many things to see.

Ai followed her friend back into the dimly-lit dwelling. Through heavily draped front openings enough light filtered to outline heavy furniture made from imported wood. A wool rug full of ornate figures covered the floor.

After Leah left, Ai sat in the darkness a longtime. Her life was too monotonous. Soon she would find another lover. Wanting only the pleasure, she did not care to bother with having an old man around her house after he satisfied her.

She never wanted for anything. Large herds of animals had made the descendants of Able very well-off.

CHAPTER THREE

Lucifer traveled on a swaying camel. As he rode, he dipped his slithering tongue into a vase full of fine Syrian whiskey. Filthy beast, he hissed between fang-like teeth. Today he traveled in the form of a serpent. To feed his vanity he had gone to the Tropics and found a boa constrictor fifteen feet long. The camel had carried this strange passenger for two weeks. The humped beast of burden still hated its drunk, loathsome load.

Camel, Lucifer said, I know you hate my guts. Letting his reptile body slither around his mount, the disposed heavenly host made a demonic hissing sound.

The camel broke from a laconically slow pace to a fast trot. One way to speed you damnable piece of flesh. I should have ridden a white stallion north along the river route. Instead, I had to ride you across this desolate, sandy desert. There is nothing I like better than heat. Sometime I am retiring to Hell. My, my, how refreshing it will be to poke among the cinders. Lucifer shouted with glee. His mount ran faster.

Lucifer drunkenly spoke his thoughts aloud to miles of empty sky and sand. "Creator is falling into my plans. One more circus through the great