Dark Passage

In time, they came to the front of this building, and as Paul looked up from his seat he could no longer see the top of the 'castle'! It seemed to have disappeared into dark clouds! Oh! how he wanted to go home!

The strange 'doors' of the cart opened again and the men from the town asked Paul to step outside, and when all the other carts arrived, and all his people were together again, they were led by other men inside this strange, dark place.

Though it was cold outside, Paul was shocked to feel that the air inside the stone building was warm, and stranger still, it smelled sweet and mild. It was full of smells unlike any he had ever experienced, strange smells the hinted at food cooking, and suddenly he was aware that he was very hungry.

The walls inside were white and smooth, though Paul did see huge trees made of stone that seemed to grow out of the building's floor. But the real magic was the light . . . there was light everywhere! Light coming from strange sticks on tables, lights hanging from above . . . light was everywhere!

They came to a great room, and a man named Secretary came out and bade them to sit for a moment while another man, this Ruler the local people seemed to refer to constantly, finished taking something called a shower. They were given something hot to drink, something called tea, and Paul burned his mouth and tongue on it, and nearly dropped the strange, fragile container it was served in. They were given food called cookies, and these were the strangest thing yet!

Secretary left, and came back later, and asked Paul and his Acolytes to come and meet the Ruler of this strange land. They stood and walked into another room, this more comfortable than the one they had just been in.

There was a fire in a stone box on one side of the room, and Paul saw several low chairs in the room wide enough for three or four men to sit on at one time. The man, this Ruler, was seated behind a large box made from shiny wood, and the box had more of these sticks of light on top of it, and paper, but paper not in The Book, but loose - scattered on top of the wooden box like leaves that had fallen to the ground when the air turns cold after summer.

Paul looked at the man, this leader. He was impossibly young! A child Ruler! And his hair!

"Hello," the Ruler said to Paul and his group. "I am told you have come from far away. I wish you welcome to Ireland."

"Yes," said Paul, "this is true. Far away." Paul looked at the Ruler, listened to the man's voice. It was different than the other voices he had heard this day. Different. How odd. Paul decided to speak his purpose, to withhold nothing from this Ruler. "We come from across the sea, the sun at our backs when it sets at night. We have traveled for many days and nights on a river, a warm river within the sea. We have come to bring you Word of God's Love, and to ask that you join us in working for your salvation."

Paul looked at the young man; his face seemed to have darkened when he heard Paul's words, his jaw tightened and the ruler now looked at Paul with narrowed eyes. The Ruler seemed to consider Paul's words before he spoke again.

"I see," the Ruler said at last. "And might I know your name, sir?"

Paul looked at the Ruler again. The man's hair was a light red color, and his skin was impossibly clean and white, though there were darker spots on the man's cheeks and nose. And there was something about the man's eyes that caught Paul's attention; they were like luminous blue pools and were unlike any Paul had ever seen or heard of before. They were, in fact, not unlike pictures of the Christ that he had known from books he studied when he was a child, and this realization rumbled through Paul's spirit like an earthquake.

"Are you the Christ? Risen from the dead? From the Resurrection?" Paul asked, and the Acolytes bowed their heads when they heard this, for many had looked at the Ruler's strange eyes and come to the same conclusion.

Derek Hayward looked at the men assembled around him, and he knew what they were. The last Americans. The last religious lunatics, as his mother Angela had called them, left in the world. His father and mother had warned him they would come one day.

And they had told him what to do with them when they came.

Hayward looked at the men with pity in his eyes, with sadness for the journey they had made, and to have their journey come to such an unexpected metamorphosis as now awaited them, for as much as he hated what he must do to them, it was a solemn promise he had made to his parents.

Derek Hayward told Paul and the other's that no, he wasn't Jesus Christ, and that, no, it wasn't at all unusual for people - especially people from Ireland and Scotland - to have red hair and blue, or even green eyes. He could see the last Americans shaking their heads in disbelief, and it was then that Derek Hayward began to see the ultimate logic in his parent's final solution.

Hayward asked the Americans to stay for dinner, and he fed them a huge meal of corned beef and cabbage and potatoes, and he smiled as the men drank their first glasses of Irish Stout and began to grow a wee bit tipsy.

As dinner progressed, and Paul grew ever more talkative, Hayward once again felt pity for the man, for in the end they had done him no wrong. But once again, he thought of the simple majesty of the plan his parents had devised, and he resolved to see it through to the end.

During the latter stages of the dinner, Hayward told the men that they would soon be taking a journey, and Hayward did his best to conceal his emotions as first Paul, then the others began to ask where it was they would be going. Hayward stalled as long as he could, but in the end he told them that he would be taken to a place where they would come to know God in a much more immediate and enduring way.

Hayward could see that Paul grew frightened, and soon the others became defensive, but Hayward knew the men had been weakened by their long voyage, and he knew that the strong beer had made them sleepy. Hayward knew men; for after all was said and done, he was his father's son.

Soon the men had coffee, which they claimed to have never even heard of before, and ate strawberries and whipped cream. Hayward looked at the men as if they were sitting for their last supper, for indeed, he thought, this was in a way quite true.

Soon after the men finished eating their berries and drinking their coffee, Hayward stood and walked with the men to the vans that would carry them to their final destination. He loaded them into the 'carts' - as Paul called them - and after the vans moved out he got into his own car and followed them as they made their way farther and farther from the castle, out into the steep hills of the central highlands, and deeper and deeper into the night. They drove until they were far from any village or town, and then, about four in the morning the caravan turned off the highway they had been on for some time, turned off onto a dirt road, and drove slowly for another hour.

The sun was rising again when the vehicles came to a stop, and Hayward got out of his car and walked a few tentative steps, then stopped to stretch and yawn. The American's climbed out of their vans; some rubbed their eyes, others looked about suspiciously at Hayward and the other drivers.

"Follow me," Hayward said, and he began walking up a small trail that quickly passed into deep woods. The other drivers motioned the Americans to follow their Ruler, and it was with great trepidation that Paul moved to follow the man with Satan's hair. He had heard of Rome, and of how Romans persecuted Christians, and he thought now that they must be on their way to the lion's den, that surely they were being led to their death.

Despite his misgivings, Paul soon fell entranced by the simple beauty of the woods they were walking through. At one point, as they walked alongside a briskly running stream, Hayward stopped and knelt by the water, then cupped his hands deep in the running water and brought it up to his mouth. He did so again, and used this water to wash the sleepiness from his eyes and face. Paul came to the water and knelt next to Hayward and did the same, then stood next to Hayward when he was finished.

"Why are you doing this to us?" Paul asked. He felt not fear, but he didn't understand why he was going to be killed. "What have we done to cause you to hate us so?"

"I don't hate you, Paul. I fear your ignorance. It is your ignorance that fuels hatred wherever it goes. If left in it's present form, the limited knowledge you have of religion will become a cancer on the future of humanity. I promised my parents that when you came, I would do as they wished. This, Paul, was their wish for you." Hayward spread his arms wide and indicated that this forest would mark the end of their journey, and Paul looked where Hayward indicated and saw a simple stone wall. Hayward walked toward this wall, and Paul followed.

There was a massive wooden gate set deep within the ancient stone of this wall, and Hayward walked up to it as one would walk up to any wooden door. There was a rope hanging from a rafter above the door, and Hayward took this rope and pulled on it until a bell could be heard ringing faraway, yet somehow Paul knew the sound of the bell came from inside the stone building.

"What is this place of death?" Paul asked. "Why? Why must you do this?"

"Paul, my parents told me that once America, the land you come from, was a great land, a land of freedom, and above all - a land of tolerance. A place founded, Paul, that was to provide an escape from religious tyranny for all who dared to search for enlightenment. Over time, Paul, as the people of this new land grew wealthy, the people grew complacent, they looked for easy answers to difficult problems offered them by charlatans, and they turned their backs on their founding principles. America in time became a religious tyranny, the home of oppression, and a beacon not of hope, but of darkness. They sought to impose their beliefs everywhere in the world, and soon the world began to look upon America not as a fountain of goodness, but the living embodiment of all that was wrong with mankind.

"Soon, Paul, the leaders of America saw the rest of the world as morally destitute, and they sought to end the dominion of what they claimed was evil by destroying the world. They could no longer see, as they grew old and suspicious of everyone who held opinions different from their own, that they had lost their faith. They professed love, but everywhere they went, Paul, they gave not love to the world, but hate. Rather than listen to people, Paul, they sought intimidation, and then - when intimidation no longer worked, annihilation. Rather than spread the love Christ so wanted man to embrace, they became a people consumed by the of deeds murderers and thieves even as they became a nation of murderers and thieves. They came, near the end of their time, a bankrupt people, a people consumed by fear, fear of the very things they chose to spread among the people of the earth.

"As with almost all such cultures, Paul, they came to embody what was at one time called a death wish. They saw their reflections in the mirror of the world they created, and they understood - too late - but they understood what it was they had created. They sought death, Paul, for they still believed in the goodness of man, and of redemption.

"So the Americans planted a seed, Paul, and you are that flower of that seed. You have come out into the world as you were at the end their time. You have come to change the world in your image - again - and not to understand it. You have come to shape the world once again in your image, when you haven't the slightest idea what it is you see when you look into a mirror. You have come to the world as a cancer, Paul, ready to spread your poison again, ready to begin again the cycle of violence you would have us believe is the will of God.

"Christianity was once, Paul, a simple philosophy of compassion and love. In time, the people who live within these walls came to understand that. But they saw the course man had chosen, and they withdrew from the world to save the teachings of Christ for what might, in time, emerge from the ruins.

"Once these people were called Jesuits, but soon there came Buddhists, and Benedictines, and Jews. One such man who came here was called the Dalai Lama, another was called the Pope. Paul, these people were called Christian, Jew, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist - and all these names served no purpose but to divide man, and men divided seek advantage, then dominion, over other men. Now the men and women who live behind these walls call themselves humans, and they have come here to embrace all human experience that leads to an understanding of god and love, and they have gathered within these walls to think about what they have learned, and to teach those who might listen.

"Paul, it was my parent's wish that I bring you to this place. This place became their life's work. When the world was falling apart they took the last of our resources and flew out into the world and gathered as many of the world's great religious minds and philosophers as survived the holocaust, and they brought them here. They brought them here so that when man dared to once again walk among the stars, they would do so with a pure heart. Not a heart consumed by fear and greed, not a heart full of an ever deepening lust for power. And most of all, Paul, they wanted understanding and compassion to finally triumph over ignorance. Paul, my parents wanted our children to know love, to experience love, and to live up to the idea of love.

"Paul, I can not and will not force you to stay here within these walls, but if you chose to stay, when you are ready I will help you return to America, I will go with you to the land that was the home of my father, and together we will find a way to build a bridge across the gulf of our misunderstanding. This is my promise to you, Paul. And that is the promise I made to my parents."

The door opened. A man in flowing orange robes stood there, bathed in light.

The way was clear.

Paul looked at Hayward, then took his hand.

"I will look forward to that day," he said as he held Hayward's hand in his. Then he turned and walked into the light.

_______________________________________

Hayward turned from the closing gate and looked up to the sky. He thought of his father, as he did most every day. He thought of them both, Deke and Angela, mom and dad, and of the world they hoped would replace the one that had very nearly been lost.

He thought of Paul, and the journey he was just beginning within those stone walls, and the journey that in fact he had just begun.

Sunlight streamed through trees, birds sang, water rushed down to the sea . . . all was as it had been . . . and would be - if things worked out the way his parents hoped. He walked to the stream once again and picked up a flat stone and threw it the way his father had once shown him. He watched the stone as it skipped along the water's surface, then walked once again, walked towards his 'cart' and the new day.

He whistled as he walked. An old tune from an old movie - his father had told him once. A movie about airplanes, and men, and the will to survive. A movie about what it meant to be a pilot. To wander above in the clouds.

Hayward knew that one day soon, man would soar once again among the clouds.

He thought of Paul and the others as he walked along, and wondered if his parents had been right. Would it begin again? Would men ever learn the truth of their hidden nature? Would men ever really learn to walk into the light, beyond their reflections.

He walked and whistled, listened to the melody float off into the woods, and realized that the answers to those questions would never come to one who feared to even ask the questions.

He watched a bird flying from limb to limb, and he smiled.

finis

This is, of course, a work of fiction.

These are indeed interesting times we live in.

AL