A ROMAN HOLIDAY

Part 3

By Trynia Merin

"What the heck…" Lori got out as Saul helped her up, and they exchanged a panicked glance. The door of the grandfather clock was shut, and they saw the pendulum swinging in the space, which was the size of a closet.

"Uh oh, I think I blew it," Saul mumbled. "Sorry Lori…"

"Sorry nothing, it wasn't your fault," she said slowly. "But what…"

"I caught a flash of fear from DM just before we vanished, and I sensed an evil mind. I think it was Crumhorn. DM's last thoughts were about how stupid I was… because he's seen this clock before…"

"Huh?" Lori asked.

"The thoughts Time Machine… crossed his mind," Saul said soberly. "And we're stuck in it…"

"But how… what do we do?" Lori panicked. "What if we… oh no!"

"Easy love, we'll just see where we end up. I mean if this IS a time machine, maybe we can figure out HOW it works… and first see where we end up. I mean if we're going BACK into time… or forward," Saul mumbled.

"How you can be calm at a time like this is amazing," Lori sighed, trying to grip her agent's training as Saul looked up at the clock mechanism. The gears and mechanism belied the nature of the thing, and she peered out the door to see swirling messes of what must be centuries going by.

"What time?" she asked.

"Huh, we've stopped," said Saul slowly. "I think… I recall Crumhorn's last thoughts about setting a trap for DM… and it had to do with sending him back to the beginning of time…"

"Oh no…" Lori gasped. "But how far back…"

"If I boost you up maybe you can make sense of this thing… see if there are any numbers or anything…" Saul mumbled as he boosted Lori up. She scrambled up on his shoulders and saw the workings of the clock. Apart from some odd gears and crystals, she saw a needle that suddenly was twisted all the way as far as it could go, the marks in a strange language. She realized it was Greek… and groaned because she couldn't read Greek. Latin Maybe, but not Greek.

"It's literally all Greek to me," she mumbled. "Rats… I recognize the letters Alpha and Omega, and Zeta… but the needle is pushed all the way towards Alpha…"

"Beginning and end?" Saul muttered as he let Lori down.

"But if it's time, it could be any time…"

"How old is the world," Saul muttered. "4.6 billion years?"

"Some say it's only 6000 years old," Lori said softly.

"We'll find out, won't we," Saul mumbled as the clock bonged, and jarred to a stop. Saul pushed the door open, and stepped out. It was dark, and Lori shivered in the sudden cold. She shivered, and Saul wrapped his coat around her, for he had worn it. There was a wind, and the sound of the sea ebbing and flowing. Lori shivered, but before she could close the door, Saul propped it open.

"I think it was activated when the door what shut…" he said.

"Where or when are we?" she gasped, unable to make out much. Slowly a disk rose over what appeared to be mountains, and she gasped, as it was the disc of the moon. Stars winked on, looking fresh and bright, thousands of them, far more than could be seen in a city. Overhead the stars were blocked, and Saul saw the silhouette of palm tree fronds eclipsing the star filled vault in places.

"Whoever and whenever, the air is so fresh and clear," Stan breathed in. The sound of rushing water met their ears, and they could hear the sounds of something rustling. As the sherbet bands of dawn rose, a bright radiance suddenly burst over the mountains, and stabbed into their eyes. Lori gasped as she shielded her eyes from it, and the dawn broke. Saul suddenly realized that green lush leaves blocked the view. All around them the air was sweet with flowers, and they realized they were near a river. The whole world around them had the freshness of a rainforest, and Lori couldn't help but feel as if the very ground and air was brand new.

"Oh my… it's like… a paradise," Lori gasped as she noticed insects buzzing about.

"Look out!" Saul gasped as something crashed through the bush, and Lori was pushed out of the way. A huge tiger leapt towards them, growling. Lori gasped as Saul faced off, his eyes flaring purple.

"Hey, easy, I was jest playing!" the Tiger said with a laugh. "Why are you so scared… and WHAT are those weird skins you're wearing?"

"Uh… I um…" Lori gasped as she looked at the Tiger.

"He's innocent. He didn't want to hurt us," Saul realized, in shock.

"Why would I 'hurt' you?" asked the Tiger. "What did the Man name you?"

"Say what?" Saul asked.

"Hurry up. The Man is naming us. He called me a Tiger…"

"Man?" Lori asked.

"It is what he calls himself. Come this way," said the Tiger as he crouched down, and indicated they should climb on his back. As they climbed upon him, he carried them to the midst of a clearing. Lori gasped when she saw a handsome creature, sitting on a rock, his golden tanned skin clear and without blemish, his hair long about his shoulders as he extended a hand to a furry lion and lioness, and said, "Lion…"

"Who is that?" Saul breathed as Lori's eyes widened.

"The Man," said the Tiger. "That's what he named himself. Hurry up and he'll name you…"

Other animals were chatting to one another as they filed by the Man, who smiled and scratched the next creature to move up, under the chin. He said clearly, "Deer… buck and doe… male and female…" and the doe and buck moved back, dipping their heads in strange reverence.

"Go on, small ones," said the Tiger as he nudged Saul and Lori up to the human figure that towered over them. His eyes were kind and deep, and he seemed to look like many humans that Lori had seen, but he was stark naked, and not ashamed!

"What have we here… little ones," said the Man in a resonant voice, and a language that seemed a blend of many, but was one that they could both understand. Since when could men speak with animals, Saul wondered. "What shall I call you… let me think… how about… mouse…"

"Um that's right, we're mice," Lori said slowly, looking up at him.

"Excuse me… sir… Man," said Saul. "But WHERE are we?"

"You do not know,' the man laughed, but there was sadness in his eyes. "I call this place the Garden. And all about me is the world. I'm supposed to take care of you the creatures, and it as what he said… a Steward. That's what He said…."

"Who?" Saul asked.

"The one that made us all of course," the Man said.

"Um do you mean the Master of the Universe?" Saul asked, not believing his ears.

"Yes," said the Man.

"The Unnamed one… because if you speak his name, you may know death itself?" Saul queried.

"You know him then, and you make sport," the Man smiled. "That is what I shall call this. A joke…"

"Yes," smiled Saul, shaking his head. "You always need a joke or two…"

He glanced around, and saw the others. "Now, I must find names for the others… I shall see you later. Don't be afraid… and we will speak more of this thing you call humor…"

"Huh," mumbled Saul as the Man rose from his rock and walked around the circle of assembled creatures, laying his hand upon each and giving a name. Lori shook her head, dumfounded. "That's the weirdest thing… this CAN'T be…"

"I think I know WHERE we are," said Lori as she saw the Man move out of view.

"Is he the only one?" asked Saul slowly. "Or is there a woman too?"

"There should be another… soon," said Lori. They sat down and glanced anxiously about, and Lori was hoping to see what would happen next. The Man finally felt sadness claim him as he lay down and murmured to himself.

"All these creatures, and none to be my companion," he whispered before his eyelids drooped. He soon fell fast asleep, and Saul and Lori tensed.

"Maybe we should get back to the clock…" Saul whispered, before Lori stopped him.

"Wait, I want to see this," said Lori. They waited for a long time as the Man slept, turning over in a bed of leaves. The other animals moved away, but the Tiger watched, near a wolf, and a lamb, and a lion nearby, wondering why the two mice were so confused.

Slowly the side of the man opened up, and they saw something being pulled out, white and long, but there was no blood. It lay next to the Man, and Saul gasped as he saw it grow in size. Before their eyes they say another figure lying next to him, fast asleep, with long hair falling over hips and back. It was another person, breathing in time with the Man.

"It's not good for you to be alone," said a soft whisper in the wind. "So, from your flesh I make you a helpmate…"

"Oh man," Saul mumbled, not believing as the Man opened his eyes and blinked, to see the lovely face smiling at him. He reached out to touch her face.

"This is Woman," said the soft whisper, still and silent. "I present her to you, she is of your flesh, and you and she shall be helpmates… like a father presents his daughter to her bridegroom, and when they are married they become one flesh, one body, so you have her at your side, to help you in the work I have given you to do."

"Woman," the Man smiled. "At last, someone to be my companion."

"Woman," the woman smiled as she sat up, and traced the face of the Man. Both were completely skyclad, and looking longingly at one another with the innocence of a child.

"Be fruitful, and multiply… and take CARE of my garden, and all the creatures in it," said the voice. "But there is just ONE rule. You can eat ANYTHING here, use any resource. But you should NOT touch the fruit of two trees…"

"What trees may I ask?" the Man looked at the air around him as if it were perfectly natural to do so.

"The tree of Life, and the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. If you touch the trees, or eat the fruit, you will die. This commandment alone I give…" said the voice.

Woman smiled at Man, and slowly he helped her up, to show her their New World. Forgotten, Saul and Lori just looked at one another in disbelief.

"I know WHEN we are," Lori said slowly.

"Um, am I dreaming or have I lost my mind?" Saul asked slowly. "Is this really Eden? What next, a serpent and the fruit?"

"We should be going… because I'm sort of sad to see what will next happen," Lori said sadly as she glanced at the Eden around them. How long would it last?

Saul led her back to the time machine, and they slowly opened the door. Lori pulled him in, and they looked at one another. "So… when are we? And can I believe it?" Saul asked, suspecting the truth of their time and place.

"I believe, give or take 4 years owing to not knowing the exact time of birth of Jesus, that we're back nearly six thousand years…"

"I can't believe this," Saul shook his head.

"Give me a leg up," she said as he did so, and Saul boosted her up to where the toggle switch was moved all the way to Alpha. She slowly nudged the lever to the mark, two thirds of the way, to the year she hoped would be their century, but then realized that she had miscalculated when it got stuck at the halfway mark.

"Drat, I can't… budge it… it's stuck!"

"We're leaving!" Saul shouted as the door closed, and the clock vanished. Lori struggled to shift the lever but lost her balance, and Saul just managed to catch her as she landed in his arms.

"Whew, I can't… drat that lever…"

"What time did you set it to…"

"With my luck we'll end up at the year zero," she mumbled.

"Hmm, by the Christian calendar?" Saul asked. "Maybe if we thought in terms of another calendar," he said, leaning up to look at the dial. It was stuck halfway, and he realized he saw the mark where it had been before.

"If it's four thousand 4 BC… and our year is 5764… and maybe if I moved it… darn, it IS stuck…"

"Told you," Lori said. "We need to fix it somehow…"

"I hope wherever we are, we can find some tools," Saul mumbled as the clock pendulum started, and they were on their way again. He sat down by Lori, who looked up gloomily, annoyed at herself for failing to move a clock part, which was stubborn.

"What was this about 5764?" Lori asked. "Jewish calendar?"

"Yep," Saul said. "Using this as zero, and if you moved that lever halfway, you'd get the year 2882."

"Unfortunately that doesn't help me much," mumbled Lori. "What happened during THAT year?"

"I have to think back to Hebrew school," Saul blushed. "Man was created on the first of Tishrei, which is signified by Rosh Hashonah, and if we ARE at the first of Tishrei in the first year, then… we can use THAT as a time scale, because your Gregorian calendar was messed up…"

"I guess," said Lori with a smile.

"Who would have thought what I learned actually was helpful," Saul blushed. "I thought it was all based in myth…"

"You never can tell," Lori smiled as the clock moved again, and they moved through the ages. She hoped that DM wasn't having this much trouble with Professor Crumhorn!

"What were you sad about?" asked Saul gently as Lori wiped a tear from her eyes. Only the clock ticking broke the uneasy silence. "Eve eating that fruit?"

"Original sin," said Lori softly. "Only hours or minutes away… and the paradise is gone… and mankind falls…"

"Heh, we STILL have a choice. What we make of it is OUR business," Saul snorted.

"True, but that's where Jesus comes in. He died to take away the sin in the Garden. The sin that Man and Woman created…"

"I still don't get that, but I do know about the whole idea of the sins of the forefathers coming unto the seventh generation," Saul shook his head. "Something about that."

"You do understand," Lori brightened up.

"Well, if we ARE going to end up in 2828, I think you can figure out WHEN that is… some time during the Roman Empire…"

"And a very important birthday," Lori gasped.

***