- Jul 17, 2004
- 174,277
- 133,622
- Country
- New Zealand
- Gender
- Female
- Faith
- Christian
- Marital Status
- Married
Tom rose and they followed him outside.
Gesturing at the beautiful surroundings, he said, "I led my family and friends into a prison!"
His son laid his hand on his father's arm comfortingly.
"A prison? What do you mean?" Lost said.
"I am a disloyal coward who fled, who turned his back on the soldiers under his command, who left them to their fate. When I learned that an enemy was approaching our city, I did not help prepare for battle. I bolted from the Palace, grabbed my wife and son and as much as we could load onto our horses and rode out of town, heading for here. I knew of this place from childhood. Some of my friends in the Army came with us too."
"But - but - the King and the other Army leaders would have noticed you weren't helping prepare for battle, surely?" Lilac asked.
"I led them to believe I was riding to our secret stores outside the city with my men, to fetch more arms hidden there. I lied to my King and broke his trust."
The crew looked at each other. They could see the effort it had cost Tom to tell them these things. It was apparent that he bitterly regretted breaking trust with his King and his men. Compassion flooded through them as Tom regarded them silently.
"This is why we are here. To speak of God's forgiveness, His mercy and grace," David thought.
"You said this is a prison, Tom?" js said, cutting into David's thoughts.
"Yes, it is. We fled here as only a handful of people knew of this little valley in the forest. My father showed it to me when I was a child and told me never to tell anyone else of it. It was to be our refuge, our sanctuary from the battle and possible usurping of the King's throne. But it is a prison - literally and figuratively. My shame imprisoned me."
A few of the crew broke into speech then, all seeking to reassure Tom.
"We can't leave, even if we want to," Tom's son interjected. "This is an enchanted place. No one leaves here until the conditions are fulfilled."
The crew gaped at Tom as his words sank in.
"Tom, much as I like your little utopia here, my crew and I will leave whenever we want," David said firmly.
CTC said, "What on earth does that mean? Enchanted? Surely that's the stuff of fairy tales? This is 2018 - a more prosaic time could almost not be imagined."
Tom shook his head. "What my son says is true. You will find there is an invisible boundary encompassing an area of roughly five square miles, including a quarter of a mile out to sea, beyond which no one here may pass."
LaSorcia leapt to her feet. "What do you want with us? Why would you keep us prisoner here?"
"You have all been curious about the time thing. When we fled, we were stopped at the edge of our lands here. An old man spoke with me. I believe now that he was a messenger of the Lord Himself. He knew everything that was in my heart, cowardice, greed, disloyalty, self-centredness. He knew I was dragging family and friends with me. He suggested I return, that I take a different path, put value into the things that truly matter." Tom looked at his wife, clearing away the breakfast things.
"I was so arrogant. I derided the advice, made to push my way past. To me, I was doing the right thing by my family, keeping them safe here. The old man told me that it was my choice, but things would not be as I imagined. To my shame, I laughed at him, said I had all I wanted, my family, my riches and a safe place for us to enjoy life without responsibilities to anyone else. He let me pass. When we arrived here, I found a letter in my saddlebag. He must have slipped it in as I left. It is a message from the Lord Himself."
Tom unrolled a piece of thick paper, covered in beautiful writing.
The crew crowded round eagerly. Tom began to read parts of it.
"Enchanted forest; cannot leave until certain conditions are met; visitors..."
"Oh, what does it say about visitors?" Lost interrupted eagerly.
"Basically that we may ask visitors for help. They will agree or refuse. We will abide by their wishes. If they refuse, they will be able to leave, but we will not. Your ancestors chose to leave, js."
js felt an unutterable sadness in hearing Tom's words. She felt deep in her spirit that perhaps their decision had been the wrong one.
Tom pointed at the vegetables in the gardens. All fully grown and healthy.
"When we pick a lettuce, there is another full-grown one waiting for us the next morning. The trees never lose their leaves, the sun always shines, rain always falls in the night to nourish the land, no enemy ever finds his way here, day follows day in perfect harmony."
"Sounds idyllic, but slightly boring, Tom?" Spikey said with an attempt at humour.
Tom's son grinned with a nod of his head.
"Nothing ever dies here. Nothing ever ages. Everything remains at optimum health. And so it has been for the last 700 or so years."
A stunned silence followed these words. 700 years?
"Are you saying you met my ancestors yourself, Tom?" js asked, scarcely believing she was actually considering that statement to be fact.
"Yes, I did. You see, time almost stands still here. One day and one night is all we are permitted in this enchanted place and it repeats over and over again. We have lost track of how many 'real' years we have been here, but our calculations indicate it's hundreds of years. 1769 was a guess," he said apologetically. "Obviously out by a few hundred years, eh?"
How many more shocks, sunshine thought to herself, as she looked round fearfully.
Tom caught her glance and said, "Perhaps enchanted is the wrong word. It is a sacred place because this place is the Lord's. See - at the bottom of this letter, it says he owns it, created it, in fact. It is certainly a refuge, but not in the way I imagined. In my mind, it was to be a place apart from the world, a place where all we had to think about was ourselves. Ignore the world, hide away here and live happily ever after, as in your fairy tales, CTC. Then we learned of the limitations as set out in the letter. For a long time, they meant nothing to me. All I wanted was right here. But slowly the Lord's ways, the Lord's thoughts crept into my mind. You know the diamonds you found on the beach, sunshine? You should have heard my whoops of joy when I first saw them. Rich beyond my wildest dreams, I thought. But no. That was a hard lesson."
It was a lot to take in. And the crew still didn't know what they could do to help Tom and his community. He read their thoughts.
"I want to go back. I want to reprise my role as Captain and lead my men into battle. Take my place in the world, if it be His will and live as He would have me live."
Puzzled looks between the crew was their polite way of saying, "But you can't. By all accounts that was hundreds of years ago now."
Tom smiled and said, "Yes, it is possible. With the Lord, anything is possible. My faith is strong now. He has communicated with us many times, you know. Letters that arrive in the night. He watches over us, I know. I think He was here just last night, actually."
js remembered the movement in the gardens as she looked out her bedroom window. If what Tom said was true, that was thrilling news indeed!
Gesturing at the beautiful surroundings, he said, "I led my family and friends into a prison!"
His son laid his hand on his father's arm comfortingly.
"A prison? What do you mean?" Lost said.
"I am a disloyal coward who fled, who turned his back on the soldiers under his command, who left them to their fate. When I learned that an enemy was approaching our city, I did not help prepare for battle. I bolted from the Palace, grabbed my wife and son and as much as we could load onto our horses and rode out of town, heading for here. I knew of this place from childhood. Some of my friends in the Army came with us too."
"But - but - the King and the other Army leaders would have noticed you weren't helping prepare for battle, surely?" Lilac asked.
"I led them to believe I was riding to our secret stores outside the city with my men, to fetch more arms hidden there. I lied to my King and broke his trust."
The crew looked at each other. They could see the effort it had cost Tom to tell them these things. It was apparent that he bitterly regretted breaking trust with his King and his men. Compassion flooded through them as Tom regarded them silently.
"This is why we are here. To speak of God's forgiveness, His mercy and grace," David thought.
"You said this is a prison, Tom?" js said, cutting into David's thoughts.
"Yes, it is. We fled here as only a handful of people knew of this little valley in the forest. My father showed it to me when I was a child and told me never to tell anyone else of it. It was to be our refuge, our sanctuary from the battle and possible usurping of the King's throne. But it is a prison - literally and figuratively. My shame imprisoned me."
A few of the crew broke into speech then, all seeking to reassure Tom.
"We can't leave, even if we want to," Tom's son interjected. "This is an enchanted place. No one leaves here until the conditions are fulfilled."
The crew gaped at Tom as his words sank in.
"Tom, much as I like your little utopia here, my crew and I will leave whenever we want," David said firmly.
CTC said, "What on earth does that mean? Enchanted? Surely that's the stuff of fairy tales? This is 2018 - a more prosaic time could almost not be imagined."
Tom shook his head. "What my son says is true. You will find there is an invisible boundary encompassing an area of roughly five square miles, including a quarter of a mile out to sea, beyond which no one here may pass."
LaSorcia leapt to her feet. "What do you want with us? Why would you keep us prisoner here?"
"You have all been curious about the time thing. When we fled, we were stopped at the edge of our lands here. An old man spoke with me. I believe now that he was a messenger of the Lord Himself. He knew everything that was in my heart, cowardice, greed, disloyalty, self-centredness. He knew I was dragging family and friends with me. He suggested I return, that I take a different path, put value into the things that truly matter." Tom looked at his wife, clearing away the breakfast things.
"I was so arrogant. I derided the advice, made to push my way past. To me, I was doing the right thing by my family, keeping them safe here. The old man told me that it was my choice, but things would not be as I imagined. To my shame, I laughed at him, said I had all I wanted, my family, my riches and a safe place for us to enjoy life without responsibilities to anyone else. He let me pass. When we arrived here, I found a letter in my saddlebag. He must have slipped it in as I left. It is a message from the Lord Himself."
Tom unrolled a piece of thick paper, covered in beautiful writing.
The crew crowded round eagerly. Tom began to read parts of it.
"Enchanted forest; cannot leave until certain conditions are met; visitors..."
"Oh, what does it say about visitors?" Lost interrupted eagerly.
"Basically that we may ask visitors for help. They will agree or refuse. We will abide by their wishes. If they refuse, they will be able to leave, but we will not. Your ancestors chose to leave, js."
js felt an unutterable sadness in hearing Tom's words. She felt deep in her spirit that perhaps their decision had been the wrong one.
Tom pointed at the vegetables in the gardens. All fully grown and healthy.
"When we pick a lettuce, there is another full-grown one waiting for us the next morning. The trees never lose their leaves, the sun always shines, rain always falls in the night to nourish the land, no enemy ever finds his way here, day follows day in perfect harmony."
"Sounds idyllic, but slightly boring, Tom?" Spikey said with an attempt at humour.
Tom's son grinned with a nod of his head.
"Nothing ever dies here. Nothing ever ages. Everything remains at optimum health. And so it has been for the last 700 or so years."
A stunned silence followed these words. 700 years?
"Are you saying you met my ancestors yourself, Tom?" js asked, scarcely believing she was actually considering that statement to be fact.
"Yes, I did. You see, time almost stands still here. One day and one night is all we are permitted in this enchanted place and it repeats over and over again. We have lost track of how many 'real' years we have been here, but our calculations indicate it's hundreds of years. 1769 was a guess," he said apologetically. "Obviously out by a few hundred years, eh?"
How many more shocks, sunshine thought to herself, as she looked round fearfully.
Tom caught her glance and said, "Perhaps enchanted is the wrong word. It is a sacred place because this place is the Lord's. See - at the bottom of this letter, it says he owns it, created it, in fact. It is certainly a refuge, but not in the way I imagined. In my mind, it was to be a place apart from the world, a place where all we had to think about was ourselves. Ignore the world, hide away here and live happily ever after, as in your fairy tales, CTC. Then we learned of the limitations as set out in the letter. For a long time, they meant nothing to me. All I wanted was right here. But slowly the Lord's ways, the Lord's thoughts crept into my mind. You know the diamonds you found on the beach, sunshine? You should have heard my whoops of joy when I first saw them. Rich beyond my wildest dreams, I thought. But no. That was a hard lesson."
It was a lot to take in. And the crew still didn't know what they could do to help Tom and his community. He read their thoughts.
"I want to go back. I want to reprise my role as Captain and lead my men into battle. Take my place in the world, if it be His will and live as He would have me live."
Puzzled looks between the crew was their polite way of saying, "But you can't. By all accounts that was hundreds of years ago now."
Tom smiled and said, "Yes, it is possible. With the Lord, anything is possible. My faith is strong now. He has communicated with us many times, you know. Letters that arrive in the night. He watches over us, I know. I think He was here just last night, actually."
js remembered the movement in the gardens as she looked out her bedroom window. If what Tom said was true, that was thrilling news indeed!
Upvote
0
