The Forgotten Eden (17 page)

“
I started to lose my balance, looking up again. Magnificent, not only was the spike incredibly high, but also several hundred feet in diameter. A marble staircase with gold rails and banisters spiraled up as far as I could see. The crystal windows I’d seen earlier followed the staircase’s ascent, channeling sunlight as refracted rainbows within the tower’s shaft.

“
A crystal tube stood in the very center of the room, running from the floor to what I assumed to be the very top of the spike, not visible from where we stood. The entire length of the tube glowed.

“
When I looked over at Genovene, her countenance was serene. But her eyes glowed like a pair of cerulean fires.

“‘
Welcome to my home, Jack!’ she exalted, the echo of her lovely voice bouncing from wall to wall as it resounded throughout the temple base. She began to shimmer again.

“‘
This is really your...
house?
’
I asked, incredulous.

“
She nodded, swinging herself around with her arms out and her fingers pointed away from her body. She threw back her head in ecstasy as she twirled around me, dancing as a skilled ballerina might’ve done. Her gown floated lightly above the floor as she moved. Spinning around me several times, she relaxed into a curtsy. Slowly, she raised herself up, her eyes less ablaze.

‘
Jack, this place is the temple of my people just as surely as my home!’ she proclaimed, as if in some Shakespearean play. ‘It’s been my house longer than you could
ever
imagine, and is my father’s creation!’

“
She paused, making sure I followed her words.

“‘
My father’s name is Talusha, the protector of my people! He’s the one who gives us
life!
He keeps us content and happy, and ensures that no hostility befalls us,
ever!
That’s why very few have ever seen our wonderful village!’

“
I stood speechless, trying to understand why she acted so strangely. She nodded and smiled again. She sauntered closer while holding me in her gaze.

“‘
As I said, this
is
our temple,’ she said, reducing the volume of her voice to a sultry whisper. ‘The people here worship Talusha as their lord and savior—their
god
!
In this hallowed place, they let their voices ring out in adoration, because without him, our very existence would end!’

“‘
Okay’ I thought, ‘she’s fucking nuts!’

“
A ‘god’ other than the One I prayed to every night for my mom and dad to finally come home? I seriously doubted Reverend Meyers, the preacher at the local First Baptist church Grandpa sometimes took me to, ever heard of ‘Talusha’. But I considered the amazing things I’d experienced up until then…. They all meant something, right? Still, the leap to the absurd notion her daddy was anybody’s ‘god’ seemed so…well, absurd.

“‘
Jack,’ she said, interrupting my thoughts. ‘It doesn’t matter if you believe it or not. Before today is over, you
will
know him!’

“
Her smile never faded despite my possible insult to her father. Uneasiness briefly touched my awareness and then was gone. Other than the intense sadness I experienced at the garden’s wishing pool, I still wasn’t able to hold onto any feeling or thought for long. They easily slipped from my mind’s grasp like water through a strainer.

“
She moved closer with her consistent disregard for my personal space. I thought she might kiss me when she closed the gap between us to less than an inch. My manhood began to respond, embarrassing me. The smile on her face mischievous, she took a step back and deliberately looked down at my crotch. Awkwardly torn between self-consciousness and the raging fire of my adolescent desire, I was mostly relieved when she turned her intense blue eyes back to meet my own.

“‘
There’s some unfinished business between you and I that’ll need to be addressed before much longer,’ she said. ‘For now, follow me to the chalube’at. It’ll take us up to see the most incredible view in the entire world!’

“
She turned to lead me to the crystal tube in the middle of the room. When she realized I hadn’t moved yet, she stopped walking and looked over her shoulder with a mock pout on her face.

“‘
Would you rather take the stairs, sweetie?’

“
She winked at me, and then awaited my response with her hands on her hips and her shapely butt upturned ever so slight. She was driving me nuts, man…. Since the moment I first laid eyes on her, I’d been enraptured by her physical beauty. But, now I felt overwhelmed with tense excitement and incredible horniness. I guess, like Jeremy would say, I wanted her real bad…to ‘plant’ her right there on the temple floor!

“
She straightened up and waved her index finger at me.

“‘
Not
yet
!’
she laughed again. ‘Remember what I told you earlier? Play your cards right and you just might get some!’ She glanced one last time at my noticeable boner. ‘Are you ready to finish your tour?’

“
Cruelly, my lustful feelings gave way to shame, and I’m sure my face was beet-red. Despite confusion that I feared might lead to insanity if it kept up much longer, I followed her like an adoring puppy to the crystal tube, this ‘chalube’at’ as she called it.

“
Craning my neck as far as I could, my gaze followed the tube’s length. But like the very top of the tower where it supposedly led, the tube’s end remained a mystery to my eyes. I looked down at the chalube’at’s base, wondering how it worked since there wasn’t a visible doorway for getting in and out of the tube. There wasn’t a place to sit inside it either. But walking up the staircase seemed much worse.

“
She moved up to the chalube’at, and crossed her hands, palms toward her. The tube separated into a series of panels that folded and crossed on top of themselves, forming a narrow doorway. This happened so swift and silent that if I’d not paid close attention, I’d have missed it completely.

“
Genovene stepped inside and I followed. The panels quietly slipped back into place. I looked closely at the tube’s wall, but couldn’t detect the slightest seam or line, as if the doorway never existed. She moved to one side of the tube and directed me to stand across from her.

“‘
Hold on tight!’ she cautioned.

“‘
To
what?’
I wondered.

“
In the very next instant we were jolted into the air, flying up the tube at incredible speed. The granite floor below shrank rapidly until it vanished altogether. My feet dangling in the air, we rose higher and higher. For the first time, Genovene looked a lot like a witch, though a sexy one with her hair blowing in the air, her eyes a pair of flashing sapphires, and her black gown tapered to a point just below her feet.

“
The thrill indescribable, as you can surely imagine, I embraced the rush that filled my entire being. When we neared the top, our ascent slowed dramatically. Refracted sunlight obscured the view below beyond a few feet. Just as well, since I doubt we’d have seen much else anyway. A hole opened up in the spike’s ceiling and we were slowly pulled through it into near blinding light. The hole closed, and we landed gently on a solid floor.

“
Genovene stepped away from the tube’s wall and moved toward the center. Her outline vague, she motioned for me to join her. Once I stood with her in the center of the tube, the panels slid open again, though I only sensed this. The intense light’s heat embraced me, and she firmly grasped my hands to lead me out into the room. My legs like rubber, it took a moment for normal feeling to return to my limbs.

“
I could barely see in front of me, and then only if I squinted painfully. She let go of my hands and moved a few feet away. Again, I glimpsed her outline, while she appeared to move her arms over her head in a circular motion. Like she held a pair of invisible lassos, getting ready to rope an unseen steer. As she did this, the light dimmed until it no longer hurt my eyes and I could see my surroundings clear enough. We stood within a hollow crystal cone roughly sixty to seventy feet in diameter.

“
The floor was a golden circle with engraved symbols on one half of it while the other half smooth. The chalube’at somehow joined to another large triangular-shaped crystal that bisected the floor, it reminded me of the sundial that stood in one of Grandpa’s gardens. Incredibly spectacular, the sun’s rays poured through the crystal in a brilliant array of colors.

“
Genovene walked around the room, watching me marvel at its contents.

“‘
Some ride, eh?’ she said, moving over to me. ‘I’ll bet you’ve never been on an elevator quite like that before, have you? Just wait for the trip back down!’

“
She laughed and led me to the west side of the crystal cone.

“‘
This room is the power center for the temple, energized by the sun’s radiation,’ she explained. ‘At times it can be almost uninhabitable in here, like when we first arrived, and especially during clear days when the sun’s at its highest.

“‘
The triangular crystal and the golden plate it sits on operate as a passive battery, continually absorbing energy from the atmosphere around us—even at night or during the coldest extremes of winter. The amount of energy stored up here is more than ample to support our temple, village, and even the surrounding groves and meadows. But if ever this power center failed us, we have a far more powerful energy source beneath the temple courtyard.’

“
I looked out through the cone’s crystal wall. My head immediately swam from dizziness. At least three to four thousand feet above the ground, everything below looked so minuscule and far away through wispy clouds surrounding the tower’s peak. The entire village could easily have fit inside the edge of my pinky nail. Toward the west, endless forests and lakes stretched into the distance, blending into the deep blue of a majestic mountain range. Confused, I moved to the north side of the cone and saw even more forests, lakes, and rivers, with a much larger body of water further away.

“
When I moved over to the east side, I again saw nothing but forests and rivers until my view reached the great ocean beyond.
What in the hell’s going on here?
I ran over to the south side, said a quick prayer and looked. All I could see for miles were vast green forests penetrated only by rivers and lakes that eventually emptied into another ocean. A sliver of gold light glowed many miles away, along the ocean’s southwestern shoreline. Another tower, perhaps, like the one I presently stood in?

“‘
Where’d my home go, Genovene?’ My growing anxiety caused my voice to crack. ‘It’s gone! Where in the hell are we? Everything’s
gone
!!’

“
Gently and affectionately, she put her arm around my waist and pulled me close to her.

“‘
Jack, don’t be alarmed or afraid,’ she said, tenderly. ‘What you see before you isn’t the world as it is today, with all of its crime, overpopulation, and blatant disregard for nature. You’re seeing the world as originally intended. The world from many hundreds of years ago before mankind overran this wonderful garden you see all around you. The distant locales you’ve just seen have been brought much closer by the powerful magnification of the crystal.

“‘
The present day world is still with us, which I’ll show you soon. To understand my people and our purpose, you must at least have some knowledge of where we started. I can’t show you everything, and we don’t have time to go back all the way to our origins. Nevertheless, I think when we’re through up here you’ll be glad you came.’

“
My anxiety lessened and she stepped away, placing her hands on the side of the cone that faced south and closed her eyes. The crystal material began to reshape itself and a short table-like ledge grew out of the cone’s side and into the room. Roughly the size of a small desktop, she motioned for me to come over and take a closer look.

“
I moved over to her and looked down into the ledge. At first, it appeared as clear as the crystal cone itself. Once she showed me how to guide and operate it, I found that it worked like an up-close viewing screen. I could see detailed images of various locations in the primitive world far below. The ledge could be moved in any direction and would grow smaller if brought forward, or larger if pulled back. I was puzzled by the fact it remained fully connected to the cone’s wall at all times. Yet, when I moved it around in different directions, not a single seam or crease appeared. The crystal material in the wall and ledge reconfigured themselves in unison from one instant to the next.

“
I held it straight ahead and saw the deep green treetops of a lush ancient forest. An aerial view about twenty feet above the trees. Raised ever so slight, the images flew by. When they stopped, I had a bird’s eye view of a large fluorescent blue snake moving through the undergrowth beneath the trees. I nudged the ledge a tad more and saw the close-up details of the snake’s scales as it wreathed its way along the forest floor.

“
I decided to try another view and pulled back a little. All at once I was staring into a nest of baby finches that appeared less than a foot away from me, as my view had retreated into the midst of a large fir. A small beetle with bulging green eyes landed on a branch, completely obscuring the images of the finches for about a minute as it walked across the branch. I got a better look at its colorful underbelly than I would’ve liked as it left slimy gray droppings along the branch while it passed by. In disgust, I pulled back further until my view was a few hundred feet above the forest.