The Seam That Held!

[Timl1980]

(Please allow me a little leeway with this short story, friends. I am going to attempt to take you into the future with this tale...but what's my goal? My goal is to pick you up mentally...fully and completely engage your curiosity...and kick your imagination into overdrive as you ask yourself a simple yet powerful question: What if?)

 

As a side note...I have been quietly working on a small series of short stories like this one, so I will be interested to see how everyone likes it...because I put a lot of work into it!

 

Now please...enjoy...and let me know what you thought...how it made you feel: 

 

The Seam That Held

 

The sun dappled apple orchard was quiet...save for the grating sounds of metal against stone.

 

Sharp metallic pings rang out in a rhythmic tone...over and over again in a tap-tap-tap fashion that left no doubt as to its source...a huge keystone, the pinnacle of a beautiful archway...was under construction.

 

One man stood in front of the stone...legs planted firmly apart...powerful arms flexing with each and every blow of the hammer gripped tightly in one hand. In his other hand sat the chisel...it's sharpened end dancing over the middle of the massive boulder, chipping away chunks of brittle gravel like a storm carving it's fury into the land about. 

 

The man's faded, earth toned tunic clung to his toned body, drenched in sweat...yet he kept right on swinging, not bothered in the least by the heat or the high amount of energy he was exerting with every single blow. A simple piece of torn cloth tied back his dark and tousled hair...keeping it out of his eyes as he continued to swing away...every blow eliciting a dull thunk! from the hard stone...until suddenly...all at once...the stone cracked with a sharp SNAP...and just like that...a break appeared...a jagged seam that ran straight down the center of the massive stone like a thunderbolt.

 

"Oh no! What happened??" 

 

The voice came from behind and off to his right...a voice he knew intimately. Turning, David held up the hand holding the hammer and nodded gravely, stopping his wife from advancing.

 

"It's fine, my love." He said, simultaneously admiring her beauty while still eyeing up the now cracked stone before him. "We can get rid of this and just start over...there are several suitable replacements over by the quarry." He said in a reassuring tone, his eyes still holding on the deep seam now starkly highlighted for all to see. "It's just the stone...this was going to happen all along...it's better we find out now anyways...right?" He asked encouragingly, to which Bathsheba bit her lip and nodded timidly before returning to her own job of brushing excess mortar away from the freshly set stones making up the newly made archway with a bunch of tightly tied sticks in the shape of a fan shaped broom.

 

Suddenly a shadow crossed in front of David...a person was standing directly behind him. He began to turn, shielding his eyes from the sun...when suddenly his blood ran cold...because just then, the shadow spoke...and David's heart nearly stopped as he recognized the voice.

 

"You knew it was going to break." The voice was almost accusatory...the tone sharp.

 

Off to his right Bathsheba gasped and said an oath to Jehovah...her voice tight with sudden anxiety.

 

David didn't answer...just squared his shoulders and continued staring at the stone...his mind searching for solutions...possibilities.

 

Uriah moved closer...every step slow and deliberate.

 

"You knew it would break..." He repeated, then his voice dropped and broke...coming out almost in a whisper as he added: "Just like you knew I wouldn't go home."

 

David's breath caught in his throat...tears welled in his eyes...but he had known this would be coming...he knew he would have to face this...sooner or later.

 

Uriah moved past him and, sidling up to the stone, he reached out and ran one hand over the rough jagged edges of the fault...trying hard to keep his gaze fixed on the stone...forcing his vision to stay away from the stone wall to his right...and the beautiful woman who stood slumped against it...one hand now covering her mouth...her eyes wide...breath coming fast and heavy.

 

"You sent a letter..." Uriah hissed through clenched teeth, his eyes glued to the stone...but his mind travelling back thousands of years in a matter of seconds. "Sealed by your own hand! I didn't open it...because I trusted you!!" The words were forced out...thousands of years of pain and hurt and betrayal oozing from every single syllable. 

 

"I remember." David whispered through a haze of tears...his own strong voice breaking now as guilt swept over him in crippling waves. 

 

"So do I." Uriah replied simply...his fingers probing into the depths of the cracked and wounded stone before him.

 

Silence stretched out between them...not a hostile silence...just heavy…laced with emotions as numerous and dense as the stars in the night sky.

 

David sighed heavily...stepped forward and laid a powerful hand on Uriah's shoulder...gripping it tightly.

 

"I...I thought I could get rid of the problem...get a new stone...you know...that way no one would know that I...that I was the one who..." David's voice petered out, his grip tightened...saying what he could not.

 

"You shaped it all right..." Uriah said, a deliberate lightness entering his voice. "But you couldn't stop it from breaking, could you?" He asked, removing David's hand from his shoulder as he turned to face him directly for the first time. The two men stared at each other...unspoken words dancing through the air around them...each waiting for the other to break the tension.

 

"Then maybe it's time to stop thinking about hiding anything...maybe it's time to bridge the gap." Quipped Bathsheba who, having recovered from her initial shock...now picked up a large slab of lighter colored stone and, deliberately stepping between the two men so they were forced to separate...set the stone in place across the jagged fault line...flipping her hair as she turned her head to regard the two men staring at her in apparent confusion. "Don't you see? It's an inlay…we can use it to make sure the stone doesn't break apart all the way!" She said, looking from one to the other. 

 

"But...but it's not the right color!" David protested weakly, suddenly realizing what she meant. 

 

"Yeah!" Chimed in Uriah, gazing back and forth between the two stones. "It won't cover the seam...in fact it will just make it more noticeable!" He added, wrinkling his nose at the very idea.

 

Blowing her long curly hair out of her eyes in frustration...Bathsheba rolled her eyes and said, "That's the point!  Look, it fits right inside the seam...see?" She moved the flat stone into place again, letting them see how it would naturally nestle right into the fissure. "It will be stronger than before...don't you get it?" She asked, her voice prodding, her manner pleading.

 

"Yeah...I get it now." Said Uriah, nodding as he walked over and took the stone from Bathsheba's arms. "You're saying it will hold because it's been reinforced...not because it's flawless." Shaking his head as the words sank into his mind and heart, Uriah set the stone down on the ground and, turning toward David...he moved closer and gave the younger man a strong hug as Bathsheba broke out into song, her beautiful voice floating through the apple orchard as she sang one of her husbands favorite songs while preparing a fresh batch of mortar to secure the inlay stone into the keystone.

 

After a moment the two men broke apart...the tension melted and all three of them set about making the necessary preparations to make the keystone better than ever before...the two men now eagerly joining her in song.

 

Above them...far far above them...two individuals sat on their thrones...watching the scene unfold beneath them...clapping enthusiastically as the spiritual healing began to weave it's way through the three human minds below...and suddenly the applause grew to a deafening roar as hundreds of millions of angels joined in...their own voices raising in stunning harmony as they too joined in on the song...having had every single lyric memorized for thousands of years...just waiting for the chance to sign it again!

 

Near to the two thrones stood 144,000 other angels...and to any human who would have been observing these angels...they probably would have sworn they could have seen 144,000 faces utterly swimming in fresh tears...tears of happiness and joy at the the seam...the seam that HELD!                                                                                                                                   

Edited Saturday at 12:00 AM by Timl1980

[Watching and Waiting]

Very nicely done. THIS is one of the “go to” Biblical lessons that many say something like,  “I’d sure like to be a fly on the wall when those  two meet in paradise.”  I feel like we’re so vengeance-conditioned in our sinful flesh, that it seems almost unnatural to respond otherwise. I love how forgiveness triumphs, as it must when we are all on absolutely the same plane. And the celebration that follows is so very uplifting. Thank you. 

[exactor]

When I meet the three of them in our New World, I will share with them a story I read about them in the Old World. Is that okay with you, Tim?

 

I saved your art from yesterday to add to my personal study project this morning. Thank you, Tim!