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women and children."
To Herb Asher, Rybys said. "Only seven women and children survived the fall of Masada. It was a
Jewish fortress. They had hidden in a water conduit." To Elias Tate she said, "And Yahweh was driven
from the Earth."
"And the hopes of man," Elias said, "faded away."
Herb Asher said, "What are you two talking about?"
"A fiasco," Elias Tate said briefly.
"So he Yah first makes me sick, and then he " She broke off. "Did he start out from this star
system originally? Or was he driven here?"
"He was driven here," Elias said. "There is a zone around Earth now. A zone of evil. It keeps him
out."
"The Lord?" Rybys said. "The Lord is kept out? Away from Earth?" She stared at Elias Tate.
"The people of Earth do not know," Elias Tate said.
"But you know," Herb Asher said. "Right? How do you know all these things? How do you know so
much? Who are you?"
Elias Tate said, "My name is Elijah."
The three of them sat together drinking tea. Rybys's face had an embittered, stark expression on it,
a look of fury; she said almost nothing.
"What bothers you the most?" Elias Tate said. "The fact that Yah was driven off Earth, that he was
defeated by the Adversary, or that you have to go back to Earth carrying him inside you?"
She laughed. "Leaving my station."
"You have been honored," Elias said.
"Honored with illness," Rybys said; her hand shook as she lifted her cup to her lips.
"Do you realize who it is that you carry in your womb?" Elias said.
"Sure," Rybys said.
"You are not impressed," Elias said.
"I had my life all planned out," Rybys said.
"I think you're taking a small view of this," Herb Asher said. Both Elias and Rybys glanced at him
with distaste, as if he had intruded. "Maybe I don't understand," he said, weakly.
Reaching out her hand, Rybys patted him. "It's OK. I don't understand either. Why me? I asked that
when I came down with the M.S. Why the hell me? Why the hell you? You have to leave your station,
too; and your Fox tapes. And lying all day and night in your bunk doing nothing, with your gear on
auto. Christ. Well, I guess Job had it right. God afflicts those he loves."
"The three of us will travel to Earth," Elias said, "and there you will give birth to your son,
Emmanuel. Yah planned this at the beginning of the age, before the defeat at Masada, before the fall
of the Temple. He foresaw his defeat and moved to rectify the situation. God can be defeated but only
temporarily. With God the remedy is greater than the malady."
"'Felix culpa,'" Rybys said.
"Yes," Elias agreed. To Herb Asher he explained, "It means 'happy fault,' referring to the fall, the
original fall. Had there been no fall perhaps there would have been no Incarnation. No birth of Christ."
"Catholic doctrine," Rybys said remotely. "I never thought it would apply to me personally."
Herb Asher said, "But didn't Christ conquer the forces of evil? He said, 'I have overcome the
world.'"
"Well," Rybys said, "apparently he was wrong."
"When Masada fell," Elias said, "all was lost. God did not enter history in the first century C.E.; he
left history. Christ's mission was a failure."
"You are very old," Rybys said. "How old are you, Elias? Almost four thousand years, I guess. You
can take a long-term view but I can't. You've known this about the First Advent all this time? For two
thousand years?"
"As God foresaw the original fall," Elias said, "he also foresaw that Jesus would not be acceptable.
It was known to God before it happened."
"What does he know about this now?" Rybys said. "What we are going to do?"
Elias was silent.
"He doesn't know," Rybys said.
"This " Elias hesitated.
"The final battle," Rybys said. "It could go either way. Couldn't it?"
"In the end," Elias said, "God wins. He has absolute foresight."
"He can know," Rybys said, "but does that mean he can Look, I really don't feel well. It's late and
I'm sick and I'm worn out and I feel as if& " She gestured. "I'm a virgin and I'm pregnant. The
Immigration doctors will never believe it."
Herb Asher said, "I think that's the point. That's why I'm supposed to marry you and come along."
"I'm not going to marry you; I don't even know you." She stared at him. "Are you kidding? Marry
you? I've got M.S. and I'm pregnant Damn it, both of you; go away and leave me alone. I mean it.
Why didn't I take that bottle of Seconax when I had the chance? I never had the chance; Yah was
watching. He sees even the fallen sparrow. I forgot."
"Do you have any whiskey?" Herb Asher said.
"Oh fine," Rybys said bitterly. "You can get drunk but can I? With M.S. and some kind of baby
inside me? There I was" she glared hatefully at Elias Tate "picking up your thoughts visually on
my TV set, and I imagined in my deluded folly that it was a corny soap opera dreamed up by writers at
Fomalhaut pure fiction. Arachnids were going to decapitate you? Is that what your unconscious
fantasies consist of? And you're Yahweh's spokesperson?" She blanched. "I spoke the Sacred Name.
Sorry."
"Christians speak it all the time," Elias said. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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