Ancient Church

by Steve Price

I will tell you of a dismal, dreary kingdom cradled in a valley with walls so high that as eagles flew over they looked as if they were as small as sparrows. Guards armed with long bows walked along the wall, calling out to each other night and day. But why were they always looking within rather than without, wondered the boy as he gazed up at the wall. This always made up the hushed discussions of three lads, the gazing boy and his friends.

“You should be in school,” the very stern constable said to them one day as they stood beside the wall wondering to themselves what was outside. Rather than being grabbed by the ears, they hurried off in the direction of the old schoolhouse. As it came within sight, it suddenly occurred to Joseph (for that is the gazing boy’s name) that there was a way to find out what was on the other side.

An ancient tower stood next to the schoolhouse. “We can climb it to the top and see over the walls from every side,” he explained to the other two.

“You are mad!” exclaimed Thomas. “We can’t get in, it is too old and they will throw you in the dungeon for the rest of your life if you pass the red seal on the door.”

“And you know the stories about the bleeding man who forever walks up and down the stairs. He will probably throw you out of one of the windows into the silver lake. They say it has happened before,” said Jon.

“This evening at dusk I will break the seal and go in. I have to see what is on the other side,” Joseph firmly said.

When Joseph arrived at the great door of the old tower, Thomas and Jon were waiting. “We’ll go with you but not to the top,” said Thomas.

“Yes, let’s just go up to the first window,” pleaded Jon.

“Very well, the first window,” agreed Joseph.

Joseph cut off the seal with his father’s hatchet and pushed open the heavy door. Fumbling in his pocket he finally pulled out several matches and lit a lamp at the foot of the stairs and, wonder of wonders! The room was filled with beautiful, colorful paintings of ancient people. They paused long enough to gaze at them, when the one Joseph was looking upon began to move. Words flowed out of the robed man’s mouth and his fingers moved up and down, back and forth. As Joseph touched the words, they fell in his hand. Grasping them firmly, he moved toward the stairs. He leaped on the first stair and sprang up the next and up and up until he reached the first window. Cautiously the other two followed. Peering out the window, they could see the middle of the wall in the full moonlight.

“We must go higher!” Joseph enthusiastically exclaimed.

Thomas and Jon whispered to each other. “Okay, but just to the next window,” Thomas reluctantly said.

Soon they came to the next window. They could see the guards face in the moonlight but still could not see over the wall. Thomas and Jon looked at Joseph. “You promised just to the next window,” said Jon.

“I have to go up. Stay here if you like.” Joseph grasped a lamp on the wall, lit it with one of his matches and began to move upward again.

Arriving at the next window, Joseph smiled to himself as he heard the other two shuffling up the stairs. They joined him as he gazed out over the wall at the dim outline of the treetops, a forest. They were just a little higher than the wall. Joseph looked up the stairs and saw the moonlight streaming through another window that must be further up. Without saying a word he began to climb again. Thomas and Jon followed.

At the next window, the boys peered out on the moonlit world. Now they could dimly see over the wall for they were well above it. The guards below appeared small, as little midgets from the carnival. Still, the full moon did not give enough light to see the colors or details of the world beyond. “We will have to wait until dawn to see better,” Joseph said confidently. They spent the rest of the night there at the window. After an hour of gazing as hard as they could, whispering excitedly and trying to imagine the shapes they were making out, Thomas and Jon leaned against the wall and dozed. But Joseph could not get enough. He looked down at the lake and saw the reflection of the moon as it passed across the sky. He strained at all the things he saw on the other side, slowly making out what some things were. There was a stream gleaming as a silver ribbon, winding beyond the forest. There were other walled cities in the far distance. And ever so often, he thought he heard gulls and waves coming from a far distance and, could he be imagining this, felt a fine spray on his face. But it was over to his right and he could not see from where he heard.

As the dawn began to break, he looked out at greater wonder. “I have to see it all!” he rejoiced. Looking up, straining his neck as much as he could, he saw a long wooden pole on top of the tower. Pulling back, he tore up the last stair and there stood the bleeding man. Startled, Joseph stopped.

“What is it that you want, my son?” asked the man.

“To see it all!” Joseph blurted out.

“It may cost you all,” the man warned him. “What do you have to give me?”

Joseph hesitated, then remembered what was in his right hand. Silently, he handed the words to the bleeding man.

The man bent over and kissed Joseph on the forehead and then stepped aside, gesturing to the ladder that lead to an overhead hatch. “Go, my son.”

Joseph climbed the ladder and pushed open the hatchway. Sunlight came from the East, hitting him square in the eyes. The wind softly blew his hair back. He climbed onto the roof and grasped the pole. There before him was all the beauty of the world. He let out a cry of joy.

“What do you see, Joseph? What do you see?” Thomas and Jon were calling to him from the foot of the ladder.

“I see the deep green forest! I see the river gleaming in the sunlight! I see many cities far and near!”

Joseph stooped and picked up a piece of wood and three nails. With his father’s hatchet he nailed the cross beam to the pole and then pulled himself up onto it.
“I see the ocean far, far away! I can even see a sailboat sailing this way!”

And as Joseph cried out these last words, he suddenly felt something hot burning into his side. As he looked down at his side he saw the guard with his bow notching another arrow. The light about him grew brighter and he could not keep his head up anymore. As his head sagged, he gazed into the lake below and saw the sky open and a glorious procession of beings too beautiful to describe galloping toward him and, Lo! Who was that leading them?

“Joseph, Joseph, what do you see?” Poor Jon and Thomas, they don’t know.

“Why, it is the man with the words and he is smiling at me with a smile of love everlasting and is reaching to me with arms outstretched and I must go up!” And with one last effort, he stretched out his arms to the heavens and plunged down, down, down into the lake. As he fell, he saw himself being caught up by the man and placed on his horse.
And the man said, “Let us go upward and see what we will see.”

One day not too long afterward, Jon and Thomas found a huge crack in the wall, big enough to squeeze through.

copyright 2006 by Steve Price