Читать книгу The 7 Words of Creation. Book 1 - Meckron Seraph - Страница 4

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nder the seven cedar trees, an old bench was spending its existence. It`s metallic curved edges were telling about the long years, what people call "time". That so-called "time" had taken the color from the edges of that bench, but given back so much more. Time takes. Time gives. Whether the time was, is or will be?

Suddenly the red-yellow-colored leaves were falling on the bench. One could say, that the autumn is a time, when they have the freedom to fall. But they didn`t fall from the trees, that were blessed with the summer that passed. Oh no.

A young teenage boy gathered the leaves for his mother`s sculptures, putting them on the lonely old bench. The boy had blue gloves, a red hat and yellow rubber boots. Every other 14-year-old boy would`ve been embarrassed wearing those boots, but not him. Not Joshua. These were new boots, if measured with time. But young Joshua measured them with his heart.

"Josh!" the quiet father`s voice was carried to him from the distance.

"Where are you, it`s time to go, son!"

"The time. Why does the time always tell dad what to do?" Joshua thought, looking at the carefully gathered leaves on the bench. He enjoyed immensely this last day with his dad. He even loved those stupid girly-yellow boots, that dad had bought him today. He loved those boots, like he loved his father.

Suddenly!

He noticed some weird words, scribbled on the bench. They were carved just under the pile of those leaves:

"There`s no time," Joshua whispered them, as the words revealed when he swept away the leaves.

Something flashed under the bench. He squatted, letting the leaves in his hand fall, when he saw it.

A watch! A pocket-watch under the bench, with golden shining edges and a golden chain and engravings that Josh didn`t understand. He looked around, but there was no one who looked like an owner of the watch.

Josh stretched his arm and grabbed the watch.

"Joshua!" dad`s voice sounded again.

"Coming, dad..."

The boy went to his dad with a watch and with a few perfectly autumn leaves. Joshua found him by the car.

"Here you are," dad was warm and rejoiced. "What do you have there...?"

"I don`t know, a watch." He raised his hand. "The bench gave it to me."

"The bench? And who sat on that bench?" asked Joshua's father.

"Maybe someone who didn`t have any time," Josh said with a smiley sarcasm.

The father looked at the old watch.

"3:02 p.m." the father said, and continued: "Doesn`t even tell the right time. Maybe it really doesn`t belong to anyone."

His thick dark brows were wearing a look of concern or tiredness.

"Come on," he said to his son. "It`s already 1 minute to 5. Mom`s waiting."

Josh sat into the car, investigating a new or an old watch - he hadn`t decided yet.

"Let`s adjust it to the right time?" dad said.

"No," Josh answered, not turning his gaze from the watch and added: "Then it feels like you don`t have to go on the ship yet."

The man looked at him with his warm, filled with timeless love eyes, smiling to hide the sorrow. He breathed deeply in and out and started the car.

"Let`s go eat something," his father Andrew said and they started moving towards the evening.

Josh was very angry. Not because it meant a portion of whatever he wanted to eat, or because dad was leaving to another job opening on a ship for half a year. But to Josh it meant time.

Young Joshua respected his father, who was an honorable and hard-working man, just and kind.

"Can`t you stay?" Josh asked.

"We`ve talked about this. I work at the sea, so you could live on the land. I got this great job offering yesterday. 18.11 to be exact," he sounded proud.

"Where are you going?"

"To Estonia."

"Are there any leaves there? Mom could go too. And me," Josh said but knew it wasn`t possible. There was no time for that - he had to be in school.

"Maybe there is," Andrew didn`t answer the second part of the question.

"What about the watches?"

"That`s another story," dad laughed. "I`ve heard the people that live there reach a very old age, so they don`t need watches and hasting like we do."

They made it to the coffee shop, that was called "The Coffee Shop."

Josh took the table under the window, where the orange maple tree was sitting with them, outside on the lawn.

"I`ll have a coffee and..." Andrew said to the waitress who stood by their table with a notebook.

"We don`t have coffee," said the old waitress with a monotone voice and blond hair.

"This place is called... alright," said Josh`s father and smiled.

"Two sodas then, please. And can you cook us something? Something like... food?" Andrew said.

"We have food."

"Thank God," Josh`s dad said.

"But it takes time," the waitress admitted, without raising a note in her voice and left.

"The time is the only thing we have today..." Joshua's father said.

Josh nodded and said quietly to his dad: "Maybe tomorrow we could thrash some wooden house together and name it "The Time"."

They both laughed and Josh swept the watch down from the corner of the table. He jumped from fear of breaking the new-found old watch.

As he reached his hand to take the watch, he suddenly felt the coldness roaming all over the cafeteria. Everything became quiet. Joshua tried to move. His bones were cracking with the deepness of the freezing deathlike hollow. His hand had hazy contours and felt dead, as if there was no life in it. The illusion of surroundings being real was absent.

Suddenly he saw a ghostly girl at his side with brown hair, staring at him with deeply amazed dark eyes. Josh only heard her say: "…E…E…Eldren…?" and grabbed the watch with a jolt of freezing wind at his back.

The girl was gone. The waitress was at his side.

"We don`t have coffee," she said.

"This place is called... alright," said Josh`s father and smiled. "Two sodas then, please. And can you cook us something? Something like... food?"

Joshua was numbly looking at them, not really understanding what was happening. He would`ve liked to say something, but the words were stuck in his throat like in a dream, when you want to scream but you don`t have a voice.

"But it takes time," the waitress said.

"The time is the only thing we have today..." Josh could push the words from his lips. "Maybe tomorrow we could thrash some wooden house together and name it "The Time"."

Joshua`s dad laughed out loud and nodded approvingly over the humor of his son.

Josh didn`t. He was dazzled - over-whelmed.

They had their sodas and dinner, but Josh couldn`t concentrate on those things.

On the way home, staring at the watch, Josh couldn`t make up a thought. He seemed to be out of time himself. What in the Big Ben`s name had happened?

Suddenly the car passed by them, shooting him right in the eye with the rays of enlightenment.

"Just like in that movie!" Josh had a revelation, remembering the old movie about the time machine, where the headlights of a car blinded the main character.

"That can`t be..." Josh thought, but loudly it sounded: "Dad, what time is it?"

"It`s... oh, look - 1 min to 19.00. And I have to be on a ship by 21.00."

The time on the pocket-watch was 17.03. It was one minute ahead from last time they checked it!

Josh`s thoughts flew as fast as the amazement that filled his eyes with tears. Did that watch take him back in time in the coffee shop? Did that little thing gave him an extra minute with his father? How? Will it do that again? What about the girl at the coffee shop? And who the heaven is Eldren?

On the late evening of that swift Sunday, the dancing shadows of the branches were smoothly reflected from their home window that were dividing the light and the dark. Josh was sitting at his desk. The homework was sitting on the corner of the dark-brown table. But Josh admired the golden old watch.

Suddenly!

He winced on his chair. Something hit the window. He didn`t move, thinking what was that sound?, still not realizing it was the window.

Again!

This time it was louder and clearer, behind him, across the room. Josh slowly turned to look at the squared modern window, squeezing the watch in his left hand. Only all-knowing silence followed, emerged by the wind in the evening darkness.

Joshua slowly approached the window, hoping the sound will not return. It didn`t.

He looked out the window.

There was an old man, looking like a hobo, with a shopping cart in his hands, full of time-forgotten junk.

Josh opened the window.

"Hey boy!" the old man screamed in whispers. "Come down."

Joshua didn`t answer. He had no intention to go outside, so he started to close the window, hadn`t he heard the madman`s words of whisper.

"I know who`s watch it is!"

Josh hesitated.

Wether or not to go outside. Something thrived him. He hesitated again, whether or not to bring the watch with him, while sneaking outside to meet the stranger. It was solely important to him - the origin of that watch. It had become an obsession. Can the old man really explain what happened at the coffee shop?

The man in the old worn clothes waited by the bushes, behind the chestnut tree. They both looked at each-other without a word. Josh slowly spread the words, opening the palm where the mysterious watch was timelessly resting:

"You said you know who`s watch it is?" asked Josh

The old man looked at it with a weird grin, like watching a chest of treasure.

"Is it yours?" Josh continued when there was no answer.

"It is God`s!" the old man snapped at him, lashed his hand through the air without moving his gaze from the watch.

"God`s?" Joshua repeated. "Are you saying I should bring the watch to preacher John?"

The old hobo grunted in his tall jacket, full of holes, and with a smell of liquor he said:

"There is no watch, boy!"

Joshua couldn`t move. "There is no watch?"

The old man grunted again and said: "You think it`s a watch you`re holding there? It`s not. I can tell you about the Watch and how to use it," the old man suggested.

"To use it? It doesn`t even tell the right time."

"There is no time, boy!" the old man said even louder and continued:

"I`ll tell you what you must do, but you must do exactly like I tell you to. There`s a button on the left. Pull it one notch and then turn it back fast to 1.01 p.m today. It`s two hours behind, right? Then say the pass-key I will give you it, if you agree. I`ll be behind the bushes, by the bench, at the time you found it. Then tell me the numbers 2,8,17,28,33,34. Got it?"

"Why?" Asked Josh

"Just do it, boy! Questions later."

"Why?" Josh asked again.

"Because only then I will tell you about the watch, that`s why," the old hobo was growing impatient.

"Tell me now and I will give you the watch and you can do it yourself," Joshua said.

"For sure!" the man laughed. "I`m gonna go and tell myself some numbers in the park, that will work..."

The hobo raised his hand and pointed a finger towards the watch and looked at Josh:

"Look, boy. I need your help, get it?"

It seemed the old man was trying to act nicely for the sake of his plan when he explained:

"Only you can use it now - IF you know the secret password. You can do wonders with that thing. It`s the Holy Grail. It takes different forms in time, appearing as a golden fish or the lamp where a genie pops out or the well where you toss a coin to make a wish or a Goblet of Youth. These stories are all true. This thing has been here since the beginning of time. It is one of the Words of Creation, the legend says. The God created the world with Seven Days - with the Seven Words of Creation. It`s Sunday you`re holding there. The day the God admired His all creation. You can move inside the Creation with that thing or change it, if you will. Whatever you want - you can have it. But first you must do what I said. Then I will tell you more."

"Those are lottery numbers, aren`t they?" Joshua asked.

"Yes. But I spent a fortune finding information about the thing. So I deserve it. It`s fate, you see? I`ve waited for 3 years behind that bench for someone to find IT."

"Why didn`t you get it for yourself?"

"I can`t, you see? THEY know me. THEY don`t know you. I will tell you the pass-key and you can use it."

"The pass-key?" Joshua was looking at the sun-golden watch, thinking he already used it once, without knowing anything about the pass-key. "Who are THEY?"

“No time for Jeopardy, boy! Will you do it or not?”

Joshua stepped backwards. He really didn`t want to get involved with whatever the hobo was involved with.

The old man hesitated for a while, then grabbed Joshua`s arm with an iron grip, like he had no time for this.

Josh saw the fool`s-golden ring, with an engraving of a snake, on his finger of that hand that trapped him and destroyed all the kind feelings towards that hobo.

In a struggle, Joshua pulled the glittering Watch against his chest and suddenly he saw how everything went blurry and cold. The big threatening arm, which Joshua held on to, started to fade, but the ring got clearer and brighter. Josh felt the frosty shiver, everything started to freeze around him. The trees, the pavement, the deep sky - everything started to fade on edges and coldness entered into his bones. Josh looked around - everything looked the same, except... He felt unwilling to move in the coldness where things had lost their inner “juice”. Everything felt dead and to move his lips took an enormous strength.

“Aah...” Joshua was freezing his words off.

Josh didn`t know what to do next, when he heard behind him the freezing girl`s dim voice that scared him:

"…Eldren… Eldren…"

As he tried to breathe, the girl floated around him, and he saw that this was the same girl from the cafeteria. She was a bit older than he was. They both were freezing.

The timeless cold started to consume Josh`s thoughts and without thinking he took his strength and pushed the Watch away from him.

He felt a pull. Everything went warm, twisted and turned and he felt like he was sucked from one dream to another, finding himself staring at the same street he was on before.

"Josh! Come inside!" he heard his dad. Joshua was outside his house again. The hobo was gone.

"Dad!? I thought you`re on a ship already!"

"What ship?" Andrew asked.

Joshua looked at the watch in his hands, thinking if he had changed the past. What now? What are the Seven Words of Creation? Who was that girl? And who is Eldren?