Trials of Tobit

--The following is an unfinished children's story I was writing based on the book of Tobit from the apocrypha. No matter your view of religion, one can find happiness in the simple adventure of children. My patron abandoned the publishing project, so this book went unfinished. Please let me know if you think it should be completed. -- Thomas

-The Trials of Tobit-

“…and that’s why it’s so important to have a generous heart, to love one another as brothers and sisters, and to show hospitality to strangers; you never know, you might be showing hospitality to an angel and not even realize it!” Grandpa Rivers finished with a wink. He nodded thoughtfully and put his worn out, leather-bound bible in its special spot on the tall oak bookshelf.

Isaac nibbled on his thumbnail, squinting into the corner of Grandpa’s sunlit study. Zach sat on the floor next to his big brother, picking at a chip of wood coming out of the chair Isaac was sitting in. Zoey sat across from her two brothers, always wanting to be closer to the window so she could watch the butterflies and bees around the sunflower garden. Isaac spoke up first. “I know it’s important to love your neighbor, but what did that get Tobit? Blindness?” He shook his head. “It’s a lot to absorb”.

Zach stood up, brushing the seat of his pants off. “There has to be more to the story. They must have had help or something!” Grandpa Rivers chuckled and raised his hand. “God’s glory is like the sun, but infinitely brighter! You’d be surprised at how father God sends help when his children are in need”. Zach scratched his neck and looked at the floor. “That’s hard to imagine.”

Zoey smiled as an orange butterfly zipped in the open window for a moment, before returning to the lush garden outside. “I liked all the animals. Sparrows and fish. Not all the books of the Bible talk about the animals. This one is like Daniel with the nice lions that didn’t eat him!” Zach rolled his eyes. “The sparrows made Tobit go blind. They probably ate the sparrows too! I know I would, if one p-”

                “Gross, Zach. We get the point.” Isaac interrupted. “Grandpa, does Tobit come up in any other books, in case we want to know more?”  Grandpa Rivers shook his head. “That’s all we can gain by reading… Maybe you should reflect on it while you go on a walk? I’ll talk to Grandma about getting some lunch ready for when you come back, and we can discuss your thoughts.” He rubbed his hands together. “Fish and sparrow over long-grain rice?” Zoey laughed and ran out of the room. “Ewwww no way!”. Her brothers followed.

                Grandma Rivers was at the dining room table with a bunch of papers spread out in front of her; each one had a different image on it from various artistic styles. She was writing in her 3-ring binder full of assignments for an art class she consulted for. The university sent her binders like these when they needed her expertise. “Myrna, the kids are going out into the garden” Grandpa Rivers said as he entered the room behind them. “And I expect they’ll be hungry when they get back” Grandma said with a little smile and a wink in Zachs direction. She stood up and ruffled Isaac’s hair. “Don’t forget your backpacks, just in case!

                On a pegboard by the back door to the farmhouse hung the backpacks belonging to the three kids. Isaacs was red, and the largest of the three; it had an ironed-on decal of his favorite football team. It had a roll of paper inside a plastic tube hanging securely from the side of it. Zach’s green and brown camo backpack was on the floor, not hung up, as usual. His pack had a net with a retractable handle tied to the top and a roll of bandages falling out of an unzipped pocket.  Zoey’s yellow pack was smaller than the other two, and was the cleanest. Hers had a pad of high-quality sketchbook paper tucked neatly in the netted front, as she had been drawing by the creek yesterday. She made a mental note to put it back inside the pack in case it rained.

                The three of them exchanged excited glances as they got their things together. There was no need to talk- they knew exactly where they were going. After a lesson from Grandpa, a walk through the Sunflower Garden always meant an exciting adventure was in store. Zoey opened the back door, letting in the bright midday sun and the smell of cut grass. Their father, Miles, had been over that morning to drop them off and mow the lawn while he was there. Issac smiled and stepped out onto the lawn, spreading his arms wide and breathing deeply. He loved the smell of freshly cut grass. It reminded him of Friday afternoon football games at school. Zach followed close behind, kicking a clod of loosened dirt, grinning as it bounced twice and landed in a gopher hole. Goal, he thought to himself with satisfaction.

                They strolled off in the sunny yard toward the side of the house where the sunflowers stuck up like spears. Issac led the way into the tightly packed flowers, heading to the center of the grove. The kids brushed their way through the tall stalks which towered over them and closed the sky in, giving the impression they had entered another world entirely. Bees buzzed by them without much thought, a particularly fat and lazy bumblebee hovering in front of Zoey, landing on her yellow pack for a moment, earning an excited giggle from the girl, who loved all things natural and alive. Eventually, they pushed through into a clearing.

                Above, the sky was different. The sun, directly overhead before, seemed to always be in a different spot every time you looked up, but always shone brightly into the empty space. All around, the sunflowers bordered the grassy ring, tall and strong. Like castle walls Zach thought. In the middle, green grass was always kept a bit longer than the lawn outside the garden, freely blowing in the breeze. Even more striking was the silence. The birds, twittering away as they moved through the sunflowers, were mysteriously quiet here, almost in reverence. The buzz of cicadas died down when they stepped inside. The sound of hammering from the workshop, a running mower, nothing penetrated the dense green stalks and orange petals. This clearing had the air and feeling of a sanctuary, and the kids felt it in their hearts as they came inside.

                Zach and Issac stood next to each other looking around, always impressed by the sacred feeling in this place. Zoey turned on her heels a few times and let herself fall into the tall grass, a warm smile on her face. To her, this felt as comfortable as being in her papa’s lap or her mama’s arms, the warm earth at her back and the inviting sky laid out before her.

Issac walked over, casting a shadow over his lounging sister. “Zoey, I think we’re going to need Switch.”  Zoey’s eyes lit up. “Okay! Let me get him.”

                Zoey opened the large compartment of her pack and pulled out a “Critter Cage” and opened the lid, pulling out a green Chameleon, who began changing to a peach-tan color to match her hand.  Switch blinked his eye at her slowly and uncurled his tail.  As the children gazed at the shifting sky, the air began to change. The sky overhead became clouded by yellow dust and the sunflowers dropped away suddenly, the world around them blurring and changing. The grass at their feet shrunk away, becoming replaced by a more sparse, broad-bladed variety of turf, with small, flat rocks springing up all around. A distant rush of water was heard and they saw a long band of blue water stretched out as far as the eye could see settling down from the sky in the south and disappearing from sight. Opposite this, in the north, a deep rumbling shook the earth as massive mountains sprang out of the ground on the horizon, clawing up and throwing a long shadow across the grassy plains they now stood on, unafraid and in wonder.

                This all would’ve been very terrifying, but the Hagen kids had seen this sort of thing happen in the sunflower garden before. Issac called it “The Portal”. Sometimes, when Grandpa Rivers brought them in for a lesson, the sunflower garden that Grandma took care of would bring the lesson to life. No one was sure what made it happen, and none of the kids were going to risk it going away by talking about it.

                Zach pumped his fist and clenched his teeth. “Aw YEAH! Awesome!” He stood straight and looked around. “Mountains! And was that a river over there?” He asked, pointing south. Zoey squinted, following his finger and said “Can’t see… But there was water settling down for sure. Issac, can you tell us where we are?”

 Issac pulled out his map from the side pocket of his pack and unfolded it, setting it down on a tall, flat rock. “We’re in the steppes, somewhere. You can tell by all these stones and this coarse grass.” He looked at Zoey, whose face was scrunched up in that “I have a question” expression. “Uh, Steppes, not Steps. It means a grassland near mountains.” He looked down at his map, which had finished filling in with a rough sketch of the surrounding area.

                The map showed a long, thin mountain range to the north, which was obvious. South and west, a river marked “Tigris” snaked its way southward, along with a parallel sister-river marked “Euphrates”. Issac shielded his eyes from the sun, gazing out across the grasses. “There’s a trail right there. Zoey, do you have the seed?” Zoey dug through her pack and drew out a tiny cloth pouch. She picked a single sunflower seed from it. “Here, but remind me to get some more from the garden when we go back, I’m almost out.”

                Issac took the tiny seed from her and placed it on the map, right over their current position, which was marked with a small, orange dot. The seed sank into the map and down into the stone below. Issac folded up the map. A crack made Zach jump, and the rock split in two, a small sprout growing from the ground, ending in a round green bud. “Stick together, and we will come back here when we’re ready to go home.” Issac said, squaring his jaw and looking toward the trail. Zach took a few steps and said “Look, here comes somebody now.”

A man was walking along the road with a large pack on his back. “Look at the size of that backpack, it probably weighs more than Dad!” Whistled Zach. “Shh, wait, we don’t wanna be seen. We’re kids. It’ll be trouble if adults of this age find us out here wandering around.” Issac whispered.

 Zoey piped up “I have some cloth!”. Reaching into her pack, she drew out three bundles of tan cloth and passed them out. The three kids put them on over their heads and looked at each other. The simple grey tunics covered their modern-era clothing and made them blend in much better with the earth-toned landscape. “Way to go, Zoe!” Cheered Zach. “I think T-shirts and bright colors would’ve been hard to explain!” Issac shushed them with a stern look. “They’re close, come on, stay behind these rocks.”

                The man walking along the road was young, probably younger than the kids’ father, but an adult nonetheless. He was tall with a short black beard and Zach thought he could probably use a haircut. He looked a bit lost, stopping every few seconds and looking back down the road behind him, then forward uncertainly, before continuing. Walking beside him was a thinner man, about the same height with curly blonde hair. He didn’t look as tough as the first man, the kids thought, but there was something about him that felt strong, somehow. Finally, the third traveler was a woman with a cloth headdress walking closely next to the man with the black beard. Zoey noticed she wasn’t carrying a backpack, and the bearded man was carrying two. 

From their hiding place, the kids looked at each other. “Zach nodded at the travelers. “Boy, the guy in the middle is big. Not as big as dad, but pretty big.”  Issac grinned “Pretty sure he’s bigger than Dad, Zach. Look at him!”  

Zach shook his head. “Dad could fold him up like a lawn chair though.”  Zoey sighed “Are we going to follow them?” Issac nibbled at his thumbnail, a sure sign he was anxious. “Well, I’d like to know what’s going on.  We’re in a strange place, and we don’t want to attract attention. I say we follow them, but stay out of sight!” Zach clapped his hands and practically shouted “Great, let’s go!” Issac and Zoey both pressed their hands to their faces and groaned. “Zaaach, QUIETLY” Zoey hissed.

The kids trailed behind the travelers, getting as close as they could without being able to hear their footsteps, as that would mean the travelers could hear theirs. They moved from one rocky outcrop to another, sometimes a thick sagebrush or a sighing hill was their hiding place. As they dashed along, bent over low, Zach couldn’t hear anything but the labored breathing of his siblings. Anna had sharper ears, and could just pick up the occasional voice of the travelers, when the wind would die down or a cliffside caused an echo.

Issac was a scout at heart, however. When the wind was low, he could make out bits of conversation from the group ahead, which he relayed to his brother and sister in short whispers. “The man with the black beard is named Tobias, the lady he’s walking with called him that a second ago. He called her Sarah, I think.”  Zach impatiently peered over the rock they were huddled behind. “What about the guy with the curly hair?” Issac pulled his brother back down and glared at him. “They haven’t said yet, and you’re gonna get us caught!” Zoey frowned, staring hard at the dirt. “If that’s Tobias and Sarah, we must be on the right track to... to something interesting!” she ended with a shrug. Zach nodded. “let’s keep going then! Maybe we can find out what happens!”

They followed the travelers for about an hour, until they got worried their tummies rumbling was going to alert the travelers. Twice the blonde-haired man turned and looked back in their direction, but they were always too quick to hide. Issac could’ve sworn the man was smiling and shaking his head. Eventually, a village popped up as they rounded a large hill that bent the road in a winding “C” shape.