Alhamdulillah!

Part 2

SHILOH

I will go before you and will level the mountains. I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.

Isaiah 45:2-3

Chapter Seven

A Tree

I

The small curls of her hair bounced as she ran through the golden streets. Shiloh giggled as she quickly cut the corner of a crystal building and in sight of the entrance to the Purple Pyramid.

Shiloh hastened her speed, running as quickly as possible, with nothing on her mind other than getting to the entrance. Her sandals were a deep purple, handcrafted by the finest cordwainer in the world, tied snug around her heel, and they comforted her feet on the cobbled gold.

As she crossed the large gateway of the Pyramid, she stopped, leaned over, placed her hands on her knees, and tried to recapture her breath.

When she saw the other children racing behind her, she started to laugh again.

“It’s not fair! Shiloh always beats us. She’s too fast!” the slowest boy said.

“You’re still a rotten egg!” a girl replied.

They all laughed and made their way to the beach to play.

The children’s skin were tanned and sunburnt where every day was an adventure to explore the incredible island.

Since Shiloh had won the race (as she always did, secretly only losing when feeling others deserved a chance), she got to choose where they would go exploring. The children made their way amongst the steep hills, through the heavily wooded forest, to a large open spot where the tops of the trees broke, and the sky was painted as far as they could see.

In the middle of the open area was a large tree, standing tall and proud. The tree was unique and special, since the children had painted its bark and limbs a rich blue colour. After the long journey through the woods, the children ran joyfully and wrapped their arms around their special blue tree.

When the sun began to fade and the night ascended through the skies, the children began to head back to the Purple Pyramid.

Shiloh was the last person to place her feet upon the ground – since she had climbed the highest. Once her feet touched the ground, Shiloh’s deep purple sandals tore and broke. She kneeled and picked them up, gazing upon them with wonder as they seemed to deteriorate before her eyes.

The children had left, and Shiloh was left alone with the blue tree.

She began to slowly walk back to the Pyramid when a dim light illuminated behind her. Shiloh, still enamored with the deteriorating sandals, slowly turned and looked up at the tree – which had become enflamed.

The fire began to roar and completely cover the tree. Shiloh’s eyes began to widen, and her heart gave panic at the sight – terrified her special tree would be destroyed before her.

Then, a large barn owl flew above her and the burning tree before gently landing on a limb.

The sandals in her hands had fallen through the gaps in her fingers as ash upon the grass.

Shiloh ran to the trunk of the tree, hoping to get the owl to fly off and not hurt itself as the fire began to grow. “Shoo! Why would you land on a burning tree, owl?” Shoo!” she screamed as she moved her arms, trying to scare it away.

The large owl tilted its head and gazed upon her as she yelled and flailed. Then the owl asked with a deep voice that Shiloh felt move through her veins and body, “Do you not see the tree is not being harmed?”

Shiloh stood still as the voice of the owl swam through her bloodstream. She looked at the burning tree and had indeed noticed that the flames were not harming the blue bark.

“Who are you?” she asked, placing her hand upon the fiery trunk.

The owl seemed to grow in size, illuminating grace and love, and replied to her, “Your people call me Elohim. But I am who I am – I am all that ever was and ever will be. I have seen the creation and destruction of every possible universe– but only chose for this one to be reality.”

“Why is that?” Shiloh asked.

“Because…this is the only universe where every creation is a masterpiece.”

Shiloh placed her hand upon her forehead and felt the flame distinguish as her finger met her brow. “What about those that hurt other people? Why must that be a part of your perfect universe?”

The owl expanded its wings, gently flew, and landed upon Shiloh’s shoulder. “Because without struggle, goodness would mean nothing. Your greatest power is your choice to be good – and to love – and to forgive…even when the person that caused the struggle doesn’t believe they did anything wrong. How can a person move a mountain with faith the size of a mustard seed, but not be able to forgive their neighbor?”

“But what if someone breaks someone’s heart?” Shiloh began to walk with the owl on her shoulder. The question left her mouth as if it shot high into the air and exploded across the farthest depths of the universe.

Even though she had never experienced heartbreak, she had always wondered greatly about its need. When she was taught about love, she thought it was the most beautiful thing in existence and nothing could triumph over it.

But when she found the dark side of loneliness and the constant voice of rejection, be it: unrequited love, divorce, affairs, or being torn apart eternally – Shiloh could never understand the need. She hated feeling the rawness of it all, she would rather be numb and not feel compassion for a person whatsoever if it were all going to fall apart. Why even fall for someone if you will end up all alone?

The owl looked at her face through the curls of her hair as they bounced and took each small step from the blue tree. It was the question He had heard through billions of tear-soaked prayers and cried alongside them as He held them tightly in His wings. “Oh, my dear child. Don’t you see? Weeping may endure for the night, but Joy comes in the morning. What is the true value of love if you were not to appreciate it? How could you appreciate something if it were not put under pressure or you didn’t know of its absence? Doesn’t precious metals need to be burned before it is considered pure?”

“I still don’t understand,” she replied as she turned and looked at the blue tree. It stood there, standing tall and proud until the fire began scorching the bark. Then a large branch cracked and fell to the ground. One by one, the tree began to split and fall apart.

Shiloh screamed and ran to the tree as the last branch fell. The owl flew from her shoulder as she cried amongst the fallen tree. The blue had been seared in the smoke; the tree was too hot to be close to.

“What did you do?” she screamed at the owl. “Why did you let this happen when you were the one that set the tree on fire?” she cried. Her face was red, and her tears dried as soon as they fell from the immense heat, the fire devouring the wood, and turning into large piles of ash and soot.

“How could you let something I care about so deeply be destroyed…I put so much time into this, making it pretty, and treating it like the most special tree in the whole world. How could you take this away from me like that?” she cried loudly on her knees, trying to say words through her sobs.

The moment she turned her back on it – it began to deteriorate, and the moment she turned to it, she had to watch it crumble.

Shiloh dried her eyes and looked for the owl, but it was gone.

After a while, when the moon was fully illuminated and the tree emitted only smoke, Shiloh made her way back to the Purple Pyramid with her bare feet.

She had never seen the moon so bright – her tears fell like glistening diamonds upon the moonlit path. She could see the pathway perfectly and she found it eerie that she could hear no animals in the woods – not a cricket or frog or snake… the walk back to the Pyramid was only orchestrated by the whistling willows and the crashing of waves upon Moriah’s shores.

She had never felt more alone or broken.

II

The next morning, Shiloh went to get a new pair of sandals made. The cordwainer measured her aching feet and she sharply pulled back her foot after her skin became too agitated. They burned and she could feel her blood pulse through them.

After noticing her intense pain, the cordwainer retrieved a small rubber ball and began rolling it against the arch of her feet. After a few minutes of this on each foot, Shiloh began to feel much better. They placed a cushion beneath her feet, measured it, then cut it to size.

Not long after, Shiloh wore her new pair of shoes.

They had breathability, they were made of the strongest materials, were incredibly comfortable, and wonderfully durable.

Her feet no longer ached, and, in fact, she felt like she could run better than ever with these shoes.

She smiled, only for a moment, until she thought of her horrible night and the loss of her tree. She thought about all her friends and how much they liked the tree. She didn’t want to be blamed for the tree or ask why she could let it happen. Shiloh didn’t want to be blamed for the loss. She cared about the tree, more than ever; but now…it was gone.

She wanted to run back to the tree as fast as she could, to see if anything was salvageable or if life could be brought back into it.

But before she could ever leave the Pyramid, an inhabitant grabbed her by the arm and began leading her up the sapphire steps to the Diamond Temple.

“Where are you taking me?” she asked but found no answer.

The inhabitant let go of her arm, bowed before the elders, and left.

Shiloh stood there and rubbed her arm. The elders spoke to her and told her to proceed to the Sanctuary – a place she knew nothing of, for she was too young and had received no training of the outside world nor had she been told anything of her wealth or purpose.

The entrance was small – barely large enough for her body to fit through. She reached for the small chrome handle and opened the thick aluminum door.

Pouring water splashed upon her face, coming from the black void on the other side of the door. Shiloh quickly jerked away and dried the liquid with her garments. After rubbing her eyes dry, she stared at the pouring water hitting the Diamond Temple’s floor then turned to the elders.

They looked over her with faces of content. “Go on, Shiloh; you will be safe. You have been chosen to be someone incredibly special,” they announced. They waved their fingers, pushing and pulling them from their hands, directed her to move forward…and to never look back.

III

On the other side of the small door, lights began to slowly illuminate, and Shiloh began to see her new surroundings.

The water was coming from sprinklers, projected from the black ceiling above. She was in a small child’s room with their toys scattered across the floor. Shiloh saw a pink umbrella shade covering the child’s play beach house patio set, she reached for it and held it above her to remain as dry as possible.

“Hello?” she called.

She waited.

No answer.

After a few minutes, Shiloh decided to walk into the other room, hoping to find someone that would help explain to her what was going on.

The next room was large, dark, and wet.

Shiloh found a switch on the wall and pressed it. The lights flickered on and Shiloh opened her mouth in awe.

She was in a luxurious skyline condominium. It was sleek, classy, modern, and beginning to flood.

The shoes she had been given had kept her feet completely dry. She smiled and had realized her sandals would have never been able to keep her feet dry in an odd situation such as this.

“Hello?” she spoke again.

Still no answer.

The large windows were covered by thick black drapes.

She began to walk slowly over to them when something caught her eye in the corner.

It was the barn owl.

When she saw it, gazing upon her, her smile depleted and she gave it a sour face. “Oh, it’s you.”

“Did you not expect me to be here?” the owl asked.

“I don’t even know where we are!’ she replied then looked at the floor with its thin layer of water covering its entirety. ‘How do I turn off the sprinklers?”

An automated voice came over the intercom above. “The Emergency Water Resources have been depleted. Please contact your nearest official for following procedures.”

The sprinkles spurted and coughed, then nothing came out.

The owl flew and landed beside Shiloh. “You have now witnessed the end.”

Shiloh let go of the umbrella and it gently drifted upon the thin layer of water.

“What does that mean?” she asked.

The condominium’s overhead lights brightened to their full extent and the thick black drapes covering the windows gently pulled backwards.

The automated voice came back over the intercom. “This is an urgent message to all occupants of Jericho. Please stay calm and proceed to the Escape docks. Only bring what you can carry.”

The message was repeated.

“This is an urgent message to all occupants of Jericho. Please stay calm and proceed to the Escape docks. Only bring what you can carry.”

“Jericho?” Shiloh asked the owl.

“Look out there,” the owl pointed to the window – the outside now visible.

Shiloh was high above the clouds. Other large structures hovered around her.

Jericho was a floating city.

“Is this how the rest of the world is?!” she exclaimed excitedly.

The owl landed upon her shoulder. “No, my dear child. This is only a sister planet to the one in which you were born.”

“I don’t understand, Yahweh,” she said with worry beginning to come across her face.

“This is the end of my Creation – the edge of a perfect circle. I wanted you to see it, so your people will never truly come to this,” Yahweh said as he breathed knowledge into Shiloh. “It all began when your parents met, in a small bar on a rainy night. Fame and power consumed your father and he poisoned and destroyed every person he came across….”

As Yahweh spoke to Shiloh, she was brought to the outer limits of the Sanctuary, where the spiritual realm dwelled supreme and physics was only an elementary concept.

Yahweh showed her everything, the beginning, and end, letting the knowledge and blueprint of the universe unfold before her. Shiloh breathed in the cosmic dust and exhaled starlight. Then once the smallest particles collided and merged, when everything was nothing and nothing was everything, Shiloh saw Joel.

IV

Once the linear timeline had fallen upon its tracks, the Earth had come from new to old, and the salvation of Jericho had turned into the people’s damnation, Shiloh walked through the large open area of the floating city. She saw shops, parlors, diners, and laundromats. Yahweh sat upon her shoulder as she wandered through the decayed city. There was no one around, no noise other than her echoing footsteps and the subtle dripping of water from the previous fire alarm showers.

There was no other living human being in the entire universe than her.

She walked through a stone building, with large stained glassed windows illuminating countless colours on the reflective stained pews then made her way behind the pulpit and down a thin spiraling staircase.

At the end of a long corridor was a black door. Shiloh pressed the correct code and the door unlocked. She opened the door and Yahweh flew over the vast warehouse-sized room of the most important items of the human race: crowns, relics, religious artifacts, books, films, paintings, music, hard drives – and landed upon a small glass case. Shiloh made her way through the aisles until she got to the case, lifted it, and reached for the small wooden jewelry box below it.

Shiloh sat down on the cool tiled floor and took a deep breath. She opened the small beautifully crafted box and four rings rolled around loosely upon the velvet and plush lining.

One was a gold band, the other was platinum with a large blue diamond belonging to her mother and father.

She smiled and looked at them, placing them on her fingers as a child would, and was in awe at how they still shimmered.

After a few moments, she placed them back into the box. She looked at a large ring, bounded around a black jewel. The ring that granted her father ultimate power.

“You created this,” she said to Yahweh.

Yahweh looked at the ring and replied, “I have never created darkness that wouldn’t be brought to light.”

Then she saw the final ring. It was of an old golden owl, scuffed with barely any shimmer.

The ring had no immense appeal, no glow or jewel. It was just as it was, and Shiloh placed it upon her fingers.

“This is what will give you the power to fight the darkness,” Yahweh spoke.

Shiloh smiled and petted the owl’s soft head. “I’ll make you proud, Yahweh.”

“You already have,” the owl replied. The owl brushed his wing upon Shiloh’s cheek.

Then, Shiloh stood and saw something in her peripherals.

It was an old, faded, and grey photograph of her when she is old, faded and grey, sitting in a wheelchair, smiling happily beside a large blue tree.