Something was coming. Erica could feel it. She was peaceful but also anxious. Johnny wasn’t helping her anxieties, as he was pounding her with questions about what he should take with him and were planes going to fall out of the sky. A friend once told her airlines wouldn’t pair Christian pilots and co-pilots, just in case the rapture theory was true. She’d done a fact check online, and found no airlines had such a policy.
“Not true, Johnny.” He looked disappointed. “The flights are grounded due to concerns about the asteroid. There may still be some in the sky, but they’ll land soon.”
“What about car accidents?” Teenage adrenaline was pumping through his veins.
“Maybe God will make all things stand still. The Bible does speak of God making the sun stand still and stopping the moon. Besides, he’s God. He can do whatever He wants with His creation.”
“Yes, DNA and all that stuff. We’ve studied it at school. He has an instruction manual on all of us.”
Erica looked towards the window and gave the outside world her thoughts. “Imagine the computer systems in heaven. Every thought captured. Every word recorded.”
“So this rapture thing isn’t a big deal.”
“For God, no. For us, yes.” Erica walked over to the window. “I’m sure it will be an orderly event.” She sensed a darkness over her street. No one was out walking. She looked up at the clock on the wall: almost three.
Something weird was happening to the wall. The paint was swirling. The wall opened, revealing a passageway, and two shapes appeared. As they came into focus, Erica recognised one as the visitor she’d had earlier. The other she assumed was Johnny’s guardian angel.
The beings smiled. Peace flooded the house.
“It’s almost time for the celebration,” her visitor said. “The greatest event in the history of mankind is about to occur.”
They each held some kind of apparatus in their hands and walked over to Erica and Johnny. They squeezed the apparatus and a fine mist came over both Erica and Johnny.
“Nothing to fear,” her visitor said. “The cells in your body will absorb that. Your cells are being fed new information, new instructions. You’ve been changed in the twinkle of an eye.” He gave a wink.
A strange quietness came over Erica’s mind as if all things were now at rest. In this quietness, she heard the sound of a trumpet. She looked at Johnny. She could tell he heard it too. They hugged.
“It’s louder outside,” Johnny’s visitor said.
The visitors waved them over to the revealed passageway.
They entered without hesitation, the joyous sound of the trumpet echoing in their minds.
* * *
Jack sat on the bench as instructed by his visitor from the car park. He looked over towards where he first encountered the orange man, Thomas Wiley. Where had Wiley’s plan to eradicate amber people come from? What made people want to turn against those who want to love others, who are concerned for others? Yes, the church had turned many people away with the scandals, the hypocrisy. He remembered being told it was all a spiritual battle happening in the unseen world.
As he sat, he realised something strange. There were no moving vehicles. People were getting out of their stationary cars, some scratching their heads, confused with whatever was going on. Motionless buses unloaded their unhappy passengers. He could hear car horns, but they sounded more like a trumpet.
A deep-blue shadow was spreading across the city. He looked up to see Adventus moving across the sky, blocking out the sun’s rays. The sky below Adventus looked different. Shimmering. Something was going on beneath the surface. It reminded Jack of the ocean current, with something moving inside it. Was there an invisible river flowing to Adventus?
He yearned for Erica. He loved Erica and Johnny but knew that was at the emotional level. God is love. Where did that thought come from? It’s an action. Another one.
“The spirit is in communication with you, Jack.”
Jack turned towards the voice. It was the visitor. He stood in front of an opening in the brick wall, which looked like a layer had been peeled away to reveal a hidden passage. He moved toward Jack, holding something in his hand. He held it up and a fine mist covered Jack.
A quietness came over Jack’s mind. In the quietness, he heard what sounded like a trumpet. He wasn’t sure if it was external or internal. He glanced at the people on the streets. Many were looking to the sky.
Many were vanishing.
Encouraged, he entered the passage.
The entrance closed and he sensed the presence of others. Many others.
The visitor looked at him. “You’ll be there shortly.”
“Where?”
“The wedding feast of the Lamb and His bride.”
“The New Jerusalem.”
Jack understood. The holiday.
Humming. A low steady continuous hum. Energy. Murmurs. On all sides, Jack was surrounded by outlines of people in shafts of light. Shadows shot by, millions of beams coming into one. Tubes transporting people. Tunnels of light.
His body no longer fought gravity. There was an absence of weight, anxiety, fear. Instead, a sense of wellbeing, trust, peace.
“We’ll be there shortly,” the visitor said. “We’re currently travelling in a different earthly plane. I suppose you could say a different region of reality—but a good reality.”
Jack had no doubt about that. He looked at his visitor, who was casually dressed in jeans with a plain white t-shirt. Very earthly, although not a wrinkle in sight. Not so earthly. Not even a wrinkle on his face. Definitely not so earthly.
“So you’re my guardian angel?”
“That’s what people like to call us. I’ve been hanging around with you for a while.” He moved his hands around to indicate their surroundings. “Got you to here.”
Jack looked around. Flashes of blues—light and dark—lined the walls of the tunnel. It reminded him of the colours of streams of water and their soothing affect. Yes, blues soothed the soul.
