Destiny

ONE-HUNDRED-SEVENTEEN

Paul Marcus could see only black. He heard the crackle of police and emergency radios in the distance. When he opened his eyes, it was still dark. The stars were so close a man could reach out and touch them. So bright and alive with light. He was cold, lying on his back, looking into the heavens when a meteor cut a blistering path in the inky sky.

“Damn shame,” he heard one of the medics say. “The whole family murdered. The woman and little girl probably first…and then the man. If we could have been here five minutes earlier…maybe it would have made a difference, at least for the husband. Looks like he bled out from the stab wound on the right side of his chest.”

No! I’m not dead! Marcus wanted to say. But he could not form any words. Only thoughts, visions…visions of places he’d never been. People he’d never met. How long had he been lying here, in the cold and rain? Why did he pull over to help the man? Why! Why! Why! Tiffany and Jen would be home in bed if…”

They pulled something over him — a white sheet. The stars were gone. Black enveloped him, and then there was a single light in the distance cloaked in absolute quiet. He free-fell through a dimension with no traceable reference to time and place. He was drenched in light, naked, his entire being an open book. He felt no fear.

Paul Marcus felt absolute love.

His grandmother stood next to him, hand extended, smiling. She spoke without moving her lips. “You did it, Paul…you did it…I love you.” He reached for her just as she smiled again and faded away, the light growing stronger. Then he could see the compassionate face of Bahir, eyes warm and reassuring. Marcus tried to say something. He couldn’t talk. His thoughts seemed to transmit with no need to speak them.

The light slowly faded, and the cries of sea gulls seemed far away.

Someone lifted a cool, damp cloth over his face.

Marcus was on his back, the sound of breakers, the smell of the sea, the scent of olive blossoms and hibiscus in the breeze. He opened his eyes and used one hand to remove the cloth from his face.

Alicia was lying next to him twenty-five meters inland from the beach.

Please be alive, Marcus thought, crawling to her. God, let her be alive. He lifted her head, gently, using one hand to wipe the wet sand from her lips and forehead. He could feel a pulse, slow but strong. Her eyes fluttered a second, and then opened. Her head and face were bruised and cut.

Alicia tried to smile. “Paul, what happened? Where are we?” She glanced to the left and right. There were islands in the distance, volcanic cliffs jutting up from the sea. “How’d we get here?” Her voice was raspy.

Marcus looked around the area. “I don’t know. Maybe we’re on an island.”

“The last thing I remember was the helicopter hitting the water.” She sat up and focused on Marcus, gently touching his forehead. “You’re cut, and you’ve got a bump there. How do you feel?”

“A little woozy.” Marcus shielded his eyes from the glare of the sun off the water. “Maybe we’re somewhere near the coast of Sicily. Look, there’s a small harbor down there.” He pointed to a few fishing boats and sailboats anchored in the calm harbor. “I see one small boat moving. A fisherman, maybe.”

Alicia stared at the small boat in the distance. Marcus stood and stepped to the beach. There was an indentation where a small boat had come ashore. He stared back at the spot on the beach where they had been. “Maybe someone carried us from a boat to up here. We might be…”

“Might be where?”

“Maybe the Aeolian Islands. North of Sicily.”

Alicia’s face filled with hesitation, her eyes taking in the island and the harbor. “I have goose bumps all over. Are we alive or is this some come kind of death dream we’re sharing?”

“We’re alive, I think.” Paul smiled and added, “But a lot can happen in a dimension where time itself means nothing…‘for the things which are seen are sequential, but the things which are not seen are eternal.’ ”

Alicia looked down at the maternity dress, ripped and still damp from the sea. She laughed. “I didn’t dress very well for heaven.” She looked around her. “It’s beautiful here. Maybe this is paradise…let’s climb a little higher.”

They walked a rocky path that led them to a cliff that overlooked the sea. The island had a natural curve to its south face, the cliffs jutting straight down into cobalt blue waters. Marcus studied the terrain, his eyes drifting across the pastoral hills, down to the old-world harbor and the quaint seaside village. The air smelled sweet, pink heather cascading from the slopes, lemon and orange trees planted in nearby fields.

“I could grow to like this place,” Alicia said, the wind teasing her hair.

“Maybe we could call this home. We’ll be the nameless couple who drifted in with the tide one day and decided to stay.”

“You think?”

“Yes.” Marcus looked across the immense indigo blue ocean. He could see smoke from Mount Etna in the sky. “At this moment in time, I feel so much alive. For such a long time, I felt dead inside. Should I trust this new feeling? What do we really see, Alicia?”

“Maybe the world will listen and hear what you found…what you shared with them. Love between people is what we can see and feel…maybe we commit to that.”

“Maybe. That hope is about all we have left.”

“I disagree, Paul.” She took his hand in hers. “We have much more left. For whatever reason, you were picked. I don’t know for sure how or why. I don’t even know why I’m standing here on this beautiful windswept island with you. For a concise moment, we had the chance to experience the things eternal. You, Paul Marcus…you and Isaac Newton…had the window to the universe opened for a brief period. You recognized the patterns of the universe…and of human nature. You found some of the unseen links. With guidance from God, you showed your fellow man what it is…and most importantly…you showed them what it can be.”

Marcus watched the smoke from Etna on the horizon, and then his eyes met Alicia. He could hear the roll of the breakers on the beach below them. The breeze was blowing through her hair; and even in her disarray, she was beautiful. He reached out to her, took her face in his hands, and leaned in to kiss her gently.

She looked up at him, her blue eyes searching his face.

Marcus used his thumb to push a lock of hair from her eye. “I’m not the same man I was when this started. I could never be that man again. I’ve found what I didn’t know even existed. I love you, Alicia.” He kissed her again. Alicia’s eyes sparkled, catching the light off the sea. Marcus cupped her face in his hands and kissed her tenderly, the sound of breakers rolling, tears spilling from her eyes.

She smiled and said, “I love you, too, Paul.”

He took her hand, and they walked a small path through the verdant green of the island.

Twenty minutes later they came to a cottage on a small hill. Marcus said, “I bet the door’s unlocked.”

“You think so?”

“Somehow I don’t think it’s ever been locked.”