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The Gift

Edward's Storyline, Chapter 2.5

copyright comidacomida 2018

Rather than answer my question, Tom brought up another topic entirely. "You have not worked today, and you do not work tomorrow, correct?"

I nodded. "Right. But what does that have to do with--?"

He interjected. "If I may make a request, I would like to share a simple ritual with you tonight. It will soon be Friday evening, which is Shabbat according to halakha. I wish to share that with you and, once it is done, I will tell you about The Ancient One and you may ask as many questions about my opinion of him as you desire. Is that a fair Bargain?"

Considering he'd already said he would talk with me about the Ancient One I felt a little put out that he'd suddenly make demands. However, what he was asking didn't seem all that unreasonable. Still: a religious ceremony? Geezus. So, after having spent a minute to think it over, I realized that I'd spent time with every OTHER spirit, so it'd only be fair to humor the Rhino. "Okay... show me Shabbat, I guess."

His little ears rose up straight as he looked down his enormous snout at me. "You guess?"

It was an indirect way of him telling me off-- I could tell that much. After a moment of thinking about it I realized that he had good cause to be uppity about it seeing as it was so important to him and I was so casual about it. "Sorry. I mean, yes. Please. I think that is fair."

Tom nodded, his hardened expression suddenly back to neutral. "Very good. Then we have a Bargain?"

I could tell that there was some significance to that term and it too was important to him. "Okay. Sure. Yes. You can share a simple ritual with me and then you tell me about The Ancient One."

He held out an enormous hand. "Then we have a Bargain."

Looking at it, I wondered for a moment what purpose it served if we couldn't touch. Regardless, I humored him and reached out as if shaking hands. As I expected, my fingers passed right through his palm but, as I watched his hand dissolve like smoke being disbursed by a strong wind, small tendrils of spirit essence followed the motion of mine. Even as the end of his arm reformed I looked to my palm and saw that a glowing symbol had appeared clearly without pain, discomfort, or even any sensation.

I don't know how long I stared at the mark, running the fingers from my other hand across it as if expecting to feel something; the symbol, I realized, was as intangible as Tom and, even when I was rubbing my fingers across it, I could still see the golden glow through them. I turned my hand over and, surprisingly, there was the mark again. I looked up from it. "Tom... what IS this thing?"

After asking the question I looked up and suddenly realized that Tom had changed his location in my room; for such a big buy he could be pretty damn quiet. The Rhino was standing by my desk, dwarfing. He leaned over, placing his hand onto the desk and when he raised it I saw that

He went right into the discussion. "Shortly before Sunset on every Friday it is customary to light at least two Shabbat candles. One candle represents the concept of 'Shamor', which means 'keep'; the other represents the concept of 'Zakhor', or 'remember'. You have heard of 'the Ten Commandments', yes?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Sure. Moses and tablets and everything."

His gaze took on that judgmental severity at the casual way I'd responded to his question but he continued nevertheless. "Shamor and Zakhor are concepts that were introduced in the Ten Commandments."

As he spoke he reached out and touched the wick of each candle with his finger, lighting them both one after the other. "After the candles are lit you wave your hands over the candles in a circular motion toward your face."

He did as he described and looked pointedly at me; I hadn't exactly anticipated that he'd expect me to try it but it was a smile ask so I mimicked his action. "Why is that?"

Rather than answer my question he clarified the order. "It is done three times."

He continued the gestures and as I did he spoke what I figured was Hebrew. Well, actually, it wasn't exactly so much spoken as it was chanted. When he spoke his deep baritone had a very powerful rumbling crack to it and yet, when he recited the prayer like a song it was surprisingly smooth and, beautiful in the same way as the majesty of a thunder storm. "Varuch ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, asher kidshanu b'mitzvotav vitzivanu l'hadlik ner shel Shabbat."

There was no way I'd be able to repeat what he'd said; I missed at least two thirds of it just trying to figure out what he was saying. Fortunately, Tom didn't seem to expect me to follow suit. He sat back, eying the candles contentedly. I waited a few moments before asking. "What was that prayer?"

Upon hearing my inquiry, the Rhino looked my way with a faint, satisfied smile on his broad snout. "It is the Shabbat prayer."

"What does it mean?"

He turned to face me, taking a seat on the floor so we were eye-to-eye. He spoke slowly, and with reverence. "Blessed are You, God, Ruler of the universe, who sanctified us with the commandment of lighting the Shabbat candles."

I nodded; it had certainly sounded like 'one of those prayers'. Rather than risk another one of his disapproving glances I asked a question that was a little more thoughtful. "So... what is the significance of Shabbat?"

His smile widened. "There are many purposes behind it, Edward, but the most common portrayal is what God did on the seventh day of creation. Do you know what that is?"

I nodded again. "Sure. He rested."

Tom nodded back. "Yes. Shabbat is a day of rest that starts just before sundown on Friday evening to just after dark on Saturday night. Families will eat together before dark with more prayers spoken over wine and over challah bread."

As he spoke, the Rhino gestured back to the desk where I saw that a goblet and a plate had appeared; on the plate was a loaf of bread that looked as though it had been separated into three lengths and woven together. Rather than offer up some non-committal statement about what he was showing me I asked a pointed question. "Why are you showing me all of this?"

Tom turned around to face me fully, the items on the desk completely forgotten. "Two reasons, Nekhed. First, I wanted to share some of the ancient traditions members of your family used to call their own. Second, I needed to know if you possessed what it took to be able to understand The Ancient One."

The round-about discussion wasn't exactly something I expected from Tom, who'd given me the impression since the beginning that he was pretty straight-forward. "So... what is it that I need to have to understand?"

"The willingness to listen and to ask questions."

Rather than wait for me to question the statement, Tom launched right into his story. There was a LOT to learn about the Ancient One and the Rhino apparently knew quite a bit. It was well past midnight when I finally got to bed and my mind was awash in assimilating what I'd learned about the trio of spirits-- the youngest of which had been around longer than the oldest modern civilization. Although it didn't quiet my discontent about him it did give me a whole lot to consider.