The Incubus, Succubus and Son of Perdition Box Set: The Len du Randt Bundle (56 page)

Mary and their two children; Angie, eight, and Timothy,
sixteen, joined in and said along with Malcolm, ‘Blessed are you, O Lord,
HaShem, King of the Universe, Creator of the Fruit of the Vine.’

After a moment of silence, Malcolm concluded, ‘Let us
drink together this first cup of the Passover.’ He raised his cup, placed it to
his lips, and drank.

Mary and the children followed his example
and drank from their own cups.

After drinking the wine, Malcolm dipped his fingertips
in the wash bowl and dried them with a cloth. He passed the bowl to Mary, who
did the same, and then passed the bowl to the children.

‘This parsley,’ he said as he held a piece in the air,
‘represents the newness of life, created by HaShem, which begins to bloom around
us at this season of the year. It reminds us that HaShem is a faithful provider
of sustenance for His people.’

He then raised the bowl containing salt water up high,
and concluded, ‘And yet the children of Israel were in bondage, toiling under
cruel taskmasters to build palaces for Pharaoh. This salt water represents the
tears of affliction that come in life. Let us dip our vegetables in the salt
water and reflect on the mystery that, even in the midst of HaShem’s provision,
life is sometimes immersed in tears.’

Together they said the blessing again.

‘Let us eat the parsley together,’ Malcolm finished.

Together, they ate the parsley.

The four questions asked at the Seder meal each year
followed next. Malcolm asked Timothy the first question, Angie the second,
again Timothy the third, and Angie the last. Usually, only the youngest member
of a family would answer the questions, but because they had such a small
family, Malcolm felt it best to include Timothy. It also took some of the
pressure off Angie.

After the questions, Malcolm read his part of the
Passover story. Mary and each of the children also had their separate sections
of the story to read. The rest of the ceremonies proceeded perfectly according
to the routine that they so diligently followed each year, and Malcolm was
surprised at how Angie had improved since the last Seder.

‘Let us fill our cups again,’ Malcolm announced and
raised his cup. ‘This is the cup of redemption. By tradition, it represents the
blood of the Passover lamb.’

After drinking, Malcolm held up the cup set aside for
Elijah.

‘Every year we make a place at our Passover table for
Eliyahu Ha’Navi, the prophet Elijah. Now Elijah did not know death, but was
carried into Heaven in a chariot of fire. The sacred scriptures tell us that
the day of the Lord will be preceded by the return of Elijah.’

Mary and the children quoted Malachi 4:5 together, ‘Lo,
I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful
day of the Lord. He shall reconcile parents with children and children with
their parents, so that when I come, I do not strike the whole land with utter
destruction.’

‘Now,’ Malcolm said, looking at Timothy. ‘Let one of
the children go and open the door to welcome Elijah to our table.’

Timothy stood up and walked to the door. He wondered
why they kept doing these stupid routines each year. Everyone knew that Elijah
would never return, and even if he did, he wouldn’t come to
their
crummy
house. He turned the knob and slowly opened the door, trying to keep the wailing
wind from wreaking havoc in their home. He peered around the door and stared
into the darkness outside, trying to keep his face dry from the pelting rain.
He almost didn’t see the silhouette, but his blood chilled when he
did
see the outline of the man standing in front of him. A sudden flash of
lightning revealed the huge, burly man and Timothy fell over backward as he
tried to get away.

‘
Abba!
’ he shouted, followed by a high-pitched,
‘
Help me!
’

Malcolm’s heart skipped a beat when he saw the man standing
at the door.
This isn’t happening!
It cannot possibly be him!

The man stepped into the tiny house and closed the door
behind him. Malcolm noticed that neither his hair nor clothes were wet from the
rain outside: a miracle in itself. Timothy scrambled to his feet and ran to his
father, who moved the boy behind his chair as a protective measure. Mary and
Angie were paralysed in their seats, unable to make even the smallest movement
or sound.

‘I come in peace,’ the big man thundered.

‘Have a seat then,’ Malcolm gestured toward the table
as a test. Maybe the man would sit in Timothy’s chair, exposing himself as a
fraud. ‘And join us for a meal.’ He tried hard to hide the quiver in his voice.

The man walked to the chair that had been set aside for
Elijah, pulled it out, and sat down in it.

Malcolm still couldn’t believe his eyes. Even the man’s
belt and prayer shawl were exactly as described in the Torah. He gestured for
Timothy to take his seat, which the boy obediently did.

The man in Elijah’s seat said a prayer and, without
saying anything else, he ate the food that Mary had prepared for Elijah. He
then drank of the wine, and finally glanced at Mary with a look of
satisfaction. He then looked at Malcolm and their eyes locked. Malcolm was
certain that the man could see through his eyes and right into the very core of
his soul. It could have been seconds, but to Malcolm it felt like hours had
passed before the man finally spoke.

‘He is coming.’

The Messiah!
‘Who is?’ Malcolm asked as calmly as
he could manage.

‘He is coming,’ the man repeated. ‘After a time of
terrible sorrow, there shall be true peace at last.’

‘Who is—?’

A violent gust of wind suddenly flung open a window,
and it banged so loudly against the wall that Mary jumped and let out a little
shriek. The wind instantly snuffed the candles. Only the Menorah Lamp’s faint
light kept burning. Malcolm picked up the lamp and transferred the flame to the
candles. Mary had, in the meantime, managed to close the window again, and as
the tiny flame of a candle lit up the room, Malcolm’s eyes searched frantically
for his children to see that they were safe. They were. He then looked at Mary
who was fixing her hair as she sat down again. Finally, Malcolm directed his
attention at the chair that the man had been sitting in.

It was empty.

- - -*  *  *- -
-

Jerusalem:
the Following Day

Beepers were going off all over
Israel. Malcolm paged Rabbi Michael Morris, and informed him of the events that
occurred in his house the previous evening. Rabbi Morris then paged the rest,
and soon the news spread like a wildfire throughout the Holy City. Not able to
contain his excitement, the Rabbi arranged to meet Malcolm at a restaurant near
the Western Wall.

‘Are you sure it was
him
?’ Morris asked for the
fourth time.

Malcolm let out a cheerful laugh and nodded excitedly.

Rabbi Morris lapsed into deep, quiet thought, and after
a while his smile disappeared and was replaced with a grim expression. ‘You
know what this means, right?’ he asked with a stern voice.

‘I do,’ Malcolm replied, his voice also serious. ‘How
long before we can implement it?’

‘Four...I would say maybe five months,’ the Rabbi
replied.

‘Then the time is right,’ Malcolm said.

‘The time is right,’ Rabbi Morris agreed. ‘We
must
act,
now!
’

- - -*  *  *- -
-

South Africa:
Five Months
Later

Trevor hated working on Saturdays.
He didn’t get paid overtime for it but was, instead, given a weekday off. It
was a raw deal for him, since he was losing out on overtime money
and
on
his weekend. Sometimes he wondered who was more stupid: the clients calling in
because they were too pathetic to learn the basics of computers, or him wasting
a perfectly good Saturday, trying to help those who were too lazy or ignorant
to learn.

He sighed as an arrogant client hung up, and then
pressed the unavailable button to prevent any more calls from coming through to
him. He just needed to break away for a few minutes. Just then his cell phone
vibrated. Trevor looked at the name on the screen and groaned. The word
‘Norman’ glared at him and he wondered whether he should pick it up or not. He
hadn’t spoken to his brother in over seven months, and didn’t intend to start
now. Still, he answered against his better judgement.

‘Norm.’

‘Hey Trev,’ his brother said. ‘How are you doing?’

‘Fine,’ Trevor said. He didn’t want to make small talk.
There were calls in the queue that he would much rather attend to.

‘Uh, are you busy?’

‘At work,’ Trevor said, again as bluntly as he could
manage.

‘So you didn’t see the news?’

Yes, Norm, I have a television set hidden under my
desk.
‘No, I didn’t see. Why? What’s up?’

‘It’s the Dome of the Rock. Someone blew it up.’

Trevor sat upright. Norman had his attention now. ‘The
Dome in Jerusalem?’

‘Yep.’

‘Who did it?’

‘No idea. The Jews are blaming the Muslims, and the
Muslims are blaming the Jews. Either way, it seems that if the culprit isn’t
caught, this might escalate into the Third World War.’

‘I don’t think it would be
that
drastic,’ Trevor
said. He didn’t particularly care for religious beliefs or artefacts,
but blowing up an ancient Muslim site of worship was
the same as blowing up a MacDonald’s restaurant. Both were vicious acts of
terrorism that stood against years of peace campaign efforts that humanity had
worked so hard to achieve.

‘GMN is covering the whole thing. It’s
huge!
’

‘And now you think that the world is going to end?’
Trevor couldn’t hide the sarcastic bite in his voice. Every time something went
down in the Middle East, Norman had a way of pointing a finger at the New World
Order and the End Times. The Illuminati had been blamed for so many things that
Trevor had lost count. The whole thing was ridiculous.

‘It might,’ Norman said, ignoring Trevor’s taunt. ‘Then
again, it might not. Why don’t you come over for dinner tonight, and we’ll talk
about it?’

‘I don’t know...’

‘Come on,’ Norman motivated his brother. ‘It would be
fun seeing you again
and, besides, Andrew
wouldn’t mind catching up either.’

‘Andrew’s
your
friend,’ Trevor said, ‘not mine.’

‘Yeah, I know, but still...’

Trevor hesitated, but the dome thing really tickled him
and he wanted to hear Norman’s thoughts on it, regardless of how extreme or
absurd. ‘Okay,’ he finally agreed. ‘What time should I be there?’

‘Really?’ Norman asked; surprised at how easy Trevor
agreed.

‘Yeah.’

‘Oh wow! That’s great! How about seven?’

‘Seven is good.’

‘Awesome! I’ll see you then.’

‘Okay,’ Trevor said with a dismissive tone in his
voice. ‘See you then.’

Norman got the hint and hung up, leaving Trevor—cell
phone in hand—wondering how and why he had just committed himself to going when
he really didn’t want to. Trevor sighed and then went available again. The next
call in the queue chirped on his phone.

‘Tech Support, this is Trevor speaking. How may I help
you?’

- - -*  *  *- -
-

The first thing that Trevor did
when he got back home was to switch on the television for the latest GMN update
on the happenings in Jerusalem. The image on the television screen was one of a
huge wall of flames in the distance. ‘It’s unbelievable, Connie,’ the news
reporter shouted into a microphone as he wiped perspiration from his forehead
with a dirty cloth. He was clearly affected by the heat, even at that distance.
‘I have never seen anything like it in my life.’

‘Tell us about the damage,’ the news anchor asked from
her desk in London.

‘It’s impossible for anyone to get much closer than we
are now, but from our aerial crew we managed to determine that the whole area
around and including the Dome of the Rock is engulfed in these huge flames. The
Eastern Wall has also been destroyed by whatever caused this blast, but
strangely enough though, the Western Wall is still intact.’

‘And the casualties?’

‘Thousands...possibly
tens of thousands
of
Muslims may have lost their lives here today. To make matters worse, we just
received word that a few minutes ago, a similar explosion destroyed the Kabaa
in Mecca where thousands were celebrating Ramadan.’

The damage was worse than Trevor had originally
imagined. Even though the flames were in the distance, he could gauge that they
were at least seven storeys high. The once prominent golden dome that stood out
defiantly in Jerusalem was now totally swallowed by flames. The news about the
Kabaa just compound matters even more and he wondered if Norman might have been
right about an imminent war.