The Light of Our Yesterdays by Ken Hansen

Author:Ken Hansen [Hansen, Ken]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sheer Hubris Press via Indie Author Project
Published: 2019-01-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 53

The repetitive sway of the train car closed Yohanan’s eyes and nearly delivered him into a well-deserved sleep. It had been difficult to contain his sadness when he had parted with Isa and Tomadus at the aeroportus in Tenochtitlan at the close of their winter together in the Aztec Empire. The sadness compounded with the growing weariness from walking so many miles every day, the southern Aztalan sun blazing down on his back, to bring Isa’s message to so many who had never before even heard of the God of Abraham. Still, his spirits had soared during this goodbye when Isa had put his hands on Yohanan’s shoulders and said, “You are in our Father’s hands now, but I will be with you always. I know you shall walk a path of peace, for you will prepare my way.”

Yohanan had asked, “And how shall I do this?”

Isa had answered, “When you follow the rising of the sun, Yohanan, you shall lead the rising of the sun, and you will find your way home.”

Home—he had now almost reached Shenandoah. Shenandoah had no landing strips for aeronaves that had not been bombed out for years, so he had flown to New Hedeby and boarded this train that would take him through several Juteslam-controlled cities and ultimately to his home. As a Tetepian, he was required to sit near the front of the train, where the noise of the locomotives could be deafening. He might find a way to move toward the back after the last Juteslam stop in Lodbrok.

A door slammed, and a man said, “Tickets and papers please.” Yohanan opened his eyes and handed over the documents to the conductor, who gave him a stern look, ripped the ticket and returned the passport marking Yohanan as a lowly Jewish Tetepian. Well, at least they still let him travel. He would change all of this. It may take years, but it would change. He would find a way.

Yohanan glanced out the window, barely able to keep his eyes open. The early March thaw had melted most of the snow, but the barren trees and the dormant grasses now cast a bleak brown hue over the landscape, desperately awaiting the renewal of spring. He slowly tilted his head toward the window, but before he could close his own eyes, he saw two little eyes staring at him from two seats to his front. When Yohanan smiled, the eyes quickly disappeared in front of the seat back, only to reappear a few seconds later, this time revealing beneath them a set of prominent freckles belonging to a very young boy. Yohanan quickly raised his eyebrows and opened his mouth wide, which again caused the head of the boy to duck for cover. He heard the ratcheting of mechanical gears, and a few seconds later, a small metallic toy appeared above the seat, caressed by tiny, awkward fingers. It depicted an ancient Viking and Aztec engaged in eternal combat, repeatedly clanging their swords against one another as the spiral spring within the clockwork mechanism unwound its worldly tension.

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