The Wall by Brian Penn

Author:Brian Penn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Koehler Books
Published: 2024-02-24T00:00:00+00:00

Sarai ignores the sting on her knuckles and the pain in her wrist as she wallops Asher a second time. A third time.

“How dare you! Who are you? What kind of a person are you?”

Asher grabs her arm. “It’s me! It’s really me. Listen—”

“Let go of me you sick monster. You couldn’t hold a candle to him. No Lazurite could!”

“Listen to me, I was sculpted!”

“Shut your mouth!”

It's just all too much for her as her knees buckle. The sheets of rain drench her hair and mat it to the dirt, which was quickly transforming into mud. Asher bends down to wipe her hair from her eyes.

“Don’t touch me! Get away from me!” she bawls.

“Sarai, please! You have to believe me, I was sculpted as part of Cephas’s crazy plan for me to win the Canonization, to lead one of your father’s armies and be a spy for The Defiance. And to marry you . . . that is why I agreed, that is why I’m here. I’m here for you Sarai. Look at my eyes. Look!”

She does, and they so much look like Asher’s. But she still can’t believe it.

“Look at my neck.” Asher bends and shows her the scar on the back of his neck where she had hooked him with a fishing hook. “Our tree, the willow. That is where we were to get married. My proposal, the fish, it swallowed the ring. No one else knew. Our casting contests, I would win, but you always caught more fish. It’s me Sarai, look at me, look into my eyes, hear me. We are eternity mates.”

“Then dance with me,” she asks, trying to trick him.

“Not a chance.”

She contemplates his answer as Asher hangs his head and wipes tears. Sarai puts her index finger underneath his chin and lifts his head so it is parallel with hers. She scans his eyes and sees it.

Love.

Kindness.

Sorrow.

Tribulation.

Affliction.

Loss.

Restlessness.

These aren’t the eyes of a Lazurite. They are that of a Dreck. They belong to Asher. He belongs to her. They freeze, afraid that any movement or words will shake them from this dream, and they will awake separated once again. In Zion’s world, love is fragile and easily spooked. She moves first, slowly edging her chin to his. She shudders from his warm breath. They kiss softly. A redemptive kiss never thought possible trumps the first time their lips had touched. Their faces are slathered by the heavy downpour. An embrace five years in the making.

“I feel as if I’ve stepped out of a nightmare and into a dream,” she whispers.

“Then don’t open your eyes.”

“But how will I see you?”

“I have seen you every day for the last five years. Your beauty is more than I remember. It’s more than I can take.”

“I can’t breathe when you say such things. I thought you were dead, I had died inside.”

“Death can’t separate us.”

“I can’t believe it, how? How did you do this?”

“I don’t know. I can’t believe it either.”

“How is Cephas?”

“The same.”

“And Jude?”

“Still alive. Eats like a horse, still has the metabolism of a hummingbird.

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