BY THE TIME THE helicopter touched down, news of worsening world conditions made it obvious to Neisen time could not be wasted trying to unravel the mystery behind the Yanoakos’ dreams.
After stepping from the helicopter, there had only been time enough for Neisen to shake Ruth’s hand and for Jerry to kiss her before the village Elders took them to Akhu’s hut. On the way, Ruth expressed surprise Akhu insisted the three visit him at the same time.
“Normally he meets outsiders one-on-one,” she said. “Bringing you together may mean he feels like I do.”
“And how’s that, Miss Starling?” They had reached the door of Akhu’s hut when Neisen turned and eyed Ruth questioningly.
“That there is no time to observe social custom.”
Akhu’s black eyes appraised Neisen and Jerry as they entered and with a nod acknowledged Ruth’s introduction.
“We leave on our journey tonight,” he announced, then, without further explanation, turned and addressed Ruth directly. “You, little sister will be going with us.”
“Yes, of course,” she replied without hesitation.
“And you…” Akhu’s black eyes sought out Neisen and Jerry. “You may come if you wish.”
Akhu continued to stare stoically at Neisen, who smiled and nodded as Ruth translated his invitation.
“Yes, certainly, but the day is half over. Would it not be better if we waited until morning? Until we can see where—”
With a sweep of his hand, Akhu cut him off. “Shi will give us all the light we need for our journey.”
Ruth saw the hint of a smile on his face as he waited for her to translate. He remembers the Bible story, she thought.
In translating the Gospel of John, she had chosen the word “Shi” as the Yanoako word that best expressed God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. She taught them the God of the Bible was not a god above other gods, but the only true God who revealed himself as a father, a son, and a spirit.
One night as they shared an evening meal, she told the tribe the story of Israel’s long journey through the wilderness. Since the idea of a desert was foreign to their experience, she described it as a jungle. “Ahs” of amazement punctuated the story when she described the parting of the Red Sea and told how Moses brought forth water from a rock. As she related Israel’s long journey through the jungle, one of the older boys interrupted with a question.
“But teacher,” he asked, “If the jungle was not the tribe’s home, how did they find their way through it?”
Their eyes grew wide when she described Shi sending a cloud by day and a fire at night to guide them.
Just as they were about to leave the hut, Neisen took Ruth’s arm. “Before we go, Miss. Starling, there’s something I want to show the Shaman.”
Surprised, Ruth glanced at Jerry, who nodded his agreement.
Be kind enough to translate for me,” Neisen said, as they turned and faced Akhu. Without ceremony, Neisen seated himself on one of the two benches near the entrance of the hut.
Ruth tried to cover this breach of Yanoako etiquette by smiling and waiting for Akhu to sit on the other bench before settling beside him.
“Akhu,” Neisen began, “I have come from a great distance to seek your guidance and wisdom.”
While Ruth translated the blatant flattery, Neisen pulled the pouch from inside his jacket pocket. Removing the stone, he handed it ceremoniously to the Shaman.
Akhu’s response was everything Neisen had hoped.
“The mark of Shi!” His expression of annoyance at Neisen’s rudeness instantly morphed into one of astonishment. For a fleeting moment, his fingers reverentially touched the stone’s design then drew back as he held out a hand to Neisen.
“He wants you to give him the bag,” Ruth said.
Neisen passed it to Akhu, who replaced the stone, rose, and walked over to another low bench covered with an animal skin. Removing the hide, he picked it up and brought it to the hut’s entrance where the trio still sat.
Wordlessly, he pointed to the intricate carving on the front of the bench. “The mark of Shi,” he finally said as he approached Neisen and laid a weathered hand on his shoulder. “You have not chosen Shi,” he said solemnly, “but Shi has chosen you. You have been his feet to bring the stone to me.”
As Ruth struggled to translate, Neisen looked up, riveted by Akhu’s black eyes. “He has chosen you,” the leader of the Yanoako said again, “to have a part in making all things new.”
“New isn’t quite right,” she said, searching for the right english word. “Bring together? Or maybe, restore?”
Akhu pointed toward the jungle and looked at Neisen intently as if reading his most secret thoughts. “Your destiny lies there,” he said.
Turning, he glanced at Ruth then looked back at Jerry. “Your destiny,” he announced, “like ours, lies with little sister here and Father Shi in the land of our beginning.”
He must have seen Jerry’s expression of wonderment because he rose from the bench and walked over to where he sat as Ruth continued to try to translate, “On our journey,” he said, “you will understand what it means to trust Father Shi with all your heart.” As he said this, he reached and gently patted Jerry on the chest.
A light suddenly came on in Jerry’s mind as he realized this primitive man just pinpointed the source of his own difficulty trusting Christ.
I have tried to make faith in Christ an intellectual exercise, one carefully reasoned out before I made a commitment. However, Akhu just called God “Father.” That’s what I’ve been missing all these years! I have no more need to have all my questions answered before I trust Christ than I did before I trusted my dad. I have had everything about faith backwards. I have wanted to understand before I trusted rather than simply trusting, knowing understanding would follow. I have so intellectualized faith I have missed its simplicity; failed to see its faith that sets the table and intellect that enjoys the meal…
Neisen was not thinking about faith in God or anything resembling it. He did realize, however, that Akhu was echoing the scroll when he spoke of someone carrying the amulet forward through the ages toward the restoration. This is going to be simpler than I imagined. He nodded at Jerry knowingly as Ruth finished translating. He thinks I am here on God’s business. All I have to do is let him lead me to the stone’s final destination, and then show me how to use it.
Akhu signaled their visit was over by rising, but when Neisen reached to retrieve the stone, the Shaman shook his head in displeasure and said something to Ruth.
“What did he say?” Neisen asked, feeling a tinge of anxiety for the first time since entering the village.
“He says it was yours to carry, and now it is his to use,” Ruth replied.
“I see.” Neisen did not look at Akhu but could feel him watching for his reaction. “When can I expect to get it back?”
She quickly translated his question and just as quickly gave Akhu’s reply. “He won’t return it. When the journey is over, he will give it to the one who made it.”
Jerry felt tension building in the air and was relieved when, instead of displaying anger, he saw a look of surprise on Neisen’s face.
Let the old fool hold on to it, Neisen thought. As long as he takes me with him, and I learn how use it…He touched the bulge of the pistol in the shoulder holster under his left arm. Unable to carry a firearm on the commercial plane, Neisen had relied on a member of The Brotherhood in Bolivar to deliver it to his hotel room before his arrival. The gun was reassuring as he flashed Akhu a smile. I’ll get it back when your usefulness is over, you old savage.
“What was that all about?” Ruth asked as they started across the ceremonial area toward her hut. She spoke to Neisen but looked at Jerry for confirmation. “I thought I was the one who asked you to come and help me understand this dream thing, and now Akhu says you came to bring him a stone?”
Before Neisen could answer, Jerry said the first thing that popped into his head. “It will soon be clear, Ruth. For now, you need to trust us.”
Neisen glared at him, obviously resenting his intrusion into the conversation.
Ruth stared directly at Jerry. “I do trust you,” she replied, surprised that for the first time in her memory, he called her “Ruth.”
As they approached the door of her hut, she turned to Neisen. “Is there anything else you need to tell me Professor, or should I expect more surprises?”
That horrible night on Calibogue Sound flashed in Jerry’s mind. He knew how ruthless Neisen could be when crossed and signaled caution with a shake of his head but Ruth’s full attention was now on Neisen as she waited for an answer.
“It’s really quite simple, Miss Starling.”
Neisen’s ability to mask his true feelings under a veneer of charm amazed Jerry.
“As Jerry may have told you, I have worked on many archeological digs in Israel. Several years ago, an associate and I discovered the stone which you just saw,” he lied.
Neisen paused to measure the effect his explanation might be having. Ruth simply stared and waited.
“When I saw the picture of the Shaman you sent Jerry—the carved designs on his bench and their similarity to that on the stone—when your letter came inviting me to come, I—”
“You saw an opportunity to satisfy your intellectual curiosity,” Ruth interrupted. “At the expense of these people?”
“No! I mean yes, of course, that was part of it. But I also hoped I could help you understand the meaning of the dreams. I wanted to try to kill two birds with one stone. Help you, but also see if I could discover how the design came to appear in two such widely separated cultures.
Trying to dilute suspicions, he became professorial.
“I was intrigued by the possibility this might support the contention by some geologists that Africa and South America were at one time a single continent.
“The old earth theorists believe the separation happened long before man appeared. Some believe, however, the earth is relatively young and that this separation might have occurred after man emerged and cultures began to develop.”
“So you’re suggesting the Yanoako may share a gene pool with some Middle Eastern tribe?” Ruth’s voice had softened, obviously caught up in what he was saying.
“They may have shared not only a gene pool but certain oral histories that in the case of one tribe, Jews to be precise, were later written down.”
“Things like the Bible’s story of creation.”
“Exactly,” Neisen replied. “You told me the Yanoako have an oral history of creation that in a very general way reflects the Biblical account.”
“So, what about the dreams?” Ruth asked. “They believe they are preparing them to enter this taboo territory in the jungle. Where do they fit in?”
“Perhaps their dreams are more evidence supporting the theory of racial memory,” Jerry suggested.
“Exactly,” Neisen responded.
“So let me see if I understand,” Ruth said. “A genetic timer was set in the brains of the Yanoako eons ago to be activated when it was time for them to make their journey into the taboo territory?
“Possibly,” Neisen replied.
“What’s the significance of the fact the dreams began after their conversions?” Jerry asked, anticipating Ruth’s next question.
Neisen hated to give Jerry credit for thinking of something he had not considered. However, it was a pertinent question and one that challenged him to speculate further.
“It’s possible that before the Creator left man to find his own way, he encoded into his forming brain the genetic material responsible for specific responses to various thoughts, emotions or situations. We know, for instance, that fear triggers either fight or flight and that love can trigger anything from sexual desire to sacrifice.”
“What about faith?” Ruth had the feeling she was on the verge of a great discovery. “Isn’t it possible that faith, once planted in certain people, may trigger—”
“Dreams!”
Neisen nodded knowingly.
“Dreams that tell the Yanoako it’s time to go to the forbidden place and learn the reason Shi placed them here,” Ruth said under her breath.
“What?” Neisen asked.
“Oh nothing really, it’s just…”
“What?” he pressed.
“Akhu says that in the forbidden territory they will learn the reason for their existence.”
There was a long pause.
“Do you think that is possible?” Ruth asked, almost to herself. “To know, for certain, why we have been put here?”
Jerry cast a nervous glace at Neisen, anticipating his reply.
“Perhaps we’ll all find out tonight,” he finally said.