Chapter thirty-four

It was a beautiful moonlit night. Zeke came out of the holy fire feeling a fresh surge of energy run through his body. He was finally “in the land where the river floods and the floodgates are opened, where the body never dies, the dead can walk, and where the sun travels towards the timeless.” Zoom’s words echoed in his ears, and his heart skipped a beat. He was anxious and apprehensive about what was to come. Would he finally be able to see her again? A little further from the pyramids, he could see a few people in a festive mood, singing and dancing around a bonfire. They looked like a group of travelers to his eyes.

“Looks like these people are here for some kind of festival. What are they celebrating tonight? Even the camels look like they’re having fun!”

Zeke’s head was full of endless thoughts as he hurriedly walked towards them. He inquired where they had come from and where they were heading. None of them could speak English well. Using a few broken words and gestures, they explained to him they were Bedouins, a group of ethnic Arab nomads traveling across the Sahara Desert. They had chosen this place near the Pyramids of Giza for their night halt, so they could celebrate the annual festival known as Wepet Renpet to mark the beginning of the Egyptian new year. The next morning, though, they would move ahead. He tried hard to learn more from them but was unable to grasp most of what they said beyond that.

The travelers were drinking a form of wine mixed with a special Egyptian extract from small pots made of dried mud which looked like clay cups to him. They offered him a pot, asking him to drink the special wine as a sign of respect and celebration. They also offered him some dried fruits and other snacks. He sat there, watching the nomads dance and drink. As a few pots of wine went down his throat, he began enjoying their company, celebrating and dancing along with them.

“Young Mister Tartal, you don’t care for me at all! Enjoying such mouthwatering potions and not thinking once of me? Oh, poor, pitiful me.”

Zeke was startled to see little Zag dancing along with him around a bonfire in Egypt next to the Pyramids of Giza after two long years of absence. He ran and picked Zag up in his arms like a father meeting a long-lost child and spun him around.

“See, Mister Tartal, just see how biased you can be! You see him, but you don’t see me. You miss him, and you don’t miss me?”

Zeke looked up above him and spotted Ziggy Bird hovering over his head. He was overjoyed to have been reunited with his two ever-nagging, ever-quarreling, and ever-restless cosmic friends. The whole world seemed to be swirling around him as he danced and danced until he finally fell to the ground.

His face was touching the soft sand of the Sahara Desert on that cold August night when his eyes suddenly fell on a tall, lean woman walking towards him from a distance. She seemed to have risen out of the seemingly endless blanket of sand. She had an extremely sensuous body and walked with a grace and élan very few could match.

Her face was covered with a thin, red veil. All he could see was a pair of dazzling, hypnotic, cat-like eyes looking intensely at him. As she came closer, a cold breeze suddenly blew over his face, and the scent of her body filled his senses. It was a beautiful fragrance, and yet it sent chills down his spine. Then, just like that, she vanished.

“Who is she? Who is this woman? I know her, sure I know her, but how’s that even possible? She must be an Egyptian or an Arab woman.”

Just then, he heard someone whisper, “Sekhmet. They’re celebrating the lioness. Have you heard of her, young man?” It was the husky voice of a woman — and a very familiar one. She stood next to him and spoke in clear English with a beautiful Arabic accent. He was drowsy, and his eyelids were heavy as he barely managed to move his head from side to side, indicating he hadn’t.

“Let me tell you a story then,” she whispered. Her words sounded like a lullaby to his sleepy ears. “Mankind once plotted against their ruler, the sun god Ra, wanting to overthrow him. Their disrespect hurt and angered him so much that he sent Sekhmet, created by the fire in his eye, to teach the rebels a lesson.”

As Zeke lay motionless, the mystery woman continued. “Sekhmet was the embodiment of Ra’s rage. Her fury was unquenchable. Even after she had punished those who had risen up against her father, she still wished for more carnage. Fearing that her rage would destroy the human race forever, Ra finally resorted to a trick to stop her. He poured thousands of jars of a beer-like liquid dyed with red ochre on the ground in front of her. Mistaking it for a pool of blood, Sekhmet swooped down and lapped it all up, becoming so drunk that she forgot her killing spree. Giving up the slaughter of men, she returned peacefully to her father. Humanity was thus saved, and the gods and humans became allies once again.”

Zeke dreamily looked at her, half asleep and half awake. She suddenly burst into a giggle as she spoke. Then she began laughing insanely, so loud that the sound of her laughter spread across the entire sky and echoed all around the silent and cold desert.

“Sekhmet breathes fire as they dance and play music to soothe her wild nature and drink wine to imitate the extreme drunkenness that calmed her fury. Can you imagine what fun it is — Egyptians celebrating a festival of intoxication to honor the ‘Lady of Drunkenness’?” a voice came out of nowhere.

She picked up a little mud pot from the sand and held it in her hands. One after the other, she drank all the red wine from the little pots lying around her. She drank and drank until she could drink no more. Fully intoxicated, she stood up and began clapping her hands in joy, laughing and dancing around the bonfire. Lying on the desert sand in front of her, Zeke silently watched her move. She danced until she could barely drag her feet. Slowly, she walked away from the crowd, turning her head one last time to bid him farewell.

She then removed the long veil covering her face and hair and mischievously smiled at him, unleashing a whole new world of mysteries in front of his eyes. A breathtakingly beautiful young woman was now standing in front of him in a flowy red linen gown with her yellow, catlike eyes and long, wavy auburn hair.

He was too groggy to be able to stand up and walk towards her, so he stayed under the stars, quietly watching her. Even in this extreme state, he didn’t miss her features – her sharp feline face, her grace, her boldness almost matching that of a fierce lioness, and the glowing red sun disk on her head. She disappeared into the wilderness as he continued lying under the twinkling night sky, the moon smiling at him.

His eyes felt heavier. A soothing breeze blew over him again as if someone had lovingly put him to bed. His heart recognized her immediately. It knew who she was – the warrior goddess, the divine ‘Eye of Ra,’ a fierce lioness indeed, but she was also the one he had come to search for in this distant and dry desert land.

• • •

Zeke opened his eyes with a heavy head. “I shouldn’t have had so much to drink last night. I am so hungover,” he thought as he tried hard to pull his head up. It was almost noon, and he was still lying on the desert sand. He felt the scorching heat of the sun on his skin, his back burned from the heat of the sand below as if it were on fire. He could see nothing but the blinding sun and feel nothing but the hot desert wind blowing over him.

“The travelers must have left already. I need to get going, too.”

Feeling almost dead as he lay there, he tried to force himself to stand up and drag his feet at least. What he now saw was enough to startle and outright shock him. There were no pyramids, no humans, and no sign of life anywhere around him. For miles and miles, all he could see was the desert sand and sand dunes. He realized he was in the middle of nowhere.

“How did I end up here? The last thing I remember was watching the sky lying on the sand next to the pyramids.” His mind raced as he anxiously called out, “ZIG! ZAG! ANYONE???”

He desperately tried looking around to find them, but they were nowhere near. He was reminded of the bonfire and the mud pots, too, but there were no traces of those, either. Tired and disillusioned, he silently lay there, feeling hopeless.

“Is this how I die?” He began missing his family, his friends, Mr. Leitner, and his dog, Coconut. He even began missing the black cat around his house and the entire Farley Street neighborhood.

“Will I ever be able to go back home? Will I ever be able to see my friends and family again? If I die out here, the sands will cover my body, and nobody will ever even know about it. They’ll never be able to find me!”

Just then, her name popped into his mind. He called out, “Zoom, oh Zoom! Where are you? I came all this way to see you! How long will you still stay away from me?” Tears of despair began rolling down his cheeks.

He had no idea how long he had been lying there on the sand, woozy and exhausted. It felt like forever. Then, suddenly the hot desert wind began to blow again. In front of his eyes, a twister of sand rose from the dunes off in the distance. From the rising sands emerged a beautiful feminine figure that slowly began walking towards him. The desert heat, the sand, and the sun had almost turned red by then. As she came closer, he saw a woman draped in red linen, with the head of a lioness wearing a red sun disk like a royal crown, the sun shining brightly behind her. Zeke instantly recognized her as Sekhmet from the night before.

“You fell asleep last night before hearing the entire story,” she said with a smile.

It was difficult for him to even move his face, but he managed to smile back at her. His heart was thumping hard.

“Can I share the rest of the story with you now?” she asked.

“Where am I? This isn’t where I was last night.” He couldn’t move or speak, but he had already learned to communicate using his energy. Whenever he traveled out of the physical dimension, he experienced and realized how immaterial and redundant the use of words was. He knew higher beings could communicate through their thoughts and feelings.

“You’re amid the great cosmic nothingness. You’ve reached the beginning of time. Nothing’s been created yet. You still don’t remember who you are, do you?” She held his head as he lay on her lap, gently caressing his hair.

“You’re the one who dreamed the creation of the universe long before you were Ezekiel. You deemed the entire world, bringing it all into existence! It’s okay. I shall remind you of everything again,” she said with all the love in her eyes as he silently rested his head on her lap. She continued with her story.

“Once Sekhmet returned to her father, Ra, she slept in peace for a long time. Then, when she finally woke up, she saw Ptah, the god of creation. The two, lost in each other’s eyes, fell in love in an instant.” She looked deep into Zeke’s eyes as she reminded him of the love story of Ptah and Sekhmet, and he instantly fell in love with her — all over again.

“Remember the divine marriage, Zeke?” She uttered his name for the first time since they met, and he felt a rush of energy flowing through his body. His body was desperate to come back to life as she continued her whispering tale of love. “Sekhmet and Ptah were and will always be eternal lovers. Their union is the celebration of the two eternal halves of the same cosmic force. Their union restored and reestablished the cosmic order and brought healing to life in the form of their son, Nefertem, ‘water-lily of the sun.’ Do you remember him? He took on your qualities at times and mine at others.” She laughed like a child as she narrated the story of their son.

Tears of joy began rolling down his cheeks as he remembered everything. Her words were so soothing they calmed down his burning body. He recognized himself, his beloved, and the son they had once had.

“Don’t you remember us, Zeke, even now? Don’t you remember me? I’m the protector of the cosmic order of Ma’at — the one who loves Ma’at and detests evil,” she proclaimed.

Tears continued to flow as he silently rested on the desert sand with his head still on her lap. He had finally recognized the one who had lovingly written the letter to her husband while leaving for war, the papyrus which came flying towards him that one evening in the city of Mackinaw.

“I do! See, I found you! I followed your letter, I followed your clues, I followed my heart, and it brought me here… to you. I recognize you, Zoom, my beloved Ezra, my Sekhmet, my eternal half.” His eyes spoke a thousand words and brought a glowing smile to her face.

“Yes! Love knows no boundary, my darling. The fragrance of love has the power to transcend all barriers of time and space. See, you finally found your way back to me.”

At last, he found all the answers to all the questions running through his mind. He now understood the reason behind his being transported to the ancient land of Egypt on the day of the Lion’s Gate. He had lived more lives than stars in the sky, he had existed since the beginning of time, and he had once been Ptah, the god of creation.

He smiled at her one last time, reassuring her of his undying love, and then closed his eyes and fell asleep. It was a deep slumber, a sleep of peace, joy, and abundant love. He began dreaming. In his dreams, he created the cosmic order. The stars, the planets, and the galaxies all came into form one by one. Finally, he created the Earth and human life. Structures were raised and civilizations were born. They built temples and pyramids, grew crops and trees, and developed languages to communicate. Lying there in eternal peace, the creator god watched everything come to life from the great nothingness. Once creation was complete, he opened his eyes.

He saw himself lying under the twinkling night sky near the Great Pyramids of Giza once again. He could hear the sound of splashing waves as the high tides washed the shores of the Nile on that cold, breezy winter night. Only this time, he wasn’t Zeke Tartal anymore. He wasn’t the timid little boy from Farley Street, trying to cope with a difficult family life in a modern world, learning the spiritual ropes, or waiting to finish high school. He was another being, alive in another space and another reality. He was the ancient divine blacksmith who dreamed the universe into existence.

His body had come back to life again. Standing in front of his eyes was his divine counterpart, not in the form of an alien lover but as the fierce warrior goddess Sekhmet, wearing a red linen gown and smiling at him mischievously. He looked deep into her eyes, and she reached out her hands to him. He took them as he rose from the bed of sand, and they began walking towards the lofty pyramids. They married each other again under an iridescent moon, reenacting their cosmic union. Zeke Tartal learned what he had once been: he was more than Ezekiel, and he was even more than Ptah.

As Ptah and Sekhmet, the union of the divine lovers was a union of creation and destruction. Zoom wanted Zeke to experience this great cosmic union, a game they had played over and over again. It wasn’t new to them. They’d had many incarnations on many planets and in many gender combinations. Besides, they had helped civilizations evolve even before they had existed on Lyra. They were two halves of something much older, far more primal, and unfathomable — and Zeke was very much a part of that something. He was there at the inception — the inception of the Christ light.