Excerpt
Observe the way he regards the old parchment. Can you sense his underlying desire to know what draws him toward it as he passes? Do you understand why his thoughts always return to ponder what meaning lies within its strange markings? I know the answer, for I was there when the scribe scripted its words. It was so long ago, in your measurement of time, yet distant even for me. I feared the scroll forgotten or destroyed.
Please understand that we wanted to bequeath something to our daughters. We yearned to entrust to them a foundational treatise upon which hope could build and thrive. We were dependent on them to convey the message to their children, so the way of the world might someday change. It mattered not what its fate would be; it was our responsibility to put forth the effort. When the truth looked us in the eye and held its gaze, we knew the importance of communicating that truth to all who were important in our lives. We did all we could.
Now, this man, countless generations since our lifetime, looks at the old artifact and ruminates. Thus, my spirit heeds the call to surface and observe. I watch him as he looks into my eyes. Do you see the image of the young, dark-haired woman with the telling eyes, painted at the top of the scroll? It is I, Miriam, so very long ago. My cousin, Amelia, depicted my sister, Rebecca, and me in the frame of the message that she scripted, copying it carefully from the old broken pottery that first held the message. Rebeccas image rests at the bottom of the scroll. Look how her eyes betray her fear. She came on that journey reluctantly. However, I felt my pride bursting forth to have a role in this veiled truth. My grandmother, Sophia, taught me its wisdom. When I understood the importance, I ached for the whole world to hear and grasp the consequential meaning of this message.
My mother, Martha, and Amelia warned us to be careful. They told us we could surely die for what we knew. Therefore, Amelia disguised the missive in the language of Axum, her home, and scripted the cabalism upon the goatskin parchment. However, as the past will once again resurface, allow me to renew this theme later. For now, we will begin with the present, your time.
Take a moment; look intently at this man, and observe how the scroll draws him. Why, do you suppose, would the scroll choose him? Indeed, why would she choose a man at all? To what within him does the scroll speak?
I will leave you now with these questions, so you will be able to observe the story from the perspective of this man. He will not speak to you, yet you will hear his conversations. He cannot perceive you, nor can any of those who cross his path during this journey. Yet, you will come to know them by their speech as well as their behavior. I will return in a while, remaining in spirit form, to take you on a journey to my time in the past. We will visit other meaningful moments in the history (or should I call it her-story) of this precious scroll as well. Until then, my hope is that you may be illuminated.
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