Chapter 10

Tessa insisted on driving the next morning, and Sam was happy to let her do so. They both knew that it was right along the Victoria Highway to the Lake Argyle Road and left. Tessa wondered aloud as to whether there would be a name change.

“I doubt it,” Sam responded.

When they got to Gabbaitch it seemed larger and busier. Certainly not large, but closer to a hundred than to two dozen. Josiah was sitting on a bench. He looked up from his reading.

“Welcome back! I have been following your trip. Including your experience at Tennant Springs.”

“He was just a drongo,” said Tessa.

“Both egocentric and ignorant,” Sam added. “Not a good combo.”

“You are well, though?”

“Yes. We had very good visits to Dunmarra and to Yarralin. I spoke in both places and expect some settlers from there as well as Timber Creek.”

“I am beginning to fear growth. The fast-growing bush has no strength.”

“True. Slower growth makes strength. But infants grow very fast, then more slowly, then have a growth spurt.”

“Gabbaitch must not mature too fast.”

“Well said.”

“What are your plans?”

Tessa responded. “I want to visit Yardungarl and the caves. I want to spend another night there.”

“I know of them. I have not gone there.”

“You are a good Christian,” said Sam.

“Like many, I am pulled in several directions. I want act correctly, I want to lead, but I do not want to rule.”

“Plutarch, in his biography of Alexander, has him say ‘I had rather excel in my acquaintance with the best things than in my power’. Life here may become a ‘best thing’.”

“Hey, there!” Zeke’s greeting broke he contemplative mood. “How you feelin’, Tessa? Not crook any more?”

“Hello, Zeke. I’m fine. We just got here. What have you been doing?”

“I’m construction boss, Tess. I bin sober an’ I keep track o’ materials.”

“That’s great!”

“Beats blowing stuff up inna mine!”

“Laying out a street plan?” Sam asked.

“Betchum! Biggest thing is spacing. Folks wanna be next to other folks.”

“How many?”

“Twenny-two famlys. Jos lives alone. One famly got three kids an’ her mum.”

“So the average is around three?”

“Bit less. One more one an’ coupla twos.”

“Right.”

“Gotta go. Back to the grind.”

“Later.” “Bye.”

“Jos, you have read the Old Testament?”

“Of course, Sam.”

“Do you know Malachi?”

“The last book; the prophecy of Jesus.”

“Yes. My father, the python, was told of Malachi.”

Josiah opened his Bible. “Isaiah spoke of a voice crying out: ‘Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.’”[Malachi 4:5-6]

“Yes. My dad asked to whom it referred. And was told: ‘Samuel was considered to be a prophet, judge, and wise leader of Israel, and treated as an example of fulfilled commitments to God. Your son is not. But he is more like John the Baptist, heralding the coming of Jesus. But that’s nonsensical. These are similes. Metaphors.’ Can you explain?”

“Let me try. In Malachi, the people complain that serving God doesn’t benefit them. God responds that it does, that he remembers who serves him, and that a day will come when they will be rewarded and that they will be able to distinguish between the righteous and the wicked. It is immediately after this that Chapter 4 starts and God tells them about the fiery judgment that they will be spared from – because they served him and are written in his book.

“Warnings are always given: to Noah, to Lot. Remember Jehovah doesn’t tell Israel that there are no other gods. That Odin and Thor, Isis and Osiris, Ganesha and Shiva, the Rainbow Serpent, and Jupiter and Apollo don’t exist. He says: ‘You shall have no Gods before me’; and ‘You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God’. Jehovah says: ‘I’m the boss’.”

“So are the serpent and bunjil like the angels? Messengers.”

“I’m not a knower, Sam. I am an interpreter. Frankly, it matters not what is like what. We hold the world in trust. It isn’t a fruit to be sucked dry. Were we to do that, we would soon die.”

“We will go to Yardungarl. We will return tomorrow.”

“Go with Baiami and Jehovah.”