Here is the first part of Songs of the Heart’s actual sixth chapter. The last part of its actual sixth chapter will be posted up here just as soon as possible, then, of course. I really hope that all of you actually will happen to enjoy this particular part of it, however, at least enough to periodically leave me some rather clean, rather courteous, and rather constructive reviews here for it, quite naturally enough, people.

With no further ado here, then, I hereby give you the first part of Chapter Six for this story, and I hope you all really like it quite a bit. Until later, this is TUS signing off, of course!

Chapter Six: Winter Caribbean Vacation, Part One

About a month after Jonathan and Cassie returned to Nashville after their near-tragic trip to Duluth’s local area for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend at the Ashtons’ residence, Jonathan suddenly invited Cassie to stay for at least a little while with him and his family at their winter home in Puerto Rico. She thought only briefly before making a decision in the matter, “I’d love to go, Jonathan, for it just so happens that several other things that I didn’t expect to have happen now evidently will. Such as a big announcement or two from at least one of my siblings will eventually be made during another rather large family gathering somewhere in Puerto Rico, for that matter, by the way.”

“What else might also happen around that time that you didn’t actually expect to happen?”

“That there might be at least one musical festival of some sort on various Caribbean Sea islands, for instance. Perhaps several of us could get together and jam, so to speak, in a musical sense, at least?” It was now about 9:15 am, by the way.

“Like who of you, Cassie?” asked Jonathan, as the two of them got into his van.

“Sam, Esha, Ari, Gradiok, Oliver, and myself, of course, at least. I hear tell, as well, that the Shadow Snakes, at least, now seem to think that there may be at least one more Sarmian Orb of Wonder appearing, at any unexpected time in the next month to six weeks at most, from various mostly minor literary contacts I now have in my life. They seem to be concentrating most of their search efforts for Orbs in and around the Caribbean Sea area of our world right now, from what I’ve often heard of late. I am not yet sure which Orb or Orbs might soon appear in that area of our world, if any. But I do know, still, that you and your people want to not only acquire them all at any possible times that you can, but also to hold and control them as needed, of course. So it might be a good idea if your fellow Pilgrims came along with us, just in case what I’ve learned is sufficiently accurate here. Wouldn’t you tend to agree, Jonathan?”

“Yes, I suppose so. There will be room for ninety people on the flight I’d be taking to San Juan, including the crew for the plane I’ll be taking there. Your siblings, your father, and your step-mother Deborah could come along too, if they wish, at no charge to them. It might mean that at least a few of my associates might have to do at least double-duty on the flight, at least, but they might not mind too much, I think.”

“Mother would perhaps love to come to Puerto Rico as well, but she has to stay behind in the Duluth area now, and help take care of Ashton Place along with Vincent. She and Vincent are now having to work much harder than they’d had to for quite some time indeed in their respective lives. However, I’m feeling sort of charitable at the current time. So I suppose I could ask Henry to send someone to the Duluth area with sufficient Internet, computer, and/or telephone access for at least a little while so that she can learn about what at least one of my siblings, if not more than one of them, wants to discuss with us all somewhere in Puerto Rico.”

“I thought you might have wanted to keep your distance from her, Cassie.”

“Well, it seems that this announcement is, or these announcements are, going to be made by at least one, if not more than one, of my full-siblings, at least. No matter what I might feel about her at the present time, if I’m right enough here, then she deserves to at least hear, if not also see, them as they’re then being made. Furthermore, if she shares blood with them, somehow, I do not have the right to keep her from knowing such important information as it might be shared by any of my full-siblings, if it’s that kind of information they might be sharing then.”

“My family won’t need to fly with me to Puerto Rico, for they’ll already be at our family’s winter home by the time I get there. Two of my siblings attend college in Puerto Rico, and another in Scotland. I have other siblings not yet college-aged whose schools just let out for the Christmas/New Year’s vacation break.” Jonathan suddenly decided to take her to a secret retreat of his.

“For some yet-unknown reason, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen you without gloves on your hands, Jonathan. Why is that?”

“Because I have certain distinguishing marks that would positively identify me to people who might not ever be at all friendly to me for whatever reason or reasons whatsoever. People like the Shadow Snakes, for example.”

“Have you ever taken them off?”

“Of course I have. But only whenever necessary and appropriate. I basically only remove them whenever I’m actually in a sufficiently safe and sufficiently secure location, though.”

“Has Purity, for instance, ever seen those marks, by any chance?”

“Only a few times, at most, I think. Though I’m not too sure about that. But I do know that while we were both growing up with each other, several of our many classmates periodically dared us to try to discover the other’s deepest secrets. Such as the secret of why I am almost never, if ever, seen without gloves on my hands of some sort. I even was known for wearing them whenever I competed for our schools in various competitions, both of a sporting nature and of a non-sporting nature. I lettered for four years at our high school in American football, basketball, and baseball, and even played ice hockey sometimes as a goaltender on a nearby community amateur hockey team near where we live in the summers. Before I came to Vanderbilt University, several colleges all over the world sought me for my athletic abilities. But I actually chose to forgo, at least for a time, any athletic aspirations that I might have in my life, once God showed me that He had other plans for at least the first five to ten years of my life after I got done with high school, if not for even longer than that, Cassie. He also showed me a place several years ago in my dreams while I was still in Scotland that He will give to me, my future wife, and our various children. He also said that within twenty years of us acquiring it with no need to pay rent or mortgage payments, it will be able to not only protect at least 50,000 people from various kinds of attacks, but it will also be able to sustain them and to help them flourish, even in such dangerous times, while much of the world may not be. It will belong to me and my future wife from the day she and I wed, and it will be self-sufficient and self-sustaining as long as, and whenever, we are all in complete obedience to the true will of God in our respective lives, no matter what He may wish us to do in them.”

“Do you know the name of this place?”

“He has not yet revealed it to me, but He has still shown it to me, just the same. And the name this place has now will not be the same name that God will reveal to me later the same way that He made me aware sufficiently of this place.”

“What do you know of this place to date?”

“It is now owned by an elderly Jewish couple legally of the Tribe of Judah. The family patriarch is a descendant of King David through King Solomon, and the matriarch is descended from Joseph, son of Jacob, through his son Ephraim. They, and two later generations of their family, are preparing to emigrate to the land of their Biblical ancestors, the Land of Israel. They still have much to attend to here in the United States, after coming here to escape the massive Holocaust in Europe around the time of, and during, World War Two, in fact. They all want to be back in Israel by mid-2008, if at all possible, for that matter.”

“So you obviously expect to acquire it at your wedding. Has God decided on a price you will buy it for yet?”

“Yes. But He has not yet seen fit to reveal it to me, for there is much that I have yet to do in order to acquire it for the rest of my life on this world of ours. When He sees fit to reveal it to me, then it will be at a time yet of His choosing, once He sees that I am finally ready to pay it, whatever it might be. Until then, at least in terms of such a price, I plan on remaining as obedient as I possibly can to His directions regarding it, of course. And, once it belongs to me and whatever family I may then have, still continue to be just as obedient as I possibly can be to His various laws and commandments and will, quite naturally enough.”

Eventually, Jonathan pulled his van onto a 4,800-acre property some distance from downtown Nashville, and brought it past several assorted areas meant for various kinds of animals. Animals such as sheep, cattle, horses, goats, and various winged animals, to name just a few such animals. A garden of about 1,600 acres, more or less, was also on the property. Jonathan said, as they passed that garden, “It is much larger than the one in the JDT, but probably not larger than the original Garden. It is maintained year-round by Isaiah, Priscilla, and ten other people, including two sons and their wives. This place is currently owned by Isaiah and Priscilla, who are the elderly couple I told you about earlier.”

“What languages are they fluent in?”

“English and Hebrew, for starters, of course. Also, they are completely fluent in all the other known major languages of the Bible, and in German, French, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Turkish, Mandarin Chinese, Dutch, Amharic, Italian, Hungarian, Czech, Polish, Zulu, Slovak, and Danish, that I know of for sure right now. I have also heard them speak at least a little bit, if not a lot, in Thai, Romanian, Burmese, Ukranian, Tagalog, and Vietnamese, at least, it seems to me. Other than all the languages I just named to you here, I’m not sufficiently aware of any others that they may also know of at least a bit at the current time in their lives. But I still do know they’ve been in at least 75 different countries since World War Two ended in 1947, Cassie. So it’s not totally unlikely that they know so many languages in their lives, I think.”

“How young were your parents when they got married?” asked Cassie, just before Jonathan eventually parked the van.

“Dad was born in 1959, and Mom in 1961. They married when Dad was out of college for his degree in Journalism, and while Mother was two school years away from a degree in History. That would have been in 1981, I believe. I came around in May 1983. After me came, in exact order of birth, the twins Daniel and Zebulon in March 1984, Abel in January 1985, Dorcas in April 1988, Sharon in September 1992, Bathsheba in October 1994, and Etana in December 1997. My parents do not expect any more natural children of their own, but still would love to have more, if God sees fit to grant them still more children later, of course. Where are you in the birth order, if I might ask, amongst your real parents’ children?”

“I am fourth of eight. My mother was not always like she was when you met her. In fact, my parents were once very much in love with each other. And I don’t mean love in the sense of what many people might often call ‘puppy’ love. I mean real honest-to-God potentially Earth-shaking love, Jonathan. They were nearly inseparable whenever they didn’t have to be for any reason whatsoever from about 1972 to about 1992, more or less. They married at 17 and 14, much to many people’s surprise, and at their mutual, but mostly Mother’s, insistence. All my great-grandparents and grandparents thought they were both much too young to be thinking of such things. But Mother was very adamant that she and Dad get married so early in their still-young lives. Early on, he often found it very hard, if not impossible, to say no to her demands, for she was rather good at making them look as if they weren’t actually demands, but as if they were just nice things he could do for their mutual good in their lives, and the lives of those close enough to them. My father’s family wasn’t financially rich then, and it perhaps still might not be, but they were all rather hard workers who always gave an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. That is still the case for my Dad and his side of my family, at least. Hercules was born in late March of 1979, about eleven or so months after my parents’ rather-unexpected wedding. Andromeda came along in late February of 1981. Odysseus came along in May of 1984. Then I came by in late January of 1986. Apollo came next in April of 1989. Finally, Minerva, Hermes, and Thisbe came by in June 1992. Some length of time later, Mother dropped what was perhaps the cumulative equivalent of two massive atomic bombs on our family when she rather suddenly, without any obvious warning to anyone in the family then living, and rather unexpectedly, asked my father for a divorce and soon left us for quite a bit as she then sought that rather unexpected, and rather unwanted, divorce. At least for most of any of us who were then living in the family, anyway.”

“Some length of time later, then, she got that divorce?” asked Jonathan, as he soon came to Cassie’s door, so as to open it in a rather gentlemanly manner for her here.

“That’s right, Jonathan,” answered Cassie, as he opened her door for her now. She soon exited the van, and followed him to where Isaiah and Priscilla were rather pleasantly chatting on a swing near the front door of a two-story well-built farm house with blue, white, and gold wood-paneled sides.

Jonathan soon greeted them both in Hebrew, even as they were generally spending time in rest, as had long been the practice for many of the Jewish faith from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. All their lives, Isaiah and Priscilla had lived by the precepts of their faith to the best of their abilities, even during the time they spent trying to survive the Holocaust that had ultimately seen the deaths of at least fifteen to twenty million people in places such as Auschwitz, Treblinka, Bergen-Belsen, and any number of other known demon-possessed places, with that known total of Holocaust victims including at least eight to ten million known Jews and/or Christians who were mostly, if not entirely, from any number of places all over Europe. About the same number more of those people were eventually liberated later on from what would probably have been their very final stops in life before likely being killed without just enough cause in their lives, from any number of places all over the world.

As war crimes trials were eventually held, the liberated people either returned to their home countries, immigrated to other still-existing countries, or began migrating to the Holy Land just as quickly as they possibly could. So many flooded into the Holy Land, for instance, that no matter what certain nations actually tried to do to stop or slow the influx of Jews and Christians into it, they couldn’t sufficiently stem the tide of Holocaust-era survivors into it before Israel officially returned to the global family of existing nations well enough in 1948.

Four major Israelite-Arab-waged wars later, Israel had undisputable full control over not only Jerusalem, Hebron, and Bethlehem, for example, but also all of what many anti-Israelite people might call the Occupied West Bank, at least. However, by official Israelite Government policy, through the Royal Family of Israel, the Knesset, and the Israelite Supreme Court, it was officially called “Judea and Samaria,” at least, whenever and wherever sufficiently applicable here and now. Certain other areas were also under full Israelite control too.

A short conversation later in Hebrew between Jonathan, Isaiah, and Priscilla, and Cassie was eventually introduced to the elderly couple whose respective appearances largely belied their actual ages quite considerably indeed. While the eyes twinkled often, they still periodically appeared to be the eyes of people who’d seen much more evil than they’d ever expected to experience in their existences. Although both Isaiah and Priscilla were both now in their middle to late 70's, in any case, they still looked as if they were still not yet in their middle 50's at the very most. For they both appeared, physically-speaking, to now be just about 25 years younger, more or less, than they actually were, chronologically-speaking. And their minds were still quite active, even with all the horrific things that had periodically happened to them, their families’ members, and their associates in their respective lives.

The four of them spent much, though not all, of the day being together in rather pleasant conversation and considerable relaxation with each other until some time around sundown. The older two soon led them to a long bench that rested on top of a small hill on the property and had them both sit down on it together. Two minutes or so after sundown began, a lamb and a lion brought, in baskets hung from their necks, two musical instruments to the older couple. The lamb brought a trumpet-like instrument to Priscilla, while the lion brought a harp-like instrument to Isaiah. Both instruments were already perfectly-tuned when received by the elderly couple from the lion and lamb, as the case might be.

As assorted animals began flocking to that small hill, Isaiah and Priscilla themselves began to play and sing various songs in assorted languages they were now quite fluent in, and especially in Hebrew. Not just in modern Hebrew, either, but also in ancient Hebrew such as their Biblical ancestors might have conversed in more than three millennia before, for that matter.

By the time that they finally finished playing, it was about ninety minutes or so later, and just about a thousand other animals of at least ten different kinds were either on the small hill along with the four human beings or quite near it, if they couldn’t be themselves on it then. Cassie eventually said, “I think the rest of our associates would have really loved to hear you play here now, Mr. Shalikorytski.”

“Feel free to bring them along with both of you the next time you come here, if you can, Miss Skylark, woman with the heart of a lion. We also love to have true friends of Israel with us whenever possible, in fact.”

Eventually, Jonathan and Cassie had to leave the Shalikorytski Family’s farm for the rest of the night, for all the obvious reasons, of course. But before they did so, Isaiah gave them both, in perfect ancient Hebrew, the blessing of Numbers 6:24, which he always did whenever Jonathan would depart from the property for a long enough time at any time whatsoever in his life.

Not even the other active Pilgrims knew of this particular place well enough yet. Moonlight Serenade, his other three selves, and his own personal family also all knew of it well enough as of now, because Jonathan had told them of it by his own voluntary choice. But only after first making quite sure they would never reveal its very existence as Jonathan’s future homestead needlessly and without his consent, if they could ever possibly avoid doing so at all. Jonathan hadn’t even told anyone from his own family about its existence, for that matter. Cassie agreed almost immediately after meeting both Isaiah and Priscilla not to mention it needlessly to anyone else at all, if she could ever possibly avoid it, of course.

The two of them returned to the JDT by about 11 pm, and spent at least until about 11:15 pm or so in conversation with Sam and Gradiok about assorted things in their various lives. But not past about 11:30 pm, in any case, for Jonathan wanted to be able to hopefully get enough sleep before church the following day, if he possibly could. Both men left the Skylark-Powell apartment by no later than 11:35 at night here and now, just the same.

Later on, after Cassie, Sam, Miresha, and Ariana had earlier decided together to accompany Jonathan, Gradiok, Oliver, and several others to the church they all attended in the Nashville area on Sunday, December 19, 2004, Jonathan and others took them to a mall in the local area. They did that here so that they could shop for a while in it there for any number of things they might need on a trip to the Caribbean Sea area of Earth. If they really wanted or needed to shop there then, of course.

While they were all shopping as needed or desired for that trip, Purity and Honor rather unexpectedly came upon Cassandra, Samantha, Miresha, and Ariana as they were looking for new swimsuits to bring with them all on the upcoming trip to Puerto Rico, at least, in the very near future. It soon was revealed to Cassie and Sam that Miresha and Ariana had been in a shared chemistry class with both Purity and Honor during the just-completed semester of college at Vanderbilt University, much to their substantial surprise on both their parts.

The women looked for swimsuits with each other for about an hour or so, more or less, after their male escorts parted from them for two main reasons. Once, of course, was to give them all their privacy as they shopped for certain female kinds of things. And the other was to mainly hang out with their fellow males where they could do certain guy-type things within lawful, and reasonable, enough limits, quite naturally enough.

As Purity was trying on a mostly pink one-piece swimsuit with several heart-like cutouts and a half-back dorsal hemline above her waistline in the back, Cassie soon spotted several heart-shaped birthmarks on Purity’s shoulder blades just inside the shoulder straps to the suit. She almost instantly drew Purity safely enough aside before her non-Pilgrim associates were actually able to see Purity’s marks well enough, even in the case of Sam here. When they were both in a secure enough nearby location, Cassie soon asked, “Do your enemies know of your markings yet, Purity?”

“Some do, some don’t, as far as we know. They think they’re actually tattoos, more often than not. Otherwise, they may think that they’re scars from assorted recent enough surgeries to treat various medical problems that I might actually have had happen to me in my life, for that matter.”

“Who knows about the markings amongst your enemies, as far as you know?”

“The Shadow Snakes, the Order of the Red Lizard, and the Clan of the Chameleon, for sure. We suspect others may know about them as well all over the world, but if they do, we don’t yet know if they consider them tattoos or not. The Shadow Snakes don’t think that they are anything to be concerned about, seeing as they’ve known about them for a while, and have not yet connected me to any other active Pilgrim, for some yet-unknown reason. At least in terms of me being on the same team of fighters with them, anyway. They know I have to associate with any number of people as not only a college student, but also as a waitress. Yet, they still haven’t actually learned of my secret combat history as a Pilgrim ever since Mr. Serenade recruited me to work for him secretly.”

“So what does that mean exactly?”

“Essentially, it means this: As long as I can avoid letting them know that I am actually a Pilgrim, somehow, they will not be able to learn that my markings are much more important than they might appear to be in my life. And they then will quite blissfully be quite unaware of their true significance.”

“Do your friends and relatives know of the markings, by any chance?”

“Many do. Some, at least, don’t. And they don’t know of their true significance, not even my parents or my brother Cupid. Yes, I have a brother named Cupid, believe it or not. Cupid has somewhat similar, yet a bit different, markings near his waist in nearly a belt-like or chain-like pattern. The pattern is incomplete, for it cuts off on both sides as it gets closer to areas sufficiently near his belly button. My father has various markings that look quite a bit like suspenders running from his shoulders down to about his waist on both his front and back. Mother has various markings running from about her neck straight down to about her belly button, then running horizontally all the way around in a straight line without stopping, exactly parallel to a line of matching markings running all along Mother’s shoulders in both front and back. As far back as I can remember, on both sides of my family, most members of it, though not all of them, have had various markings on their skins since birth. Others have, at least sometimes, gained markings through marriage or adoption. Mother was born with hers.” Purity paused briefly, then said, “The last female ancestor of mine who wasn’t born with at least one birthmark of some sort entered our family almost 400 years and about, perhaps, ten to twelve generations ago. Since then, my ancestors have all come from a genetic pool consisting of the descendants of eight children for a common ancestor and his wife. That common ancestor’s wife had a family that very much opposed her marriage to our common ancestor. They made war, in virtual essence, against many of those in our common ancestor’s family, seeing them often as freaks of a sort or as potential members of assorted then-desirable groups in our world. Many of our common ancestor’s family members were hunted down like dogs, so to speak, all over the world, and killed.

Our common ancestor was one of the rare known few in his own family to survive the predations upon it by the family of his wife. It is suspected, but not yet confirmed for sure, that there may possibly be people descended from other known siblings or other known relatives of his still around in this world of ours, Cassie.”

“Has there ever been a divorce in your known family tree, as far as you can recall, Purity?”

“The last known divorces that I can recall, at least right now, in my known family happened at about the very same time that Mohammed began spreading his rather false message through deceit and warfare in our world. It was at about that very same time that various markings began appearing, without any prior warning of any kind at all, on the skins of various members for our family existing then. Whether at birth or not, they soon began appearing on various people’s skins, if they were sufficiently associated with our family in their lives, just the same.”

“What about for many of those who weren’t marked in certain ways?”

“Many of them eventually produced the ancestors of those who now seek to cause trouble all over the world for us and other groups who fight on the side of good in it, it seems.”

The two women eventually settled on some swimsuits for themselves, with Purity getting the one that Cassie had seen her in and another in a style a little bit more modest than the first one, both of which were mostly in pink, in any case at all. Cassie ultimately picked up one in red, white, and blue, and one in blue and white, in fact.

Sam eventually chose two swimsuits in black with mostly white, silver, or tan trim wherever possible and appropriate for them here. And neither of them was of a non-one-piece variety, either, for that matter.

Miresha eventually chose one swimsuit reminiscent of her father’s Japanese cultural heritage. And then she chose one reminiscent of her mother’s Jamaican heritage. And also some material that she could perhaps use to reflect her family’s merged cultural heritages as well in at least one more swimsuit, for that matter.

Ariana eventually bought one suit mostly in medium blue with mostly light green vine-like patterns, and one mostly in light green with mostly medium blue patterns in the exact same style of decoration, but flipped 180 degrees, so that it appeared the two suits were mirror images of each other, in truth. At least from a distance, if not close up, anyway. Where light green might be on one, except for the aforementioned flipping, medium blue was often, if not always, present on the other. And vice versa, by the way.

As for Honor, she chose two suits mostly in various shades of green that had either various floral patterns or various animals on them wherever possible and appropriate enough for either of them or both of them, by the way, here. By the time that Honor had finally selected two new swimsuits for herself, and paid for them, all twelve chosen suits for the young women had been quite confirmed to be one-piece swimsuits. With the suit that Cassie had seen Purity wearing earlier most likely being the most daring and bold of all of them, as far as any of the six women could then tell well enough in their respective lives.

Once they eventually got done with their swimsuit shopping, they soon went shopping with each other in various other stores which were mainly targeted towards females. For about another two or three more hours after leaving the swim gear store from which they’d all bought their new swimsuits, they spent a good deal of time browsing in the mall they were now in with each other, until about 6 pm, which was when they had agreed with their male friends to meet at a certain old bookstore elsewhere in the mall. They all soon headed to that store in it, after which they would leave the mall for a planned visit to Mount Zion Farm, due to a recently-made invitation from Hector and Deborah to them all. At least to those who’d not yet had the good fortune to have been there, anyway. Quite naturally enough, Cassie never needed an invitation, and Hector had extended a permanent one to Samantha, Miresha, and Ariana a little more than six months before, for that matter.

Those who’d been there before brought the others there by 8 pm. And they all soon pulled up quite near where Cassie had parked a little more than six months earlier when Cassie had brought Sam, Esha, and Ari onto the property for the very first time in their respective lives. As expected, Hector and Deborah were quite happy to see them all arrive safely enough on it, of course. Several introductions later, in various languages, much food and drink was eventually in the process of being shared in the main house on the property, at a table that could seat up to 42, when fully set up as was quite common. But which was currently split into two tables with capacities of 22 seats each, sitting with a gap of perhaps six feet wide between them both as they lay parallel to each other like the two halves of an equals sign in the middle of a somewhat large dining area. At least in a typical residential house-type sense, anyway.

By the time that all the necessary introductions of certain other people had been made by Cassie, Sam, Esha, and Ari quite well enough, all the necessary food and drink items were on the required tables, for that matter. Hector said there was no need for unnecessary concern about wherever anyone should sit at those two tables for any of the guests now on the property. In fact, he said, “We don’t necessarily stand on ceremony here, everyone. So feel quite free to sit wherever you feel like it, then, within logical enough and fair enough reason here. Even you, young Eternity, son of Hezekiah, son of Joel, son of Amos, son of Ezra, son of Benjamin, son of Jesse, son of Samson, son of Gideon, son of Joshua, son of Enos, son of Solomon, son of Seth, son of Josiah, son of Elijah, son of Methuselah, son of Judah, son of Abel, son of Aaron, son of Gershom, son of Noah, son of Joseph, son of David, son of Ephraim, son of Zechariah, son of Boaz, son of Peter, son of Michael, son of Reuben, son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, son of Enoch, and son of Adam. At least that’s as far back as I can trace your paternal line right now, as I actually look at you here and now, it seems. I’m getting this straight from God above, quite obviously enough, young Eternity.”

Eternity looked at, and closely studied, Hector for at least a few brief moments, once everyone had begun to have their respective suppers with each other here well enough. He eventually said, in English, so that everyone else then present could understand what he was saying well enough, “That is undoubtedly true here, Mr. Skylark. For you’ve now stated my known paternal line back about a millennium, give or take, at most, a few years either way, it seems to me. And you have only been in my direct presence for about thirty minutes, at most, in any case at all. True, you have known about my actual existence at least long enough to be able to invite me here at least once, but you haven’t known of me long enough to be able to find out the name of the man from 34 generations ago that I’m descended from, in my life, at least in my father’s paternal line-of-descent. Even a fairly well-known archeologist/genealogist such as yourself would likely be able to only trace back a random person’s tree about 300 years or so, in most cases, I think. Especially if they didn’t normally have sufficient access to such person’s family records or artifacts, to use a term that I know you’re quite familiar with in your own life. Only God could have allowed you to name all my paternal-line ancestors for the last 33 generations like you just did, when the facts that I just mentioned here are all taken into account sufficiently well here, by the way.”

“Yes, young Eternity, that is so. At the moment, though, I can’t trace your paternal line further back than 33 generations ago. And I have no idea who your maternal-line ancestors are from about AD 1750 on back in time. I can’t place their names at present, except for your mother Salome, but I do have this feeling, however, that your ancestors have always been resident in the Holy Land since at least the days of Joshua, even during the Babylonian Captivity period, somehow.”

“My ancestors have traced back my family’s known paternal line to at least the time of King Solomon, for sure. And perhaps even back to the time of Judah, son of Jacob AKA Israel, at least, if I’m not mistaken here too much, Mr. Skylark. My father’s known paternal line seems to be part of the Tribe of Judah, somehow, through both sons he fathered by his daughter-in-law.”

“Tamar, if I’m not too mistaken here?”

“I believe so. What else do you know of my family of late, then, Mr. Skylark?”

“Your father is a carpenter who primarily builds houses for various people all over Israel. Your mother does much, though not all, of the housework that needs to be done on a typical day, by the way. Your siblings do much of whatever other housework needs to be done around the house more often than not, it seems. Your parents periodically also do at least some work of an artistic nature, for that matter, from whatever information I’ve somehow been able to dig up so far about your family up until now.”

“Your information is fairly accurate. How many siblings do I have, then, as far as you know?”

“Three living, four deceased. Your four deceased siblings did not live long enough to reach their respective teens due to certain congenital conditions of theirs. There is a gap of about twelve years between the ages of your farther surviving sister and of your only surviving brother, with your brother being older. Your parents lost their fourth through seventh children to conditions that could not be corrected in time by known medical means, for those conditions were all in their genes. However, your youngest surviving sibling does not have any of the conditions that ultimately sent your deceased siblings into the arms of Jesus. I learned, in the course of generally basic investigation through assorted public channels, about the losses of your deceased siblings, and certain other public information about your findable other relatives. I also have certain contacts in various less-public circles that periodically feed me information about certain things that might not be well-known by most other Israelites, and often about matters that not even the royal family or the Mossad might not know of well enough by the time that I hear of such things. For instance, I have heard that several terrorist groups and states are planning now to somehow cause much mayhem around and during the 2008 Summer Olympics that your country was awarded some time before by the International Olympic Community over such places as Rio de Janeiro, Miami, and Bombay, to name just a few places that sought the 2008 Summer Games. The most recent Summer games in Scotland were quite well-put together, I think this year, but I believe that you Israelites will still show the world at least a thing or two when you host the Games in 2008. This year’s Summer Games seemed to be much better than the 2000 Summer Games were in Nairobi, Kenya. The Kenyans put on a rather good Olympics then, but I still thing this year’s Games based primarily out of Edinburgh were much better done by all concerned people for them. The Danish did a good, though not great, job when they hosted the Winter Games this year. I hear tell that the Austrians might be seeking to top them in the next Intercalated Winter Games in Salzburg, come 2006. And I certainly wonder what the Russians plan to do during the 2008 Winter Games in Novosibirsk, for that matter. Yes, I admit it. I’m a fanatic when it comes to stuff from the Olympics. Not so much as a fan of the actual sporting events, but more of a fan of the various cultures shown off quite often during such periods of athletic competition.”

Spiritzeal heard this, and soon asked, “Mr. Skylark, what did you think of the 1996 Summer Games in Athens and the 1996 Winter Games in Trondheim, then, if I might ask? Or the 2000 Winter Games in Halifax, Nova Scotia, for that matter?”

“All good, in my opinion. The best Winter Games, though, in it was the 1956 edition in Salzburg, Austria. While the best Summer Games, in it, was the 1968 edition based primarily in Lima, Peru.”

“So how often do you think Athens should be able to host the Summer Games, if at all possible, then?” asked Valentine.

“At least once, if not more than once, every century, Miss Valentine.”

“Because?” asked Purity.

“Because without the Greeks, there would not even happen to be the Olympic Games in the first place. Or such things as global Olympic truces, even during times of largely global war, like during 1940 and 1944, when there were truce periods for a period of one month around and during each of the Olympic Games staged in those years. OF course, when such truce period were over, the wars often resumed rather quickly at the intensity they’d been at when those truces had required them to stand down their forces for at least a while.”

“Yes, the Hiroshima Games of 1940 went well, but a good portion of Hiroshima still went ‘poof,’ so to speak, when Truman’s Air Force dropped one atomic bomb in its vicinity. Much of Nagasaki did the same after another atomic bomb’s dropping,” said a young girl sitting next to Apollo at one of the tables now present here. “Basically, the only areas of Hiroshima that weren’t hit, when the A-bomb attack hit us, had at least something, if not a great deal, to do with the Olympics of about seven years before. Most, if not all, of the people who survived that attack without major enough injuries were found in Olympic-related structures.” This young girl, in fact, was to be Apollo’s future wife, God willing.

“That is true, Bunny. Very true indeed. However, Emperor Showa’s people often were rather insistent that the Japanese resist the advancing Allied tide towards Japanese-held areas, and especially the Home Islands. It took some real courage for him to say, ultimately, that Japan would actually surrender in the war rather than resist the inevitable invasion or the dropping of any more bombs of the variety dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki not long before. If he hadn’t used his authority as an Emperor and a supposed divine being to end the war like he did, I really don’t know if you would have even been here with us tonight,” said Hector.

“No, I wouldn’t. Fortunately, my maternal grandfather, for instance, was in Niigata at the time, and that city was twelve hours, as I later learned, from being bombed, when the Emperor announced Japan’s surrender. Had the atomic bombing continued, he would certainly have been killed by the next bomb.”

“I see. And what do you think of such weapons of war, then, Naoko?”

“I don’t really like them, personally. But I do still have to admit that their use perhaps saved the lives of at least a few million people on both sides of the war that rather insane Austrian painter caused several years before then. That certain man probably is largely responsible for quite a lot, if not all, of the human toll exacted in blood, at least indirectly, if not directly, over the last ninety or so years, whether he’s actually still alive or not in our world. Now I’m not exactly remembering his name at present, but I think it at least partly includes ‘gruber’ somewhere in it, if I’m not too mistaken here, Mr. Skylark.”

Quite a bit more conversation was shared by everyone in various languages then there with each other. Languages such as German and/or Hebrew, for instance. This continued amongst everyone for at least a while before supper ended. After supper’s leftover food and drink items were put back where needed, and all dirty dishes, et cetera, from it were also dealt with well enough, everyone withdrew to a large barn with a large open area in the uppermost part of it. Hector led everyone there sometime around 9:50 pm or so, and soon had Cassie and several of her friends bring along several musical instruments they’d actually brought with them to Mount Zion Farm about two hours before, in fact.

Cassie and Sam got themselves both guitars, at least. Miresha gathered a drum set, with the help of Oliver, and Ariana did the same with a keyboard-style instrument that she’d had for quite some time. Even Gradiok had seen fit to bring at least his irsanir here, if not any other musical instruments of any kind at all, by the way.

After everyone had grabbed the various musical instruments they’d brought with them to

Mount Zion Farm at least a little while before, Hector soon surprised many when he had Hermes show a specially-made similar version of a certain instrument to Oliver. Hermes had designed and made a much more portable version of Oliver’s omrien, which was the instrument that Oliver had been playing quite often while Gradiok had also been playing the very first time that both Miresha and Ariana had ever patronized Chrysanthemum Imperial Delights in the Nashville area. Hermes soon heard Oliver say, “Simply remarkable workmanship, young Hermes. When did you begin work on this instrument here? It can’t have taken you too long to build it, considering that it is much smaller than the omrien I most often play in my life whenever Gradiok and I perform at various places with each other.”

“I began work on it right after supper on December 8, 2004, after I was given all the necessary work supplies by my Dad earlier that very evening. I only had heard about the instrument that you just mentioned about four or five days before when Cassie and a few of her friends were last here. I decided to see if I could design and/or build a much more portable version of your omrien that would be just as sound-capable as a normal-sized version of it might be. If I know enough about a certain kind of instrument, I can typically design and/or build a new one, or improve an existing instrument’s various music-related characteristics, more often than not, in no more than two or three weeks. That’s supposing I have the necessary work supplies, of course. For instance, I designed and built the guitar that my sister Cassie is now warming up here, musically speaking. I didn’t actually build the case for it, but I still told Apollo just how to do so, Andromeda just how to decorate the guitar, and Minerva just how to outfit the case for Cassie’s new guitar. Oh, by the way, Gradiok, you seem to have a few too-loose strings for your irsanir at the moment, just by judging the sound quality of your notes from it now here. Please let me check it out to confirm that diagnosis here.”

Gradiok took his irsanir over to Hermes as he then handed the smaller omrien to Oliver here. Hermes looked over Gradiok’s irsanir for a little bit here, and soon saw a loose group of two or three strings on an eight-string irsanir, along with an almost-imperceptible set of teethmarks from a small dog left on one of the two shofar-like mouths for the instrument now in question here. Hermes soon asked, “When did a Chihuahua try to take a bite out of one of this instrument’s two mouths, Mr. Frengle?”

“Three days ago, while Oliver and I were leaving a place we often play at with each other for a living. You see, I’m nearly 35 years old, or will be that sometime in the not-too-distant future. I’m not saying exactly how old I am right now, but I will still say that I am at least old enough to have actively served a cumulative eight consecutive years in the various armed forces of four different countries, post-college. I finished my Bachelor’s degree at 22, so obviously I’m at least thirty-some years old in my life. And Oliver has been out of college himself for at least three to five years, for that matter. Neither of us have yet been married, but I somehow suspect now that will change sometime within the next three years, at the very most. Can you repair my instrument well enough, by any chance?”

“Sure I can, Mr. Frengle. I’ll even do it free of charge, in fact. Apollo, get me a small mallet and pad from my work area so that I can take care of the dents in his irsanir well enough. Minerva, I also need my tuning fork, a pressure gauge, and a set of tighteners so that I can be sure that its strings aren’t too loose here either. How loose do you normally happen to keep your strings on your various irsanirs, whenever you can?”

“Perhaps at an average tension-pressure of 10 pounds per square inch, if I’m not too mistaken here. Why?” asked Gradiok, still somewhat amazed that Hermes was already so knowledgeable about many different musical instruments in his life.

“You should probably keep them each at a minimum value of 14 pounds per square inch, and at a maximum value of 22 pounds per square inch, at all times. Especially when it comes to your 24-string vertical-deck irsanir, it seems to me. You have five irsanirs, right?”

“Actually, I have seven. Three 24-stringers, two sixteen-stringers, and two eight-stringers. Most of my irsanirs are older than I am now, in fact. The irsanir you’re now holding was given to me when I got out of high school at least a dozen or so years ago.”

“I presume that one of the 24-stringers can be arranged so that the three decks to it are configured in the approximate shape of an equilateral triangle. Am I right, Mr. Frengle?” asked Hermes, as Apollo and Minerva each handed him the necessary items so that he could repair Gradiok’s irsanir as needed, when he needed to use them here and now.

“Yes, of course you are. Am I wrong to arrange the decks that way?”

“No, you aren’t. But you’re not usually keeping the strings as close together as you probably should, based on what I’ve gathered from various recorded viewings or audio recordings of your musical sets at certain places you’ve played at from the last six months or so, it seems. Also, your notes’ tonal quality is periodically off by at least a fraction of a note for that irsanir,” said Hermes, as he flattened out the dents that the dog’s teeth had left in one of the irsanir’s two mouths. “How old, exactly, is that irsanir?”

“It was certainly at least a century old, and perhaps even at least another fifty years older than that, at the time that George Washington became the first President of the United States in 1789, Hermes. It has normally been passed down from eldest child to eldest child in my family tree for at least 315 years, if not even longer than that, if I’m not too mistaken at all about it here and now.”

“How many times have the strings of that irsanir been repaired and/or replaced, as far as you know?”

“Perhaps at least once a century, but no more than once every thirty years. I do know for sure that they have been replaced at least three times, but not more than eleven times since 1689, in any case. The strings can only be made out of certain materials found in a certain part of the world not often found by most people, as well.”

“Can’t they be replaced more often than once every thirty years, Gradiok?”

“No, Hermes. It takes thirty years for such materials to normally regrow at least enough to not adversely affect the quality of the strings made with them. I would have to know just when the strings were last replaced to know if the necessary materials to make new strings might have already grown sufficiently well since they were last replaced well enough. If the strings aren’t at least thirty or so years from their last replacement or their original usage, then they can’t be replaced until they are without the risk of adverse effect on the quality of music made through their use.”

“And the strings on this one?”

“Definitely not at least thirty years old, for sure. For this irsanir was made when I was about 15 years old. And, as I’ve already said, I received it when I got out of high school at eighteen or so years old, Hermes.”

“So the strings can’t be replaced on irsanirs for a minimum of thirty years between changes. How are they usually repaired between changes, if and whenever needed, then?”

“Usually they are reinforced until their next available replacement windows open well enough with silk woven around them treated with maple syrup, honey, and orange juice blended together with bits of crushed graham crackers into some sort of molasses-like mixture. We dip the yet-unwoven silk fully into that mixture for a little while as it cooks for a while in an oven set at 375 degrees. When the mixture is sufficiently cooked, we then remove the yet-unharmed silk from the mixture, and bring it to where the strings that are in need of repairing then are. Once that is done, we place silk at one end of each string that needs to be repaired. Then we bring weaver bugs of a sort to each silk strand as needed for the irsanir strings now in question. We release them to work with those strands, and as soon as we tap them on their backs, after placing them where we have to, they go right to work weaving the silk strands around the strings in most-urgent need of repairing at such times. It doesn’t then typically take each bug more than, say, somewhere about five minutes to do their assigned string quite well enough, if they’re not interrupted at all while still working. When each of them get done with their work, they then begin making a ‘chit-chit-chorai’ sound to let us know that they’ve completed their work well enough to be put back in their holders or on other irsanir strings in need of imminent repairing. They tend to feed on oak or ash-type trees in the wild, so that’s what we typically feed them in captivity. They are fully able to weave once they hatch from a round cocoon right after spring begins sufficiently well wherever they are in our world.”

“I see. These particular strings don’t seem to need replacement or repairing at present now. But it still seems that they’re now just a bit loose at present,” said Hermes, as he then began to gradually tighten them over at least for the next minute or so, for the obvious reasons here. When he felt the irsanir’s strings were at least as tight as they needed to be, he then handed Gradiok his irsanir in rather short order. It had taken him, at most, fifteen minutes of work to fully repair and re-tune Gradiok’s irsanir here as needed, in fact.

Gradiok played at least a few notes on it, both of the string-produced kind and of the wind-produced kind, so as to test Hermes’s repair work. Two minutes later, Gradiok said, “My irsanir here sounds much better than I’ve heard it in a long time, if ever. Cassie, this young man is a natural at this, for sure, here, without a doubt.”

“Hermes has a perfect ear for music. And a brain to match that musical ear of his quite well indeed. He plans to make a living as a designer, builder, and/or repairer of musical instruments, if at all possible. While he’s not so much into archeology as my Dad and others are, for example, he is most certainly much into things of a sufficiently musical nature. And he always has been, it seems to me. Mother once told me long ago that whenever someone wasn’t playing music well enough when they could have while he was cohabiting in her womb along with Thisbe and Minerva, he would typically get somewhat agitated. The worse they played, the more agitated he would typically get. Minerva and Thisbe somehow, though I’m not sure just how, would eventually try to calm him down every so often. Sometimes they succeeded, and sometimes not. At least occasionally, though, he would not be calmed down, somehow, sufficiently well until the offending music was no longer sufficiently hearable.”

“I couldn’t stand someone needlessly, somehow, potentially butchering music that they could play better then, my sister Cassie, and I still can’t now. While I’ll never be at least a hundredth of the archeologist Dad, for example, is in his life, I do know that God blessed me with certain music-related talents, at least. There are certain other qualities I have that I am sure will help me in the future, and certain others that may pose problems for me in it. I often have at least a bit of trouble sufficiently keeping my temper in check whenever someone needlessly messes up things too much, music-wise, when I know that they’re not playing quite as well as I know that they can at various times, though. I also do not get along well with things of a much more physical nature, more often than not. I have never been one who’s been much into sports, nor do I do well in terms of things relating to such activities, generally. I can move at a certain speed, if I have to, for at least a little while. But I’ll never be a speed burner, it seems to me, in terms of me getting anywhere on foot, at least.”

Cassie started to just play random notes, hoping to find just the right note or two to start a new song with her. Sam, Esha, Ari, Gradiok, and Oliver listened for a while, before suddenly starting to try and join in with her here well enough just as soon as they could.

Eventually, Cassie said, “Hermes, Minerva, Thisbe, Debbie, Apollo, and Andromeda, would you please record the notes on paper that you hear from us for a while? Say the next five to ten minutes, perhaps?”

“Why don’t you just play, and I’ll score them by myself later, Cassie?” asked Hermes.

“Very well, Heart Dancer, if that is your wish.”

“Heart Dancer? Somehow there’s a story in that, right?” asked Ariana.

“Yes, but I don’t want to share it right now, for it involves me, a certain half-Peruvian girl, and a rather large tub of chocolate during a dig that our parents were on in the area of Cuzco, if I remember well enough, from about two or three years ago,” answered Hermes, with a small blush that most, if not all, of the girls and/or women now failed to see here well enough.

“Oh, my. I want to hear this story, really.”

“Not right now, unless you also want to talk here about what you did with Jeff Sheridan just about a year ago at Angela’s house, when you claimed then that it was just a girls-only sleepover there to your own dear mother for a pre-Christmas get-together to decide what to get various other people for Christmas. I believe that particular story involves a soda pop bottle, some mistletoe, some blindfolds, some handcuffs, and a very unusual Truth or Dare component, at least, if not also various swimsuits. You tell us all that story now, and I’ll tell you all the story that you now want me to tell as well. The choice is yours, Miss Walker. What will it be?”

“Fine, you win. At least for now, anyway. But I WILL hear that story of yours, God willing, just the same, Hermes.”

“You probably will. But not right now, unless you really want to share a story that is also rather embarrassing for you now.”

“My goodness. You’re going to be a real heart-breaker, once all the girls start trying to woo you, and win your love.”

“They already have, believe it or not. I’ve already gotten at least a dozen female admirers of my own all over the world by now. And, no, I don’t want to talk about them right now, either.”

Cassie began playing music with sort of a traditional Country music feel. Then Sam threw in notes with sort of a Bluegrass feel. Esha jumped in with several Japanese-type notes. Ariana began to mix them together by tossing in some Light Classical-type notes. Oliver dropped in some more Light Classical-type notes with slight Jazz-like touches added every so often. And Gradiok added some Folk-type notes interspersed with periodic Gospel and/or Bluegrass-type notes.

They jammed rather on an impromptu basis for about ten to fifteen minutes, perhaps, until they began to harmonizing primarily, though not entirely, with sort of a badda-boom-to-wah basic moderate-speed beat to their notes, from what they could tell well enough at that particular time. They also mixed in, at least ever so often, something like, if not entirely like, a shish-ka-ree beat or two as they saw fit on their instruments, primarily courtesy of either Ariana or Oliver, if not both of them here and now.

Hermes soon had Minerva get six specific copies of the musical score for The Star-Spangled Banner, and six stands for the six people then jamming with each other in the barn that every human being on the property was then in here. Minerva soon dropped those scores onto the stands in front of all six players once those stands were each as they needed to be. Once those scores were sufficiently where they needed to be, and the players had been able to view those scores well enough for a long enough time, he decided to make it much more of a musical test for them here, and have the majority of the illumination shut off in the barn. He let them each view their copies of the score for the music in question until everyone in the barn now had some flashlights to use while the majority of the illumination in that barn was off for a while, for safety’s sake, at least, of course. When all necessary people in the barn had flashlights sufficiently on or near enough to them in the barn, he had Hector gradually dim the desired lights in it as needed and/or desired here.

Cassie asked, “Why are you having the lights turned off here, at least for the most part, Hermes?”

“To help you better find your future band’s basic sound here, if at all possible, Cassie,” said Hermes. “Play the song I had you all view copies of the score for. But visualize the notes to it as you might envision them in your own future band’s mutual style, not necessarily as you might have played its four verses in the past, for that matter. Play it until you find a beat and a rhythm you all can perhaps agree on well enough. Find that rhythm well enough, somehow, and it might even become the basic musical heartbeat of Dreamheart, I believe.”

“And if this musical piece doesn’t do just that, Hermes, by any chance at all?” asked Miresha.

“Try others, of course, until you find that future band’s basic musical heartbeat. Once you find it, your band should start to make your unique imprint on the musical and/or cultural side or sides of things in this world, at least. If not also anywhere else in our known Universe as well, that is, Miss Hanobau.”

Cassie, Sam, Esha, Ari, Gradiok, and Oliver played all four verses of the U.S. National Anthem in several musical styles. Styles ranging from how it was normally played styles to such styles as different as J-pop and Middle Eastern music, for example. J-pop meaning of a style for music that was quite popular in places like Japan, by the way, in fact. Or Middle Eastern music of a style that now was, and once was, quite common and/or quite popular for those of either the Jewish faith or of the Christian faith, if not for those of both faiths at the same exact times. At least for the most part, anyway, for such people in the world.

From there, they segued into music such as that of Israel’s National Anthem, or music nearly like it. Some were not yet familiar with the Israelite National Anthem, but those who were led the others who weren’t so familiar with it as needed for at least a little while.

They eventually settled on a temporary basic musical rhythm perhaps about halfway between traditional Country music and religious-oriented music as might often be played in the Middle East. Especially in terms of the music that Jews and/or Christians might often play more than any other in that part of the world. It might become their permanent basic musical rhythm, in due time, but they still weren’t quite sure of that. At least not here and now, anyway.

They soon played assorted pieces of music from all over the world in that same style. Even some parts from various musical pieces like Mozart’s The Barber of Seville, or Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, for instance. They generally played by sheer memory of those pieces in quite considerable amounts of darkness quite near them then. They played about half a dozen musical pieces until about 12:15 am or so on Monday, December 20, 2004. By 12:30, then, they had all stowed away their various instruments as needed so that they could all eventually find some places to sleep elsewhere in the barn, for all the obvious reasons here. Of course, once they all decided to quit playing at all any more music for at least the time being, Hermes had all the required lights turned on as quickly and as safely as they then could be here.

Every human being who wasn’t then already in suitable enough sleepwear anywhere on the property soon changed into some, if they could actually do so at all, somehow, somewhere in or around here. No matter who they were, they all still did so here, just the same. After they all did so, Deborah took the now-present girls and women to one part of the barn, and Hector took all the now-present males to another part of it, for that matter.

By 1:15, then, at the very latest, everyone was quite soundly asleep in the applicable areas for each of them, by the way. And so they would remain for at least the next four or so hours, if not even longer than that, quite naturally enough.

Part Two for this story’s sixth chapter will be posted just as soon as I can get it typed up well enough as needed and/or desired. Until then, at least, I really do hope this part of the story actually makes you somehow want to read much more of it in the future, of course. Please take care and God bless, and all that, God willing, of course, everyone. TUS out.