Even one week had seemed too long to wait but at last she was here, back in the old house with Grandma Iris, borrowed books in hand. There was so much to discuss that she scarcely knew where to start, so she decided to do the simple thing and approach it chronologically. Had Lazarus ever said exactly who he related to in the Death Gate Cycle and why?
Iris answered that no, he had never limited himself to one character, but yes, he had mentioned feeling close to both Haplo and Alfred at different points in the story, almost like the sides of a coin. His own attitude toward the broader world outside had resembled Haplo's toward the Sartan in general, hostile and cynical, and his relationship with the church had resembled Alfred's with the Sartan of Chelestra, fond but uneasy and polluted with betrayal. Lazarus had never said this next thing himself, but Iris saw a hint of Zifnab in him too: the holy fool who operated so far out of the mainstream that he frequently looked daft but also secretly had your number...and now more than ever, shared the eerie habit of seeming to come back from the dead. Then Sophia remembered that little note he had left in Volume 3.
"Did he ever explain what he meant by that note about 'Say Their Names' in the third book, 'Fire Sea'?"
Iris paused for a minute, searching her memory, then snapped her fingers.
"Yes. Yes, he did. He said that the slogan was rooted in a Yoruba ritual intended to summon the dead, that it was a form of necromancy. To do as the slogan commanded was to practice witchcraft, albeit unknowingly. To 'say their names' was not to honor the dead but to summon them, even worship them."
"Did he tell you where he got that idea?"
"From a video. He had made a post of his own in the wake of George Floyd, in which he wrote, 'Say Their Names Too' in reference to Montrell Jackson and Miosotis Familia shortly before he found it. The video convicted him, so he preserved it for us to see so we could avoid the mistake that he accidentally made. I'll pull it up for you."
The video was from a show called "The Hamilton Corner", hosted by Abraham Hamilton III. What Mr. Hamilton especially wanted his listeners to know in this particular segment was that the founders of Black Lives Matter were "trained in more than Marxism." Their activism, he cautioned, was inextricably intertwined with the Yoruba religion of Odu Ifa, in which there was a supreme deity, a pantheon underneath called orishas, and a pantheon under them called egun, or the dead, to whom offerings and prayers were made as a vital, indispensable part of BLM's "justice work". This was not merely a political movement but also a spiritual movement.
He quoted Patrice Cullors and Melina Abdullah extensively via audio clips from a Zoom conversation between them. In those clips they described going directly to the site of a death to pray and pour libation "literally standing on spilled blood", offering the deceased things they would have wanted in life, such as honey or tobacco, summoning their spirits so regularly as to develop an intimate relationship with them despite not knowing them in life, and using the chants of followers to power the rituals, calling up the dead by saying their names.
He concluded by saying, "Come and go with me to Deuteronomy, chapter 18, verses 9 through 12.
'When you come into the land that the Lord gives you, you shall not learn to do the abominable or detestable things of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire to Molech, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft or interprets omens or is a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist who calls up the dead, for whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord and because of these detestable things, the Lord your God will drive them out before you.'
The Lord said those who call up the dead are detestable and abominable to Him, yet Patrice Cullors and Melina Abdullah want you to 'say their names'. Now, you can remember people, but why do we have to chant like this? ... And I'm speaking specifically to the Christians who are getting roped into this stuff. How can you reconcile that with what the Word says? I'm not talking about what your opinion is; they are telling you. And this is how it works. Most of the people that were supporting this organization, they didn't know that they were trained Marxists, nor that they were engaging in witchcraft. But now that you know, what are you going to do about it?"
This did indeed give Sophia greater clarity concerning Lazarus' distrust of the movement, but it wasn't immediately obvious to her how he had felt convicted by the video.
"Lazarus was skeptical of the Black Lives Matter movement, right?"
Iris nodded. "Very."
"Then why was he ashamed of what he wrote? What did he think he did wrong?"
"He said that he had accidentally contributed to witchcraft by instructing his readers to 'say their names too', even if it was in the service of a point that he considered valid."
Now Sophia was curious. "What point was that?"
"The point was that BLM was hypocritically selective in its professed reverence for black life. Montrell Jackson and Miosotis Familia were black police officers who lost their lives in the wake of BLM activism and whose deaths he couldn't help noticing went largely unmourned. Their lives, he argued, deserved recognition too and it was despicable to act as if they didn't."
"Whoa... That would explain why I never heard those names before. Were there more names like these?"
"Yes. There were probably more than I can remember, but he was similarly passionate about David Dorn, another black officer, and two young children: Cannon Hinnant, a white boy, and Secoriea Turner, a black girl."
There it was again. Children. As in Jonestown, children had been killed because adults were playing politics and holding grudges. That, of course, reminded her of the Verses themselves and their strange properties. This next question would feel extremely awkward coming out, but it demanded to be asked.
"May I ask you a really weird question?"
Iris smiled. "It might not be as weird as you think. What is it?"
"You've read his little book before, right?"
"To the extent that anyone can, yes. I have."
"Did you...see or feel anything unusual?"
"Definitely. It reminded me very strongly of him, in a surprisingly direct and personal way. I couldn't read the code directly, though I did recognize it, but it felt like living inside his head. I told myself at first that it was just a byproduct of my closeness to him combined with grief, but a part of me kept insisting that there was more to it than that and that I should preserve it for another time and another pair of eyes.
I didn't know when, but I knew the day would come and that I should be ready, so I kept it in the open, where I couldn't completely forget about it. When you asked about it, I wondered. Now that you ask this question, I think yours were the eyes that were meant to see it."
"So you knew this was going to happen?"
"Not quite. All I had was a hunch, but it looks like that hunch was correct."
"Do you have a theory for this?"
"Not a perfect one, but one biblical analogy does come to mind: Elisha's bones."
"What?"
"You remember Elijah, right? The prophet who confronted the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel?"
"Yes..."
"Elisha was his successor. Elisha asked for and received the same spirit Elijah had, but twice as much. After Elisha died, a dead man was thrown into his tomb and when that man touched Elisha's bones, there was still enough power in them to bring him back to life. This book reminds me of those bones. It's not his literal body, of course, but he probably poured a lot of himself into it.
If I know my dad, he used that code precisely because he knew it would be hard to read and that made it easier for him to record his true feelings. That book, with its coded passages and Bible verses, and that playlist were the closest he could come to full expression. There he committed his feelings to God and apparently God saw fit to preserve them and pass them down us an inheritance, first to me and then to you."
"That reminds me...did you hear things in your head that weren't part of the music when you listened to it?"
Iris cocked her head. "Now, that's interesting... No, I didn't. I caught things in the music that I had never noticed before, but I don't remember hearing anything else. What did you hear?"
"Well, when I played the first song, something seemed to tell me that 'the young man is Russia and the boy is the United States'. I also heard a song that was not on the list in a dream the night before. It featured the phrase 'such a time as this' in the chorus."
"Fascinating! That first thing sounds like something my dad would've said. He liked to tell me that Russia had already been where we were going and it was not pretty. I didn't study Russian history as closely as he did, but things have gotten ugly enough here to convince me that he was probably right. That second thing, though, is even more interesting. The phrase 'such a time as this' sounds familiar enough to make me think that I should know it, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I'll have to see if I can remember..."
Five seconds later, Sophia heard a name in her head: Ken Blount.
"Uh, Grandma?"
"Yes?"
"Does the name Ken Blount sound familiar?"
"Faintly... Why do you ask?"
"I just heard it in my head. Do you think he could have been connected to the song?"
Iris' eyebrows perked up. "He might! I'll try searching his name and that phrase."
A YouTube search revealed "Gospel Bill (Ken Blount) 'Such a Time as This' music video". The thumbnail showed a bearded man in black and white. Below it was a video called "Fear Not" that featured the same man in cowboy attire.
Iris' eyes lit up. "I think we've found it! Yes, I recognize him now! 'Gospel Bill' was a show my dad used to watch when he was a kid! Ken Blount played a character named Nicodemus on that show! This video looks different, though. Let's try playing it and see if it matches what you remember."
It opened with a minor key and a cloudy sky. A young man was watching the news in his living room.
Our top story, once again, at this hour is the continually escalating situation in the Middle East. Soviet, Libyan, and Syrian forces are all reportedly building up along the southern Lebanese border, threatening to invade Israel. A warning from the United States...
The lyrics were familiar, all right, and they hit with new force.
The world around us in a rage / Newspapers tell of fear on every page / The prophecies unroll / Unravel and unfold / End times, last days, end of the age / Satan strikes with deceitful power / Seeking and searching whom he may devour / False prophets too arise / The signs are in the skies / The sands run down, Earth's final hour
But you have come into the Kingdom / For such a time as this / To fulfill, you see, the destiny for your life / Special plans and preparation / For this generation / You have come into the Kingdom / For such a time as this / This is it
God placed His special gifts in you / Believer, fight for what you know is true / Tempted to compromise / Cast down unholy lies / Courageously stand up for the truth
'Cause you have come into the Kingdom...
The action moved back and forth between the young man, a silhouette holding a trumpet, an hourglass, an older man, and a clock nearing midnight. The parallels were hard to ignore. The young man had pondered hard things and looked in the mirror. So had Sophia. Meanwhile the older man languished in an alley. Something nagged at her that her mother was in just such a condition.
As the young man ventured out into the night, she felt her spirit going with him. Meanwhile Ken, the vocalist, sang directly into the camera that "you have come into the Kingdom for such a time as this," even smiling down at the two men as the song neared its end. Did he represent Lazarus? Jesus? Both? Logically, the latter was more likely than the former, but she supposed that they must agree on this either way.
Whatever the case, the message seemed to be that someone needed her help and time was running out. The young man arrived just in time and as the two finished speaking, the hourglass ran out, the clock struck midnight, the trumpet was blown, and the men disappeared. Strangely enough, the flaw in the recording served to emphasize the message as coming from a distant place and mysterious source, like a fading signal.
"Well,' Iris probed after a minute's silence. "Does it match?"
Sophia stared at the screen, astonished. "Perfectly."
Iris smiled. "Then we know you didn't imagine it. Those lyrics and that name were given to you. This might be a gift of the Spirit operating in you."
"You think so?"
"Yes. In fact, it ties pretty neatly into your name. The name 'Sophia' means 'wisdom' and this looks like an example of what we call the word of knowledge."
"What's that?"
"My definition may not be the perfect one, but I think of it as when God tells you something that you would not have known otherwise. It's not something you can control, but it is one of the miracles that can happen when your heart is right, as the Lord wills."
"Wow, that is wild. What do you think I should do with it?"
"Well, given that God gave this knowledge to you, I think you could simply ask Him and He will be happy to tell you. Just bring your questions to Him and keep an open mind. The answer might not make immediate sense, just as the conquest of Jericho didn't make sense, but whatever He tells you to do, be sure to do it."
"Thank you, I will. One last thing..."
"Yes?"
"Do you know when Lazarus made that playlist?"
"Not precisely, but I do know that he made it before I was born. I literally grew up hearing it."
"So he didn't compile it in reaction to life events? It almost seemed like he did."
"Yes, I suppose it did. No, he made a few selections in reaction, but most of them he made in advance."
"He was a prophet?"
Iris laughed. "He never claimed that for himself, preferring to call his predictions logical inference and preparation because he was deathly afraid of making a false claim in God's name. His life didn't follow that trajectory perfectly, thank God." Her smile dimmed slightly. "But there were enough long-term similarities to make it look prophetic in retrospect, weren't there?"
"Well, prophet or no, he definitely had something going on. Both the book and the playlist seemed to be talking directly to me. I don't think I'll ever be the same again." She blinked back a tear. "And one of these days, I hope to make him proud."
Iris smiled. "That's very sweet of you to say. You've already made him proud, just by giving him an ear. In fact, it was a sympathetic ear from a girl not much younger than you are now that gave him the strength to put himself out there one more time before giving up, and that final try is why we're here."