from the amount of wilderness around him, his company probably wasn’t human.
A crack of twigs in the near distance widened Tom’s eyes and caused his chest to rise and fall a little more quickly. He was in no shape to outrun, outfight or outwit a grumpy animal. He pushed himself up and hugged a tree, pressing his body into the bark in an effort to look as treelike as possible. He sensed that whatever was out there- whatever creature was stalking him-was growing closer.
Hands tense around the tree trunk, Tom leaned out for a peek. He saw nothing. He leaned in the other direction and let his head slowly emerge from behind the tree. His heart beat to a maddening rhythm. He could feel his pulse in his neck. Then he saw it.
A floppy eared goat foraged through the forest floor, ruffling through pine needles and leaves as it searched for fallen fruit. Tom sighed. The goat looked up at Tom and immediately went back to searching for a meal. Tom watched the creature, his confusion growing with each slowing breath. A goat? In Arizona?
Eyes closed, Tom turned, leaning his back against the tree, trying to think. Where am I and how did I get here? Tom’s nose twitched. He smelled something odd carried by the breeze, which had changed directions. He opened his eyes and his heart skipped a beat.
Ten feet away and low to the ground was what looked like an African lion. But it was built differently. Its head was thicker and its body was massive. Tom’s limbs locked as his mind shut down. The lion crawled forward slowly, its muscles tense, ready to pounce. Then it jumped.
The speed of the creature was amazing. Tom screamed as the lion burst into the air and sailed past his head. He heard the beast land and the whine of the goat before its neck was snapped. Tom’s head spun around. The panting lion was lying on the ground holding the goat’s neck firmly in its jaw.
Tom now knew he was no longer in Arizona. But he felt it wise to worry about where he was after the immediate physical threat of becoming a lion dessert no longer existed. Tom slowly crept away, keeping the tree between himself and the dining lion. As soon as he was sure the lion could not see, hear or smell him, he ran.
Trees and shrubs flew past in a blur. He knew this run would do him in, but dying of exhaustion or dehydration was far more appetizing than being eaten alive. He did his best to take in his surroundings as he ran. All around him were things that should not be. The trees were like none he had ever seen and some bore fruit: dates, figs and pistachios.
Tom grew more and more annoyed by his predicament as his run slowed to a jog. In all his years spent in Arizona, he had never once encountered a mosquito. But now a ravenous swarm of the pests were draining him as if he was a living blood bank. Now walking, Tom used a branch from a pine tree to swish the pests away. A large bird of prey circled overhead, taunting him and making the situation feel that much more perilous.
His thighs burned and his shins stabbed with pain, but he pressed on. Between the drinks he had the night before and the scalding heat, Tom knew he wouldn’t last much longer. He pushed through a low branch and stumbled into a clearing. Not a clearing…a road! A wave of relief surged through him as he reached his first sign of civilization. Tom looked in both directions. The road was empty. He reached into his pocket, pulled a quarter out, flipped it and caught tails. He headed left.
It was only ten minutes before Tom saw three objects moving toward him on the path ahead. He moved forward as quickly as he could, desperate for help and human contact. After all he had done in his life and believed he would still do, he thought it a shame if he died now, like this, in the middle of nowhere.
As Tom came within fifty feet of the strangers, he could see that one of them was an animal. A horse, Tom thought, but he soon realized it was a donkey. Tom then noticed how strangely these two people were dressed. One, a man, wore a red robe tied at the waist by a brown sash. The other, a woman, was wearing a mustard yellow robe complimented by a white head covering. Tom stopped in his tracks; exhaustion delivered its final blow and his legs began to shake. Tom saw the two strangers rush toward him as he fell to his knees.
He opened his eyes and looked up at the sky as he lay on his back. The woman and man were standing above him speaking to each other in a language that Tom recognized but couldn’t understand. They were clearly confused by what Tom was wearing and were debating over what to do with him. Tom’s mind began to function and put together the pieces of the puzzle. The land, the flora, these people, the donkey, the language and clothes of these people…Tom rolled his head to the left and looked at his wrist. He was wearing a watch, but not his own. It was different. It was…the watch…the time travel device!
Tom’s heart nearly stopped as nervous tension tied a tight knot in the small of his back. The events of the previous night slammed back into his conscious mind like a runaway freight train. He had traveled back in time!
“My god…” said Tom aloud.
The two people standing above Tom stopped talking and stared at him, obviously trying to make sense of the words that just spilled from his mouth. Tom felt their eyes on him and knew he had to make an attempt to communicate.
“Water,” Tom said in his native Hebrew tongue, hoping that two thousand years of modernization hadn’t changed the dialect too much. That, and he hadn’t held a conversation in Hebrew for fifteen years.
He was in luck. The woman quickly retrieved a wineskin full of water and poured it into Tom’s parched mouth. When Tom finished drinking, the man spoke. “Tell me stranger, are you a Jew?”
Tom thought about the question before answering. He had been an American citizen and held to none of the Jewish beliefs for so long that he no longer considered himself to be truly Jewish. But under the circumstances, he thought it wise to not stand out any more. “Yes,” said Tom in his best Hebrew, “I’m a Jew.”
The response Tom received was not expected. Both man and woman took a step back. “Then we will help you no longer.”
Tom panicked. “Wait! Why?”
The man and woman looked at Tom through squinted eyes. He was a true enigma to them. “We are Samaritans; surely you do not want our help?”
“I will take help from anyone who offers it,” Tom said.
The man and woman shared a look and it was enough for them to come to an agreement, “We will take you to Bethany and find you lodging. Then you are on your own.”
“Thank you,” Tom said.
“But first…tell us, why are you dressed so strangely?” the man asked.
Tom looked down at himself. He was dressed in blue jeans, running sneakers and a short-sleeved, red and blue plaid, button-down shirt. He wracked his mind for some kind of answer.
“I was a slave,” Tom said, “In…Asia…and I escaped. They dressed me like this.”
The man and woman were shocked. “A slave?” asked the man and then continued, “I have heard of this Asia. You have traveled far to escape your slavery. Like Moses from Egypt, you are now free. Come, follow us and we will see that you are taken care of. I know of a man in Bethany who can care for your needs.”
The man pulled Tom to his feet and helped him up on to the donkey. Tom thought the donkey smelled foul but his exhaustion overpowered his sense of smell. He clung to the creature and fell asleep as the two Samaritans led the donkey back the way they had come.
David was as ready as he could be on such short notice. He looked the part, could speak the part, at least better than Tom could, and he knew the beliefs and culture of ancient Israel. Unlike Tom, David had never given up his Jewish heritage. True, he was a Christian, which practicing Jews consider blasphemous, but the Christian faith is based on a Jewish man, who lived in a Jewish culture. David knew more about biblical times than the average man, but he also knew that two thousand years of history books could never capture how things really were in the day- to-day life of ancient Israel, his homeland.
Prepared or not, David was going. He knew where and when Tom had gone. When David found an instruction booklet in the receiving area, he thought perhaps his future self had foreseen this predicament. He learned that each watch had built-in tracking devices. Any one watch could be used to track down another-any place on Earth and in any time. David kept the instruction booklet a secret, even from Sally. The moral issues involved with time travel had already boiled over and David didn’t want anyone else knowing how to use the watches to their full potential. He read the instruction manual, committed it to memory and destroyed it.
Sally entered the receiving area where David was preparing to leave. She approached him quickly, wringing
