millennia, then, suddenly, one moment it was there and the next it wasn't. The lord was carrying out his threat, which was to send a great wind that would not leave stone on stone or brick on brick. Cain was too far away to feel the violence of the hurricane blown from the mouth of the lord or the roar of the walls toppling one after the other, the pillars, the arcades, the vaults, the buttresses, and so the tower appeared to collapse in silence, like a house of cards, until all that remained was a vast cloud of dust that rose up to the sky and obscured the sun. Many years later, people would say that a meteorite had fallen there, a celestial body, of the many that wander about in space, but that isn't true, it was the tower of babel, which the lord, out of pride, would not allow to be completed. The history of mankind is the history of our misunderstandings with god, for he doesn't understand us, and we don't understand him.
Chapter 7
It was written on the tablets of fate that cain would meet abraham again. One day, on yet another of those sudden time-travelling shifts from present to present, now forwards, now backwards, cain found himself at the hottest hour of the day outside a tent near the oaks of mamre. He thought he had caught sight of an old man who vaguely reminded him of someone he knew. In order to be sure, he called at the door of the tent and abraham appeared. Are you looking for someone, he asked, Well, yes and no, I was just passing through, when it seemed to me that I recognised you, and I was right, I'm cain, how is your son isaac, You're mistaken, the only son I have is called ishmael, not isaac, and ishmael is the child I had by my slave hagar. Cain's sharp wits, accustomed to such situations, immediately came into play, this game of alternative presents had once again manipulated time and shown him what would happen at a later date before it actually did, which, put in simpler, more explicit terms means that isaac had not yet been born. I don't recall ever having seen you before, said abraham, but come in, make yourself at home, I'll get a servant to bring you water to wash your feet and give you some bread for the journey,
First, I must tend to the needs of my donkey, Take him over to those oak trees, where you'll find hay and straw and a drinking trough full of fresh water. Cain did as abraham suggested and, tethering the donkey in the shade, he removed the saddle to give the animal some relief from the heat. Then he felt the almost empty saddlebags and wondered what he could do to remedy what was fast becoming an alarming lack of food. Abraham's words had given him new hope, but man cannot live by bread alone, especially one who has grown used to gastronomic delicacies far above his original station and social class. Leaving the donkey to enjoy the most basic of country pleasures, water, shade and plentiful food, cain returned to the tent, called out to announce his presence and then went in. He saw at once that some kind of meeting was going on, to which, of course, he had not been invited. Abraham was in conversation with three men, who had apparently arrived in the meantime. Cain made as if to withdraw discreetly, but abraham said, Don't leave, sit down, you are all my guests, and now, if you'll permit me, I must go and give my orders. He went into a room in the back of the tent and said to sarah, his wife, Quick, knead three measures of the best flour and make a few loaves. Then he went to the area where the cattle were kept and brought in a plump young calf, which he handed over to a servant to be slaughtered and cooked. When all this had been done, he served his guests the veal that had been prepared, saying to cain, Join us under the trees. And as if that were not generosity enough, he served them butter and milk as well. Then the men asked, Where is sarah, and abraham replied,
She is in the tent. That was when one of the three men said, I will return to your house within a year and, at the appointed time, your wife will give birth to a son. That will be isaac, said cain in a low voice, so low that no one seemed to hear. Now abraham and sarah were well on in years, and she was no longer of child-bearing age. That is why she laughed and thought, How could I possibly have that pleasure again now that my husband and I are old and weary. The man asked abraham, Why did sarah laugh, believing that she cannot have a son at her age, when nothing is too hard for the lord. And he repeated what he had said before, I will return to your house within a year and, at the appointed time, your wife will give birth to a son. When she heard this, sarah was afraid and denied that she had laughed, but the man said, Nay, but you did laugh. At that moment, everyone realised that the third man present was the lord god in person. We forgot to mention that, before going into the tent, cain had pulled the edge of his turban low over his forehead to hide the mark from curious eyes, especially from the lord, whom he immediately recognised, and so when the lord asked if his name was cain, he answered, Yes, it is, but I'm not that cain.
Faced by this none too clever evasion, one would have expected the lord to have insisted and for cain to end up confessing that he was indeed the same cain who had murdered his brother abel and therefore been condemned for ever to be a wanderer and a fugitive, but the lord had more urgent and important things to deal with than finding out the true identity of a somewhat suspicious stranger.
For in heaven, whence he had come only moments before, he had heard numerous complaints about the crimes against nature committed in the nearby cities of sodom and gomorrah. As the impartial judge he had always prided himself on being, although it must be said that there have been no shortage of actions on his part to show exactly the opposite, he had come down to earth in order to find out the truth of the matter. This is why he was now travelling to sodom, accompanied by abraham and by cain, who had asked, as a curious tourist, if he could come along too. The men with the lord, who were clearly his angel companions, had gone on ahead. Then abraham asked the lord three questions, Will you destroy the innocent along with the guilty, what if there are fifty innocent people in the city, will you also destroy them and not spare the whole city for the sake of those fifty innocent souls. And he went on, saying, You cannot do such a thing, lord, you cannot slay the innocent along with the guilty, if you do, it will seem, in everyone's eyes, that being innocent and guilty are one and the same, and you, who are the judge of all the earth, must be just in your sentences. To which the lord responded, If I find in the city of sodom fifty innocent people, I will spare the whole city for their sake. Encouraged and full of hope, abraham went on, Since I have taken the liberty of speaking so freely to the lord, I who am nothing but dust and ashes, allow me one more question, what if there are not quite fifty innocent people, but only forty-five, will you destroy the whole city for the lack of five. The lord answered, If I find forty-five innocent people there, I will not destroy the city. Abraham decided to strike again while the iron was hot, What if there are only forty innocent people, to which the lord answered, For the sake of those forty people, I will not destroy the city, And what if there are only thirty, For the sake of those thirty, I will not destroy the city, And what if there are only twenty, For the sake of those twenty, I will not destroy the city. Then abraham went further, Please don't be angry with me if I ask one further thing, Speak, said the lord, What if there are only ten innocent people, and the lord answered, For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy the city. Having thus responded to abraham's questions, the lord withdrew, and abraham, accompanied by cain, returned to the tent. Nothing more was said of isaac, the son yet to be born. When they reached the oaks of mamre, abraham went into his tent and re- emerged shortly afterwards with the promised loaves. Cain stopped saddling up his donkey in order to thank abraham for this generous gift, and asked, How do you think the lord is going to count the ten innocent people, who, assuming they exist, will prevent the destruction of sodom, do you think he will go from door to door, asking fathers and their male descendants about their sexual proclivities and appetites, The lord doesn't need to do that, he only has to look down on the city from above to know what is going on, answered abraham, Do you mean that the lord made that agreement with you for no reason other than to please you, cain asked again, The lord gave his word, Well, as sure as my name is cain, although admittedly I have also been known as abel, I'm not convinced, I reckon that, regardless of whether there are innocent people living there or not, sodom will still be destroyed, possibly tonight, Yes, that's possible, and not only sodom either, but gomorrah and two or three other cities of the plain, where sexual customs have become equally lax, with men going with men and women being left to one side, Aren't you worried about what might happen to those two men who came with the lord, They weren't men, they were angels, for I know them well, Angels without wings, They won't need wings if they need to escape, Well, if the men of sodom lay hands or indeed anything else on them, I don't think they'll care a jot whether they're angels or not, and the lord will be most displeased, if I were you, I would go to the city to see what's happened, they won't harm you, Yes, you're right, I'll go, but I would feel safer if you came with me, one and a half men are better than one, But we're two, not one and a half, Oh, I'm only half a man now, cain, In that case, let's go, and if they attack us, I could probably despatch two or three of them with the knife I have under my tunic, otherwise, we'll just have to hope that the lord will provide. Then abraham summoned a servant and ordered him to take cain's donkey to the stables. And he
