Christopher Golde

Not every soul on earth will die,
As the dragons tail goes sweeping by,
Not every land on earth will sink,
But these wallow in stench and stink.
Of rotting bodies of beast and man.
Of vegetation crisp on land.

Mother Shipton                               1488-1561

      Chapter sixty six
        The Prophecy

Date:               8th June 2004                                              Location:        Fiji Island

 

              “Bula,” said Nigel Stansen, smiling warmly at his new guest and greeting him in the traditional Fijian way, “well this is more like it; you need a holiday.”

              “I wish it was a holiday,” replied Jason.

Behind him, his one case of luggage was being transferred from the seaplane he had arrived on, to a small skip that had just delivered him to shore. He was at least dressed in tropical look clothes, with red floral short sleeve shirt, white knee-length shorts, and leather sandals but as always when on business, he carried his brown Armani leather briefcase with him.

              “Did you have a good flight,” asked Nigel, turning him in the direction of the resort and leading him up the beach?

              “Arrived last night in Nadi, had a good nights sleep there and then out here directly to meet you this morning,” he replied, as they walked, “you couldn’t be somewhere easier to get to just when I needed to talk to you could you?”

              “Even I need a break sometimes Jason.”

As they entered the coolness of the resort a couple of Fijian girls in traditional dress approached Jason and insisted on putting a Lei around his neck. Jason smiled. He did not feel like smiling but how could one not with these beautiful people greeting you everywhere you went.

              “I have already checked you in my friend, here is your key.” Nigel offered him a large piece of board with floral designs on it and an even larger key attached. “Let’s go and have a cool drink by the pool and you can tell me why you came all the way out here and what was so urgent it could not wait till I returned.”

They walked through the lobby of the Likuliku Lagoon Resort and out immediately into the pool area which was surrounded by palms that guided the meandering pool all the way to a beautiful white sands beach. White canvas beach umbrellas followed the flow and pegged the tropical beach like beacons, beckoning travellers to abandon the real world forever. It was breathtaking and it really was what Jason needed.

              “Beautiful isn’t it,” said Nigel, with a smile.

Jason did smile but it was forced. He remembered his dream. He couldn’t even call it a dream really. His prophecy. He sort of understood now how people like Nostradamus must have felt.

They walked over to a couple of deck chairs, in a perfect position next to the pristine blue water of the pool and shaded by a large umbrella. Both men unfolded a large blue beach towel each that had been placed on the deck chairs and lay them out before sitting. Jason kicked off his sandals and Nigel, who always looked like an Englishman, the explorer version this time, and never like a beachgoer, left his sailing shoes on and stretched his long legs out. He lay back, putting a cushion behind his head and sighed.

              “So my good friend,” started Nigel, “what is the problem? I know you would not come this far to see me if we're not serious.”

Jason was still thinking about his prophecy which strangely started not so different from this. He looked around to make sure it was not a repeat or he was still caught in the dream. That had happened to him before as well.

He knew Nigel was looking expectantly at him but he needed to start this right or it would seem ridiculous.

              “I had a vision,” said Jason.

Time passed while he gathered his thought.

              “Some would call it a dream but I know it was not a dream,” he continued. Nigel just waited patiently. He knew Jason would take his time to explain it carefully and the last thing he should do is rush him. After all, in Nigel’s world, Jason was described as the prophet.

              “I was completely awake when it happened that’s why I know it was not a dream. I took over someone else’s being. A person called John Morley. It was like I had been him all his life. I knew everything about him. He was at a resort just like this but I do not know when it was. I could only feel it was in the future.”

Jason stopped for a while as a waiter approached with some drinks they had ordered on their way to the pool. The waiter smiled and put the drinks on the table between them and asked if he could bring anything else. Jason thanked him and offered him a note that was probably equivalent to his week’s wage. The waiter’s large smile never left his face as he left them and Jason sipped the drink.

              “I knew what was happening but John Morley did not,” he continued, “that was the strangest thing. He stood and watched as all the water in front of him at a beautiful tropical beach drained away completely, leaving swimmers stranded and he could not understand why. I knew it was a sign of the devastation to come and yet I had no compulsion to tell him or anyone else. I just watched, from inside him.”

Jason paused and sipped again. Nigel could tell he was very emotional about the whole thing, so said nothing just listened.

              “On the beach appeared a large dark figure that I have known in my visions since I was a child. John Morley knew it as well. He walked towards the apparition as if comforted, as I would. While he was doing that, a giant wave was building on the horizon and I knew he and everyone else there was probably about to die.”

Jason stopped again.

              “Morley was somehow absorbed by the apparition and that allowed me to escape. That was when it got worse. The apparition disappeared but I saw the death and destruction. Children, babies, everything, as far as I could see, all destroyed, ripped to shreds by huge waves and the debris they carried.”

Nigel could now see Jason had tears in his eyes and looked away.

              “I have not seen such horror, and even worse I could feel the pain of every person there, all at once. I could hear their screams and feel their terror and loss.”

Jason stopped. He could not go on. He was exhausted just recalling the vision. Both men sat in silence surrounded by the idyllic surroundings for at least thirty minutes before Jason spoke again.

              “Nigel, it is going to happen, I just know it. And that is not all, I know that although thousands will perish, it is only just the beginning. This vision was two days ago on the 6th of June. The day after, the apparition appeared to me, this time in a dream. He said that there would be several of these massive destructive events over the next twenty years. What they are leading to, is an event so destructive it will rip continents apart and wipe out millions. He said it must happen but we should prepare.”

Jason did not talk anymore. He said he needed to sleep after an hour of lying back on his lounge in deep thought and left Nigel by himself. Nigel had the feeling Jason had not told him everything but knew if he had not, Jason had a good reason why not.

Jason did stay at the resort for the next two days since it was a weekend and he did not discuss it again with Nigel. When Nigel went to bring it up, Jason said they would talk later when they got back from Fiji. He said there is nothing they could do now.

Nigel however, was working on it immediately.