Adam's Apples
Just as suddenly as they had vanished when the Dream Door shut back in Seth's childhood time, Adam, Zonia, Enoch and Toby stepped out of thin air and into Grandfather Adam's presence. The old man, who had been nodding almost to sleep while he sat in his big comfortable chair, jerked in surprise when the children popped through the Dream Door portal.
"What? ... What?"
Grandfather Adam sat up straight and rubbed his eyes, trying to make sense of the noise.
"We have returned, Grandfather," Enoch said, rushing to the old man and throwing his arms around his neck.
Zonia, too, ran to the old man and flung her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek.
"My little one...thank the Maker of All Things! You have come back to me safely!" he said, returning Zonia's hearty hug.
"These are for you, sir..." Adam Beam said, holding the bag of seven apples outstretched toward Grandfather Adam. The old man hesitated for a moment, then with a broad smile and brightened eyes, reached to take the sack from Adam's hand.
He looked inside at the seven beautiful apples, then looked at Adam. "It is a wonderful thing you have done, young one."
He looked then at Zonia and at Enoch. "It is a wonderful thing that all of you have done."
Toby moved close to the old man and nuzzled his yellow and black striped face against Grandfather Adam's leg.
"And you, too, of course!" Grandfather Adam said, touching Toby's furry face, then scratching the tiger behind his happily twitching ears. "Yes, boy...you did a fine job, too!"
With Zonia sitting in Grandfather Adam's lap, he motioned for the two boys and Toby to gather around him. "Now tell me all about your adventure. I want to hear everything!"
Zonia, with her eyes wide, almost told everything in one breath. She related so many things, in fact, that Grandfather Adam, whose eyes also widened with amazement, could only chuckle as the girl went though every detail of their quest for the apples. When Zonia had told everything she could think of, Adam Beam and Enoch filled in the details. Grandfather Adam was very pleased, indeed.
"My son told me that you children would return safely. And that you would bring the apples with you. The Maker of All Things is wonderful, is he not? Honor and praise and glory be to his name!"
Enoch said softly, quietly, "Is the one who told you that we would return safely and bring the apples with us...is it my grandfather Seth? He is the boy named Seth in that long-ago time where we found the apples, is he not...?"
"Yes," Grandfather Adam said, holding his great, great, great, great grandson close to him. "It is my son Seth--your great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather Seth--who told me so."
The old man turned his attention to Adam Beam. "You have served the Maker's purpose well, young one. But your mission for him is not yet completed." Grandfather Adam handed the sack of apples back to Adam Beam. "You must take these with you when you return to your time and place."
The boy took the sack of seven apples and looked surprised.
"The purpose of the apples is for your time, not for my time. I know not what their purpose is. I only know that you are to take them with you. And may the Maker of All Things be with you!"
An hour passed and good-byes were said and hugs were hugged. Grandfather Adam's great grandchildren took turns hugging and kissing and patting Toby, who snarled many snarls of happiness.
Adam's and Enoch's eyes met each other in silence for a moment. Enoch said then, "I will very much miss you and Zonia and Toby..."
Adam started to say something but stopped when he saw a man enter through a door behind where Grandfather Adam sat. The man was old, but not as old as Grandfather Adam. He came to the boys and put his arms around them.
"This is my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather," Enoch said, glancing upward at the man who smiled down at the boys.
"His name is Seth?" Adam said, already knowing the answer.
"It seems but a moment ago, my friend Adam..." Enoch's grandfather Seth said. "Somehow I know that this is not the end of our friendship...of your friendship together...but that it is only the beginning."
Adam, Zonia and Toby stood close together. Adam held Zonia's hand. Zonia's other hand grasped Toby's thick fur.
"Farewell, little ones," Grandfather Adam said. All of the children chimed in, "Goodbye, Toby, Zonia, Adam!!"
Adam Beam pushed the button marked "OUT" on the dream doodler's handle. Before the amazed Grandfather Adam, Grandfather Seth, Enoch and all the children, the very air in the room began swooshing around Adam, his sister and the tiger. Faster and faster the air swirled with colored light. The hues spun and whirled faster and faster, and began to spark and flash. The air seemed charged with electricity as the lights became bolts of lightning which made crackling sounds that grew louder and louder.
Adam, Zonia and Toby revolved within the vortex. Around and around they turned, moving faster and faster through the spinning tunnel toward a pinpoint of blinding light which grew larger and larger.
Within seconds, the children and the tiger slowed their tumbling, their feet coming to rest gently on the floor of the Exploretime cube. They were back in New Eden time.
Mrs. Levin's smiling face glowed with happiness seeing Adam and Zonia, who had just popped through the Dream Door portal. She hugged both children tightly and asked wasn't that a wonderful Dream Door Adventure!
Adam, just a bit shy about his Exploretime teacher making such a fuss over him while she kissed his cheek, looked down at his feet and smiled slightly without saying much.
Zonia, on the other hand, launched into a full wide-eyed telling of everything.
"And what is in the sack, Adam?" Mrs. Levin asked when Zonia had finished her amazing story of their Dream Door Adventure.
"Oh yes..." Zonia said. "I forgot to tell you about Grandfather Adam telling us we must bring the apples back to New Eden time."
"These are Grandfather Adam's apples," Adam answered. "He told me they are for some great purpose." He repeated his sister's breathless explanation about the apples.
"For what great purpose?" Mrs. Levin said.
"We don't know," Zonia said enthusiastically. "Grandfather Adam didn't know, either. He just said that the Maker of All Things told him they were for some great future purpose."
"I see...," Mrs. Levin said, patting Zonia's cheek gently with her fingertips. "Perhaps the brightons and the lightons can help us with this wonderful mystery."
Adam held the sack containing the seven apples as tightly as anyone ever held a sack. These apples had remained the same as when they were on the tree ... since the Beginning in the Garden...Adam thought how he, Zonia, and Toby had gone through a great struggle with the evols, with the mutons, even with the slegna to keep these apples safe. And to return them to Grandfather Adam. How Grandfather Adam had told him that the apples were for some great future purpose.
He, his sister and Toby had brought the apples back through ages and ages of time...through the swirling, whirling tunnels and passages of time...back to the time of New Eden. Now he would hold onto the sack of apples with all his might until the lightons or the brightons told him about the seven apples' great future purpose.
Toby snarled a pleased, happy snarl while the children of Exploretime surrounded him and lavished upon him hugs and kisses and many squealing, delightful pats of love. Some of the boys and a few of the girls looked into the sack at the seven beautiful apples while Adam held the sack open for them to see.
"You mean these apples came all the way from the First Time?" one of Adam's Exploretime classmates asked.
"Yes. All the way from the First Garden!" Adam said.
Mrs. Levin clapped her hands together in order to get the children's attention.
"Okay children! ...Now we have a very special treat. Let's all gather around the Exploretime portal viewer."
The children did as they were told. They sat in a semicircle in the small Exploretime chairs arranged near the center of the Exploretime cube. Their excited chatter grew quieter and quieter until only Toby's loud purring could be heard.
"This is something brand new in Dream Doors Adventures!" Mrs. Levin said, standing in front of the children, who anxiously listened. "We will be able to see Adam's Dream Doors Adventure because the dream doodler he took with him has a special show-and-tell remember-timer. It recorded the whole thing while Adam, Zonia and Toby went through the land of First Time!"
The children clapped and cheered as Mrs. Levin punched the "REMEMBER TIME" button on the dream doodler. Instantly, the very air in the room in front of the children moved apart. Adam's Dream Door Adventure appeared in vivid color while he, Zonia and Toby looked on with the rest of the kids, remembering their great exciting travels through the land of the first time.