Fighting to the Finish

“Josh! Hey Josh.” I felt a firm but gentle rub on my back. The voice sounded so familiar like one I had heard before. I couldn’t quite place who it could have been. Opening my eyes slowly, I noticed that the room was well lit but the light wasn’t coming from any particular traceable source. As I began to gather my senses, fear slowly started to creep in as I noticed that the source of that light was actually this man-like figure.
He wore beautiful long white hair that curled and rested on his shoulders, white as wool and clad in a white rob with a gold outline that touched the sandals he wore on his feet.
His eyes seemed to have been able to look right into my heart. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was standing in front of someone who knew everything about me. I literary felt naked before him; that’s the best way I could describe what the feeling was like. The difference though is I didn’t feel ashamed. I actually felt known. For some reason though, his presence seemed to have the capacity to shake the very life out of me but at the same time, offered a reassurance that it was the safest place in the universe. He carried the aura of a warrior but a kind in whose presence was safety, not danger.
“Do not be afraid. It is well,” he assured me. When I heard him say that, I felt fear leave my being immediately.
“Follow me Josh,” he said.
I looked around my bedroom and noticed that even though this man spoke authoritatively loud, Twatasha was still fast asleep. Being the light sleeper that I knew her to be, it seemed totally impossible that she could still be sleeping at that point.
For some strange reason, I felt compelled to follow this familiar stranger to wherever he wanted us to go. He made a 180 degrees turn and walked right through the wall. Without giving it any thought I followed suit and soon as I did, I can swear that I had just stepped into a different time altogether- a different dimension to be precise.
Standing tall in front of us, about 200 metres was this magnificent piece of architecture; an ancient design that was simply breath-taking.
Somehow, I knew without being told that it was one whose construction started somewhere between 70 and 72 A.D under the rule of the emperor, Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus.
“Amazing is it not? Anfiteatro Flavian…The Colosseum itself. I love this magnificent structure believe it or not. The reason it is still standing with such historical elegance is because it was erected on a strong foundation. Foundations are important Josh because they determine the strength of the structure to be built. Not only that, but how you start something often determines how you will sustain it.” The familiar stranger commented as we walked towards what seemed to have been an entrance.
It had what I could only describe as windows all around it and the closer we drew to it, the bigger it seemed to grow. They were majorly rectangular in shape with the top slightly caved. I was lost in thought, wondering just how mankind managed to build such a big structure without the aid of technology and machinery such as modern cranes and tippers that were common kinds of construction equipment in the dimension I had been snapped out of.
“You are in a different dimension Josh. You stepped out of yours into this one.” He replied to what I was thinking.
By now, I had made up my mind that though he looked like a man, he definitely transcended any earthly creature I had ever known.
He seemed timeless and ageless too. The fairness of his skin looked as tender as a child’s with a few scars on his arms and feet that, to be honest looked gloriously beautiful.
There was a glow of white light in the scarred areas and I was short of asking if I could touch them. He wasn’t of my world at all. May be this talk about aliens was true after all but he wasn’t a green, big headed, bald big-eyed creature. Nothing close to what the movies and literature has depicted celestial beings to be. And he had no wings so any relation to winged creatures was disqualified.
I noticed something amazing: Whenever we walked into a dark room, it illuminated immediately.
The corridor we had entered had five doors, three on my right and two on my left. Each door gave the impression that it was from a different time period with different inscriptions hanging on them. “The philosopher” was the inscription on door number I.
He handed me five keys, one for each door. The keys were made of gold that was so pure that I could see right through it. This wasn’t the case with the gold I was used to seeing. Each key was a fine piece of well thought workmanship (definitely hand crafted) that was obviously made by some very skilled hands.
“Go right ahead Josh. I am not coming with you in there. I am can only lead you to the door but you must make your way in. This is your trip to make alone and please do learn as much as you can in there,” he encouraged me.
Slowly, I opened the old dusty door that looked like it had not been opened in ages. The room was extremely dark and I looked back hesitantly. He motioned to me to close the door and as I closed it, with glittering gold dust particles falling off the doors’ edges, I heard a voice behind me saying, “vanity, vanity. All is vanity.”
I turned to look at him and was relieved to discover he was actually very human, nothing close to the man who led me there. It was the philosopher and I couldn’t help but think Justin would have loved to have been there with me.
“Welcome Josh,” he smiled at me.
He walked gracefully with kingly strides and it occurred to me that the philosopher was not just one who questioned the purpose of life but was in fact, a king.
“I would have thought you were the most satisfied person to have ever lived but I will admit your royal highness that your writings tell a whole different story. Pardon me and I don’t mean to be disrespectful but you had women; 700 wives plus 300 concubines, riches and power. That sir is every man’s dream.” I said teasingly.
The interesting bit about this particular dimension was that I was immediately aware of who the person was. There was no need for formal introductions and whenever someone was introduced, it wasn’t a question of getting to know their name but rather an act of courtesy.
I noticed that as we walked, the room got lit with every step we took; revealing the beauty that surrounded us but darkened behind us. I looked back at the accompanying darkness that stopped whenever we did.
The philosopher noticed the distraction it caused me and commented; “Josh, there is no future in the past, only lessons and that’s why you are here. Keep up with me, will you?”
It felt like we were walking on a timeline that revealed various aspects of the philosopher’s life. I saw the wealth he had amassed and the sea of beautiful women all captured in that one moment we were together.
Walking in a garden to our left, about 20 meters from where we were was a dark and lovely woman. I couldn’t quite place the shade of her complexion but it was a beautiful shade of black. She was the fairest of them all. She wore a necklace with beads of yellow, green, blue and other colours that made her exude what I could only think to be African beauty. She had covered the bottom half of her figure with material known to Zambians as chitenge; of colours green, orange, red and black which reminded me of our own national flag. Her eyes were big and beautiful; capturing an innocence that was only equivalent to that of a dove.