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Topic: TASTE (07/01/21)
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TITLE: The Price of Doubt | Previous Challenge Entry
By Graham Keet
07/06/21 -
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Currently Israel is in turmoil, but Leah says this is but a small taste of future events. What’s worrying lately is the massive troop build-up in the north, where Russian backed forces of Iran, Turkey and Syria are banding together. Prime Minister Bennett, however, says they have the situation under control.
It was midday on a Wednesday in early September 2021 that Leah met me in the hospital foyer for a quick lunch at a restaurant across the road. On the way we passed two nursing sisters. “See you tonight,” one of them called to Leah, “and bring your doctor friend with.”
“What did she mean by that?” I asked as we crossed the road. “What’s happening tonight?”
“That was Myrtle and Jean. We’re getting together to pray for peace in Israel, and you’re very welcome to come with.”
“Well, gee, thanks, but it’s not really my …” The rest of my sentence was drowned out as a flight of about twenty Israeli fighter jets screamed overhead, so low that one could clearly see the blue star of David on the fuselages.
“Looks like they’re heading for the northern border,” I said once the noise allowed speech again.
“God keep them safe,” whispered Leah.
We finished a hurried lunch and were paying the bill when an announcement came over the TV. We listened in disbelief to the news that both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv were under attack from Turkish fighter bombers, and that a huge force of Russian and Iranian armor had crossed into the Golan Heights and was sweeping the outnumbered IDF armament aside as they headed south.
“God, this is where we need your help,” said Leah grabbing my arm, “we must get back to the hospital.”
I put my arm around her as we crossed the road. The next moment the ground began shaking beneath our feet. We were both flung to the heaving tarmac. The dust that arose was blinding.
“It’s an earthquake,” I shouted picking myself up from the ground—but I was alone. She must have managed to make her way to the hospital without me, I reasoned, struggling to see through the dust.
The hospital foyer had been badly shaken, some cabinets had overturned, their contents strew across the floor, dispersed further by the wind that had accompanied the tremor. A young nurse saw me. “Doctor Bernstein, we need help, some of our patients are … missing.”
“How can they be missing?” I answered, “and have you seen Leah anywhere?”
“No, didn’t she go out with you? I can also not find sisters Myrtle and Jean—what’s going on?”
Sudden panic gripped me. I ran outside to see if Leah was not perhaps lying injured somewhere. Then I looked up. Waves of black clouds were coming up from the south and being blown in a northerly direction. I hurried back into the hospital, determined to find Leah. The television in the foyer was still on and a worried looking anchorman announced that huge hailstones had started to fall in the area of the Golan Heights, some estimated at one hundred pounds each. Strangely the worst affected were the enemy troops. There had also been a huge earthquake in southern Syria that had decimated the advancing Syrian and Turkish troops.
With growing concern I knew I had to find Leah; then it dawned on me. Leah had once tried to tell me about an event that would happen soon. She said nobody knew exactly when it would occur, but when it did all true believers would leave this earth and be taken up to heaven. She said the chaos this would cause would be but a foretaste of the horrors to come. At the time I didn’t see any immediate urgency. There had always been trouble, especially in Israel. Nothing ever changed; or did it?
I went cold. Oh God, did I miss it?
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