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indecisively, but then he feels the GPS in his pocket. Of course! How could he be so stupid?

  “I am here, because my father told me to find my Water Father – the One who can help me free Delinquency!” He is shouting into the Wood of Words.

  Immediately the GPS has a voice.

  “Turn to your right and cut down those brambles.”

  “Jack, you will wipe out, just like you did on the Kloof Nek Road!” hisses the wood. Some of the tree branches reach out to Jack. “You are rubbish! Foolish rubbish!”

  “You don’t have what it takes, Jack. Believe us Jack, you cannot do this!”

  Jack walks up to the brambles rather uncertainly. The others follow him. If it were not for these friends who are depending on him, he would turn back immediately, but somehow that would not be right thing to do.

  “You don’t have what it takes, Jack. You don’t have what it takes, Jack,” chants one part of the wood. “Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish,...” the other half hisses in accompanying voices.

  Jack starts cutting down the brambles, but he is hesitant. It is hard work and it becomes increasingly difficult as he starts tiring. The thorns on his left side start scratching him, because it is more difficult to get rid of them.

  “Here, let me!” Lefty takes the sword from him and cuts back the brambles to the left. Soon the brambles seem to dissolve all by themselves, making it possible for the water team to reach a small clearing, where a little sunlight is breaking through the darkness of the wood of words.

  “Not far enough, boys!” shouts the Wood of Words. “Not nearly far enough even!”

  But the GPS is not deterred in the least. It calls out for another important event. This time it is number four. Jack and the water team start the journey from behind the thick glass.

  History clip 4

  Three men are walking down a road, talking earnestly.

  “Are you truly the only stranger in this city? How is it possible that you do not know about all these things that happened here?” The man sounds astonished.

  “What things?” asks the man walking in the middle with a twinkle in his eye. Jack immediately recognizes him and his voice. It is the same man that was so brutally murdered in the previous clip! How is this possible?

  One of the men starts explaining. “It’s all about the prophet who was killed! He did the most wondrous things: healing the sick and liberating people from all kinds of bondage. But the leaders, the leaders had him executed, put to death, three days ago.”

  “We thought he was the One, the One who would set the captives free…” the other one adds.

  “And now, on top of it, some of the womenfolk returned to his grave. They could not find him…”

  “But there were angels [Of course there were! The bearers of the Good News; any angel’s dream!] at the grave who told them that the Prophet is alive – risen!”

  “That’s right! So I think by myself, I think: Women! They have too much imagination. So I go see that grave for myself. I tell you: no body. It’s empty.”

  “Oh, those women, indeed!” laughs the man in the middle – the one Jack saw being killed. “So, I suppose you think someone has stolen that body?”

  At this point Jack cannot help but to think about Delinquency, caught up in an unmovable, cold mound of solid concrete.

  “We do not know WHAT to think! That grave is cut from solid stone, and the stone that was rolled in front weighs two tons! It was rolled in front of the entrance by a guard of tough Roman soldiers, and even THEY had to use levers to move it. No woman will carry that away!”

  “No, bless their precious souls!” says the middle man, laughing again.

  “And those Roman guards! They’ve all fled – gone! At the peril of being sentenced to DEATH for leaving their guard post, for sleeping on the job, whatever happened!”

  “Have some mercy!” says the middle man. “If you see a ghost, are you going to worry about some future death sentence, or are you just going to run for your life?”

  “You don’t believe us, do you? Well, what do you say about this: the Roman seal that was put on that grave – it was broken, BROKEN! If the Romans catch you breaking their seals, they kill you!”

  But none of these arguments can stop the light-hearted mood of the man walking in the middle.

  “Very true; unless those Romans have ALREADY killed you, of course. They cannot kill you a second time. So - then you can go breaking their seals whenever you want to.”

  “What do you mean?”

  The middle man becomes more serious.

  “What I mean is: do you believe what the prophets have told you all along? Do you remember this, from the Torah?

  ‘Then the LORD God said to the snake, "You will be punished for this; you alone of all the animals must bear this curse: From now on you will crawl on your belly, and you will have to eat dust as long as you live. ‘”

  The two men continue with the man walking in the middle:

  “I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite her offspring's heel.”

  “I see you both memorised this passage when you were little boys!"

  The two men stop walking, staring at the one in the middle. It is clear that they both know this passage very well.

  “This prophet – He is surely the offspring of a woman!”

  “Of course,” muses Jack. I have all that on a history clip ! There was this little baby, and all those soldiers that wanted to kill us.

  “Aha! Can you see now?” asks the man. “The snake tried to kill this prophet, because He was the Word, but the only thing that the snake managed to do was to cause death itself to be killed instead! Not what he wanted, but that’s what he got.”

  “Do you mean, those words, from the dawn of time are now fulfilled? Is THAT what you mean?”

  “Yes, that is exactly what I mean. Can you remember what Hosea said 750 years ago? ’… and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight .’ [This prophesy was written about 2 730 years ago, more or less 720 years before the event in this history clip.] So, did not your prophet rise again, on the third day?”

  “His grave is empty. I saw it.” The two men stare at him, barely able to speak.

  “So what are you worried about? What are you afraid of? This is the One, the One who will set the captives free. Can you see that now?”

  The clip ends, leaving Jack with the question echoing in his mind: Can you see that now? They start walking again in a direction that is indicated by the GPS, but Jack cannot forget what the man has said: This is the One, the One who will set the captives free. Delinquency. And the GPS said: “When you hear my voice, do not hesitate….” But the voice belonged to Him; the man who was explaining everything.

  Seeking advice

  Molluscum Contagiosum has reached a certain extremely talkative part of the wood. He places a pair of dirty earplugs into his ears, until he reaches the noisiest part. There he takes them out again, just to be met by a din of chatter.

  “Just talk to them,” is what Apatheto said. “Maybe they will understand the situation.”

  “She’ll have to stay pro tempore. [for the time being; temporarily] It is quid pro quo , [Something for something, or maybe just plain stinginess] you understand that my dear man,” explains the one tree.

  “Well, what do you expect for that; some marble monument with your statue on top?” grumbles another. Or can we just plant a tree for you? It has become very fashionable lately ….”

  “Very convenient...I AM a tree, you nitwit!”

  “ALL I WANTED,” shouts Molluscum, “WAS A LITTLE ADVICE, AND NOW, NOW I HAVE MORE TROUBLE THAN I HAVE HAD EVER BEFORE!”

  The chatter stops for two seconds, but then continues more furiously than ever. The sound coming from the trees resembles t
hat of a horde of angry wasps.

  In the middle of the trees sits a woman, covering her ears. She is being kept hostage by the chattering trees. Molluscum looks at her in surprise, then hurriedly shouts a few words at the woman through the noise. Her face momentarily lights up.

  Molluscum starts running again.

  “Sciens res nuli !” [Knowingly being nobody’s property, or some nonsense to that effect.]

  When he comes to the end of this part of the wood, a last tree reaches out for him.

  “You will have to pay first, you understand? That is just how it works,” it blurts into Molluscum’s ear.

  “You did not serve me with one single piece of advice, but you want to be paid!” cries Molluscum.

  “Sorry, but that is how it works. Talis qualis .” [Just as such, or such (tripe?) as it is]

  “Tails of quails, my eye,” mumbles Molluscum.

  In cold pursuit

  Doubt and Fear naturally have more agility in water, but their capability on land should never be underestimated. They don’t ever seem to talk, but their silent single-minded teamwork is a very effective killing machine.

  The radar in their jaws has picked up the location of the boys. And the Wood of Words cannot, and won’t, do anything against their silence. Its prompts are mainly from the words spoken by people.

  “Do you need help with Delinquency, Jack? We can help you free her! Come, come, this way!” whispers the wood. Jack stops to listen. A path has become visible again and the GPS is instructing them to take it.

  “The help for Delinquency is this way, to where Virginia Creeper is living,” shouts the wood.