Epilogue

 "Are you ready?" Shari asked.

Nomi took a deep breath and nodded. She'd been in Paradise for a full week, and gotten used to the idea that it wasn't a dream. Shari hadn't left her side. Shem was usually with her, the two of them taking Nomi on as a student. There had been one gentle rain, which sent Nomi into hysterics, but Shari had rocked her like a little baby until it was over. It was strange, the way their dynamic had changed. Nomi felt grateful that Shari was mothering her, though the last time they'd spoken, Shari had been a servant in Nomi's employ.

"It will be overwhelming, but that can't be helped. It will be no less overwhelming if it happens tomorrow." Shari assured her.

Nomi nodded, heart racing. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

Shem nodded. "I sent Eleanor to get your father. Your friend Anah was a little harder to find, because she only came back two months ago. Apparently, she's been asking about you every day."

And Nomi felt her knees shaking again.

"Hey. They're coming to see you because they love you." Shari said gently, leading her by the hand. "Enjoy it, Nomi. There are reunions every day, and miracles every hour. This one happens to mean the most to you."

~/*\~

"Nomi!" Anah yelled, and came running to meet her. Nomi left Shari behind and rushed to meet her halfway, the two friends almost colliding together in an embrace. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry I didn't tell you everything!"

"I'm so sorry about what my mother did!" Nomi sobbed back. "You're here! You're safe!"

"We're both here!" Anah promised emotionally. "We're both safe. Took thousands of years to get here, but we're together again now."

A pair of arms went around them both. Familiar arms. "My daughter." A warm voice said. "Look at you. You're all grown up."

Nomi lifted her face from Anah's shoulder to look up at her father. He was unchanged from the last time she'd seen him, but she'd been so young she was afraid she remembered him wrong.

"You're all grown up." His voice was choked up. "You look like your mom."

Nomi was glad it was such an emotional moment already. He wouldn't wonder why she burst into tears at that little reminder. Anah squeezed her hand. Her best friend knew.

~/*\~

Their new friends gave Nomi as long as she needed to reunite with her loved ones. They spent most of the day together, before making their way to Eleanor and Del, who were setting up a large picnic for the whole group. Responding to emotional moments with food and company seemed to be a common reaction in Paradise.

Watching their approach, Eleanor leaned over to speak quietly with Shari before they got into earshot. "Have you told her Tovina is back too?"

"No." Shari said solemnly. "That's one reunion that has to be handled with great care. The people who are teaching Tovina right now have experience with old grudges." She glanced back at Nomi, walking with her father and best friend. "By the way, would you tell your friend Baez that I really liked his talk at the last meeting? I referenced a lot of his advice when I welcomed Anah back."

"Baez is likable. He knows how to put people at ease. Where he lived, back in OS; you have to know how to read a room quickly, and adapt fast. It was a basic survival skill for him."

Shem and Shari had suggested inviting a few other people, to make Nomi feel less surrounded. So they were joined by Jacen, now hundreds of years old with a family of his own; as well as Martine, Elizabeth, and Benedict. Shem had invited his family, who were on their way; but only a few of his nieces and nephews could make it. The family was spread across the globe.

"I never did ask: How do you know these people?" Nomi asked Shem quietly while the food was being served. "They were all around thousands of years after us."

"Well, you remember what I told you about The Great Promise, where Jehovah God would send someone to defeat the Serpent, and restore the world to Paradise? Turns out that went a lot further than even my father thought. The sins of the world aren't just forgiven, they're being undone. Including death." Shem explained. "When God finally ran out of patience with our time, there were only eight people left."

"And when He decided enough was enough altogether, there were millions left." Shari put in.

Eleanor had apparently overhead. "Our family was among them."

"Millions saved." Nomi breathed. "Millions of families saved. The End must have been a very wonderful time, to have so many good people around."

Eleanor and Del traded a look, like she'd just said something adorable. "Anyway…" Eleanor moved on. "When the 'gold letters' started coming back, we were a pretty small group, at least in comparison to now. Del and I were the ones sent to greet Shem and Shari when they were 'raised up', the way you were last week."

"We've all been friends ever since." Shari added brightly.

"And likely will be forever." Del raised his glass to that, and everyone made sounds of agreement. "They've been helping us learn about Pre-Flood times. Very little survived the following six thousand years. For the first time, we get to ask people who were there."

Nomi's eyes locked on a wolf that padded up to the table and sat patiently beside Shari who fed it little bites of food from her plate. The wolf made a round of the table, getting little snacks from everyone, including Nomi. She kept watching it out of the corner of her eye as it returned to its own family. Another adult wolf, and two or three pups, rolling around in the grass, unafraid of anything.

Nomi spoke finally, voice quiet. She felt like she would never have to raise her voice to be heard again. "This was what I wanted." She admitted. "Not eternal life, not plenty of food… Those things would have been wonderful, but they weren't what I wished for in life."

"You wanted peace." Del nodded knowingly. "It's not a unique dream. In fact, I would say that it was almost the motivating force behind my wife and I becoming believers ourselves, though the world was a very different place compared to your time."

"Maybe not so different." Eleanor admitted quietly to herself.

"Maybe." Nomi teared up, and blinked it back. The emotions were still overwhelming, but Nomi was finally starting to accept what she was seeing.

As his nieces and nephews finished laying out the food platters, Shem looked around the group. "Del?"

Del nodded and bowed his head. The others did the same.

While Del gave thanks for the meal, Eleanor glanced at Nomi out of the corner of her eye, and made a prayer of her own. Jehovah God, I'm sitting at a table with people who survived the Flood; people who survived Tribulation… and a few that didn't make it to either. I spent years poring over Your every promise, and none of it stacks up with this moment. Seeing all of it come true at a picnic, of all things.

Jehovah God, the most ludicrous-sounding of blessings are happening every day, and I'm blessed to see it play out, from the most pivotal days in Your story since… well, since Shari made a prayer like this.

She glanced over at Nomi again. I don't know what she did to survive, but I remember how Del and I danced on the edge of making the wrong choice when OS pushed at us. I can only imagine what burden she's carrying now, but she has time.

Time, and safety, and people who want to help. Everything I pretended I could offer to hungry strangers when Martine and I first met. The world made a liar out of me, over and over; but where I and all mankind failed, you provided a thousand fold.

Thank you, my wonderful, generous God.

Amen.

~/*\~

I hope you've enjoyed the first book in the new series. 

If you'd like to support the author, the series is also available on Amazon.com.