A boy approached his brother with a box and said, “do you know what this is?” His brother shook his head. “This is the Ark of the Covenant. No one is supposed to open it.” And then, with a mischievous grin, he opened the box.
His brother looked inside and found the box was empty. He frowned and said, “this is just an ordinary box. Quit playing around.”
Meanwhile in the distance, both of them could hear a humming sound coming from the sky. At first it was too inaudible to discern, and now it was too melodic to be any kind of aircraft. The sound, which seemed to be coming from above, grew louder and louder, like a swelling chorus.
Then a strange creature appeared in front of the boy with the box. With a hand that seemed to be a blade, it chopped the boy’s head off and took the box for itself. The boy’s body collapsed. The creature looked the stunned brother in the eye before spiraling back into the air.
The brother knew, with a terrible certainty, that he had just seen an angel.
~
Cassie woke from this disturbing dream to find a box on the table across from his hospital bed. He got to his feet and walked slowly across the room to examine it.
“It doesn’t look like the Ark of the Covenant to me.” He joked to himself. Then his countenance grew serious as he pondered the dream. “What if I open it and an angel appears to kill me?” Cassie thought to himself. He thought about the boy in the dream who was beheaded. He closed his eyes and the scene replayed in his mind.
Then he heard footsteps from outside in the hallway, and thought about Natalya opening the box before him. A sudden fear of losing her gripped him. Immediately he gathered up the courage to open the box. He lifted the lid –
It was empty.
Cassie’s mind flashed with a split-second spark of Illumination, as if suddenly understanding the meaning behind a Zen koan.
“The box is empty. And the angel…” His voice trailed off. His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door, then Natalya slowly entering.
“Hey, I didn’t think you would be awake.” She smiled at him, looking surprised. “It’s been about three days since you last woke.”
“Natalya…” Cassie smiled. “Hello, angel.”
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