Barnes. Pdf

 
Chapters 
87
at his elbow and examined with him the creamy, pitted orb. 'Sure looks like a custard pie,' Jimmy concluded, with a nervous 
laugh. `More like dirty beach sand when you get there,' Spike replied. He continued looking up, waiting for a sign. No sign 
came. 
It was during their third spell on the mountain - agreed to be their last for the year- that Spike made his discovery. They 
were a few thousand feet below the summit and had just crossed a treacherous piece of scree when they came upon a pair of 
caves side by side. Just like the Lord stuck two fingers in the rock, 
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they agreed. With the incorrigible optimism which Jimmy high-mindedly endured, the former astronaut jauntily disappeared 
into the first of the caves; there was silence, then an echoing howl. Jimmy thought of bears - even of the abominable snowman 
- until the continuing howl modulated, almost without breath being drawn, into a series of sporting whoops. 
Not far into the cavern Jimmy found Spike Tiggler kneeling in prayer. A human skeleton was laid out before him. Jimmy 
sank down beside Spike. Even on his knees, the former basketball star retained a height advantage over the ex-astronaut. Spike 
extinguished his flashlight, and Jimmy did the same. A few minutes of purest silence passed in the cold darkness, then Spike 
murmured, `We found Noah.' 
Jimmy didn't reply. After a while they switched their flashlights back on and the two beams reverently explored the 
skeleton in front of them. It lay with its feet pointing towards the mouth of the cave, and seemed intact, as far as either of them 
could tell. There were a few scraps of cloth - some white, some of a grayish color - hanging between the bones. 
`Praise the Lord,' said Spike Tiggler. 
They pitched their tent a few yards down the mountainside and then searched the other cave. Spike was secretly hoping 
they might find Noah's wife, or maybe the Ark's log, but there were no more discoveries. Later, as the evening darkened, there 
was a hiss of compressed air inside the tent and then Spike Tiggler threw his football across the rocks of Great Ararat into the 
hesitant arms of Jimmy Fulgood. Time after time it thumped into Jimmy's large, ex-basketball-playing hands. His own returns 
were often poor, but Spike was not disconcerted. He threw and he threw that evening, until the air was cold and the two figures 
were lit only by the rising moon. Even so, Spike's eye was flawless; Jimmy felt the football homing in to him with the 
nocturnal accuracy of a bat. 'Hey, Spike,' he shouted at one point, `not using that infra-red sight, are you?' and a chuckle came 
back from his barely visible partner. 
After they had eaten, Spike took his flashlight and returned to Noah's tomb, as by now he had christened it. Jimmy, either 
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from tact or superstition, remained in the tent. An hour or so later Spike reported that the position of the skeleton would have 
allowed the dying Noah to gaze out from the cave and see the moon - the very moon on whose surface Spike Tiggler had so 
recently stood. `Praise the Lord,' he repeated as he zipped up the tent for the night. 
After a while it became clear that neither of them was asleep. Jimmy coughed slightly. 'Spike,' he said, with some caution, 
`It's ... well ... it's my perception that we have ourselves a problem.' 
'We have ourselves a problem? We have ourselves a miracle!' Spike replied. 
'Sure we have a miracle. We also have a problem.' 
`Tell me how you perceive this problem, Jimmy.' The tone was amused, tolerant, almost patronizing; the tone of a 
quarterback who knew his arm could be relied on. 
Jimmy went carefully, not being too sure himself what to believe. `Well, let's say I'm just thinking aloud, Spike, and let's 
say I'm into negativity at this moment.' 
`Fine.' Nothing could harm Spike's present mood. The mixture of fierce exhilaration and relief reminded him of 
splashdown. 
`We're looking for the Ark, right? You were ... told we'd find the Ark.' 
'Sure. We will. We're bound to now, next time mebbe.'
'But we were looking for the Ark,' Jimmy persisted. `We ... you ... were told to look for the Ark.' 
'We were shooting for silver, we got gold.' 
'Yup. I was just wondering ... didn't Noah strike out somewhere after the Ark landed? I mean, he lived on a few centuries, 
didn't he, in the Bible?' 
'Sure. Three hundred fifty. Sure. That village I told you about when we were on the top. Arghuri. That's where Noah had 
his first settlement. Planted his vines there. Had his first farm. Built his homestead up again.' 
`That was Noah's village?' 
`Sure was. Down in the Soviet sector,' added Spike teasingly.
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Things were getting less clear to Jimmy now. 'So God let Noah's settlement get destroyed in an earthquake?' 
'Musta had a reason. Always does. Anyway, that's not the point. Point is, Noah settled down there. Maybe he moved on, 
maybe not. Anyway, what's more likely than he came back to Ararat to be buried? When he felt the weariness of Time upon 
him? Probably staked out that cave the moment he stepped down from the Ark. Decided that as a sign of gratitude and 
obedience to the Lord for preserving him he'd drag his old bones up the mountainside when he knew his hour was upon him. 
Like elephants in the jungle.' 
`Spike, those bones in the cave - don't they ... don't they look a little; how shall I put it, well-preserved? I mean, I'm only 
playing devil's advocate, you understand.' 
'Relax, Jimmy, you're doing fine.'

---

J
ULIAN 
B
ARNES
: A History of the World in 10 ½