The Wasting

27-Mountain

After a long and unbearable cramped night in the barricaded tunnel, Marina took out a copy of The Book and with her SUN lamp read aloud. "If you have trust you can say to this mountain move from here to there and it will obey you. If you have trust as small as a mustard seed you can tell the mighty oak tree to uproot itself and it will fall into the sea."  She looked up towards Leon. He laid in a crumpled ball pretending to be asleep. Marina spoke loudly so as to rouse him, "Well I certainly must have a mustard-seed sized trust. How about you Leon? Hmmm?  Do you have any idea how small a mustard seed is?"

Without opening his eyes, Leon turned toward the caved in dirt wall and mumbled, "Nope..."

"It's tiny--no bigger than a speck. You gotta speck of trust in you?" Marina asked hopefully.

"Nope... sleeping... " He grumbled.

Leon's optimism ran out years ago. For most of his life he'd been hiding underground like a mole rat. He was Vitamin D deficient—and everything deficient. Now, what was meant to be his salvation had seemingly become his grave. When he became deeply depressed, or laden down with self-pity, Marina had her ways of snapping him out of it. Unfortunately the lack of oxygen, their mutual body odor, plus his impending doom had put him in a dreadfully dark, sour mood. The air was as thin as his patience.

Marina continued reading, mouthing along with the words. Leon found this especially annoying. "Have I ever told you, you are no fun to be in a crisis with?"

"Yup..." Leon tried to fall back asleep but it was no use. He was hungry, his legs were cramping and he had to urinate intensely. He felt like he was gonna pop but he wouldn't dare pee in front of his grandmother. He'd be humiliated. Besides it would only add to the mildewy dampness and the putrefying stench of his own B.O. It smelled like a sweaty feet, armpit and bad breath, sandwich. Disgustingly that reminded him he was hungry—very hungry.

Marina continued scouring the book as she followed the words with her index finger. Her nail polish matched her flaming red hair which had become wildly frizzy in the dampness. Her bright blue reading glasses were fogged up. They sat perched on the end of her nose and hung from a pink, sparkly chain. "Leon what do you think would be harder to move, a mountain or this dirt above our heads?" Marina sounded almost giddy at the possibility.

"The dirt above our heads." Now Leon was just being mean.

"No silly, a mountain is much heavier than the ground. Let's hold hands and trust the author of the book to get us out of this mucky situation." She grabbed her grandson's reluctant hands. Her head lamp blinded his eyes.

Leon pulled away from Marina and blocked the light with the back of his hand. "But it's impossible," Leon protested and turned away from his grandmother. When he did he bonked his head on sizable rock protruding from the dirt wall. He felt his scalp expecting blood.

Marina flipped up the SUN light and pulled Leon's face toward hers. "Nothing is impossible with the King... Look..." She pointed to the passage.  "See it says so right here." She tilted the light towards the page.  "Go on read it."

In the most blasé voice he could muster, Leon repeated, "Nothing is impossible with the King."

With enough faith for the both of them Marina continued, "Great... now hold my hands." Four muddy hands molded together. "Dear King, nothing is impossible with you...  As you are plainly aware we are in a bit of an impossible situation here. So if you see fit, could you kindly free us from our dirt prison?" Marina thought it would be best to do as The Book mentioned. She ordered the dirt to move from here to there. Earth began to crumble above their heads. Overwhelming clouds of dust caused the two of them to choke then wheeze. Taking cover under their locked arms, the filthy pair huddle together. As the earth quaked it became insufferable. Marina and Leon coughed uncontrollably as they gasped for air. Then they had to hold their breath for what seemed like ages but suddenly something remarkable happened. Directly above their heads the ground roared and rumbled, causing the earth to crack wide open. It revealed, an usually clear, brilliant blue sky.