[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Protestant Reformation. It was the same land that then had been awarded to one of Johann's ancestors
for service to his rulers. This very land had been taken by God to advance His will.
Grantville was largely on his very own family land! What a divine irony. Johann's older siblings and their
families were dead. Johann himself had taken a vow of poverty and renounced his claim to the land and
its income. Thus God was free to do as He willed, and He obviously had.
Johann ran his hand through his graying but still blond hair. He now saw that his entire life had been laid
out so that this very event could take place. Like most who study the Bible, Johann had at times
wondered what Moses must have felt like when he saw the bush that burned but was not consumed or
what the bystanders at the grave of Lazarus had experienced when he walked alive from the grave. Now,
for the first time, he really, truly knew.
He passed through the cut and stepped on the soft dark grey rock surface of the road beyond. Johann
looked around in what now seemed a state of continuing amazement at the slightly curved earthen wall
that stretched out from him in opposite directions. It seemed to form a clear delineation between what
was then and what was now.
Steep hills rose and fell on both sides as he continued into what the American road crew had referred to
as the "Ring of Fire." He passed small houses and buildings set back off the dark grey road. He also
passed less traveled, but similarly constructed roads, which made their way to their appointed
destinations. Johann began to notice a smell. He had been in many cities and villages in his life and
recognized the smell of soot from the wood used to cook and to warm the inhabitants. He had been into
the smithies and hammer mills where iron was worked over coal fires with its unique gritty, sulfur, and
metallic smell. Even though this was stronger than he had been exposed to before, there was something
different about the smell of this town he was walking into.
There was not the smell of ammonia from the human waste that was a common part of city life to his
experience. Notthat German or Italian cities were the depositories of human waste that brother monks
related from their experiences inEngland , but so many outhouses and waste collection vehicles naturally
left their perfume as part of the background smell of a city.
More and more people passed him on the road. Some of them were dressed in that strange new garb of
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Americans; most were dressed in the normal clothing that he was accustomed to. Then some wore with
mixtures of normal garb and either a cap with a bill on it or light, tight shirts with drawings or messages
printed on them. There was an increasing diversity of vehicles as well. Mostly there were horse drawn
wagons jockeying for position in the flow of traffic. But, occasionally, vehicles like Johann had seen in the
book at the monastery passed with a soft rumble from under their metal surfaces.
No one seemed fearful. At most, the inhabitants appeared anxious to get to wherever they were going.
Nor did he notice any beggars on the corners. Corners that he noticed were not made of cut stone, but
of some kind of molded rock material that looked as though it had been poured in a molten state, and
had frozen in place.
On his right as he walked up one hill, he noticed a tall, solidly built man stretching on the front porch of a
neatly kept white cottage. The man looked very sharply at him, and then, as if making some kind of
studied judgment, smiled and waved.
Johann smiled back and shifting his pack, waved, finishing with the sign of the cross.
IV: The Grantville Library
"I'd better get back before Heather starts imagining the bodies are moving again."
"Jenny, leave the poor girl alone. She was just jittery when she realized that the job she was assigned to
at the Bureau of Vital Statistics was at the funeral home. Of course, catching you taking a nap in a coffin
just might have been a bit much."
Marietta Fielder had known Jenny Maddox since they were kids. Although two more opposite
personalities could hardly be imagined, they'd remained the best of friends throughout.
"The simple pleasures I have to give up justto get good help these days. I've still got that extra large
coffin ready, just in case you get tired of your current bed." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]