(Continuation of The Punishment of Sodom that I wrote earlier this week).

After what I believed had been hours of watching the stormy, dark clouds far away punishing Sodom with heavy lightening and fire, I got up on my tired feet and started slowly walking back. I wanted to go back to the city I had grown up into, yet I was dreading what I would find. Death, destruction and chaos. Could anyone have survived? Had the thorny brambles Raphael made break from the ground tied all citizens’ ankles but mine, thus dooming them to death?

I felt the warmth of my tears come to my eyes and I couldn’t stop let them roll down my dirty, dusty face. As an old man, the angel Raphael had indeed been cruelly treated by many rich, impertinent citizens, but I knew others who definitely didn’t deserve such a fate. Had their lives been spared? What about me? I might have survived this catastrophe but I was left with nothing! What could I possibly do to survive now? I wondered if my goats were still alive.

I walked for endless hours. When I finally arrived, very late at night, I realised how hungry I was. Sodom had been reduced to ashes and dust. My heart tightened in my chest as I walked through the once vibrant streets of Sodom only to realise nobody was there. I was completely alone. I suddenly saw what I believed were two bodies on the ground. But they were nothing but two piles of ash in human shape. A lump formed in my throat. I was overcome with sorrow but a feeling of revolt started growing in my chest. So much chaos and pain. Why, why, why? Exhaustion took over me and I dropped on the ground. I laid my head against my knees and cried like a little boy. I wished I was dead too.

“Why did you do this, Raphael?” I yelled between my sobs.

No sign of the relentless angel. Eventually I must have fallen asleep because when I woke up, the sun was starting to paint it’s first rays in the sky. It was then that I heard a noise, far away. A noise I recognised very well.

“Goats! My goats!”

I was very weak, but I managed to find some strength to get up and run towards the noise. Was it possible that my goats had been spared? I ran and ran and saw three goats in the distance. Actually a goat and two kids. I cried again, but this time my tears were tears of joy. The three animals recognised me as well as they came to me bleating when I approached.

“Bless the Lord, you are alive.” I cried as I stroked their soft heads.

How that was possible I didn’t know but suddenly I heard steps behind me. I turned around. It was the old man. Not the beautiful, yet merciless angel that had destroyed my city, but the old man in rags I had helped.

“Good to see you again, lad. Things got very bad here.”

“I can see that.” I said, hardly holding my revolt. Raphael must have noticed though as he carried on:

“Yes, these things are never pleasant for us, angels, either. When all this started, I made your goats run away as I know you depend on them. They came back eventually, probably looking for you. You will also be pleased to know that a few like you, shepherds and shepherdesses, were out of the city with their animals when the punishment happened, hence they were spared. Michael and Gabriel guided them to an oasis in the middle of the desert.” he pointed his finger towards the south and proceeded. “You will find these survivors if you follow this direction. Take your goats, find them and build a new city again. That will be your task now. Build a city with humble, kind and righteous citizens.”

I looked in the direction he was pointing but when I turned again to him to ask more questions, Raphael was gone. Had he even been there or was my troubled mind starting to play tricks on me? The sun beams warmed my face as I looked in the direction of the place he had said a few of my fellow citizens were. I called my goats and after having drank some milk from the mother goat, I started walking again followed by her and the kids. I was still very tired but, if I had not dreamed that Raphael had just spoken to me, the prospective of finding survivors nourished my whole body with renewed strength. And hope.