Exodus by Laura Cowan Page B

from the altar together and walked to a brass chest in the corner.
    He swung open the lid and pulled out a fishing net, made of golden strings of light. The net was anchored with small blue glass floats at the corners.
    Aria gasped. It was so beautiful. All she could say was, “Thank you.”
    Even though she didn’t entirely understand what it symbolized, something about the net was familiar. Something about it had been with her always, outside of time. It was her destiny….
                  Aria felt a stirring in her spirit and opened her eyes. The yelling continued downstairs.
    But she stared, rendered speechless.
    A luminous angel was kneeling over her in the darkened hall. He was dressed in a white robe with a golden rope tied around his waist, and he had a quiver of blue arrows slung over his shoulder. His long dark hair hung in Aria’s face, and his dark blue eyes crinkled in a smile. His tanned skin creased in little folds on either side of his mouth.
    She couldn’t breathe.
    He was real.
    Which meant the rest of it was real. Her vision of the temple, the desert plain, the demons, the dreams. All of it.
    And that meant God was real, too. The good God she had met.
    She had met God.
    Her heart was hammering through her chest.
                  “Don’t stop,” the angel said. “You’re so close.”
    He touched her eyelids with his thumb and forefinger, and she fell into a trance, her arms and legs relaxing completely. She felt her body sink into the carpet, even as the men continued to fight in the living room below.
    Their voices slowly faded into the background again.
    She was surrounded by blue water, struggling against ropes that held her hands and feet, unable to breathe. Her lungs felt as if they would explode, but she tried to resist the mounting pressure in her chest, knowing that if she gave in and took a breath she would sink. Bubbles slipped past her ears and tumbled around her in the waves, and she heard a voice around her echoing the words, “Anonymously, anonymously!”
    Aria looked around for the person who had spoken. She could see white waves breaking above her and felt the sea carrying her in big rushes toward shallower, warmer water.
    In a flash of clarity, Aria relaxed her body as she had been taught in swimming class. She let the waves carry her toward the shallows, where the sunlight danced through the rolling water onto the sandy seabed.
    Aria flipped over and broke above the surface just in time. She took a huge gasping breath and choked on salt water that splashed up against her face. Her hands and feet were still wrapped up in the ropes, but she floated on her back, coughing and taking deep gulping breaths. She carried the ropes with her as the waves tugged her in to shore.
    Finally, her back ground up against wet sand, and her body regained its weight. Aria pulled her hands out of the water and tried to unwind them from the ropes. It was a net, with blue glass fishing floats at the corners. It stuck fast around her right wrist. She pulled and pulled, while foaming waves broke over her lap.
    A shadow fell over her from behind.
    Aria turned to find a man standing on the shore in a long robe, silhouetted against the morning sunshine.
    Her wrist finally came free, and she cast the net into the waves. The ocean reclaimed it.
    Aria watched it go. Then she took a step toward the man.
    They stood silent for a moment together before Aria asked, “Am I going to be a fisher of men?”
    “You are the fish, silly,” he replied with a smile.
    Aria smiled through fresh tears.
    “I love you,” she said.
    “I love you first.” He smiled wider.
    “But my vision,” she said. “The plain with the army. Those poor people. Isn’t that what the net is for? To save them?”
    “It is,” he said. He touched her chin gently. “But it is for you first of all.”
                  Aria opened her eyes and took a deep, gasping breath.
                  She