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 Of course, Alexandria and Katherine said together.
 It was his mother s, the only thing he had left of her. He must have treasured it. Alexandria fin-
ished the thought.
Gabriel picked up the piece of grooved metal and held it up to the light. It was long, indented, in a
kind of metal, silver perhaps, that had not rusted. Delicate and small. He took it over to the inden-
tion in the wall, reached around, and carefully inserted it into the small opening.
Color shot from the space so brilliantly that he cried out, fell halfway to his knees.
 Gabriel! Alexandria rushed toward him, but he held out his other arm to stay her.
 It s so bright. The words escaped his throat. He couldn t look and yet couldn t look away. It was
as if the veil that separated mortal from immortal had ripped, and in that tear, he saw a glimpse of
heaven s light, heaven s colors.
He staggered back. A mighty shaking began all around them. A grinding sound vibrated the marble
walls. Alexandria cried out. He took another step back, gathered his wife to his side, and with this
new part of his family, they watched as the marble wall rolled away.
A shaft of pure sunlight streamed from the roof of the cave revealing an enormous hidden room.
They took a step forward, standing side by side as the sun moved to midday. The angle of the light
changed, the beam casting its glow in the middle of the room where Augusto s masterpiece sat, over
ten-feet high and six-feet wide, a beautifully carved machine with a marble base, the top made of
crystal so clear it appeared to be glass. The light hit the crystal and then bounced in all directions,
cas-cades of colors in every shade of the rainbow shooting across the room.
 I can see the colors. Alexandria started to take a step forward, but Gabriel held her back.  Wait.
The sun inched another degree, the colors bending, hues deepening, and then the beginnings of
movement from the machine. A crank of marble turned, creaking with a groaning sound of rock on
crystal.
Before anyone could move another step, a soft soun emanated from the music machine. And then
another . . .and another. The shaft of light moved again, opened up and took up the full space of the
crack in the ceiling, shooting rays of pure sunlight directly on the entire top of the crystal.
Another groaning and then . . . music.
Alexandria reached for Gabriel s hand.  Oh, Gabriel.
The song began like a lullaby, sweet and tender, bringing them to tears, but it soon turned to some-
thing else. . . something deeper, richer, the colors coming from the machine overwhelming in their
beauty and clarity each note pulsing with love. The tone was like one might imagine angels would
sound like, the purity, the crystal clear resonance oh, God something inside Gabriel began to
shake and quiver. Something hard, deep within him began to give way.
Alexandria openly cried. Her mother stood staring, tears streaming down her cheeks, and her father
 he looked ready to kneel. And then he did, which made Alexandria go to him and cling to him,
both of them staring at the machine with tears rolling down their cheeks. Gabriel glanced at Kather-
ine who would not look at anyone only stood softly crying, her mouth a little open as if she
couldn t breathe her whole being trembling. Healing music.
Gabriel stepped closer, the colors undulating in a way that made him laugh and cry at the same
time. Unmatched joy flooded him. Peace, like he d never felt made him wonder so many things at
once how had they ever questioned God and His love?
How had he ever questioned so many things in his life?
God was omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, sovereign. He hadn t left them nor forsaken them
not ever. Not from the moment he made Adam from clay and all of mankind to the moment when
they would see Him face to face and be reawakened, reborn, made eternal . . . to live with Him for-
ever and always feel this peace, this joy. This love.
His breath shuddered out with a laughing cry. He stepped closer and looked up. He could see it. The
sunlight was playing the song. There were etchings on the crystal, lines and points and tiny rectan-
gles, like a strange language or map the key. The engravings would regu-late the intensity of the
light rays that passed through the double-refracting crystal. Each etching produced a different
sound, a different tone. Augusto had taken the idea of the music box and made his mother an as-
tounding gift, hadn t he? Sunlight that played etchings of crystal. Augusto s love song.
Gabriel watched in growing astonishment. Theimages of the part of the manuscript he had seen in
the prince regent s library in St. James Palace so many months ago came alive in his mind. The
mathematical equations from Augusto s pages leapt to life. He shook his head slowly back and forth
in wonderment. He could see them in the colors. The colors had value, like equations, like the rays
of light held weight and measure, like music and math combined in a perfect symphony of sound. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]