The Truth Berries

XVIII

       “We can never gaze upon the present and witness the future without looking back to our past. And this, Miss Sandoval, began some thousands of years ago – not long after mankind learned how to put everything in writing.”

       It was when the Egyptian God of Wisdom Thoth took pity on Man’s ignorance and decided to bestow him the greatest gift a god could ever give – Knowledge. Thoth gave them wisdom on just about everything. He taught them the ancient way of writing which paved the way for the rise of a progressive civilization. He also taught them the understanding of numbers which Man used in his early fields of science like ancient architecture, engineering and even astronomy. With that gift, Man started to improve his way of life. He started to make wonders that no one had ever imagined before and so Man started worshiping Thoth. The earliest scholars and scribes started writing and keeping records of man’s early achievements while some taught the other men who were thirsty of learning in the first institutes ever built in the history. The god of wisdom was delighted on seeing that the seed of knowledge that he had planted already flourished into a great civilization like no other and he saw how grateful they were through the rituals that they made to honor his name. Still, Thoth wanted to give them more. He wanted them to be more than worshipers on their bent knees, more than mortal beings with finite abilities and knowledge chained merely by human boundaries. He hated seeing them looking up to the skies and wondering at its vastness. Instead, he wanted them to be like the universe: ever-expanding and never – ending. Most of all, he wanted them to be immortal, to get rid of their ephemeral life filled with human limitations. Thoth wanted Man to be like the gods.

       So Thoth did what he believed was best for mankind. He took two emerald stone tablets, each with a palm’s length thickness, and wrote all the secret knowledge there were for mankind to learn. On it, he put all the secrets of the cosmos including those that only the gods knew. All of the wisdom that were still unknown to men and all that were forbidden from them were written on it, from crossing one world into another to the creation of a new one.

       “Thoth was more than willing to give answer to all of Man’s questions with the book he created”, Dr. Curtis said.

       “Any kind of questions?”, Helen was astonished.

        “All of them, lady.”

       But Thoth was just one god among many powerful ones. The great God of the Sun Ra did not approve of his idea. Thoth firmly believed that Man, one day, shall deserve to acquire such wisdom and power. Ra thought otherwise. Thoth tried his best to defend humanity, standing on his side throughout the time but the Most-High had already decided. He destroyed the two emerald tablets with his spear that emitted liquid fire from the very Sun, leaving nothing of it, not even ashes. It’s not the Sun’s power that is the mightiest weapon of all, it’s Wisdom on all things. But Ra did not dare tell him that and kept it to himself.

       However, Thoth did not give up on his dream and so he devised a genius plan. He tricked the Goddess of Life Isis into making a seed that would bear six fruits after six days. All the fruits should not carry a seed except for one and once the fruits were picked from its branches, the mother tree should immediately wither and die. But it would not be just an ordinary seed for Thoth wanted her to put a piece of his brain and a drop of his blood in the heart of the seed’s hull. Isis asked him why and he told her he was just bored living an omniscient life. But if the seed should grow into maturity and bear fruits, its fruits, once eaten, shall give him the power, for one time, to seek for an answer to a singular question. It should give him a chance to have a glimpse of the truth about anything, happening right before his very eyes. The goddess laughed at his idea and told him how foolish it was. Thoth was infuriated for he believed there was no heavier sin across all the worlds than to call the God of Wisdom a fool. Isis told him to calm down and asked him why he would need such plaything when he already knew all of the answers in the universe. He did not answer her so she just sighed helplessly and agreed to his demand, thinking he was just really bored with his all-knowing life. Isis put him to sleep and opened his head to reveal the most complex brain there was in all the stars. She dipped her fingers into the waters of the Nile River and with her fingernail, she sliced a tiny portion of his brain and put it into the hollow seed. Then she pricked his eye and collected the blood coming out and bathed it over the tiny sliced brain. When it was all done, she healed all wounds like nothing ever happened before waking him up. Isis asked him how he was feeling but he answered her with a scowl so she handed him the seed. The seed looked nothing out of ordinary but of course, they both knew that was not true. Thoth thanked her and left her alone.

       Next, Thoth went to Ptah, the God of Creation and asked him to make a chest that would carry the seed. He asked him to forge it from the gold of Ra and to lay exquisite designs on it, depicting his love for mankind. Ptah agreed only if Thoth would tell him what Ptah’s most powerful creation of all was. Thoth knew the creator-god only wanted some kind of glorification from another god so he gave it to him, only to convince him do what he was asking.

       “All of your creations are testaments of power no one in this life could ever deny. Some can build and rebuild a nation in a day while some can wipe an entire one in a single wink of an eye. But so far, none can match the power of the Sun God’s Spear for it can do both things at the same time. It can enlighten one side of the human world while keeping the other side in darkness. It can nourish most of its lands when it wanted while it can scorch places the wielder wishes to burn. All the gods know that nothing or no one could ever stand the wrath of the Sun God’s Spear for it can burn you down to your last speck of ash, leaving nothing to recognize your existence. I, the God of Wisdom Thoth, do believe that it is the greatest and most powerful thing you ever created.”

       Ptah felt exulted. He was convinced with his answer so he did what Thoth had asked. With his bare hands glowing, Ptah created the chest from the Sun God’s most precious gold and covered it with intricate details that no one had ever done before, nor could anyone ever do again. He spent his entire day making the chest and by dusk, he was already exhausted but he was finished. When he was done, the creator-god cried upon seeing it completed for there was no other thing that he created more beautiful than this chest and he almost felt sorry to give it to Thoth. Yet with a heavy heart, he handed it to Thoth. He felt how genuine Ptah’s regret and how dearly he loved his masterpiece so he embraced him and reassured him that his greatest work of love would not go unappreciated.

       “I promise you that this work of yours will someday change our world and the human world. One day, this shall become your most powerful and most beautiful creation forever”, Thoth thanked him and left him sobbing.

       All that was needed was done but before Thoth could set his foot to the mortal world, the great Sun God Ra came dashing before him and stood with all his shining glory between him and the portal to the human world.

       “Thoth, what have you done?”, Ra asked angrily.

       “What have I done? I have done nothing! Nothing yet, but I’m going to straighten things out. I cannot let this selfishness and greed of power go on for another thousand eons. I’m going to set the equilibrium between two worlds, Ra.”

      “You don’t know what you are talking about, Thoth.”

      “I’m saving their world and I know it.”

       “No, you’re not. You are destroying two worlds by giving them that seed. I thought you already understood what I meant when I destroyed your stone tablets. Yet here you are with another of your deceitful plans. I thought you are the wisest of all the gods, yet why could you not see how foolish this is?”

       Thoth was enraged. He took a step forward with a shaky clenched fist but Ra pointed his spear to him. The spearhead started to glow and liquid fire started dripping. Thoth was enveloped with fear.

       “Stand back and give the chest to me or you will perish along with it.”

       Thoth hated to see all his efforts for the sake of mankind go in vain, but he knew very well that he stood no chance against Ra. So he took out the chest and laid it on the floor. But before he kicked it towards Ra, he put a spell on it so that no other god could ever open it except for him. What he did angered the God of the Sun so he shot Thoth with blazing sun rays but Thoth already transformed into a small ibis and started flying away, living his immortal life in perpetual hiding from Ra. The God of the Sun, on the other hand, called for the Goddess of Life to ask for assistance. He asked her to bury the chest someplace where no man could ever see it. Isis obeyed so she took a big, round boulder and carved a small room for the chest at its center and mended the cracks so that the boulder looked flawless. Then she covered the boulder’s surface in ancient writings to honor the owner of the chest. She knew Ra would have disagreed but she just felt she needed to do it, for she knew that Thoth only wanted a better life for mankind and she was not totally against it. Then, she opened the womb of the Earth and buried the stone deep down where no man could ever reach it. Ultimately, she diverted two rivers to collide to create a bigger and mightier one to cover the whereabouts of its burial ground. Since then, the secrets of the infinite wisdom was lost, left on the hands of the beasts that served as its keepers, forever waiting for Man to finally come and muster the gift that a loving god once wanted him to have.

        “And just a month ago, Miss Sandoval, I heard a rumor that an excavation team had been gunned down in a remote town in Africa where they found a big boulder cracked with its content allegedly missing. So now I think that answers your question, lady.”

       She felt confused.

       “Africa? I thought it was in Egypt?”

       “No one said it’s in Egypt for sure. What was sure is that it was hidden somewhere deep in the Nile River. “

       “And the town?”

       “It was located near the Nile River. Near the point where the White Nile and the Blue Nile collided to make the Great Nile River, to be precise.”

        “The burial ground.” Helen whispered in awe.

         They both sat silently, marveling at the moment’s immensity. Then a thought hit her.

        “How did you know all of these, Doctor?”

        Dr. William Curtis, the paleobotanist, looked her in the eyes.

       “I was once a part of that excavation team”, he said coldly.