The one who had seen him seemed to be man, not spirit, and was dressed like a desert crosser. He had a waterskin ready. Hillalum drank as best he could, panting for breath.
Finally he returned it to the man and gasped, “Where is this place?”
“Were you attacked by bandits? We are headed to Erech.”
Hillalum stared. “You would deceive me!” he shouted. The man drew back and watched him as if he were mad from the sun. Hillalum saw another man in the caravan walking over to investigate. “Erech is in Shinar!”
“Yes, it is. Were you not traveling to Shinar?” The other man stood ready with his staff.
“I came from—I was in—” Hillalum stopped. “Do you know Babylon?”
“Oh, is that your destination? That is north of Erech. It is an easy journey between them.”
“The tower—have you heard of it?”
“Certainly, the pillar to heaven. It is said men at the top are tunneling through the vault of heaven.”
Hillalum fell to the sand.
“Are you unwell?” The two caravan drivers mumbled to each other and went off to confer with the others. Hillalum was not watching them.
He was in Shinar. He had returned to the earth. He had climbed above the reservoirs of heaven and arrived back at the earth. Had Yahweh brought him to this place to keep him from reaching further above? Yet Hillalum still hadn't seen any signs, any indication that Yahweh noticed him. He had not experienced any miracle that Yahweh had performed to place him here. As far as he could see, he had merely swum up from the vault and entered the cavern below.
Somehow the vault of heaven lay beneath the earth. It was as if they lay against each other, though they were separated by many leagues. How could that be? How could such distant places touch? Hillalum's head hurt trying to think about it.
And then it came to him: a seal cylinder. When rolled upon a tablet of soft clay, the carved cylinder left an imprint that formed a picture. Two figures might appear at opposite ends of the tablet, though they stood side by side on the surface of the cylinder. All the world was as such a cylinder. Men imagined heaven and Earth as being at the ends of a tablet, with sky and stars stretched between; yet the world was wrapped around in some fantastic way so that heaven and Earth touched.
It was clear now why Yahweh had not struck down the tower, had not punished men for wishing to reach beyond the bounds set for them-for the longest journey would merely return them to the place whence they'd come. Centuries of their labor would not reveal to them any more of creation than they already knew. Yet through their endeavor, men would glimpse the unimaginable artistry of Yahweh's work, in seeing how ingeniously the world had been constructed. By this construction, Yahweh's work was indicated, and Yahweh's work was concealed.
Thus would men know their place.
Hillalum rose to his feet, his legs unsteady from awe, and sought out the caravan drivers. He would go back to Babylon. Perhaps he would see Lugatum again. He would send word to those on the tower. He would tell them about the shape of the world.