Moisture

“Behold, I, the Lord, in the beginning blessed the waters; but in the last days, by the mouth of my servant John, I cursed the waters. Wherefore, the days will come that no flesh shall be safe upon the waters… And now I give unto you a commandment that what I say unto one I say unto all, that you shall forewarn your brethren concerning these waters, that they come not in journeying upon them, lest their faith fail and they are caught in snares; I, the Lord, have decreed, and the destroyer rideth upon the face thereof, and I revoke not the decree.”

D&C 61:14-15;18-19

Rain beat down on President Oldham’s car as he backed out of his driveway. He reached up to click the button hanging from the sun visor above his head. The garage door closed as he watched it dutifully. It acted up from time to time and refused to close, despite there being nothing in its way. It often seemed like things had a mind of their own to President Oldham. Of course, he saw that sort of thing every day as he served in the temple. Objects around his office would often move around on him. No one else had keys to his office. Being the temple president came with small little perks like that. He figured it was just the unseen workers doing their thing and that was just fine with him.

When he had confirmed that the garage door had shut fully, he glanced down at the clock on his dash. 4:45 it read. It was only a short 15 minute drive to the temple. His sweetheart used to wake up early to drive with him there, but after a few months she had decided to drive separately. President Oldham insisted that he be there before anyone else to study privately in the House of the Lord. He gently pulled the car back out of the driveway and started to make his way down the road.

As he left his neighborhood and turned onto one of the major roads, he had to turn his windshield wipers up to their highest setting.

“Boy it's really coming down!” he exclaimed to himself. He leaned forward in an attempt to see more clearly through the downpour. Not only was the rain unrelenting, it was loud too. He reached out to turn the knob controlling the volume a half turn to the right. Suddenly the sound of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square broke through the pounding of the rain.

He came to a stoplight that had just turned red and took the opportunity to look up at the sky. It was still almost pitch black outside. He could hardly see anything through the torrential droplets that peppered his windshield with no remorse.

“We probably won’t have many patrons today if this keeps up,” he thought to himself. He sometimes enjoyed it when the temple wasn’t so busy though. The weekends were always so chaotic, ensuring sessions ran on time, working with the shift coordinators and keeping weddings on schedule was a lot. Of course he had many people helping him with all that. But sometimes he loved these lazy days where he could take things at a slower pace. It helped him feel more connected to God. More connected to all the individuals they were doing this work for.

He felt a pang of guilt at the thought. He should want the temple to be full every day so that the dead and the living could be blessed by the temple. It was selfish to want a day to himself, wasn’t it?

The light in front of him finally turned green. He slowly pressed on the gas and worked his way through the intersection. Within another minute, he was turning onto the onramp to the freeway.

He hummed along as the music to Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing started up. This was one of his favorite hymns. The way it swelled in the final verse always brought a tear to his eye. He wished they could play more music in the temple sometimes. The chapel where patrons waited to go into the endowment rooms was the only place they played any music at all. He would sometimes sneak in for a minute between all of his duties to just sit and listen to the beautiful melodies. Something about music in the temple just felt right to him.

He leaned forward even more in his seat as he hummed. The rain was coming down even harder than before with the increased speed of being on the freeway. He could feel the car hitting large puddles of water as he drove, so he started to slow down. As he did, he suddenly hit a larger puddle and hydroplaned across the road for about 3 seconds. As he did so, the music playing from his car seemed to skip a few beats.

The hydroplaning quit as he pumped his breaks and tried to remain calm, though it did increase his heartbeat for a few seconds. He slowed down, taking the freeway at a slower pace then he had hoped to. He felt immense protection whenever he drove to the temple, but he still had to be careful.

Despite reducing his speed, however, the rain seemed to come down even harder than it had before. Even with his wipers working at their fastest speed, he could hardly make out anything in front of him. He had never seen rain this bad before. He decided to pull over just for a second to check the weather.

As he pulled to the side of the road, the rain let up a touch. He threw on his hazards, not that there was anyone else on the road at this time of the morning, then pulled up his weather app.

Forecast, light showers from 4-8am, he read. He scoffed. This was about as opposite to light rain as you could be. In any case, it seemed as though the rain shouldn’t get any worse than it was based on the forecast. He tried looking for oncoming cars in his side mirror, but he couldn’t see a thing. He didn’t want to side swipe anyone that might be on the road, so he decided his best course of action would be to roll his window down. He rolled it down a few inches, letting water flow into the driver's seat and across his face as he peeked to make sure no one was coming.

He turned his head to see what appeared to be a figure standing on the side of the road about 30 yards back. He jumped at the sight, blinked, then looked again. The figure had vanished. “Just seeing things in the rain” he mumbled to himself. The coast was clear, so he pulled out and started his journey once more.

The next few minutes went by without any more hiccups. He watched for the signs which marked the exit for the temple, though he could barely read them. Eventually he saw “Exit 34” come up. He flipped on his blinker and started to move over into the off ramp. As he did so, he hit another large pile of water and started to hydroplane once more. He again tried to remain calm, but the hydroplaning continued much longer this time. He pumped the brakes and turned into the skid like he had always been taught. As he did, the car did not correct itself. Instead, it suddenly whipped around as if another car had run into it from the side. But there was no crunching of metal. No lights from another vehicle. For a second it felt as though he was driving backwards until he felt another large blow to his car, pushing him back around to face the way he had been going.

President Oldham continued to turn into the skid and eventually hit a dry patch where his wheels gained traction again. As he drove forward with a burst of speed, the rain died down to a trickle almost instantly. He looked around bewildered at the sudden change in weather. He glanced in his rear view mirror and saw what appeared to be a rain wall coming directly towards him. Standing in the middle of it was the same figure he had seen before. It didn’t appear to walk, but instead skated across the ground towards him, as if leading the wall of rain.

President Oldham gasped at the image and slammed on the gas. He didn’t know what was going on, but he knew the temple would be safe.

His car squealed as he took off. He kept an eye on the rain behind him. The figure had disappeared again, but the wall of rain still seemed to be following him. It was only a minute's drive from here. He was confident he could make it. He blew through a stop sign and made a sharp right turn. As he did so, the white brick of the temple ahead of him glowed as the temple lights reflected off of it. He pulled up to the gate and hurriedly got out of his car to unlock it. He turned and saw that the rain was still a ways off. He had put a decent amount of distance between them in the past minute. He pushed the gate open and jumped back in his car.

He didn’t flinch as he nicked the front of his bumper to push the gate the rest of the way open. As he crossed the threshold, something seemed to lighten in his soul. He glanced back at the rain wall. It appeared as though it had stopped right at the edge of the temple grounds.

He sighed a breath of relief. He had made it. He pulled into his usual parking spot and opened his car door. He looked back at the temple gate to see that the rain had disappeared.

Confused, he looked around. Wondering where it could have gone so quickly. He shivered, this whole situation was not how he wanted to start his day in the temple. He hoped the weather would be better for his wife when she drove over in a few hours.

He grabbed his things out of the car and closed the door behind him. He stopped for a second to check the damage on his bumper. It had a slight dent but nothing major. He would have to think of what to say to his wife. Something that sounded less insane than “the rain was chasing me.”

He began humming again as he walked up the left hand side of steps to the entrance of the temple. He paused near the final step for a second to look back up at the dark sky, wondering what in the world had just happened. He shrugged, grabbed his keys out of his pocket then cleared the final step.

As his foot hit the ground, it was suddenly submerged in a massive puddle. He hadn’t noticed it when he had started walking up the stairs a few moments before. As he looked down, he saw a trail of water leading from the other side of the steps leading up to the temple up to where he had stepped. He could barely make out the glint of light illuminating a path of water from the steps all the way back to the gate.

His leg gave way underneath him, as if someone had yanked on it as hard as they could. He fell to the ground, landing on his arm with a snap. Pain shot through his arm as he started to feel the ground move beneath him. He was dragged down the right hand side of steps, landing on his broken arm with a thud at each step. He rolled onto his belly as he reached the bottom of the steps and grabbed at the curb that led to the road. He couldn’t maintain a grip though and was pulled more forcefully down the road. His white shirt tore against the asphalt as his belly became raw from the friction of being dragged. Within a few seconds he was at the gate.

He caught hold of the gate as he slid past. It was much easier to grip as the unknown force pulled on his leg. He glanced down at his feet and saw that the wall of rain had returned. It was waiting just a few yards away. All he knew was that he couldn’t leave the temple grounds. He had to make it inside. He had to keep things running. He had to meet his wife when she arrived.

That’s when the icy touch of fingers slowly started to pry open his grip. Try as he might, the force was too powerful for him to fight against.

Without warning, his fingers sprang open against his will and he flew feet first into the wall of rain waiting to receive him.