Chapter Thirty-Six: Tanagua's Realm

This tall, gentle man in the suit named Tanagua explained to David that he was an emissary sent of God to this world. There are thousands of visitors like himself that intervene in the lives of ordinary people to help right wrongs, prevent accidents, answer prayers, and carry out the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in rolling forth His gospel plan across the face of the Earth.

As they talked, Tanagua and David ventured through door after door, seeing many eclectic scenes ranging from emergency rooms to nomadic tents in the Sahara. Tanagua explained in great and patient detail how he and the others travel through these portals, and are not bound by distances or times in the traditional sense. "Everything is constantly before the Lord," Tanagua said, "in one Eternal round." David was amazed at what he saw. He had personally believed in God, and had somewhat secretly thought that time travel was a possibility, but had never thought to combine the two ideas. Certainly he had never imagined the ease that Tanagua demonstrated as he led David through these doors, popping in and out of place and time effortlessly.

Time seemed alive and fluid as they visited scores of distant and historical times and places:

July 22, 2350 B.C.: Mt. Ararat, Turkey
March 12, 515 B.C.: Jerusalem, Judah
May 1, 63 B.C.: Cumeni, Land of Nephi
April 6, 1 B.C.: Bethlehem, Judah
August 10, 385 A.D.: Cumorah, Land of Nephi
June 20, 451 A.D.: Châlons, France
December 25, 800 A.D.: Rome, Italy
May 30, 1431 A.D.: Rouen, France
December 16, 1773 A.D.: Boston, Massachusetts
January 1, 1804 A.D.: Gonaïves, Haïti
June 27, 1844 A.D.: Carthage, Illinois
November 9, 1888 A.D.: London, England
April 30, 1945 A.D.: Berlin, East Germany
March 23, 1989 A.D.: University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
June 4, 1989 A.D.: Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China
August 24, 1995 A.D.: Redmond, Washington
September 11, 2001 A.D.: New York City, New York
January 25, 2005 A.D.: Reno, Nevada

Tanagua explained that he and his group have always been here on this Earth since the beginning times, observing and influencing mortals in the pathways in the grand Plan. Each of these places and times, along with thousands of others, are critical and decisive in the very fabric of the Plan.

Yet after all of it, it seemed to David that perhaps only minutes of his own reckoning of time had elapsed. "David," asked Tanagua, "do you remember our conversations over the past week?" "The past week?" stammered David, "No, but I was in a coma..."

Tanagua smiled. "David, comas, near-death and out-of-body experiences are nothing more than one of God's ways to educate and commune with his children. Comas are times of schooling - a getaway or vacation of sorts for souls in need of spiritual instruction. Sometimes, however, some don't want to leave the peace and understanding they find, and thus never return to the mortal, temporal realm. Others return with a renewed vigor to face the challenges of life, despite some possible physical repurcussions that come with having been out of the body for so long."

"But I don't recall anything from the past week," said David, frowning. Tanagua looked at him with those shining, glimmering eyes - "You will, David, when you need to draw upon that strength and knowledge."

When David stirred himself awake, he found himself lying prone in his hospital bed, a TV infomercial trying to subtly sell him something inconsequential. Try as he might to hold on desperately to his experience of just moments ago, he felt the vision slipping away quickly in wispy fragments and disapparating shards.