This house stands condemned, rendered a ruin by a flood that came down from the mountain. The destruction came quickly and totally, sweeping away everything I held dear. This house was once filled with life and colour, now it is only mud and filth and darkness. Even so, this is my home; from birth this house has been my inheritance and I’ve nothing else beside it. Now I lay on my bed in grief, barely hearing the knock at the door and wholly lacking the will to answer it. But something else stirs within me. Somehow, I rise from my stupor and stumble along the shadowy corridor, the still standing water sloshing around my legs and hindering my steps. I reach the door in an exhausted state—the knocking is amazingly loud now and echoes in my head—and I grip the knob. As I open the door a light seeps in and illuminates the entryway, on the other side stands a Man who himself seems to be glowing and around whose feet the waters are held back so that they do not touch him.
“Good day,” he says.
“Who are you?” I ask.
“I’m the one of which you’ve heard,” he answers. “I’ve come to buy your house.”
At first elation, a chance to rebuild, then despair as I hang my head. “This house is worthless,” I admit. “A poor investment.”
“It’s worth something to me,” he says. “Sell this house to me, full ownership and responsibility placed into my hands, and I will restore it back to you for a home.”
Confusion pours over me like the flood before. “I don’t understand.”
He smiles knowingly. “You don’t need to understand, merely believe. The price has already been paid should you only accept the terms.”
Can’t he see this house is finished? When the flood came it destroyed everything; the furniture was thrown against the wall and broken, the windows were shattered so that flies and vermin could enter, rust and mold are already eating away anything that survived. Even so, who is this Man that the fetid water can not touch him? Tears begin to well up in my eyes and I grip the door frame tightly. “I accept,” I declare. “Please do with this house as you have said.” As the words leave my mouth so does my strength and I collapse into his arms. The waters begin to recede and even the water that soaks my clothing and body flees from his presence, trickling down and dripping to the ground to be soaked into the earth. Then, overwhelmed with emotion, I pass out.