22. Prison

CHAPTER 22

PRISON

          Nephi was lowered by the rope tied around his ankles.  This time he was dropped into a deep, dark pit through a narrow crack in the rocks so small that his head repeatedly hit the hard sides every few feet.  He lost consciousness after three sharp blows in succession.  His head hit the bottom of the pit first, and the rest of his body fell hard afterward.  He lay crumbled, face down, on the cold, hard stone at the bottom of the pit for a while without moving. 

When he awoke, he had no idea how long he had been in the pit, how deep it was, or what was in it.  He couldn’t see a thing.  No blindfold had been placed over his eyes; no blindfold was needed.  The dungeon was pitch black.  

With a groan of pain, he managed to roll over onto his side.  He slowly pulled his knees up to his stomach and struggled to curl himself into a sitting position.  The cords had been removed from his wrists and ankles so he was able to hold his aching head in his hands.  He felt blood oozing down the side of his face.

Somewhere in the darkness above him, he heard the thumps and crashes echo from the rocks as they lowered Hantuman into the pit.  Hantuman fell beside Nephi where he moaned in agony.  Nephi didn’t have to move to reach over and feel Hantuman’s shoulder and arm.  Only by physical touch and voice, not sight, did he know that Hantuman was at his side.

Nephi helped Hantuman roll over and pulled him up by the shoulders until he was able to sit at his side.  They leaned on each other to rest and they each held their heads and grimaced in pain.  The rock they were on was cold and wet.  The pit stank like a cesspool.

          “Are you going to be all right?” Nephi asked cautiously.  His own head felt like it had been split apart.

          “Yes.  …  No.  …  I don’t know,” answered Hantuman.  “Honestly, I’ve been better.”

          “Me too,” added Nephi.  “This is the vilest prison I’ve ever been in, I think.  And believe me, I know, I’ve been in a few.  I can’t see how badly you’re hurt.  Can you tell me where it hurts the most?”

          “We’ve shared better prisons together in the past, brother.”  Neither Hantuman nor Nephi had spoken!  Somebody else, invisible and unseen, had spoken to them!

          “Who are you!?  Where are you!?”  Nephi and Hantuman questioned in unison.

          “I am …, I’m sorry.  I didn’t want you to suffer this for me.”

“Lehi!!”  Hantuman and Nephi shouted together in joyful recognition.  “You’re alive!!”

“So I am.  Although at times I’ve wondered if it wouldn’t be better if I just passed on.”  Lehi’s voice did sound weak and shaky.  “I’ve prayed to live long enough to see you again.  And now the Lord has blessed me to hear you again, even if I can’t see you as well as I would like.”

         

          Lehi reached out his hand and touched Nephi on the arm.  Nephi felt his brother’s touch and grabbed his hand with his.  They clasped their hands together and then they threw their arms around each other’s shoulders in an affectionate embrace.  Nephi had the impression he was hugging a skeleton.

          Lehi and Hantuman also embraced one another.

          “Let me untie the ropes from around your ankles,” offered Lehi.  He removed the rope tied to Nephi’s ankles and started to do the same for Hantuman.  Their captors merely dropped the ropes after lowering the prisoners into the pit.  Even with the ropes, there was no way to climb back out and escape.  Nephi attempted to stand on his feet in the darkness.

          “But don’t try to stand up.”  Lehi’s advice was too late.

To his dismay, Nephi’s already battered head struck a rock before he was fully upright.  “Ouch, watch it!  There’s not enough room to even stand up down here.”

Their dungeon was no larger than a small closet.  The three prisoners barely had enough room for them to all sit down at the same time without being on top of somebody else.

          Nephi’s eyes adjusted to his new prison enough to barely discern the silhouette of his brother sitting next to him.  He did not like what he thought he saw.  Lehi was thin, very very thin.  He was a skeleton in rags with a long, scraggly beard covering his face.

“Lehi!  You’re nothing but skin and bones!”  Nephi cried in dismay.

“Let us help you.  There must be something we can do.”

Lehi joked unsuccessfully about his starved appearance.  “You know, at first I couldn’t untie the binding cords from my ankles when they dropped me in here.  But after a while, I just slipped my feet out of them.”

“How long have you been in here?”  Hantuman asked.  And probably the unspoken question he had in mind was how could Lehi still be alive after being down in this pit for so long.

“I think it’s been around a month or so,” Lehi answered.  “It’s hard to keep track of time down here.  Days and nights are the same.  Before this, I was in a regular prison for two months.  They discovered that the other prisoners started to believe the things I told them.   I taught them that the Savior could redeem them from their sins.  I testified that I knew the prophecies were true that Christ would come.  I explained how His infinite atonement goes further, deeper, and into the darkest of prisons to pay for the sins of those who repent.  I think that’s why they put me in here by myself after that.”

The joy of finding Lehi alive faded rapidly.  The reunion of brothers was not the happy celebration it should have been.  The reality of their desperate situation brought extreme sorrow instead.

Lehi told his companions about life as a prisoner in this pit.  He had tried to climb out several times without success; the walls were too steep and too high, the pit was too dark, and the rocks were too slippery.  He had scaled his way up a considerable distance three or four times by putting his back against one wall and pushing with his feet on the opposite wall.  But each time he managed to get as high as maybe a third of the way up, his feet had slipped on either wet rock or mud and he came crashing all the way back down to the bottom.  He considered himself lucky that no bones were obviously broken.

Lehi explained that a guard would lower a rope once a day with a pot of questionable contents for food.  Every now and then, the guards threw down some straw that he tried to sleep on.  To remove his waste, he would have to put it in the same pot they lowered with the food.

         

          Lehi’s condition weighed heavily on Nephi’s heart.  “Why do you think, dearest brother, they have kept you alive at all?  If I could have taken your place to keep you from suffering so much, I would have gladly done so.”         

“Oh, Nephi.  I don’t need to remind you what you and I have already gone through together.  Those experiences were for our good.”  Lehi proved his humility.

“Besides, there is only One who can take my place when I am brought to final judgment,” Lehi testified.  “I know in Whom I can trust.  Does not Christ take upon Himself all our sufferings and afflictions?  The Son of Man will descend below all things, and suffer more than this horrible pit, are we greater than He?

          “As He has done before, can He not do again?  And will He not compensate us for every little sacrifice that we may be required to give.  Yea, even if that sacrifice should be the giving of our very lives.

          “Now, I do not know all things.  And I do not know why I am still alive.  But this much I do know.  I know that some think that the time has come and gone for the sign to be given which was spoken by the prophet Samuel five years ago.

“Samuel said that there would be a day, and a night, and another day without darkness.  Those who keep the calendar have counted the number of moons since Samuel prophesied.  They question if the five years have not already passed.

“As a result, a day has been agreed upon.  When that day comes, unless the sign appears, all those who believe in Christ shall be put to death.  This agreement has been made for all the people upon the face of the whole earth; yea, from the west to the east, and for people both in the land north and the land south.

“In this way, they hope to prove beyond a doubt, to the believers and even more to themselves, that they are justified in refusing to believe in the true prophecies given by the holy prophets regarding our Savior and God.”

          Hantuman listened to Lehi’s words and declared what they implied.  “Therefore, they are perhaps willing to keep us alive until that day arrives.  Then they will kill us also, along with our families and friends.”

          “I presume so,” whispered Lehi.

          Nephi asked, “When is this agreed upon day for the martyrdom of the believers?  Do you know how much longer it will be before it comes?”