Sam drove up the little hill where his cousin was the parish priest of an obscure little church somewhere in England near Wales, where one branch of the family had dedicated itself to serve the Almighty, uninterrupted dedication for nearly eight centuries.

The only reason that church survived the ages was an ancestor in the 1120s acquired a little hill to serve a commitment he had made to his dying father. After his death in 1164, he was buried there by his son with an inscription on his tomb stone showing the year, his name, and words in the Middle English language of the time: 'I go with the promise to my father. Soon the truth shall prevail. I have done my duty, the rest for the world to find.'

The son had no children of his own, and fearing that there will be no one after him to carry the ancestral legend, he decided to record all he was told by his father and put it in a box along with an amulet and buried them with him. Before dying, his father had made his son promise to pass on what he had conveyed to him, and so on, until such time when someone will ask for the amulet.

Having no children to pass on what his father had instructed, before his passing in 1164 CE, he obediently fulfilled his commitment by recording all what was said to him on paper and fine leather with sketches and words, describing events that made no sense to him.

He placed the amulet between two leather skins. In a tin box, he stacked all those items and closed the lid, hammering on the sides to prevent it from opening.

After his father's burial, he waited for all to leave. Before placing the tombstone, he pushed the box as far down as possible and above it filled with gravel, tightly compacted, and placed the tombstone firmly. Having no issues to pass on the story his father narrated to him, it was safely buried for some future generation to find it.

His father had told him that they were descendants from an Egyptian priest who was powerful and who had protected a high priestess who was worshiped by the then pharaoh.

When his job was done, he sat and wondered, what that was all about, the sketches and the story of his ancestor flying to heaven sitting in a room. He dismissed the entire story as an imaginary event when his ancestor was drunk with Egyptian beer of the time. But he was contented to fulfil his dying father's wish, the family story would not be lost, or at least kept safe for a long time to come. As he walked away, he had a thought about who would find it and read the story. He laughed so loud that people stopped and looked at him. "What a crazy bunch of ancestors I have had. Whosoever finds it, will laugh even louder, unless he is as crazy as they were."

His father's two brothers were not dedicated to religious values. They also bought little hillocks not too far from the church and built their homes in the fashion of that period. They were worldlier and had little or no leanings toward heavenly commitments.

His father had told him that they were originally from ancient Egypt and that the family moved to Jerusalem after accepting the new faith. In years to come, the entire family had been overwhelmed by a European trader and adventurer who ultimately married one of the family's daughters. Shortly afterward, they moved to England. At first it was hard for them to adjust to the climate and food, but soon they settled in as one big, happy family. The family grew, and as time went by, some moved to different locations in nearby villages. With time they blended well.

After the burial, the son and his two uncles remained in close contact. There was always one in the family who took charge of the church. Most of them were buried in the churchyard. Some had names and date; others had only loving words.

The family prospered and travelled extensively, either joining the Crusades or trading. Until recently some of the family members were in close contact. Their sons and daughters inherited the ancestral properties, which were purchased in the twelfth century. Though their interests were different, they kept in touch, especially with those in charge of the church. As the years went by, less contacts led to the loss of their where about.

In present-day England, it was by accident that one family member, Sam, found a relation who was serving as a parish priest, Father Daniel. Sam was a construction contractor who had come to do a minor repair job in the church. During a break over tea, they talked about their families, and to their surprise, after exchanging their fathers' names, they discovered that their fathers were brothers. They talked at length; the priest could trace his ancestors back several centuries.

Father Daniel explained that the church was built by one of the ancestors and that there had always been a family member in charge until the present day. His father had two brothers; one of the brothers had died prematurely, and his son, Sam, had been brought up by his father. The other brother was a traveller and had not been heard from for several years. As time went by, he was completely out of contact with the rest of the family.

Sam explained that when he was twelve years old, he ran away from home, as his uncle, Father Daniel's father, had been very religious and had run his household in a strict disciplinary fashion. "That was too much for me. So I decided to move to a friend's house; my friend's parents were friendly and affectionate. They treated me as their own. They lived in another village, not too far from our own. His father was a construction contractor, and that is how I became one. When his son decided to get married and move away, I decided to be on my own. I was twenty-two years old and started my business." That was how Sam's existence had been lost to his cousin Father Daniel.

Father Daniel just kept nodding. "Well, that was in the past. Now we have each other, and must keep in touch; after all, we are family."

Sam and Father Daniel became closely attached. They respected each other as cousins, and more than that, they were friends.

Sam's best friend in school and college was called Michael. Their friendship so firm that Sam and Michael visited each other frequently and spent nights in each other's home. Michael was a typical government servant, with no interest in anything but his duties to his job. Sam's interest, besides his civil contractual work, was in paranormal phenomena and antiquity, which bored Michael.

Father Danial inherited his dedication to the church from his uncle, Sam's father, who had continued the work of God from his ancestors. The church exterior had been remodelled frequently throughout the centuries.

As time went on, Father Daniel had the advantage of using Sam's contractual profession to do odd jobs for the church free of cost, which Sam obediently executed, for fear of the Lord's punishment if he did not.

The graveyard housed some members of the family who had been forgotten. The few hundred or so peasants who lived in the vicinity came religiously on Sundays, stepped out to pray for the dead and on occasion performed earthly manicuring to the leaning stone slabs and collected the fallen dried leaves. That was a humane gesture from true believers.

That practice continued for centuries, and Father Daniel was no different from his predecessor or his predecessor's predecessor. He used the free services and the little charitable donations from the poor folk who were in full surrender to the Almighty.

For the words inscribed on some of the stone slabs,...