So, a few days ago, we stopped at a gas station. We didn't need that much - just to fill up the tank and to get some snacks, maybe some music to keep us awake during the long nights of driving.


I asked Ahab to get the snacks and pick whatever music he wanted in the convenience store, while I filled up the tank (it is my car, after all). So I was alone when I saw him.


He was tall, six feet at least, with curly blond hair pulled back into a pony tail. He had this grin on him that made me uneasy.


He walked towards me and said, "Have you heard the tale of Nimrod?"


"I'm sorry?" I said. I didn't think he was talking to me at first.


"Nimrod the King," he said. "Nimrod the Hunter. Son of Cush, grandson of Noah, king of Shinar. Have you heard the tale of Nimrod?"


"I think your mistaking me for someone else," I said.


"The tale goes that Nimrod opposed God's power," the man said. "He wished to show how he was a greater god than God. So he commanded his followers to build a great tower, a tower that would reach the heavens. Needless to say, God took affront to this and knocked the tower down." He stepped forward, moving quicker than I expected.

"Please," I said, "I don't have any money."


"Nimrod survived though," the man said, "and fled to rule over other countries, where he still opposed God's power. They say his sons became the Huns and the Magyars, hunters and warriors. They say that Nimrod grew large and was a giant of the earth. They say he grew so powerful that God decided death was too good for him - that God's wrath would instead be to remove his name and his face, so that none would know him to be Nimrod and he would forever be alone."


I backed away, no certain that this wasn't just a crazy person or mugger. His eyes looked wild and I could see the scars on his face, probably from numerous fights.


I was lucky that Ahab saw us at this point. He rushed out of the convenience store and ran towards the man, intent on tackling him.


The man left and moved faster than I could see, slipping away before Ahab could touch him, leaving Ahab sprawling on the ground.


The man appeared on my left and said, "Some hunter you are! You wish to hunt the mighty Nimrod? You wish to find him and capture him and kill him, as if he was some animal?" He laughed. "Nimrod is more than you will ever be or know. And we are his sons."


He stepped backward and a hole appeared behind him, a hole in the fabric of the universe. I saw a dense thicket of trees with black leaves. "I am Hunor," the man said and stepped backwards into the black forest. "And we will see each other again, Captain Ahab." He smiled and then was gone, like he had never been there at all.


And that's how we met our first proxy.


I think I'm going to throw up.