Malachi's Message

As Connie and Eugene power up Whit’s End for the morning, Connie admits that she has only just begun completing college applications. She is unsure whether she wants to attend immediately and is considering a year of full-time work first. Eugene insists that college is essential, but Connie points out that he has spent much of his life there. Eugene explains that he now hopes to make the college his permanent career and has an important meeting with a dean later that morning.

Their discussion ends when the Imagination Station turns on by itself. Eugene distinctly remembers shutting down every machine the night before, yet the controls show someone inside. The door will not open normally, so they use the emergency override. An elegantly dressed stranger collapses unconscious into their arms, and they call an ambulance.

Meanwhile, Whit and Tom renew their old habit of praying together at the Riley farm. Tom has arranged a field trip for children from Oswald Heights, a troubled and isolated part of Connellsville where many young people rarely leave their own neighborhood. He wants the farm visit to broaden their world, but he also confides that he has felt God urging him toward a larger purpose he cannot yet identify.

At the hospital, Dr. Cole finds the stranger in perfect physical condition. The man carries no identification and refuses to explain himself until he speaks privately with Whit, whom he knows by nickname. He introduces himself simply as Malachi and says that his unconsciousness was only a reaction to a badly timed arrival. Then he claims he has come as a messenger from God because he is an angel.

Whit suspects that Malachi needs psychiatric care and steps outside for the doctor. When Whit, Connie, Eugene, and Dr. Cole return moments later, the room and bathroom are empty. Malachi could not have passed them unseen, yet he has vanished. Whit tells the others only his name and keeps the angel claim to himself while they return to Whit’s End to investigate how he entered the building.

During the farm tour, two boys named Lenny and Frank notice a man watching them near an old cabin. They enter after he disappears and learn that the building once belonged to Tom’s son Timothy, who died in a boating accident at their age. Frank jumps on the worn floorboards and accidentally breaks through one. When Tom discovers the damage, the boys first blame each other and threaten a lawsuit, but they finally admit the accident and apologize.

Something shines in the earth beneath the broken floor. Tom pulls out a gold-ringed necklace containing a quarter - the first money Timmy ever earned, which Tom had turned into a keepsake. The family could not find it when Timmy died. Seeing it again after so many years brings Tom’s grief and love rushing back.

On the road from the hospital, Whit suddenly sees Malachi hitchhiking and brakes so sharply that he nearly causes an accident. The roadside is empty when Connie looks. After Whit leaves her at Whit’s End and continues toward Tom’s farm, Malachi calmly speaks from the back seat. He has appeared inside a car Whit knows was empty.

Malachi understands that Whit is searching for an ordinary explanation. He could be a liar, a disturbed man, or exactly what he claims. He refuses to perform a miraculous sign, explaining that angels often work at the very edge of what people can explain away. Then he quotes an unpublished essay Whit has written about the ordinary activity of humans and angels - knowledge Malachi should not possess.

Malachi says Tom needs them. At the farm, they find Tom sitting with Timmy’s necklace and remembering the boy’s delight in earning that first quarter. Malachi explains that Timmy removed it to place with his other treasures, dropped it beneath the cabin floor when he heard Tom coming, and died before he could retrieve it. He calls the necklace only the beginning of a message about Tom’s purpose and tells him to dig beneath the cabin.

Malachi disappears again on the walk to the cabin. Though Whit warns that he may be an exceptionally clever deceiver, Tom believes there is only one way to test the message. Since the floor already needs repair, he begins prying up the remaining boards and prepares to search the earth below for whatever Timmy has left behind.