Walter was looking around the empty Room with barely restrained frustration. There was nobody there. A dozen tables, thirty immaculate chessboards, a nice spread of food, and no players.
Walter checked the door, as if it had somehow been locked without his knowing it. But there was nobody there.
Finally giving up, he decided to get breakfast. Before he could turn out the lights, the door opened, and in walked a man with a large tray. “Good morning.” The man said. “I’m Brett Colbert.”
“Oh, yes.” Walter recognized the name. “I meant to get back to you.”
“I heard you were here already, and thought I’d meet you at lunch.” Colbert said, holding out the tray. “Then you didn’t show. I’m told you rarely do.”
Walter was hungry enough not to care, and took the tray. “It’s… Frustrating.” He allowed. He munched for a few moments. “You know, back in the day, the kind of food they put out in Refugee Centres and Homeless Shelters… Sandwiches. Cheap sandwiches. This is not ‘cheap food’.”
“Well, I wouldn’t compare the Dorms to Refugee Centres of course; and ‘homeless shelter’ isn’t quite right either, since the majority of people in them are merely on their way to somewhere else. ‘Guest Accommodation’ is more accurate.”
“Yeah.” Walter sighed, not really interested in pursuing it. “Sorry, you were trying to reach me because…”
“I was hoping to use this room in the afternoon.” Colbert explained. “The Community Centre is appropriate for teaching classes, but I got more students than I anticipated. I wasn’t sure how long your own function would continue, so-”
“You may as well take it.” Walter sighed. “My ‘Function’ never started.”
Colbert looked around the empty room with the chessboards. There was a poster on the wall, advertising the event, and he studied it a moment. “Hundred credit entry fee?”
“It was a tournament. Two thousand credit prize for the winner.” Walter nodded.
“Thirty sets. Sixty players. Six thousand in entry fees, minus two thousand for the prize, that’s…” Colbert tapped his chin elaborately. “Let me just do the math here…”
“You think if I made the prize bigger, someone would have shown up?” Walter pressed; knowing the answer. It would have made no difference. “I don’t get it.”
“Your look says you’ve been back a while. You ever seen a casino in this world?” Colbert pointed out.
“This isn’t gambling. Chess isn’t a game of chance.” Walter said immediately. “I know. I checked.”
Colbert actually laughed. “You figured if it was a competition instead of a random draw, it’d be more acceptable to people. Hey, you might be right. I entered a competition or three back in OS.”
“Then why is nobody here?” Walter demanded.
Colbert wandered over to the food table and got himself a cup of coffee. “Look, poker is a game of skill too. You chose Chess because you figured if people weren’t used to money being involved, you’d get away with it. You chose Chess because you figured, this close to the Expo; there’d be at least sixty competitive geniuses willing to pay for the privilege of beating each other. You think genius-level people can’t see through that?”
“That why you didn’t sign up?”
“Chess isn’t really my game.”
“Of course not.” Walter sighed. “You think I’ll ever get over the ‘Culture Shock’?”
“It’s not my business, sir.” Colbert said evenly. “But I know all about Culture Shock. Back in OS, I had a few semesters abroad. You get over Culture Shock by immersing yourself in the local one.”
“I admit I haven’t done that.” Walter confessed. “I traveled a lot in OS too. I handled it by finding something I recognized. A favorite movie, a familiar food…”
“McDonalds was the same everywhere, as I recall.” Colbert quipped.
“I would kill for a good burger.” Walter said wistfully, more nostalgic than actually angry.
“I know they were working on ‘meat’ without slaughter back in OS. The project was set back almost to scratch after A-Day. The Expo is working on something similar now.”
(Author’s Note: In ‘Just See Yourself’ I had this technology being used to create meat without slaughtering animals at the 500 Year mark. In the two years since writing that book, I’ve discovered that the technology is actually available now, though moderately cost-prohibitive. The ‘Clean Meat’ industry is growing, for financial and ecological reasons. This isn’t likely to become a major plot point, but I added this to explain why my characters went 500 years before anyone in Paradise made it work.)
“Assuming anyone’s interested.” Walter shook his head. “I tried loopholing the rules for Christians today. I’ve found they’re not willing to settle, even for fun, even for profit.”
“Depends on what you count as ‘profit’.” A woman’s voice said. Both men turned, and found Atxi and David wandering over. “I saw your tournament. Chess? Even the Undecided don’t bother with cash prizes for such things. If people love playing chess in this world, they can find five or six other people who love it just as much, and spend all day playing. They’ll compete for candy. Why would they pay for the privilege?”
“For the prize.”
“Walter, for one person to win big, a dozen people must lose.” David told him. “Or a hundred. Or a thousand. This is a world where nobody cares for that to happen to their neighbor.”
“How do you capitalize on that?” Walter thought out loud.
“Why do you need to?” Atxi asked suddenly.
“Because I don’t believe in a Paradise that rewards the idle, and the hard working, with the same prize.”
“You know it’s not like that.”
“I know, but… Where are the exceptional people? Where are the captains of industry? The ones that make the decisions? The Elite?!” He was annoyed again, face wrinkling with frustration. “If people like me are all coming back, how can they all be convinced that money is the root of all evil?”
David put a hand up. “Actually, that verse says that ‘the love of money’ is the problem.” He said kindly. “Walter, take a look at the heroes of our faith. Solomon had a mountain of money greater than anything you ever had. But his treasure was his relationship with God. When he lost that, his money was nothing in comparison. Some of God’s most faithful followers lived in tents, others in palaces, some in prison cells. The measure of a man is not the control he has over his life. We never had control of anything. Not really.”
With a growl, Walter stormed off; looking oddly like a child throwing a tantrum. Atxi stayed behind with Colbert.
“Sad.” Colbert said quietly, looking after Walter.
“It is.” Atxi nodded. “I haven’t quite accepted this world either, sir. But even I can tell he’s chasing after the wind.”
Colbert smiled a little at her vaguely biblical quotation. “And you? What’s holding you back?”
Atxi sighed. It seemed most conversations, with very well-meaning people, kept leading back to the same question. “I have trust issues, where Gods and Demons are concerned.” She rolled her gaze to look at him. “Care to try convincing me of the error of my ways?”
Colbert chuckled. “Sorry. I doubt I could come up with anything you haven’t heard before. I’m smart, but less creative than some.”
Axti scoffed. “It’s better here than we had in my world, but…” She shook her head. “I don’t know how to say it. Did nobody get it right? Was there nothing of my people worthy of anything in this world?” Kevin started to answer, and she held up a hand. “No, I know what you’re going to say. I’ve heard it before, and more than once. I just… I just wish I could be sure.”
Colbert nodded. “I had the same thought, once. I was taught to ‘throw my anxieties on Jehovah’.”
Atxi bit her lip. “I haven’t… prayed, since my Rising. Not to anyone real, anyway.” She confessed. “I prayed real hard, real often, back in my old life.”
Colbert almost smiled. “My first prayer was after my mother died. I wasn’t a Witness then. I heaped all the rage, all the frustration, all the hurt… I let God have it; before I ever knew his name. Then I reminded myself that I didn’t believe in him; and went about my life. Not long after, I got a knock on the door. Take my word for it, sister. God can handle whatever you’ve got to throw at him, and he’d rather you talking about your problems than ignoring him completely.”
David recognized a good point to leave the matter, and quickly checked the time. “Atxi, you’ve been kind to indulge my detour, but you do have a plane to catch.”
~oo00oo~
As they made their way towards the Airport, the conversation turned to the flight, what it would be like, what she would find in London… But once they reached the Airport itself, Atxi couldn’t help but bring up the subject again. “What he said, about prayer… Do you really think your God would hear me?”
“He’s your God too, Atxi.” David said gently. “It’s not a question of Who He Is, only a question of what that means to you. There have been times in history when people would open their wrists, or whip themselves with chains to make their prayers heard. God doesn’t ask any of that. He wants to be closer to us, Atxi. That’s the whole point.”
She hesitated, as the announcement came to board her plane.
“You have to go.” David said quietly. “So I’ll just say this. The name ‘Jehovah’ means ‘He Causes To Become’. Whatever it is you need, He knows already. I’ve heard stories about people praying to understand God, and have a knock on their door come in the same instant. Whatever you’re waiting for, God can provide. Not because He changes to suit you, but because He recognizes that everyone is looking for something in particular. If it hasn’t come yet, He’s waiting for you.”
“I know.” Atxi said quietly, and picked up her bag.
~oo00oo~
Old London was visible out the window of the plane Atxi flew in on. The city looked… dusty. At first she thought it was falling apart with the passage of time, but as the plane turned, she looked closer and realized the ‘decay’ was too precise. It wasn’t falling down, it was being dismantled. She had heard tell of how London was nearly choking on coal fumes for much of its history. That time was long behind them, but she supposed that the dust must have caked into the old buildings after all that time.
But New London just… shone. She’d never seen a big city before, not counting the Expo. It looked like they were taking Old London, scrubbing it up, and putting it back together, a piece at a time. The place looked happy, if a city could describe an emotion. Atxi had spent the flight reading about the sights. The one in particular that she came to see was The Museum.
She only caught a glimpse of it as the plane landed. It was a huge building, with glass dome ceilings and marble pillars out front. It was extravagant by modern standards, but Atxi knew that the permanent, public structures were made to be beautiful. She wondered if it was a new construction for this world, or something taken and adapted from the old. Either way, it was the largest structure that she’d ever seen. The Museum alone was almost bigger than Tenochtitlan.
~oo00oo~
Until now, Atxi had always traveled with the Nicholas, which was technically a cargo ship; or at least being used that way. Passenger Liners were always given a huge welcome by the locals. Atxi found that strange and amazing, given how many people were moving, that they’d always arrive to a huge group of people offering little mementos, hugs and kisses, music playing...
Atxi had done some traveling before. Not a lot, but enough to know that this sort of thing was normal. She rolled with it. As much as she loved the warm welcome, she had something on her mind, and the huge crowd was making it harder to think.
The conversation with Kevin, and the counsel from David, had stuck in Atxi’s head all the way to London. Prayers were part of the life for an Aztec. Part of the life for a Christian. Atxi didn’t know what she was anymore, but she wasn’t someone who prayed.
And after many years in Paradise, she started to realize that she wasn’t getting any better by refusing. She was long overdue.
~oo00oo~
Atxi went off to be by herself, uncertain of what to do, but sure that she didn’t want an audience. It took her a while to find an isolated spot, halfway between the airstrip, and the town itself.
Should I kneel? Should I close my eyes? She shook her head. It had been years since she’d prayed to anyone.
“So. God.” Atxi began awkwardly. “Um… You know me. You know why I’m not joining your people. The reasons matter to me. That’s all.” She bit her lip. “Amen?”
Even she knew that was pathetic.
With a hard sigh, she tried again. “I miss my sister.” She said. “I heard about people being returned from the dead, and even when I was with the Undecided, I would check for her name… I want to see her, before I die of old age. Is that the point? Are you keeping her away until I’m gone? What are you going to say to her? ‘Welcome to Paradise, where everyone gets to live forever, except your family’?”
Silence.
Atxi’s scowled so hard she felt her world go red for a moment. “Or are you waiting for me to die so that she knows better? Plenty of ‘Christian’ leaders who came to my lands made examples. I was dead. What more could a god ask of me? It wasn’t enough to believe, I had to believe all the way to my death and then get told to believe something else, or die again?!” She came to her feet violently. “Never! I’ve wasted enough of my life begging gods for attention. More than enough begging for my life! I hate all of you. You hear that?!”
She turned to storm away from the spot and found she was not alone. Irsu was suddenly there, like a magic trick. He’d heard enough, it was clear.
Atxi looked down, unable to meet his gaze. “I wasn’t expecting you until tonight.”
Irsu nodded. “From what I heard, you had some ground to cover before coming to meet me.” He said quietly. “Or anyone else.”
Atxi looked down, unable to match his gaze. “I heard you’re a Judge now. I guess you have a… problem, with...”
“Everything I just heard you rage at the sky?” Irsu finished. “No. You’re angry. You don’t need me piling on to that. I do have a question, though.”
Atxi still couldn’t look him in the eye. “Ask me.”
“If your sister came back yesterday, what would you tell her?”
The question caught Atxi off guard. She would have to tell Patli that their world was gone. That The Temple was gone…
And then she’d tell Patli that this world was different. A place where people didn’t fight, where nobody went hungry, or was carved up on the Stone Altar. She’d tell Patli all about the animals, all about the aircraft making it possible to fly across the world, about the food and drink, better than anything they could have dreamed of before...
“You, my dear Atxi, are in a unique position.” Irsu said lightly. “Your faith was strong before you got here, and seeing Paradise is what broke it. For most people, the opposite is true.”
“I’ve lived in a world where everyone I met was convinced of something, and they were all wrong.” Axti said quietly, not looking at him. “For all I know, when we die here, we go to the paradise of some other God.”
Irsu actually let out a bark of laughter. “Oh, Atxi. Tell me that’s not why you’re holding out?”
“No. Maybe. I don’t know.” She still wasn’t looking at him. “The Temples are gone, Irsu.”
“Atxi, your temple was a building. What do you really miss?”
She looked down. “I miss the belief. I miss the certainty. I miss knowing about God. I miss being part of it. I miss being part of something holy. I miss-”
“You miss having what everyone in the world has right now.” Irsu summed up.
“I fell for that once!” Atxi said, not for the first time. “I know this is real. I know the difference. But I haven’t changed. How can I say that this world did what my world could not? How can I live a life of faith and devotion again? It would make me like Huitzilin, and I don’t know if I can do that.”
“After you left, I tracked down Huitzilin and spoke to him for a while. He lost the same thing you did: He lost the lie. Some of the heroes of my faith began their careers by attacking True Worship; and made the change when they saw the reality laid bare before their eyes.” Irsu pressed. “And by the way, Atxi: So did I.”
Atxi felt her stomach lurch, and she reached out a hand to him immediately. “Oh, Irsu. I’m sorry; of course you did.” She covered her face in her hands. “I don’t even know why I’m fighting it.”
“You don’t know how to say it, but I’m betting the reason is there; if it’s this ironclad.” Irsu counseled. “When you think about your old life, before this, what strikes you as most important, in comparison to this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, take a minute and think it over. Not counting your worship; what was most important about your old life?”
Atxi bit her lip, thinking. “My sister.”
“Keep going.”
“My last conversation with her was before I went to the Altar. My sister was hoping to go first, but my mother... She persuaded the High Priest to let me be offered as Tribute, while my sister fulfilled her other duties in the Temple.”
Irsu was listening patiently. “Keep going.”
“My sister, she was so… eager. To serve. To nourish the gods. But I got there first. I still don’t know if my sister ever did the same.” She looked at Irsu. “She loved the Temple so much, Irsu. And it’s gone. The Temples are gone, and she loved them, and…”
Irsu nodded. “Keep going.”
Atxi wiped furiously at tears that threatened to fall. “How do I tell my sister that we were wrong? That even Huitzilin believes we were just wrong? That we were killing ourselves for nothing?”
“Far easier to tell her that the people ‘in this land’ simply worship a different way.” Irsu put in. “A problem that wouldn’t budge an Aztec, who thought there were many gods a person could follow.”
That idea had not occurred to Atxi. Her eyes bulged as it hit her in full. “And if I was able to tell her that I still believed what she did, and that nobody could convince me otherwise, that’d be a far easier reunion, wouldn’t it?”
Irsu nodded, non-committal.
Atxi was silent for a while. “Huitzilin was talking about how Satan worked in the beginning. As angry as I was at him back then… This time I realized. He wasn’t bragging about getting away with anything. He was confessing.”
“I can relate.” Irsu nodded. “My birth culture does not have a popular position in the Bible Story, Atxi.”
“And mine isn’t mentioned at all.” She murmured. “Was there nothing of our people that was worthy? I know that I’m here, and so is Huitzilin and so will be all the others, in time. But were we that unimportant? That… insignificant?”
Irsu considered a moment. “Atxi, would you come with me tomorrow? I’d like to show you something.”
~oo00oo~
The Nicholas arrived at the Port of London. Karen had flown and landed ahead of him. Karen had called and said she had gone on ahead to verify an appointment; and get a copy of the Museum Guide.
James spent the time watching the empty city skyline with suspicion. There was an odd sense The Old City migrating, as parts of the old world weremade shiny and eternal. James knew this was no accident. Much of the world was in such a state.
James thought about trying to contact Atxi. The world was not a hard place to get in touch with someone. But to be truthful, he didn’t know what to say. He knew he’d overreacted, and blindsided Atxi with his annoyance. But James was one of the few people in the world counting his days, and he wanted to spend them with her… Only to find out that he was her taxi service.
You know that’s not true. The thought came to him. And you’re only counting the days because-
James shook his head against that thought. He’d made his choice.
~oo00oo~
The Museum was huge. Atxi felt like she’d been walking forever. It took Irsu a while to explain to her how it all worked. The Museum was laid out by century, and by continent, with a different land in each wing of the Museum. There was overlap in some of the exhibits, of course, as all human civilization had been changed by migration. Irsu had shown her the Directory. The way every exhibit connected. By year, by wealth, by location. The Rise and Fall of every Empire, and the Origins and Collapse of Various Religions, financial institutions, political philosophies, the path of technological advancements…
“When we first met, I told you that Jehovah stepped back to let the human race try and manage themselves.” Irsu said as she struggled through the Directory. “The usual question I get is ‘why so long?’ Now you know why. The argument could easily be made that we needed time to sort out the winning combination.”
“Combination of what?”
“Everything. Type of government? Democratic? Monarchy? Fascist? Type of Economy: Capitalist? Socialistic? Religious Order: Monastic? Ministerial? Technological superiority? Favorite recreation? Every combination was tried, and the world just devolved as we went.”
“Which is the point of the Museum.” Atxi guessed. “Most people only see what’s right in front of them.”
“And assumes others have it better.” Irsu agreed. “Also, the Museum lets people get a proper look at the… impact that got left behind. It’s all here. The animals, the ecosystems, the good days, the disasters, the kings, the criminals… We haven’t forgotten anything, Atxi; I swear.”
Atxi shivered and went to the Directory again. “Alright. Can’t put this off anymore.”
~oo00oo~
“Drew Thorne was right. It’s mine.” Atxi murmured.
“Are you sure?”
The Aztec Exhibit included relics from that era. Including the tattered scraps of a ceremonial robe; worn by one of the multitude of human sacrifices. “Positive. See that pattern on the collar? It’s barely recognizable, but I was there when my sister wove it on our loom. Mother added it to my robe. She’d stayed up all night making it for me to wear. She wanted me to look my best.”
Irsu watched her. “Are you okay?”
Atxi nodded compulsively.
Irsu and Atxi had found the exhibit on the Aztecs. It was smaller than some; larger than a few others. What was there was accurate; but there were several important omissions. Enough that Atxi thought seriously about asking for a job.
~oo00oo~
“Lot more kids than I thought.” James observed. “In fact, now that I think of it, there are always a lot of kids about.”
“Children have a higher ratio of people awaiting a Returning.” Karen told him seriously. “Infant mortality was a serious concern for most of history. Miscarriages and abortions get their chance too.”
(Author’s Note: This is a hugely controversial topic, and it’s covered more closely in ‘Just See Yourself’. The decision of how to handle unborn children is not directly mentioned in Scripture, but we can be sure it will be done with love. This route was one I chose in JSY, so for continuity, it remains that way in this book.)
“That would indicate that there’s a huge number of children without parents.”
“On the contrary, they all have parents. They also have a huge number of aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, and sisters. Our whole world is based around the idea that it’s not genetics that make a family.” Karen told him. “You’ve been here this long, and you haven’t noticed?”
“Well, I don’t spent a huge amount of time among people.” James admitted. “Oftentimes I land at night, when the littl’uns are tucked away.”
“Remember, James; whole generations of those Lost Boys and Girls have already grown up to adulthood and have kids of their own to raise. Family is at the heart of what it means to be human.”
James said nothing, but inwardly he felt a spike. He had no family of his own. Nobody but the Undecided would marry ‘outside the Lord’, and James had little interest in the Undecided, except for Atxi, who wasn’t speaking to him.
“Anyway, your Stargazer was salvaged, and some of the pieces were sent here.” Karen got them back on topic. “I’ll track down a Directory, and we’ll see what we can find. Feel free to browse, in the meantime.”
~oo00oo~
What startled Atxi out of her thoughts, was how close her Aztec exhibit was to one about Pirates. Her fight with James had been weighing on her, and this was an uncomfortable reminder of how things had been left.
“Okay, say it.” Irsu told Atxi gently.
“James has been chasing some of his best plunder.” Atxi said quietly. “But even if it was melted down, turned into Crosses and Crowns and who knows what else, that Gold was pillaged from my lands, wasn’t it?” Atxi sighed hard. “The Spanish slaughtered my people looking for gold, and all they found was shipped across the world.” She pointed at the piracy exhibit. “Waiting for someone to steal it. What a world this must be, where my people, the Conquistadors, and the Pirates are all in the same room.”
“For all James’ talk about how much he pirated from them, one man couldn’t carry the crumbs from a whole nation.” Irsu noted. “Don‘t give him too much credit.”
“I adore James. I really do. He’s been a source of great friendship and support since I moved out to live with the Undecided. But seeing his… his kind, on the timeline here, it suddenly seems so small.”
“Large enough to take up his entire lifetime.”
“And barely a drop in the bucket compared to what was out there.” She glanced at Irsu. “It just occurred to me that I must seem equally laughable to you.”
“Atxi, be honest. You haven’t believed in Huitzilopochtli for quite some time.” Irsu countered. “You’re refusing the truth because you’re angry about the lie, and it’s hurting you. There’s nothing laughable about that at all. This is the reality of the predatory system, Atxi.” Irsu said kindly. “The entire human timeline, from Eden to A-Day, was just like this. One tribe fed on another, until they get fed on. But that doesn’t work anymore. Even the animals don’t think like that anymore.”
“No, only people do.” Atxi said grimly.
“Very few of them.” irsu reminded her.
Atxi shivered. “When I left California, I spoke briefly with a man who was like me, ‘Undecided’ and trying to make his fortune.” She gestured at the coins on display. “I have a different view of ‘gold and silver’, Irsu. With the blood of two different armies all over the same gold trinkets I handled, to say nothing of his own; what would James say about this?” Atxi pointed at each part of the room in turn. “From my people, to them, to- James?!”
Sure enough, pointing along the different exhibits, she suddenly found herself pointing at a familiar face.
~oo00oo~
James had felt icy cold fingers go up and down his spine as he walked through the Piracy Exhibit of the Museum. His ship, the Stargazer, was in pieces. Cut apart and put on display for people who were walking through the relics of centuries.
Like me. James thought numbly. I belong in a Museum.
“Hello again.” A man’s voice said kindly, and James turned to see a familiar figure. A huge, heavily muscled man with dark skin. “You probably don’t remember me, but I was there the day you Returned.”
“Trust me, you’re hard to forget.”
Irsu gestured. “And I believe you know Atxi.”
James smiled with irony. “We’ve met, yes.” He pointed at one of the Museum exhibits. “I’ve been wandering around this Museum for a while now, and one thing I’ve realized is you chart the course of history by the order of who loots and pillages whom.” James gestured around. “In fact, I was looking for-”
“James! I found it!” Karen called over as she returned to his side. “I was right. They did have… Irsu?” Karen smiled. “Wow! What were the odds? It’s great to see you.”
“And you, sister.” Irsu clasped her hand briefly.
Atxi’s eyes never left James. He was openly staring back at her. Irsu and Karen read the room enough to know they needed a moment, and pulled back, talking to each other quietly.
Which left Atxi and James alone for the first time since their fight.
Atxi made the first move, and stepped forward to give him a tight hug. “I’m sorry.” She whispered.
“You didn’t do anything wrong.” James rasped back, returning the hug.
“No, not for that.” Atxi looked down, trying to put it into words. “I hadn’t realized when I boarded the Nicholas, that you would take it as… what? An invitation?”
James shook his head. “You don’t owe me anything, Atxi. I shouldn’t have assumed.”
“You had every reason to assume.” She told him firmly. “In truth, I’ve been waiting for you to return to the Island with every supply run. Even Hans said he only saw me smile when you were back. I mean, you must know why, by now?”
“I do.” James held her hands, kissing her fingers tenderly. “But this trip was different, and I should have known that, and I’m sorry that I snapped at you.”
“I snapped back.” Atxi murmured. “What you said, about ‘who knows how long we have left?’ Well, I don’t know, but I do know that I don’t want to spend it fighting with you.”
“Me either.” James promised. “And I wasn’t really mad about you with Irsu. I felt like I should be jealous, but I’m not. Something else that’s different about this world, men and women can be friends here. And… to answer your accusation, my days of wenching, smoking, brawling, and drinkin’ are all long done. In all these years, I haven’t found a single appropriately immoral woman in any port, nor a place where you could buy pipe weed or cannon. Not for love or money. Not much left to being a sailor, let alone a Pirate, eh?”
Atxi smiled and let go of his hands. “Did you come to London to tell me that?”
“Actually, I’m here looking for something myself.” He smiled at her. “But if I came to London looking for treasure, and I found you; I’d call it a good day.”
Atxi smiled warmly, feeling young again for a moment… before she gave him a swift kiss on the corner of his mouth. “I’m glad we’re ‘us’ again.”
“Aye. Me too.”
~oo00oo~
“He’s trying to track down the money’s and wealth he died over.” Irsu commented to Karen. “Why are you helping him do that?”
“Because I know it won’t lead him where he needs to be.” Karen shrugged. “And the places it will actually lead him? It might be enough to get through to him.”
“I hope so.” Irsu agreed, and the two of them returned to their charges. “Atxi, is James coming with us, then?”
“No, he has his own things to do.” Atxi said, happy. “I’m going to meet him when we’re both done.”
Karen looked about. “Where’d he go?”
Atxi pointed to a different exhibit, and Karen gave chase.
~oo00oo~
James was looking up in disbelief at the largest exhibit he’d seen yet. His jaw was hanging open, arms slack at his sides.
Karen sidled up behind him, already bringing the display up on her Device. “It’s a dinosaur skeleton. A Tyrannosaurus Rex, to be precise.” She said lightly. “They were extinct for some time before either of us. The first Dinosaur bone was found in the 1670’s, which is why it’s up this end of the Museum, but nobody knew what they were until they found a whole lot more of them, and assembled a skeleton in the 1800’s. A number of years afteryou died.” She chuckled. “You should see your face.”
“It’s… big.” James said finally. “When we were chartin’ our maps, there was always a few places out past the edge of the map that we knew nothing about. Some of the Navigators refused to go past what was known, because… Well, on those parts of the map, they would write-”
“‘Here there be monsters’.” Karen said it with him. “I know. I heard that in history class.”
“I had thought that… well, if the map was completely filled in now, then maybe it meant there were no more myths and legends.” James said quietly. “But there are, aren’t there?”
“There are many mysteries yet to be found, sailor.” She promised him, and showed the Manifest. “It looks like the Stargazer treasure was sold at auction. The ship itself had a few pieces that were still in good enough condition to be auctioned. The maps and charts survived, sealed in a sea chest. The cannons went to an Historical Society for display. The ship’s flag went to a different museum; the Cutlass that was thought to be your own was sold to a private collector in the States…”
“And all this was all two centuries ago, of course.” James felt the despair creeping in. “Who knows where it went in this world. If it’s not in the museum...”
“Huh.” Karen was still glued to the manifest. “This is interesting. The Ship’s Wheel and the figurehead went to an Art Restorer when A-Day was about to hit.”
James looked over sharply. “Where would they be now?”
“I have no idea. But I have the address for the Art Restorer. We can try and find out.” Karen told him. “It was in New York, so it was probably a high end place.”
“What’s New York?” James asked, having never heard of it.
“Doesn’t matter. The city doesn’t exist anymore, but I know someone who made a living in restoration work. They started with what was left after A-Day.” Karen pulled out her Device. “That’s part of the reason we came here. London is the best place for locating such items. They have most of the records that survived this long.”
~oo00oo~
“Penny for your thoughts.” Irsu said quietly.
Atxi looked over. “What’s a penny?”
“A coin used by people long after us. A coin of very little value; but ‘penny for your thoughts’ was a saying people used.”
“Not sure my thoughts are worth much more.” Atxi sighed. “James isn’t hunting the gold because he wants profit. He’s after something money can’t buy.”
“Oh?” Irsu was surprised by that. “That wasn’t the impression I got.”
“You only know him as a Pirate.” Atxi defended him immediately. “But he hasn’t been a Pirate for at least as long as I haven’t been a Priestess; so you and Karen barely know him at all.”
He was looking at her face, calculating something, coming to a realization, but wisely decided not to push it. “Okay.”
“But what he said, about how you can tell the story of the world by who consumed who, and in what order… In so many years of human suffering, was it really for no greater motive than self-interest?”
“You’re asking the wrong person.” Irsu commented. “My ex-King thought that his wealth was needed in the next life, and took it with him. I know, because I was part of his fortune.”
“What?” Atxi blinked.
“I was a Cupbearer to Pharoah.” Irsu said lightly. “I told you that I was likely your Greeter because I know what it’s like to live your entire life according to false gods. What I didn’t tell you was that one of the gods in question was my direct employer.”
Atxi blinked again. “Really?”
“The King was considered a living god, and I was part of his entourage. It was a highly coveted position.” Irsu explained. “I saw the effort put into making the humble members of the public believe that they were in the presence of something Mighty, and it never occured to me that a true God wouldn’t have to work that hard.”
Atxi shivered. “Why did you bring me here, Irsu?”
Irsu smiled. “I knew a man who was horrified at the idea of living forever. He thought that the reward for a faithful life was eternity in heaven. A Paradise Earth was a massive disappointment to him. He wanted heaven or bust. To live forever on earth is to be denied a chance to enter heaven.” Irsu sighed, looking out at the view with her. “And that man was part of Christendom. He had more of the truth than you’d have ever heard, and he’d drawn the opposite conclusion.”
Atxi nodded, waiting for his point.
“In that Museum, we got a look at so many different facets of human history.” Irsu explained. “For a long time, people didn’t understand most of the natural laws. My people had whole Pantheons of Gods to explain how the sun rose and set, how the tide came in and out, why the rain fell on one field, and not on another. As humanity learned the facts of things like the sun and the moon, or how the tides came in and out, people stopped giving the credit to a Sun God, or a River God, or a thousand other things. The more we learned, the less we needed fairy tales to explain them away.”
It had made sense. Atxi had seen the pictures, the video, heard the testimony of people who studied their whole lives to prove it.
“And then people made the leap that if a Sun God wasn’t needed to explain the sunrise, then maybe there was no need for any god at all. Confusion and half truths filled the old world, there were a thousand variations on how to pray to the same god; or whether He existed at all.”
“And all those people arrived here.” Atxi finished for him.
“I don’t want to restart the old point of disagreement, Atxi. Everyone came to the same paradise. A lot were expecting something different, and a lot more were expecting nothing at all. But we’re all here; looking for our place.” He gave her a sympathetic look. “You’ve never felt like you have a place in Paradise. I had hoped that maybe if you saw just where your people, and everything else you recognized fit into the story, maybe it would help.”
“We weren’t much, were we?” Atxi said bitterly.
“None of us were, is the point. This world is only a few hundred years old, but it’s already achieved more than anything all our empires put together could dream of.”
Atxi shook her head. “You don’t need to convince me, Irsu. I know this world is something different to whatever came before it. My problem isn’t with the world, it’s…”
“It’s with you. The old world left scars, and you don’t feel right in your own skin anymore.”
Atxi nodded.
Irsu had his device out, and called up the scripture. “1 Corinthians 10:13: ‘But God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear…’”
Atxi shook her head. “I did take more than I could bear. I died.”
“And that wasn’t enough.” Irsu said simply. “Jehovah was able to undo death. Not just yours and mine, but everyone’s. Death, poverty, war, sickness… None of these things were so terrible that God couldn’t undo it all and replace it with something wonderful. Every tear that you ever shed has been undone, except for the things you hold onto. Everything bad that the human race has ever gone through will eventually fade into memory, the way you don’t even remember stubbing a toe when you were a toddler. Walk through this museum, look at every soldier ever killed; every Pirate ever sunk, and know that they all have a happy ending. In a thousand years, a million; these fears and doubts will be long forgotten.”
“Because I’ll be forever young and faithful, or because I’ll have ‘aged out’ and you’ll have forgotten me and my doubts?” Atxi drawled painfully.
Irsu put his device away. “That, sister; is entirely up to you.”
~oo00oo~
“Elizabeth!” Karen called brightly.
“Karen! So good to see you again.” The two women embraced, and James looked the workshop over. Aside from the Expo, there weren’t a lot of huge-scale laboratories or engineering done. James had seen the way construction was done in this world; and it was clear whoever’s workspace this was; they were not inventing things, so much as preserving them.
Karen turned away from her friend and made introduction. “James, this is Elizabeth Bagley-”
“Sommers.” Elizabeth put in quietly.
Karen reacted to the use of her Maiden name, but had grace enough to blow past it. “This is Elizabeth Sommers. She’s part of the Reclamation Teams for New Paris.” She gestured around the place. “Her job is to catalogue and identify everything left after A-Day for determination.”
“A career path that has taken me from Paris, to the Expo, to London, to Jerusalem, and most of the places where ancient records and art treasures are still in safe keeping.” Elizabeth put in. “A lot of it will have no use in this world, but some of it does. And some of it has a ‘rightful owner’ to be returned to.”
“Ahh, good.” James took off his tri-corner hat. “I have just such a list of items to locate.”
“A list?” Elizabeth and Karen said together.
Karen knew what Elizabeth was thinking. “James, you realize that you may not be the ‘rightful owner’ on a lot of that stuff, right?”
“In fact, a lot of people are trying to figure that out.” Elizabeth put in. “For the most part, people don’t care; but there are some family mementos, keepsakes… The sort of thing you hand from father to son through a dozen generations, you know? Only all those generations are back, so ‘who gets what’ is an interesting question.” She straightened her shoulders. “One that I can cheerfully help you with.” She picked up her Screen, ready to work. “So, what are you looking for in particular?”
~oo00oo~
The Search had gone on for several hours. He’d spent a few hours in one archive or another, following clues, and references in old letters. Elizabeth had a huge collection of old documents, right alongside her Screens. It was a microcosm of the world now, with ancient tomes and disturbingly advanced technology side by side.
“Liz is trying to scan all these documents in.” Karen explained as she carried a bundle of sheepskin documents over for James to pore through. “Once they’re all recorded, it’s easier to search. Not a complicated task, but a time consuming one.”
“How do you know Ms Sommers? She doesn’t seem like your type.” James observed quietly.
“Elizabeth and I were in the same Class.” Karen explained. “Like you and Atxi, we were both Returned close to each other. We also died within the same decade; which is all the common ground most of us had back in those Classes.
“Found something!” Elizabeth called, coming over. “The Art Restorer in question did not survive A-Day, but his workshop did. Our guys found it, and made use of what we could. Back then, the tools were worth more than any of the artworks, but there were more than a few Art Lovers that thought to see what could be saved. The works that were in good condition were stored until someone could decide what to make of them, including the pieces of your ship.” She checked again. “The Wheel, and the Figurehead, yes?”
“Where did they end up?” Karen asked, interested now.
“On an Airship.” Elizabeth turned the manifest to show her.
Karen froze, eyes flicking to James. “Captain Diaz. The Stargazer.”
“Stargazer. That was my old ship.” James said in disbelief.
“Not a surprise. We recycle ship names; especially when we go from ocean craft to aircraft... Come to think of it, I know Diaz.” Elizabeth told them. “Back when he was at the Conference, my ex-husband was part of the team that built the first modern airships. Sister Diaz was one of his students. I can contact her, if you’d like?”
“Thank you.” James agreed, though he couldn’t help the question. “Does it seem… coincidental? I come here, and that leads me to you, who happens to be based in the same area, and you happen to know the next person we’re looking for…”
“You’d be amazed how often that happens.” Elizabeth smiled at him. “Divine help or not, it’s what happens when you spend a lifetime with people who share a connection.” She pointed a finger upwards. “We’ve all got something in common, nowadays.”
Almost all. James moved past that topic quickly. “Do you mind if I keep looking through some of these files? There are some items that I was curious about.”
Elizabeth looked at him, and she had it too. That tiny hint of pity for him. James was really coming to hate that look.
~oo00oo~
“You’re the only person who doesn’t look at me that way, y’know.” James observed as they walked away.
Karen waved at a truck in the distance when they reached the road. “It’s hard for people not to feel sorry for the terminally ill; and you’re one of the few people in the world that still fits that description.”
“I think that’s why I like you, Karen.” James scoffed. “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen you feel pity for anyone yet.”
“I’m well trained in hiding my horror at the sight of wrinkles, Cap’n. It’s the one skill from the Old Days I held onto.” She said with grim sarcasm; when the truck she’d waved at pulled over. “Afternoon. Can we get a ride to the Docks?”
James climbed into the back of the truck next to Karen, fingering the page in his pocket. He’d lied to Karen and Elizabeth. He didn’t care about the figurehead of his sunken ship at all.
The next step would be to escape Karen’s attention long enough to get the most important possession of his old life back.
~oo00oo~
Townsend opened the door to find Walter, looking annoyed. “I take it that the Chess Tournament failed?”
“Nobody even showed up.” Walter groused.
“I told you, people don’t take a gamble like that.”
“And I told you it wasn’t a casino. It was a Tournament with a prize. How many of those have there been? It’s not gambling, technically.”
“When you have to say ‘technically’, you’re on shaky ground.” Townsend reminded him. “But that’s not the ‘gamble’ I mean.”
“What did you mean?” Walter asked as Townsend lead the way inside.
“Scripture says: ‘be determined not to put a stumbling block or an obstacle before a brother’.” Townsend explained. “We followed that principle ourselves, back in OS. When Addison was at the club with us, we always ordered club soda. And why? Because we didn’t want to tempt him.” Townsend let that sink in. “Nobody is certain if the Tournament is gambling or not, so most of them don’t risk it; until they get a clarification. There are a thousand places people can meet to play chess. There are world rankings available on the Database. Correspondence games, online games…” Townsend shrugged elaborately, spreading his hands wide. “If people love something in common, they find each other.”
“It’s not gambling. Chess is a game of skill.” Walter insisted. “I could have started a poker tournament; but I didn’t. Why would people have a problem with that?”
“I really don’t know how else to say it.” Townsend sighed. “Money doesn’t matter in this world. Fame doesn’t matter in this world.”
“Money and fame always matter.” Walter said firmly.
“Not. Here.” Townsend said seriously. “The reason you can’t figure out this world is because the people here aren’t interested in anything you have to offer, and aren’t scared to lose anything you can take away. What other tactic have you tried?”
Walter had no answer to that.
“We told you that we didn’t have to defend this world, and how it does things? That’s because the world makes its own case. Time was, JW’s had to knock on doors and defend the Kingdom of God as being real, and being worthy. Now the rules have changed. Believers are behind all the doors now. The Truth can take care of itself. If you can’t find any traction, the problem isn’t the market, or the economy, or anything else but what’s in the mirror.”
“But why?! Why doesn’t it work?!” Walter raged. “What am I doing wrong? I’m not offering a bad service to my consumers!”
“There it is. You remember what we used to call them all, back in the day? Consumers. ‘Customers’ if we were feeling generous.”
“I remember.”
“You know what JW’s call people they haven’t met yet? The Brothers. The Friends. That’s the difference, Walter. You’re still trying to make things work like they did in a time when nothing worked.”
“You’re one to talk. You haven’t held down a straight job in years.”
“Yeah, and look at the result. I work a four day week like everyone else, and I have quality of life at home too. I have a wife, two kids, we all get along, and I live on a lakeside. Back in the day, to get a week off to stretch out beside a lake without any sound of traffic, how long did it take to organize? How long did we have to book our vacation in advance?”
“Months.”
“I can do it every other week, if I want.” Townsend said, and Walter could hear the smile. “There is power in patience, Walter. You’re spending everything you’ve got, trying to get more. Me? I get money in smaller amounts, but I don’t spend much; and need even less. In time, I figure about five hundred years, I’ll have savings enough to take an extremely long sabbatical. One that can last a long time. There’s banks, and savings accounts. Most everyone is working hard, but everyone has a dream to chase. And after living on my savings for another decade; chasing personal interests, I’ll want something more relevant to do. Work is satisfying, when it’s not holding you hostage.”
“This is a necessity, Townsend.” Walter said intensely.
Townsend looked at him a moment. “You see that bookshelf?” He pointed. “All of those books are favorites. I have spent decades reading, and putting together a collection of my favorite novels. And that collection will not stop growing. Now, with a library card, I could read all those books just as often as I could from owning them. They aren’t a necessity. It isn’t a matter of life and death that I own them. It took some money. It would cost me nothing to use the public library instead of building a bookshelf. But I love them. I love my books. They… enrich me. They make this room feel like my home, because they are things that I love.”
Walter nodded.
“Franklyn, whom you met? He’s built his own home. He found he loves the outdoors. He’s working to become a landscaper. So he built his home to have good views of his bit of allotted land, which he will spend a century planting, tending, and landscaping to make it ‘just so’. Because he loves it. We used to pay people minimum wage to keep our yards trimmed and bushes pruned. He does it out of love, because he sees beauty.”
Walter nodded, listening.
“A friend of mine, Heinrich. You haven’t met him. But his favorite thing is Music. He built his home with something like a small concert hall. A room that’s acoustically perfect for playing his recordings, with a huge collection of rare music, on vinyl, CD, Digital… His audio equipment rivals a professional studio, all to give him incredible sound quality when he listens. These things are all luxuries, but they aren’t status symbols, or the excesses of rich kids with time on their hands, like our old lives used to be.” Townsend gestured at the bookshelf again. “Heinrich could care less about books. And while I have some favorite music, as everyone does, I could never see myself putting that much effort into listening to it. Everything we fill our lives with now is chosen because it brings us joy, or because it brings us fulfillment.”
Walter said nothing.
“Now, I’ll take a bet.” Townsend said seriously. “I’ll wager that your house has nothing but spreadsheets and ledgers, and notebooks full of ideas on how to make your fortune.” He saw Walter’s face, and pressed further. “Including all the ways you can exploit the fact that people live forever, and all the loopholes you can find in scripture to make your vices more acceptable.”
“I’m not wrong!” Walter snapped. “Anyone would do it, if they could! It wasn’t easy, to build what I had built in OS-”
“Walter.” Townsend cut him off. “You miss the point of everything I just said. This is a world where things are valuable because they are loved; not the other way around. Including the people. You value your business skills. But what do you love?”
~oo00oo~
Irsu had excused himself to take care of some other matter. It had been some years since Irsu was assigned to meet her at her Returning, and in the years since, he had become a Judge for this area. Atxi was very aware of how much of his time she was taking up.
The Museum was huge, covering half a town. In its way, it was the natural opposite to the Expo. The Expo was about the future, with some history. The Museum was about history, with some mention of how it lead into the future.
Atxi had spent a whole day wandering through the different phases of mankind, before she decided she had to leave. On her way out, she heard a familiar voice, echoing through a quiet marble hall, and she followed it. The classrooms were always in use. Atxi was far from the only one with questions.
When Atxi found the classroom in question, it took her a moment to recognize the teacher. The last time they’d met, Atxi was young, and the teacher was old and grey. Now the reverse was true.
Drew Thorne, young again, recognized her at once, and waved for her to sit in an empty seat, not breaking off from her lesson. “The question I get asked again and again, is how come secular sources didn’t have far more information about the biblical events? The answer is, history gets to decide such things; but never with the future in mind.”
Atxi looked around the class subtly. There was a fairly uniform cross section of people. Something Atxi had realized was that people from all backgrounds were interested in all sorts of topics, but it was a relatively new thing for them all to pick whatever field they wanted.
“I know, you’re thinking that there should have been something more left.” Drew told them. “Well, let’s try this another way. How many here have heard of Eva Peron?”
A few hands went up.
“Eva Peron was the first lady of a country called Argentina. She was also a hugely popular figure with the public. So much so that she was declared the ‘Spiritual Leader of the Nation’.” Drew explained. “When she died, over two thousand people were sent to hospital from the crush of people trying to be closer to the body during her funeral procession… But a few years later, there was a Military Coup in Argentina, and a new government came to power. Her legacy was such a problem to the new leaders, that they stole and hid her body; and made it illegal to own a picture of her, or even say her name out loud. They struck her from the record for almost a decade. Other nations knew her story, so it didn’t work for long; but it happened. In the 1940’s.”
Atxi shook her head in disbelief. She knew the point Drew was making. She’d lived it.
“In ancient times, if a King was embarrassed, it would be within his right to destroy every record, execute every witness.” Drew told them. “I had a man here last month, who was an official Scribe to one of the Egyptian Pharaohs. He misspelled the King’s name on a Temple wall; and was tortured to death. The Temple wall was razed and a new one put up. The places where the Kings and Armies of the Ancient Earth came into opposition to Jehovah? It didn’t go proudly for any of them.” Drew smiled. “I was there in the last part of OS. Trust me, you couldn’t get a modern politician to accept they’d said something wrong, even if you had it recorded in HD-Video. What hope for Bible Times?”
The polite chuckle went around the room.
“The Bible kept all these moments recorded, including the most embarrassing mistakes and crimes committed by the most respected and honored men in the Bible Record; and there was a copy of that book in almost every home in the western hemisphere.” Drew summed up. “And now, at last, we’re getting eyewitness testimony to things that were deliberately struck from the history books. So, with that in mind, I’m going to hand you over to Brother Fargo; and he’ll instruct you on the project, and how to fill in all those blank spots that the history books were left with. The Bible is the story of God’s relationship with mankind. What we’re starting here is something far more complex: The story of mankind’s relationship with each other.”
There was another round of applause as Drew handed off the lecture to another man, and swept out of the room. Atxi followed automatically. The moment they were alone, Drew turned and gave Atxi a tight hug. “It’s good to see you again.”
“And you.” Atxi said automatically. “You look different.”
Drew ran a hand through her reddish-brown hair. “I suppose I must, yes.”
Atxi bit her lip. “Quite a project you’re starting in there. Being Curator suits you.”
“Mm. It’s a project that’s been a long time coming.” Drew admitted. “You remember the book I wanted your help with? Well, imagine the book being a thousand volumes longer. Everyone in history will be coming back. The more we know about them and their lives, the more common ground we can find during the Returning.”
“What…” Atxi struggled to say it. “What made you believe?”
“It finally clicked that I don’t get to judge.” Drew smiled. “It took me so long, because I never thought of it that way, but it’s what I was doing. I judged that the Egyptians were great builders, and that the Romans were civilized, and the Spartans were honorable… And most important of all, I judged that I was right to make those choices, because I had a doctorate, and I was accredited, and I was smart.” She shook her head. “What an idiot, I was.”
“You’re far from an idiot, Mrs Thorne.”
“Drew.” She waved that off. “My stupidity wasn’t that I didn’t understand the facts. It’s that I understood them from a distance. I got to talk about the fervor of Aztec worship, to a woman who actually died on the altar. I got to talk about the wonders of Egyptian Construction with the slaves that made bricks or died under a whip.” Drew shook her head. “I was so hung up on what was missing from this world, that I didn’t realize how much of a Paradise this world is to everyone that I’ve spent my life trying to understand.”
Atxi said nothing to that. She’d spent most of her time in Paradise fighting the comparisons too. Here was a woman who had seemingly agreed with her, and aged like Atxi did… only she was now young again, and apparently had changed her mind. Stricken, Atxi turned away from her.
Drew caught her shoulder, turned her around to bring them face-to-face. “No.” Drew said. “I won’t make you feel bad about yourself, Atxi. I spent enough time putting people on the spot. I do know what it’s like, because even when I was convinced this world was wrong to leave behind all the things I wanted it to have, I couldn’t deny it was really happening.”
Axti sighed. “Neither can I.”
“So?”
Atxi felt brittle. “I’ve wasted enough of my life begging gods for their love. And I’m still so angry about the last time I just can’t… I don’t even know.”
Drew looked sad for her. “I never asked Jehovah for anything.” She said quietly. “I didn’t even know the name until I got here. I never asked him for my husband and son to find the Truth after I died. I never asked for them to be protected as the world fell down around their ears. I never asked for my husband to join the Conference, or my son to become a respected Elder. I never asked to be Returned to a world where nobody has so much as used harsh language against me or anyone I love.”
Atxi winced. “I didn’t mean to suggest-”
“Back then, I never knew it was an option. If I had, I would have prayed day and night.” Drew cut her off. “I never begged Jehovah to give me eternal life in Paradise, where my kids will never be scared or alone or unloved. And I never begged for my mom, my grandfather… to see all of them, young and healthy and with all their faculties back.” Drew wiped a tear away absently. “But I was given all those things anyway.” She pointed to her own face. “And it still took decades for me to say ‘thank you’.”
Atxi looked down. “I’m not blind. I know I’m one of the few people getting older. I know I’m one of the few people who isn’t happy. And I know it’s my fault, but I can’t do it. I just can’t take the games anymore.”
Heavy silence.
“Y’know what?” Drew said finally. “When we first met, I was worried about what we’d lost as a people. It never occurred to me how much was saved. Neither of us were there at the end, but apparently it came really close.”
“Close to what?”
“To losing it all. Your nation came crashing down almost a thousand years ago, Atxi. But all the world was on the brink at A-Day. All the billions of people.”
Atxi said nothing. The words washed over her. What was the world? She hadn’t seen it. What were billions? She’d never even heard a number that high until she came here, after the war between Good and Evil was won.
“Matthew 24.” Drew had her device out. Atxi noted that nobody went anywhere without the Bible in some form. “In fact, unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be saved; but on account of the chosen ones those days will be cut short.” She read. “Think about that for a moment. Nothingwould have survived. I wasn’t there, but my husband was, and he says it was exactly that bad.”
“I have heard a similar story.” Atxi nodded. “But it’s hard for me, because everything I knew was long dead before it got that far.”
Drew nodded. “We would have lost popcorn.” She said profoundly.
Atxi blinked.
“And we would have lost French Fries.” Drew added. “And playing the music too loud when you drive, and singing along even louder, just because it’s fun. We would have lost climbing in trees, and nighttime bonfires on the beach-”
“And ice cream.” Atxi added, out of nowhere.
Drew smiled broadly. “And ice cream. And taking our kids to their first day of school, and playing with kittens, or even Tiger Cubs. And sleeping in on days off, and the smell of cut grass in your front lawn, and learning how to make cookies with your grandmother, and a hundred other happy things that everyone got to do without thinking much about it.” She had tears in her eyes. “Now think bigger. We would have lost Beethoven’s Sonatas, and the words of William Shakespeare, and the voice of Billie Holliday, and the ideas of Stephen Hawking, and the art of Leonardo Da Vinci. All of them, lost to time; and their legacy would never have lasted past the rot of OS... Until this world began, where they all can live again.” Drew wiped her eyes. “We have to say thank you, Atxi.”
Atxi was silent a long moment. “How?” She whispered helplessly.
Drew regarded her a moment, glanced around, and then led her back inside.
~oo00oo~
Drew took Atxi to her private office, guided her to a chair, and then shut the door. She pulled over another chair, sitting with the grey haired woman, and took both her hands in her own.
“Thank you, Jehovah.” Drew said softly. “Thank you for not keeping your very best qualities all to yourself. Thank you for giving us creativity, and laughter, and courage, and love. Thank you for a beautiful world, and an awe inspiring world. Thank you for sifting through all our sins to find something good. We know that we’re insignificant next to you, and that you are without flaw. Thank you for seeing us better than we saw each other.”
Atxi watched all this through eyes that she pretended were closed. She was observing, not taking part. She could go on forever, couldn’t she? Atxi asked herself. We could spend eternity finding more and more things to thank the Creator for. ‘We’? Did I really just think that?
“Thank you for my family. Thank you for bringing me back from the dead so that I could be with them. Thank you for being patient enough that I could be with them forever. Thank you for every happy thought; because it was you who made us able to feel joy. Thank you for giving us beauty. Thank you for saving it before it was gone. Thank you for David; and for seeing him through the years without his mother. Thank you for Hitch, and for seeing him through the scariest days anyone’s ever had.”
This is a prayer. Atxi thought to herself awkwardly. This is giving thanks. This is being content. Atxi looked at Drew’s face. This is being happy.
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