How Robert Found God At Angelo's Pizza Palace

by Mario V. Farina

more minute. I brought a friend. Meet Professor Stanton."

  "I'ma happy to meeta you," said Angelo glancing at me. "I tella my son to maka the pizza especially good for you."

  In a quiet corner of the rather small dining room, Angelo brought us to a table that was covered to the floor with tablecloth. There were ten or twelve other diners seated in groups of two and four.

  I assisted Grace by pulling her chair from the table, then pushing it back after she had sat. As we fussed with our napkins and silverware, I studied her plain face, I wondered why God wouldn't select a more attractive appearance.

  "I'm here to do a job," she explained, "not to win a beauty pageant. Does that answer your question?"

  I nodded, embarrassed that I had entertained such thoughts.

  A young woman arrived. "Hello," she said. "My name is Trish. I'll be your server. The soup tonight is minestrone. What would you like to drink?"

  Grace ordered a glass of red wine and I did the same. As we were ordering, I had a chance to take note of the woman who was serving us. She was about twenty, of medium height, slim with dark hair. Her uniform was a black dress with white, lacy trim. She smiled her thanks and stated that she be right back.

  "How do I address you?" I mustered the question that had been vexing me for several minutes.

  "It is awkward, isn't it?" God responded. "You can address me as Grace, if you wish, or God, whichever makes you feel more comfortable." She smiled. "Or, you can simply say Ms. O'Dershowitz."

  "Dershowitz sounds Jewish," I observed. "And O'Dershowitz sounds a little Irish. Is there some sort of story here?"

  "Yes, this is a nom de plume. I chose it because I don't want to show bias. God is not a Christian, not a Jew, not a Muslim, not anything else. God is simply God. If you look carefully, you find a little Arabian in my name, a little Chinese, and so on. Did you notice that my initials are G. O. D.? I thought this was a nice touch. My real name is Mary Mattiola, but we won't go into that exactly now. We will later."

  "All right," I stumbled. "I just don't know how to act. You seem like an ordinary person, but somehow, I feel as if I should be kneeling, or groveling, at your feet."

  "No groveling, please, Robert. Just be yourself. Tell me something. What are some of the things you've always wanted to know about God, but didn't know who to ask?"

  "Well, I guess you've answered my first question. Is there a God? Why has there always been so much mystery about whether or not you really exist? Is there a Heaven, Hell, Devil, all the things that the Bible mentions? What is the meaning of life? Why is there so much evil in the world?"

  "Wait, slow down, one question at a time. Yes, of course there is a God. God has always existed and will exist forever. There should never have been a mystery of God's existence since the mere fact that existence, itself, exists is abundant evidence. As to your other questions, there is no Heaven or Hell or the other things you've mentioned. The Bible? Well, I understand that this is a book that is worthy of study, but it has nothing to do with me. I intend to read it when I have more time. I understand there is some excellent literature in the book.

  "If there is no Heaven, then where do you normally live, if it makes any sense to use that word?" I asked

  "I live, that is, I exist in hyperspace, Robert; I'm everywhere. And so is everyone else, and so is everything else. The locales that you see around you are artificial; they aren't real."

  I must have looked perplexed.

  God smiled. "So that you can better understand some of what I'm saying, I need to give you some background about the nature of God, about hypertime, hyperspace, and a few other things."

  "There is only one God," she continued, "but I, myself, have not always been God. Others have had the position before me. Countless others! Angelo, whom you met a few minutes ago, was God at one time, also Trish, and the chef in this restaurant. Some of the people you've known in the past have been God – like professors Jamison and Chu. Also, Alice Mason, who is currently one of your students. And, believe it or not, the taxi driver who honked his horn and hollered at us as we were crossing Pulaski. Robert, if you knew of all the creatures, those immensely huge beyond your comprehension, and those infinitely small, in this world and the myriad of others, who have been God, you would be dumbfounded!"

  "And my wife…?" I began.

  "Yes of course," she responded. Didn't you ever suspected it? Surely, you'll have to agree that it took a hallowed person to put up with some of your shenanigans."

  She was right. There had been times when I felt I had contributed to her early demise.

  There was a moment of silence. Then I asked, "what is hypertime? And hyperspace?"

  "I guess the simple answer is that it's God's time and space. But that would be only partially answering your question. Hypertime and hyperspace are the same. They are an eternal now and forever, a perpetual here and everywhere. The form of time that you sense is synthetic. Time, as you know it, cannot be defined by humans. God created it so that the mental capabilities of creatures would allow them to be aware of their own existence. And it's a sort of refuge for me when my work gets hectic and I need to rest a while."

  "Time is duration," I exclaimed. "You say time is indefinable?"

  "Of course, Robert. You intuitively feel that you understand time and the passage of time. It's true that time seems to be duration but what is duration? What does it mean to durate from one moment to another? I hope you excuse my coining of this word."

  I thought for a while, but was forced to agree that the notion of duration is much harder to define than to experience. "Grace," I hesitantly began, "are you saying that everything happens at the same time and in the same place?"

  "Exactly, Robert in a very simplified manner, that's the way it is. In addition, all the versions that your life could have taken as you made moment by moment decisions are revealed and known. Did the thought ever occur to you that you make decisions during every waking moment of your life? And that each decision affects the rest of your life, sometimes in a small way, sometimes in a more profound manner? And that every decision you make affects the universe in some way?"

  "Over a never ending design of time and space, you live through all of these versions. You will never cease to exist because the forms that your life can take are infinite."

  "Are you referring reincarnation?" I asked.

  "Oh, no, nothing exactly like that! While you're human, you'll always be Robert. But you'll be all kinds of Robert. You'll be Robert, the peasant, Robert the king, Robert the thief, and so on. And everyone else in the universe will be experiencing the same transitions."

  "After you've been Robert, you'll be Max, then Sam, then Helen, then Sandra, and so on. In time you'll be every kind of human that it's possible to be. And that's only the beginning. Afterwards, you go on to become every other form of creature that exists, has ever existed, or will exist!"

  How is all of this possible?" I protested. "How could there be enough time for all of that?"

  "Ah, but you forget, Robert" God declared. "We're speaking of infinity. In our excursion through infinity, there is no lack of time for anything. Time, as you know it, has always existed and will continue to exist forever!"

  "As for the meaning of life," she continued, "since there is a God, then there has to be a validation for God's existence. That is why creatures, such as humans in this world, and creatures on other worlds exist. For example, good exists. It follows, therefore that in order for there to be good, there has to be a state that is the opposite of good so that God can be perceived. That opposite state is what you call evil. Since all possible lives will be lived by all creatures, both good and evil will be experienced by all. It's like that for all the other qualities that exist."

  Trish brought our drinks. Because of what God has revealed about her, I now viewed her in a different way. God and I ordered pizza and garlic bread. We both asked for Miller light to be delivered with our pizza. "What is pizza without beer?" God queried.

/>   "Does Trish know that she was God? How long ago was that? What was the duration?" All these questions burst from me like torrents pouring through a break and a dam. Grace waited until Trish was out of earshot.

  Oh yes, Trish was God for a length of time that you would deem infinite. She was God and, in hypertime, still is. This is also true for several others that you see in this room. Trish knows all this but, for the time being, has chosen not to. I, too, have turned omniscience off except for selected occasions. Remember the sounds in my lab? They were prayers from all over the world. But, they were only a babble in my ears while I was there. Whether or not they are answered is not a decision that has to be made since, in an eternal now, everything has already transpired, is transpiring, and will transpire."

  An awareness that the reason for this meeting with God had a much more profound purpose than I had imagined, began trickling into my brain. Up until this moment, I had not had time to wonder why God had chosen to communicate with me. Now it was becoming clear. "You and I are here for a definite purpose?" I asked.

  "Yes," God responded. "But, let's wait to discuss this until after Trish brings our pizza. Angelo makes the kind that is to die for." She grinned broadly at the pun. "Did you think I was going to say that it is heavenly pizza?" I wasn't sure it was appropriate, but I allowed myself to chuckle.

  God and I continued our