Acts of God

by James Beauseigneur

  "Are you going to chop the door down?" George, Jr. asked, looking at the hatchet in his father's hand.

  "Not if I can help it," his father answered. "Let's see if we can find a window that's not locked. If not, then we'll either break a window or try to break the door open at the lock."

  "What if somebody's home?" the younger asked. It was a silly question; everybody in the neighborhood knew that no one lived there. Still, the idea of breaking into someone's house was a bit unnerving to a ten-year-old.

  "We've lived here three years and no one has ever been in that house. We'll just go in and, if the water is okay in the toilet tanks, then we'll bail it into the buckets and bring it back home. It's probably been in there for years so we'll want to boil it before we can drink it."

  "What if the police come?"

  "George, as busy as the police are, they're not going to bother us," the father answered reassuringly. "All we're doing is trying to get a little water. No one can blame us for that. Besides, if we don't take it somebody else will. We just thought of it first." Arriving at the house, George, Sr. added, "Let's start in the back. We don't want anybody knowing what we're up to or they'll want some of the water for themselves."

  They tried the sliding glass door to the dining room first but without success. Next they tried the windows but they were all locked. Though the curtains were all pulled, George Rollins knew the floor plan of the house well; it was the exact reverse of his own house. There was only one more place to try in the back of the house and that was the door that led into what in the Rollins home was the media room.

  "Look, Dad," George, Jr. said, as he pointed to a set of three grave stones.

  "Yeah," his father replied. "They probably died in the Disaster."

  George, Jr. responded with a puzzled look, having never heard of the event.

  "I'll tell you about it sometime," the elder said. "It happened before you were born."

  George, Jr. got to the door before his father and tried it. To his surprise it slid open about an inch, but then stopped. "Let me try," George, Sr. said, as he stepped in front of his son and tried to jiggle it loose. It wouldn't budge. "Ah, here's the problem," he said, pointing through the glass. "There's a cut-off broomstick laid in the track to keep the door from opening, but it's in there crooked. I think if I can just shove it hard enough, that it will. . . ugh!" he said as the door slid open.

  "Yay!" the son cheered at his father's success.

  Suddenly the curtains that hung across the doorway were thrown open, revealing an old man in his seventies. He was holding a shotgun. "What do you want?" he demanded, pointing the gun in George Rollins' face. Bandages hung loose about him. George, Jr., had not yet reached twelve years old, the age of majority, and therefore did not have the mark and the resultant sores, but he was certainly used to seeing grownups and teenagers with bandages over their sores. Somehow though, the bandages seemed to add terror to the old man's appearance.

  Instinctively throwing his hands skyward in a sign of surrender, George, Sr. tried to answer. "I'm sorry! We ... we didn't think anybody lived here!"

  "Well, somebody does!" the man growled. "Now, get the hell off of my property!"

  "Yes, sir!" George, Sr. said and then ran to catch up with his son who was already headed for the gate.

  Decker Hawthorne closed the door quickly and locked it, placing the cut-off broomstick properly into the track. Pulling the curtains closed again, he slumped into a chair, still holding the barrel of the shotgun in one hand. In the other hand was the shotgun shell which he had not had time to load. It had been a close call. He had barely gotten his phony bandages on before they had opened the door. If they had gotten in and seen him without any bandages or sores, they surely would have called the police and turned him in as a fundamentalist, if for no other reason than to get his water. From then on Decker determined that, uncomfortable as they might be, he would wear the bandages day and night.

  It baffled Decker why the police had not yet come. And why had Christopher or Milner still not called? None of it made sense.

  A half mile away Montgomery County Police Officer Amanda Smith waited for her partner, Sgt. Joseph Runningdeer, to get back in the car. "You want some?" he asked, offering her a can of water collected in a reservoir under the car that was attached to the condensation line from the air conditioner.

  Smith didn't answer, but took the can eagerly, drinking it down as Sgt. Runningdeer picked tiny pieces of gravel from a sore on his arm.

  "Who's next?" he asked as he readjusted the bandage.

  Officer Smith looked at the assignment sheet. "Take a look," she said, handing Runningdeer the clipboard.

  Sgt. Runningdeer found the next name, shook his head, and pulled a pen from his pocket. Scratching out the name Decker Hawthorne without excuse or explanation or authorization, he looked down the list to the next name. "Okay," he said. "Brubaker, off of Needwood Road."

  "We evicted them last week," Officer Smith said, questioning the accuracy of the assignment.

  "According to the neighbors, they're back in the house."

  "They're making this too easy for us," she said as she started the car and headed toward the former Brubaker residence in South Riding, an established upper middle-class neighborhood. Driving slowly past the address, looking for any sign of activity outside the house, Smith rolled the car to a stop to allow Sgt. Runningdeer to get out. "Give me about sixty seconds," he said and then got out and ran around behind the house next door to Brubaker's.

  Amanda Smith waited a moment and then put the car in reverse and backed it in front of the Brubakers' house and turned on the flashing bar lights. This made it obvious to anyone inside that the police were there and in many cases the element of fear proved even more effective than the element of surprise. Though the fundamentalists were not known for violence when being arrested, Smith took her service revolver from the holster in accordance with standard operating procedures for these arrests. Going to the front door, she checked the police security lock to see if it had been tampered with. It had not, and so she punched in the six digit code and slowly opened the door. When she did she heard a voice.

  "They're in here," Sgt. Runningdeer called to her.

  Officer Smith found the Brubaker family, Sid and Joan Brubaker and their two sons, sitting around the table in the dining room. Alerted to their imminent arrest by the flashing police lights, they sat with their hands joined and heads bowed. Sgt. Runningdeer stood in the door to the kitchen. "Mr. and Mrs. Brubaker," he said, "you and your family are under arrest for crimes against Humankind and for trespassing on government property."

  Acting on the most recent directive from the United Nations, the Brubakers were taken into custody and booked. After receiving counseling, any member of the family who still refused to cease their anti-human activities and to take the communion and the mark would be held for transfer to a correctional facility. It was swift and inexorable punishment, but in light of the incredible suffering and untold deaths that had resulted from the corruption of the fresh water supply, it seemed to most people to be a very mild escalation in the penalty. This conclusion was further reinforced by the frequently televised video of fundamentalists in prison praying to Yahweh to punish the people of the earth with even greater and more violent afflictions. In a related action, the United Nations ruled that anyone caught selling goods to a fundamentalist would also be jailed, though the term of the sentencing was left up to the local authorities, depending on the circumstances.

  8:13 a.m., Friday, June 26,4 N.A. (2026 A.D.) — Derwood, Maryland

  Decker poured himself a cup of coffee and went back into the bedroom to watch television. Many would have killed for the liquid in that cup, but Decker had carefully rationed his water and still had about half of what he had started with on Sunday. Most of his water came from condensation from the refrigerator and he had to depend very little on his reserves. He felt bad that others were dying while he had plenty, but there was no way of
telling how long this would last. He chose not to think about the fact that by hoarding his water 'just in case' he was demonstrating a lack of faith in Christopher and Milner who said they would resolve the crisis in less than a week. It was just best to play it safe, he thought.

  "Welcome back," said Suzanne Wright, the television program's host, when Decker turned on the TV. "Joining us in the studio today is my very special guest, Reverend Timothy Dowd." Her voice revealed sincere respect for the man. "Reverend Dowd is here to talk about the charge that the recent cataclysms — the sores, followed by the oceans and now the fresh water turning to blood — are the result of collusion between the fundamentalists and Yahweh."

  "I don't think you can really call it just a charge anymore," Rev. Down responded. "Based on the confessions and the videotapes of fundamentalists praying in prison for Yahweh to punish the earth, I'd say there's no question that the charge is supported by the evidence."

  "I'm sure we've all seen the videotapes and heard the confessions," Suzanne Wright said. She could make that assumption with some confidence: for days the tapes had been shown, analyzed, reviewed, considered, discussed, and shown again on nearly every network and independent broadcast station in the world. "But," she continued, "and here's my real question: does Yahweh really need the prayers and support of the KDT and the fundamentalists to do what he's doing? Can't he just do it on his own? He is God, after all."

  "Well, one would certainly think so," Reverend Dowd answered. "If Yahweh is really an all-powerful god, one would think he would be capable of doing whatever he wanted, regardless of what anybody else thinks. But in the sixth chapter of Mark in the New Testament, we find that he is not quite as all-powerful as he would like for us to believe. In that account we read that Jesus was in a certain town and because so few people were willing to believe in him, he was unable to do anything more spectacular than a few minor healings.

  "The point is that we humans have tremendous power to use our mental and spiritual energy to determine what happens on this planet. Christopher is absolutely correct when he says that Yahweh's hold on the earth is in the grip of his confederates. Without the KDT and the fundamentalists (I call them the 'Cult of Yahweh'), without their prayers and support, without their focused mental and spiritual energies, Yahweh really could do very little. In fact — and this is key — what has happened to the earth over the last few weeks is not the result of Yahweh's superior powers. Rather it is the result of the fact that the KDT and fundamentalists are more focused on their vision of keeping Humankind subservient to Yahweh than those who follow Christopher are to the vision of freeing the planet of Yahweh's rule."

  "That's amazing. I never realized that."

  "In the same way, Suzanne, we must understand that as powerful as Christopher is, he cannot defeat Yahweh and the KDT and fundamentalists on his own. Christopher needs us, all of us, to support him with every ounce of positive mental and spiritual energy we can muster. We need to put off any dissension and disagreements among ourselves and focus instead on supporting Christopher and Robert Milner."

  "You've been a minister for over fifty years," Suzanne Wright said. "You're probably the best known preacher since Billy Graham. You've served for years on the World Council of Churches. And yet, from what you say, it sounds as if you ... well, almost as if you've lost all faith in Yahweh."

  "Well, with all that has happened, I'd be less than honest to tell you that I haven't struggled with that issue. But I still hold out hope. I pray to God every day that he will repent and turn from his wrath; that he will realize that we have grown beyond the need for an autocratic god, and that he will allow the people of this planet to advance to the next stage in their evolution so that one day we can join him as equals."

  Suzanne Wright smiled thoughtfully and nodded, inspired by Reverend Dowd's hopeful vision, then continued. "It should be obvious to our viewers from all that you've just said, as well as from the bandage on your cheek, that even though you're a Christian . . ." She paused for clarification. "You do refer to yourself as a Christian?" she asked.

  "Yes, of course, though I certainly never beat anyone over the head with it and tell them my way is the only way."

  "Okay, then . . . even though you're a Christian, you are not a fundamentalist."

  "God forbid," Dowd said with a slight laugh. Then pointing to the bandage on his cheek, he added, "I didn't get this shaving."

  "And I know from talking with you earlier in your dressing room that the lesion on your cheek is not the only one you have."

  "No," Dowd said. "I've taken the communion and the mark and I've got the sores to prove it." As he spoke, one of the cameras got a close up of the mark on the back of his right hand to further validate his statement.

  "You seem proud of that fact," Suzanne Wright said. "I am, Suzanne. Christopher said we should wear our sores as badges of honor, and I do."

  "If I recall, his exact words were to wear our wounds as 'badges of honor and defiance.' How do you feel about that term: 'defiance'?"

  "I prefer to think of it as steadfastness," Dowd answered.

  Wright nodded both her understanding and approval.

  "What do you say to those who say that the communion is a

  violation of the command not to drink blood, and that the mark

  is the 'mark of the beast' referred to in the Bible?"

  Timothy Dowd shook his head in complete disagreement. "That is such a tired old excuse that I hesitate to even address it again. The fundamentalists and the KDT began making these arguments as soon as the communion was announced. Nevertheless, to the first charge I would say you have to really stretch your definitions to equate taking a couple of capsules with drinking blood. The command not to drink blood is such an obscure law in the Bible that it's hard to believe Christopher's opponents would rely on such a feeble excuse. It's a sign of just how desperate they are."

  "But the 'mark of the beast' is far less obscure, isn't it?" Suzanne Wright countered.

  "You're right," Dowd replied. "Over the past fifty years or so, reference to the mark of the beast has been one of the most frequently mentioned passages in scripture. And for that very reason, it is one of the least understood. It has been so twisted by radicals and kooks, so abused by rock music groups and pulp novelists to sell recordings and books, and so frequently cited by right wing fundamentalist preachers to engender fear, that almost no one knows what it really means. I'm sure you remember twenty years ago when the current bank credit system began to replace the cash systems of the world. The outcry then from various lunatic fringe groups was that the imbedded bio-chip was itself the mark of the beast. Instead of a curse, it has proven to be not only tremendously convenient, but the biggest single deterrent to organized crime. I doubt if anyone today wants to go back to carrying around pockets full of coins and paper money, not to mention credit cards, driver's licenses, medical records, and assorted other personal ID."

  "You've just begun a major crusade to bring your message around the world," Suzanne Wright said, interrupting the natural flow of the conversation, as so many reporters do, in order to fit in all the pre-scripted questions. "Tell us a little about that."

  "Actually, Suzanne, this is a continuation of the work I've been doing for the last several years. During that time, I've been working through the World Council of Churches with the leaders of all the major Protestant denominations as well as the Pope and leaders from many other world religions."

  "I take it that doesn't include any fundamentalists," Suzanne Wright interjected in jest.

  "No," Dowd answered. "The people I'm working with are all intelligent, reasonable, open-minded people, many of whom recognize the tremendous power for good that the communion offers for Humankind, and were among the first in line to take the communion in order to calm any misgivings among the members of their denominations.

  "So," Dowd continued, "as I was saying, I've been at this for some time. It's just that now with the sores and the waters turning to
blood, people are beginning to listen. I've never believed in forcing my beliefs on anyone: I've always believed that a person's religious beliefs are a private matter. For me, what the Bible has to say about what happened 2000 years ago is far less important than what we do to help our fellow human beings and other living creatures to have a better life today." "Well put," the interviewer said as she nodded agreement. "But there is a reason for renewing my efforts right now," with this, his tone became deathly serious, "and that, quite frankly, is that the suffering and death must stop." His expression revealed both fervor and distress. His eyes seemed to hold a flood of dammed-up tears held in check only by his determination to deliver his message. "The suffering and death must stop," he repeated. "And we must do everything in our power to stop it."

  "Which brings up the current crisis," Suzanne Wright said. "Reportedly millions have died already from lack of water and millions more are at death's door. From what you've said, can we take it that you feel that the Security Council was justified in reinstating capital punishment for leaders of the fundamentalists?"

  "I'm a man of peace. In general I am absolutely opposed to capital punishment. However, as you said, millions of people have already died and millions more are close to death. Seldom are things so black and white as they are now. Without support from the 'Cult of Yahweh,' this crisis simply would not be occurring. The people we're talking about, the fundamentalist leaders, are no different than the Nazis of World War II except that they leave the actual slaughter to Yahweh. If the deaths of a few fundamentalist leaders will result in breaking Yahweh's hold on the planet and thereby save the lives of innocent millions, then as unpleasant as it is for all of us, we must not shirk our responsibility to ourselves and our children to do what is necessary. The executions should not be carried out in anger or malice or out of a desire to 'get even'; but for the sake of all Humankind, they must be carried out."

  "Right now only the leaders face execution," Wright said. "I think the question all of us are wondering about is, will that be enough? Will it be necessary to extend capital punishment to include other members of the 'Cult of Yahweh,' as you have called them?"