Infinite Testament

by Greg Ness

  Stephen and Lisa wandered past a little burger stand.

  “Wanna get a burger?” Lisa asked.

  “Sure. I’m always up for a burger,” Stephen said with a giant pink dog over his shoulder.

  They walked toward the burger stand when they were interrupted by a female voice. “Hey guys!”

  The voice was sharply recognizable. At first, Stephen couldn’t match it to a face. Then he saw Kristen waving her hand in the air running toward them. “Oh great,” he mumbled to himself. Kristen was wearing bright pink, essentially matching the dog draped over Stephen. She looked dapper as always. Kristen never spared an expense when it came to her style.

  “What’s up guys?”

  Kristen and Lisa embraced.

  “How are you?” Lisa asked, “Where’s Bruce?”

  Kristen hugged Stephen, “He’s in line getting a hot dog. I told him to meet me over here.”

  Stephen grew ecstatic to finally have a chance to see him. He never heard from him anymore. Bruce was always spending time with Kristen. It irked Stephen everyday. It was like Bruce had forgotten he even existed. Bruce was supposed to be his best friend. Was it too much to ask to check in every once in a while? His personality had changed a little too. He was a philosophy major, and he became, well, philosophical. Nonetheless, Stephen was excited to see him again. Finally.

  Bruce arrived, hot dog in hand, and approached Stephen. “What’s going on? Long time.” Bruce shook Stephen’s hand in that nonchalant way Bruce does things.

  “How’ve you been Bruce? I haven’t heard from you in forever. You don’t answer my calls.”

  Kristen slapped Bruce’s shoulder. “Why don’t you answer his calls?!”

  “I’m sorry man, I’ve just been busy, that’s all. Peter van Inwagen and all his crap been keeping me up all night. Philosophy’s not easy.”

  “Hey no problem,” Stephen muttered. Looking to shift the focus, he said, “Ya know Lisa’s moving to Los Angeles in a month. She’s going to be a movie star.”

  Lisa blushed. “We’ll see about that. I’m just going to see what I can do, maybe I can get some parts or something.”

  “That’s great!” Kristen proclaimed.

  This was just like when the four of them met at the theme park. The fair was less glorified, but similar in purpose.

  Without warning, a blanket of darkness covered them and the heavens unleashed barrels of water. As the four friends became drenched, they sensed it was time to separate once again.

  Bruce shook Stephen’s hand. “Sorry it’s been so long.”

  It felt good for Stephen to hear him say that. Life had pulled them apart but there would always be a special place in their hearts for one another. Stephen looked at Bruce as water poured from his hair onto his face.

  Bruce whispered into Stephen’s ear, “I’ll bring it next time we get together, it’s your turn to have it for a little while.”

  Stephen smiled. It was overdue for his turn. Not that it really mattered, but they did have an agreement, and Stephen kept his end of the bargain for all those years.

  They shook hands and gave each other a brief hug. “I’ll see you soon.”

  They wouldn’t see each other soon. In fact, the next time they saw each other, it wouldn’t be a happy reunion.

  Bruce and Kristen walked away. Stephen and Lisa watched as they faded into the distance. “Lisa,” Stephen announced, “Follow me.” Stephen darted off with the pink dog over his shoulder, which was getting progressively heavier as the rain soaked down. Confused, Lisa ran after him.

  Stephen stopped at a mini-roller coaster. It only went in a circle and was designed for little kids. He asked the operator, “Can we get on this?” The operator shook his head. “Too wet.” Stephen dropped his head in disappointment.

  Lisa caught up with him, huffing for air. “What’s gotten in to you? You know I’m not that fast! We have to get out of the rain!”

  Stephen gazed into Lisa’s green eyes, “You know, I met you on a roller coaster, so I figured the right place to do this would be… on a roller coaster.” Lisa shook her head, not understanding what he was getting at.

  Stephen reached into his pocket. “I love you.”

  Water dripped down her face. Her long, flowing, brown hair was soaked. Her clothes grew wetter by the second. The light in her eyes illuminated the darkness around him.

  Stephen pulled a tiny square box out of his pocket. He got on one knee and snapped it open. A ring sat inside. “Lisa Binsby, will you marry me?”

  Stephen cleared the entire pool table. All that remained was the 8-ball. Unluckily for Paul Higgins, Stephen was exceptional at pool. It was a talent he never fully utilized, with the exception of a couple cheap carnival games. Paul lost his swagger and was lagging way behind. The crowd was stunned. Campbell proudly looked on as his boss was about to grow $2,000 richer.

  “What’s wrong Paul? Can’t make it seven in a row?” Stephen had stolen Paul’s thunder. He enjoyed turning the tables on this ex-bully. Sometimes people just needed a taste of their own medicine to set them straight. Not that Paul Higgins would ever be anything but a primetime jerk.

  The crowd wondered aloud who it was laying a beat down on their hero. “Who is that guy?” “What movie is he from?” The crowd obliviously awaited Paul’s defeat.

  Paul knocked in some shots. He wasn’t an inadequate opponent. In fact, he was an excellent player; but Stephen was phenomenal. It was only a matter of time before Paul screwed up, allowing Stephen a chance to put the game to rest. Sure enough, Paul’s shot left his target ball barely tipping and missing the middle cup. The white ball ricocheted toward the center of the table.

  Stephen had a clear shot with the 8-ball in the corner pocket. He chalked his stick, leaned in to Campbell, who had been his biggest fan throughout the match, and said, “Guess I’m buying dinner for the next couple days.” Stephen approached and prepared to sink his shot.

  The crowd shifted its focus. One by one, heads switched directions. They all looked toward Paul. The match became an afterthought. Stephen was flabbergasted. He was about to make the shot they’d been waiting for. What could take their attention away from that?

  Stephen could barely see Paul anymore as the crowd closed around him. A woman kissed him on the cheek. “Who is that?” Stephen asked Campbell. The crowd continued to block their view. Stephen and Campbell tried to look around the clustered heads to see what was causing the commotion.

  Paul emerged from the crowd and uttered, “Get it over with already.” Stephen now had a clear look at what caused the ruckus: the woman who kissed Paul Higgins.

  It was Lisa Binsby.

  5

  A week later, the whole world was watching Stephen Pandora. This was the biggest moment of his life and here he was, about to give a speech to every living person on the planet.

  He was in the United States Capitol at a joint meeting of Congress. As Campbell told him before, this was different from a joint session. A joint session was typically only given by the president and was far more formal and full of tradition.

  Stephen, in a suit and tie, approached the podium. Countless presidents and foreign leaders have spoken from this very spot. Stephen was not overwhelmed by his predecessors; he was determined to accomplish his mission. The well-dressed, fancy members of Congress flooded the intimidating half-circular room. They were attentively waiting for him to begin. He looked at everyone as the American flag hung vertically behind him. There were three Teleprompters to guide him through the speech. One on his left, one on his right, and one right above the camera in front of him. He had practiced and was fairly confident he could handle them. The text sat and waited on the screens to be read. He took a deep breath and began.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen, members of Congress, thank you for allowing me to speak to you today. It has been almost two years since my team and I stumbled upon the ILD. For those of you who don’t know, ILD stands for ‘Infinite Life Discovery’. Without getting procedur
al, what we discovered is that at the instant of your death, you are reborn.

  “This idea of rebirth differs from what you may traditionally identify as ‘reincarnation’. With reincarnation, a person dies and later comes back into a new body. Further, with reincarnation, a person’s rebirth can happen any time in the future after he dies. With the Infinite Life Discovery, we found that when someone dies, he starts his life exactly as he had begun it before. So if you were born in 1960 but died in 1999, you would be reborn in 1960 exactly as you had been before.

  “Take for example, President John F. Kennedy. He was born in 1917. He grew up, became Senator, and later President. He was assassinated in 1963. At the instant of his death, he will be reborn in 1917. He will grow up, become Senator and later President. He will then be assassinated again in 1963.

  “Each and every one of you will die. When that happens, you will be born again, just like before. You will grow up and do exactly what you have already done. And later, you will sit through this exact speech again. This is your ‘Infinite Life’- the same life over and over again.

  “The history of the world repeats itself an infinite amount of times.”

  Campbell watched on a television monitor from a small room in the Capitol. So far, so good.

  “What started out as an experiment to track ape behavior in their natural habitat resulted in this groundbreaking discovery. Experiment after experiment yielded the same result: Instant rebirth upon death.”

  Stephen took a break from reading the Teleprompters to examine the audience. Their faces were stoic. Stephen couldn’t figure out if they were interested or bored. Either way, almost every face had the same look; it was an expression he’d seen on people right before they fell asleep. He couldn’t imagine them not paying attention; this was the greatest problem of their time. That fact provided him solace. He turned back to the Teleprompter.

  “For some bigger perspective, think of the Universe. It started with the Big Bang, which you are all familiar with. The Universe’s ultimate end will be the Big Crunch. Imagine it this way: the Universe starts out as a little dot, a period. It explodes with the Big Bang. Because of gravity, this little dot expands and expands for septillions of years. Eventually, it does the opposite: it begins to contract. It shrinks and shrinks until this big Universe goes back to being a little dot again. This is the Big Crunch. What happens next is this same little dot, that same little period, will explode and expand again to form the Universe. The course of the Universe is then exactly the same as it had been before and the process repeats an infinite amount of times.

  “Now, if everyone starts their lives over, you have to assume it is impossible to change a single event in history. Let’s say your parents are born. Your father changes a decision in his life and never meets your mother. You are not born, your children are not born, and everything is affected. This is known as the Butterfly Effect. Ultimately, one tiny little change will reshape everything. If we accept the fact that everyone is infinitely reborn, then everything has to replay exactly for the rebirth to occur. Otherwise, some people may never be born. Therefore, you will simply be unable to change the slightest event in your life.

  “To reiterate simply: you will die, you will be reborn, and you will live the same exact life you previously lived. Change is impossible; it will not happen.

  “All these facts render suicide useless, and above all, foolish. Unfortunately, many misconceptions and false promises have surfaced. Organized groups and individuals have convinced themselves that they can start over and fix their lives. They have chosen to ignore the fact that nothing can be changed. 1.5 billion have committed suicide and sadly most of them did so because of this false hope.

  “Unfortunately, they made a grave mistake. You will live your life again. You will live your life a trillion times over. But you will not remember the life you lived before and you will not be able to change a single thing. The life you live again will be the same exact life you just lived.

  “The ILD may be new, but the core ideas have been around since before our discovery. Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote, ‘This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence.’ Of course, when Nietzsche wrote that from his book, “The Gay Science,” it was just an idea without any credence.”

  Campbell was analyzing every aspect of the speech. Stephen was doing well with the Teleprompters. The practice at UCLA the week before had surely helped. That speech was not as fluid as this one. Though Stephen was probably dying on the inside, he seemed confident. Campbell stood with Al, a secret service member who was assigned to watch him for the day.

  “Are you understanding all this?” Campbell asked him.

  “I knew this before,” Al responded.

  “Good.”

  Campbell resumed watching Stephen on the screen.

  Stephen continued, “The reasons for suicides are plentiful. Someone may face a death in the family or might not get the job he was hoping to get.

  “We need to make sure people understand that if they kill themselves they will be doomed to repeat it forever. They will not have their miracle shot at changing the past. Not a thing in their past can be changed.

  “Not a single thing.”

  Al was confounded. “Jay, how can you stop them from killing themselves if they did it the last time around anyway?”

  Campbell responded, “While what they’re going to do is already determined, it hasn’t happened here yet. So it’s as if it’s for the first time.”

  “Do we have Free Will?”

  Campbell’s face quivered. This was the trickiest part of the equation and the reason so many people had killed themselves already. No one could accept that they didn’t have a choice in their lives. Free Will was a concept embraced by most on the planet. Not having a choice and already having a planned course was beyond comprehension for a lot of people.

  “Free will…” the television muttered.

  “Perfect timing,” Campbell said to Al. Stephen was about to relieve Campbell of explaining further.

  Stephen continued, “Free will is the biggest problem people face. With what I am presenting to you today, Free Will seems to become an impossibility. I can confidently tell you that we all have a choice. We can all do what we please. The fact that we do not remember what we’ve already done enables everything we do to be fresh and new. However, no matter what we choose, it will be exactly as we’ve chosen before. This might seem like a paradox, but we nonetheless all have a choice.”

  Al looked at Campbell with a baffled look. “What?”

  “You have Free Will,” Campbell reassured.

  The television abruptly flashed with static. Where Stephen’s face had been was now replaced with nothing but rapidly moving white and black lines.

  “What is this?” Campbell asked Al.

  Al looked at the television, perplexed. “I don’t know.”

  The static stopped and a man’s face appeared on the screen. He was scruffy looking, dressed in all black and eerily confident. His long black hair extended to his shoulders. He had a noticeable scar running perpendicularly over his left eye. It had to be recent as it was still healing. The poor lighting and pale white background of the room were overrun by the man’s dominating presence.

  He spoke, “People of the world, what you are hearing now is false. Everything Stephen Pandora says is a lie. When you die, you indeed have a fresh start.”

  Campbell and Al watched in horror as this intruder somehow interrupted Stephen’s speech with his own crazy rhetoric.

  He continued, “In fact, the state of the world has gotten so bad, we have decided to grant everyone a new beginning. Tomorrow at 3:33 PM Pacific Time, we are going to destroy the world. There will be an explosion. It will cover the entire
planet. There will be no survivors. There will be no escape. We don’t want to drag this out. We just want a chance for everyone to start over.”

  The man paused and stared directly into the camera. He wore a smile of immense satisfaction and terrifying confidence. It was easy to see that, to him, this was not a joke. “I’m telling you this because we can’t be stopped. You deserve to know of the great day awaiting us. Enjoy your last day. Tomorrow we start anew.” The man paused and timidly lowered his eyes. “I will see you again, Sara.”

  He disappeared and Stephen’s speech seamlessly came back on the television. “…I hope we can work together to solve this problem…”

  Campbell and Al continued watching the speech. Campbell was dumbfounded. He stared through the screen. His mind was too busy racing for words to be spoken.

  Later, Stephen sat in a limo with Campbell. They stared at each other as they whizzed through traffic. Not only had they failed to get their message across, but now someone was threatening to blow up the world. Thoughts zipped through Stephen’s mind. Was it even possible to blow up the world? How could that man have nuclear weapons? The afternoon was a colossal failure. Stephen’s meeting with the president had been postponed indefinitely. Not surprisingly, a nuclear threat was more of a pressing issue than meeting with Stephen to discuss the ILD and mass suicides.

  Stephen had seen that man before. He couldn’t figure out where or how he’d seen him, but he had the strongest feeling that he knew him from somewhere. Maybe it was the deep scar over his eye that threw Stephen off. Either way, he could swear he was familiar.

  He didn’t know it, but his inkling was right.

  6

  Stephen and Campbell entered Stephen’s hotel room where Miles anxiously waited. Stephen picked him up and Miles licked his face in return. Stephen paced to the bed and sat. Campbell stood with his hands on his hip and stared at the ground. There was silence between them. For most of the ride over there had been silence. With a supposed end of the world looming, there was too much deep thinking for any words to possibly keep up with. Stephen looked at Miles, whose tail viciously wagged. How nice it must be to be him. Not a care in the world. He had no idea of the troubles plaguing dogs’ best friend. It was too bad traditional reincarnation didn’t exist. If it did, Stephen would come back as a dog. Unfortunately, he’d have to settle for living his life all over again. And again. And again. Stephen tried not to think of it. What a prison for humanity to have to live every pain and every regret over again. An infinite amount of the same mistakes; this was the fate of man. There were plenty of things Stephen would change if he could. Discovering the ILD would probably be one of them. If the wheel was man’s best discovery, the ILD was probably the worst. 1.5 billion people have killed themselves since and most of them did it for a chance to start over. The worst part, Stephen thought, was these people would be doomed to kill themselves again in the same fashion at their next go-round. At least it wasn’t as bad as people who lived truly terrible lives. People who were tortured or killed in horrendous ways would be forced to live through it an infinite amount of times. It was a fate Stephen was glad he would not have to face. There were plenty of things Stephen would change in his life, but one stood above the rest.