by Len du Randt
The man that Malcolm had dubbed as ‘Elijah’ looked at him sternly. ‘We warned the people of Israel to repent. We warned them that we would strike this land with the plagues of Egypt if the hearts of the sons and fathers were not reunited. They did not listen; they did not heed our warning.’
‘What business of yours is it whether men and their sons are reunited or not?’ Malcolm asked.
‘It is not our business,’ Elijah said. ‘We are merely messengers.’
‘Then whose business is it? Whose messengers are you?’
‘We are messengers of the Most High. It is His business.’
‘The Most High; as in HaShem?’
The men ignored the question as if it hadn’t been asked, but in his gut, Malcolm knew the answer. He ignored this knowledge and asked again, ‘Most High, as in HaShem?’
The men still ignored the question, and Malcolm clenched his fists tightly. He looked around him at the thousands of frogs that plagued the streets. They were everywhere. Everywhere except around the two men. He took a deep breath and asked as calmly as he could manage, ‘Could you make this stop?’
‘The men of Israel should learn to fear the Lord,’ Elijah’s companion said.
‘I think they’ve received the message,’ Malcolm replied with a sarcastic bite in his voice.
‘Some have,’ the companion said. ‘And some still will. Tell the people to repent and return to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or more serious plagues will overcome this land.’
‘I’ll tell them,’ Malcolm shouted impatiently. ‘Now, please, make it stop!’
‘Very well,’ Elijah said and raised his hand. ‘Cease!’
The sudden silence was overwhelming. Malcolm looked around and noticed dead frogs for as far as he could see. They just lay there in heaps. The echo of the croaking started softly at first, but soon rang out loudly in his ears. He knew that it would be a while before the sound would be completely filtered from his mind.
‘Great!’ Malcolm said as he surveyed the hopeless scene. ‘Who’s going to clean up this mess?’ When he received no reply from the two men behind him, he asked again, ‘Who is going to—?’ He cut himself off and stood still, moving only his eyes to look around. The two men were gone.
- - -* * *- - -
It was Monday morning at last. Both Trevor and René were excited to return to work; not because they actually wanted to work, but because they wanted to do some damage assessment. Trevor also wanted to surf the Internet for any additional information about the alien attacks and this stranger called Victor Yoshe.
‘What are you thinking?’ René asked as she turned down the volume of her car stereo.
‘Not much,’ Trevor lied. ‘Just thinking about the attacks.’
René looked at the skid marks burned into the road, and wondered how violent some of the accidents must have been. Trevor had told her of his own experience on the highway, and she was grateful that she had already been at work when it all started. Although most of the debris had been removed from the roads, there were still smouldering wreckages along the road at certain points. Huge metallic skeletons, she thought, the perfect testament to the injustice of the industrial movement. They didn’t speak for the remainder of the trip. Both of them were wrapped in their own thoughts on the uncertainties that the future had in store.
They arrived at the office and were surprised at the number of people that showed up. Their team leaders and product managers were all there, all congratulating one another for surviving the ‘terrible ordeal.’
‘The Eckard brothers are missing,’ René said when she joined Trevor at his cubicle. ‘They’re not sure yet, but it appears that both might have been victims.’
Trevor looked at the two empty cubicles where the Eckard brothers used to sit. They worked hard and were generally nice people, but their extravagant marketing campaign for their religion had become a serious thorn in his side. It started with the unsolicited ‘daily bread’ email that they sent to everyone in the company. Then there were the daily ‘Jesus Saves’ tracts on their desks in the morning, strategically placed in such a way that no one could miss it. Eventually the two brothers had half the company’s staff gathered in prayer meetings during lunch time. It almost became a circus.
‘I feel conflicted,’ Trevor said as he flipped through a tract. ‘It’s almost as if I’m relieved and yet sad at the same time.’
‘You too?’ René asked. ‘I feel the same. Just didn’t want to say anything. I’m sad for their loss of life, but also relieved that it was them who got killed instead of us.’
‘That’s true,’ Trevor said and dropped the little booklet into the waste bin.
René looked at his monitor and noticed that there were a string of emails coming in. ‘I’ll let you attend to those while I get some info from management about the proceedings here.’
‘Thanks,’ Trevor said. ‘I will join you for coffee in about half an hour.’
Once she was gone, he filtered through his mail, deleting hundreds of SPAM messages. He hated SPAM and despised those who sent the junk emails. One mail did catch his attention. It read:
GMN Update Report: The Attacks, the Devastation, and the Rebuilding
He didn’t delete this mail. Instead, he dragged it to his ‘Attention’ folder for later printing and reading. He was about to go unavailable when his phone rang.
‘Tech Support, you’re speaking to Trevor, how may I help you?’
‘Hi there, who am I speaking to?’
Trevor sighed. ‘You’re speaking to Trevor.’
‘Oh,’ the client on the other end of the line said. ‘Hi Travis. I was wondering if you could help me.’
It was going to be one of those calls. ‘I can try,’ Trevor said. ‘What seems to be the problem?’
‘Uh, yes,’ the client began. ‘I can’t connect to the Internet. Is there something wrong on your side?’
The entire world’s infrastructure just collapsed and you want to know why you can’t connect? ‘There is nothing wrong on this side that I’m aware of,’ Trevor said as he tried to keep his voice as composed as possible. ‘What does it tell you when you try to connect?’
‘It doesn’t tell me anything,’ the man said.
‘It has to give you some sort of error message, sir,’ Trevor said.
‘How do I see it?’
‘Just after you try to connect, it should pop it up on your screen.’
‘And then?’
‘Well, that message will tell you more or less what is causing the connection problem.’
‘I didn’t see any messages on my screen, but maybe if I—’
The line cut off with an abrupt click and disconnected the client.
Idiot, Trevor thought as he logged off and went unavailable. Serves you right for using dated technology. He picked up his coffee mug and headed toward the kitchen. On his way he signalled for René to join him. Some things will never change, he thought. Not even if the world was coming to an end.
- - -* * *- - -
The atmosphere was electric in the massive auditorium of the conference centre, and although you could fry an egg on the hood of a car in the scorching Dubai sun outside, the inside of the building was refreshingly cool.
Hundreds of the world’s most renowned religious leaders were gathered in response to a calling from Arch Bishop Antonio Pascale who only recently took temporary control of the Vatican since the Pope’s disappearance. No one knew for sure whether the Pope was a casualty in the alien attacks, or whether he was injured or killed in the ensuing chaos, but someone needed to keep order in the house, and so Arch Bishop Pascale was nominated and assigned to the task until a successor could be elected.
Victor had asked Ryan to attend the meeting and to report all the details of the proceedings back to him. His employer wanted to be there himself, but had more pressing matters to take care of, so Ryan attended the event in his place. He took a seat on the second storey of the auditorium, close to the b
ack, so that he could see everything clearly.
Antonio was running late.
‘Are you excited to be here?’ a man sitting next to Ryan asked him. The man was dressed in a black suit and wore a purple tie. His hair was combed neatly backward, and his breath smelled of mint.
‘I guess,’ Ryan replied as unenthusiastically as he could, hoping that the man would catch the hint.
‘All these people are here to find spiritual enlightenment after the alien attacks,’ the man said, obviously not catching the hint.
‘That’s nice,’ Ryan said as he scanned the crowd.
‘What we are to experience today,’ the man said, not caring whether Ryan wanted conversation or not, ‘is the birth of a new enlightenment, unlike any the world has ever seen.’
‘Uh-huh,’ Ryan said. ‘New enlightenment. That’s good.’ He wasn’t paying attention. His focus was on the stage, looking out for the man that most had flown halfway around the world to see.
The crowd hushed as a man made his way up the stage and approached the podium. Is it him? Ryan wondered. A sudden buzz of excitement filled the air.
‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ the man announced into the microphone. ‘Leaders of all religions of Earth; we are proud to present to you: Arch Bishop Antonio Pascale!’
There were some cheers and a few people clapped, but no one walked onto the stage.
‘Oh,’ the man next to Ryan said and stood up. ‘That’s me.’
Oh brother, Ryan thought and rolled his eyes.
The man then stood up as a spotlight washed over him, and everyone in the audience turned to look at him. The man lifted his hands and slowly rose into the air. There were gasps as he leaned forward and glided over the balcony’s railing. The people could only stare agape as the man flew over their heads and descended onto the stage. After a moment of amazed silence, an explosion of clapping erupted from the crowd, and Antonio smirked and winked at Ryan before acknowledging the rest of the audience.
That was him? Ryan thought to himself. He wanted to kick himself for not realizing it sooner, but knew that it was too late to do anything about it now.
‘Good day, everyone,’ Antonio shouted into the microphone.
Random people in the crowd returned his greeting.
‘I hope that we’re all fine today,’ he said and wiped at his forehead with a handkerchief. ‘It’s pretty hot out here, isn’t it?’
Some nods.
‘Many of you are wondering why I have invited you all here today. The answer is simple really: to supply you with answers to all the religious questions being asked; questions asked because of recent events and revelations.’
More nods.
‘There are scared and confused people out there that are about to turn to churches and religious leaders for answers, and we need to be armed and equipped to handle this delicate issue with the utmost professionalism.
‘As many of you know, most mainstream religions believe and therefore proclaim that there is no life in the Universe other than that on Earth. But as we all know now, all those religions had been proved wrong.’
There were some told-you-so chuckles from the leaders who did indeed believe in alien life.
Ryan recorded the speech on a mini tape recorder. There was no way that he was going to write down everything, and also no way that any of the information could be lost. Victor would have his head.
‘There are some religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam to name but three; whose core foundations have come crumbling down because of the recent alien attacks. This has left the followers feeling conflicted and betrayed.
‘In the wider scope of things, this is not good. The collapse of a trustworthy religious system could cause a rift in overall morale; sparking a rebellion which no one, not even the world governments would not be able to control and contain. This, my friends, we cannot allow.’
Everyone in the audience nodded in agreement. Ryan observed that Antonio’s charisma and demeanour almost matched that of Victor himself.
‘And it is for this reason that I have called you all here today,’ Antonio said. ‘I have summoned you here to clear up this religious conundrum and to show you the path to the real truth; the truth that you can guide your flock to and enlighten them with. But first; are there any questions?’
Hundreds of hands rose into the air at once, and people began shouting their questions at Antonio. He hushed them by gently waving his arms. ‘All right people; let us all consider one another. We will all have a chance to ask our questions.’
Ushers moved down the aisles with long poles, each one with a microphone attached at the end. Ryan thought that they looked more like night club bouncers than ushers.
‘You sir,’ Antonio said and pointed to a man in the audience. The man looked around and pointed at himself. ‘Yes, you. What is your question?’
One of the ushers walked to his row, and brought the boom mic near the man’s mouth. He cautiously took the microphone in his hand to stabilize it and cleared his throat. ‘Erm...’ he said. ‘Where is the Pope?’
‘No one knows,’ Antonio said once the murmurs died down. He appeared to be sad for a brief moment. ‘The Pope has been missing since the attacks.’ He quickly composed himself. ‘The woman in the green dress,’ he said and pointed to someone else. ‘What is your question?’
The woman waited for the microphone. She took it in her hand and the people winced and covered their ears at the loud feedback screeching through the speakers. She let go of the mike and the high-pitched noise stopped. She leaned forward towards the microphone without touching it again. ‘Where was God when the aliens attacked?’
‘Good question,’ Antonio said, wasting no time with his reply. ‘But you have to ask yourself this question: which God? Allah? Jesus? Brahman? Krishna? Buddha? Maitreya? Jehovah? Or even Zeus?’
Some within the crowd chuckled.
‘God, or whatever you call him, was here all along. It was all part of his plan, as you shall shortly see. He didn’t prevent the attacks from happening, but allowed it, for the greater good. He knows the long-term plan, where we mortals cannot. He allowed the suffering to show and teach us that united together, we can overcome any obstacle thrown at us, no matter how large or severe.’
Another man raised his hand, and a mike was quickly shoved into his face.
‘Yes, sir?’
‘Which one of these religions,’ the man said and pointed to all the people seated around him, ‘is the true one?’
People started talking at once, and Antonio had to calm them all down again.
‘The answer to your question, sir,’ Antonio said, ‘is that they are all true.’
There was an outcry from most of the religious leaders within the audience, and this time, Antonio had Ryan’s full and undivided attention.
‘Yet at the very same time, they are all false too.’
The confused crowd quietened down to hear him out.
‘Think about it, people,’ Antonio said. ‘Allow me to break religion down to the basics: almost all of us believe in a Sovereign Being, right? Some higher form of divine power other than ourselves?’
Nods of agreement.
‘And almost all of us believe that this ‘Sovereign Being’ made the Heavens and Earth, and created people; am I right?’
Some nods, some frowns.
‘We don’t all agree on the nitty-gritty details, of course, but the basics are still the same. Some believe that we were created pretty much the way that we appear now. Others believe that we have evolved from something much simpler over a few millennia.
‘On the same scale, almost all religions believe in the concept of sin to some degree or another. It does not matter how this ‘sin’ is defined in the various religions, the basics of it is that our iniquities separates man from his deity.’
More nods.
‘Man is thus required to make some sort of atonement for his transgressions in order to close the chasm of sin and be reunited with his
divine maker. Some religions specify that an offering of sorts be made; sometimes human and sometimes the sinner’s most prized possession. Some need to say blessings. Others need to do good deeds to strangers. More common are the religions that call upon a saviour; a Messiah.’
Many nodded.
‘All religions have some sort of afterlife belief. Some believe in Nirvana, others in a Heaven and Hell of sorts. Some embrace reincarnation, while others believe in a restored paradise on Earth.
‘Most of the religions that promote a Messiah, Saviour, Christ, Maytreya, Prophet, Anointed One, or whatever you wish to call him or her, believe that this person will come some or other time in the future and reunite man with this God of his.
‘The Muslims believe that Imam Mahdi will come. Christians believe that their Jesus will come back. Buddhists believe in the coming of Maitreya Buddha. There are so many more examples that I can give you, all with their own folktales, traditions, and flavours; passed down from generation to generation.’
Antonio scanned across the audience to see if he still had their attention. He did.
‘What I am trying to say is that when you break it down to the basics, we all believe in the same thing. We just give it our own names, change a detail here and there, slap a label on it, and selfishly try to hog it for ourselves. Whether you use the Bible, the Koran, the Book of Mormon, Tracts, or even special divine messages from the leader of the said religion, it doesn’t really matter. At the core, they all point in the same direction.’
Ryan used Antonio’s pause to change the tape.
‘It is our own selfish natures that have caused religious crusades and wars to plague the Earth. Religious hatred. Over what? The same thing!’
The crowd nodded in agreement to what Antonio was saying.
‘You’re finally getting it,’ Antonio said. ‘The ‘truth’ is that God is in all of us. We are all in God, and thus we can safely gather that we are all, in some way, Godly in essence.’