Ubiquitous Aspirations

by Lynn Daniels

son would be a perfect leader for a perfect world and his son would never know or experience the bitter pain and loneliness that he suffered.

  Oscar’s impatience finally got the best of him. His desire for a son was growing too large to ignore. He took a trip to Utopia where he decided he would look for a woman to bear his child. This task proved to be more difficult than expected. Oscar was not a loving man. He knew nothing about courtship and quite frankly, he was never pressed for female company. He was taken aback when women shied away from him or deferred to their male caretakers, many of whom expected Oscar to request a hand in marriage.

  Oscar scoffed at such things. Marriage was an institution that Hiroma and Sunjata promoted. This was never a priority for him and it was something he never bothered to preach about. This civilized behavior was not the vision of the future that Oscar had in mind. Truth be told, he hated it. In his eyes, marriage and raising children was a form of slavery. The expectation that mortals were born to breed and repeat the cycle of their parents agitated him. He believed that this narrow-minded way of thinking stunted potential and kept mortals from becoming intelligent. It kept mortals from believing there was more to life than trying to raise a family.

  This forced Oscar to adopt a new focus. Instead of going after the nubile, aesthetically pleasing women that all men were pursuing, he wanted the less desirable ones. He looked for women who were still healthy but passed over. The women whose best days were behind them and most importantly women who felt they did not have anything or anyone to live for. If he could find a woman like that, then he would be pleased with her.

  This new approach was much more fruitful than his old approach. Oscar quickly learned that places of worship were rife with women. Old Utopian culture stated that a woman who had surpassed 10 years after the onset of puberty was no longer fit to marry and therefore were of no use to their families. If the woman was not tasked to become a caretaker for her ailing or elderly parents then she would be exiled to the nearest place of worship and she would be forced into a life of celibacy and saving the wretched souls of others in order to redeem themselves in the eyes of the creator.

  Oscar found this to be a highly ironic process. He was the creator. He was the one these poor young ladies were all aiming to please because they were unable to marry and here was Oscar, a man who showed an utter disregard for marriage and feeble attempts at cleansing one’s soul to achieve a false sense of salvation after death.

  This paradox brought a sly smile to Oscar’s face and he hatched a plan to pretend to be a wretched soul so he could gain access to a convent. He found one that would take him in and once inside, it did not take Oscar long to find the one he was looking for. Her name was Greta and she was nothing like the other women. She was tall and stout with short black hair and deep green eyes. She was exceptionally clumsy and she never talked all that much.

  Oscar believed Greta could be convinced to run off with him. She was despondent and did not appear to be resigned to a life of being a nun. He also took note of how often she was scolded for mistakes and taunted for her sassy mouth when she bothered to speak. He overheard the threats of how her spirit would be tortured and how she would be sentenced to an afterlife of pain and misery.

  One such afternoon, Oscar found Greta outside crying. He knew this would be his best chance to talk to her. He went over to comfort her and they began to talk. Greta expressed her disillusionment with the entire process. She felt that dying would release her from the pain she felt from being alive and how her superiors were hypocrites for preaching kindness and charity to the masses while they beat their subordinates while no one watched.

  Oscar bolstered her confidence by telling her she was the smartest one there and how everyone misinterprets The Prophecy for their own personal gain. He told her that the only one who knows what the creator wants is the creator himself. He then proposed they run off together. No one would care that they are gone. Everyone saw them as misfits and in their eyes, it would be two fewer mouths to feed.

  Greta agreed to leave and that night, the two snuck out of the convent. Oscar took Greta to a cottage he built somewhere in the vast, isolated hills of Utopia. There, the two lived awkwardly. They never truly became friends. Though they were intimate, neither grew to love or even care for each other. Greta was remorseful and questioned whether she should return to the convent while Oscar was ornery and controlling. Things got worse when Greta discovered she was expecting.

  She informed Oscar of this development and in the days and weeks to come her behavior became erratic. Oscar typically paid her no mind when she became emotional, but one day about halfway through the pregnancy, Oscar found Greta attempting to take her own life. Oscar stopped Greta and she tried to fight back. She began mouthing off about how she was tainted and her soul would be sent to eternal damnation for being an unwed mother. Oscar retorted by telling her that marriage meant nothing and she was free to assume that they were married if that would calm her down. Greta whined about how a belief could not be witnessed by the creator and that ticked Oscar off.

  He exploded on her and told her that everything she believed about The Prophecy was wrong and he could prove it. He then tied Greta to a chair, stormed out of the cottage and used rapid transport to go back to the compound. He rummaged through the entire compound until he came upon Sunjata’s dungeon. There on Sunjata’s desk he found a handwritten copy of The Prophecy and a small black book next to it. It was Sunjata’s secret scripture. Oscar took possession of both and returned to the cottage.

  When he returned he waved the document in front of a still bound Greta proclaiming that he had the one true copy of The Prophecy written in the ancient Cerebesian language and he revealed that he wrote it himself. He continued his rant by saying there is nothing in the document about marriage and there is no need to concern herself with the desires of the creator. He then identified himself as the creator and he used his powers to free Greta from the ropes.

  Greta got scared and started to cry and grovel in front of Oscar. Oscar made her get up and he warned her about testing his patience. After that incident, Greta was on edge and she was startled every time Oscar tried speaking to her. Meanwhile, Oscar kept a close eye on Greta but he refused to touch her.

  The day had finally come for the baby to be born. Greta began experiencing labor pains as Oscar felt uneasy. Greta pleaded with Oscar to relieve her pain but Oscar refused because he feared that using his powers would harm the baby. Greta was in immense pain and Oscar tried his best to help Greta deliver the baby. Greta labored all night and into the wee hours of the morning as Oscar stayed by her side.

  Greta continued to cry and she begged Oscar to make the pain go away. The distress was getting to be too much to bear and to further complicate matters; Oscar discovered the baby was not breathing. He took matters into his own hands and proceeded to revive the baby without using his powers. After a few minutes, the baby began to cough and cry. Oscar cracked a smile as tears welled in his eyes. He turned to show the baby off to Greta but his smile quickly faded when he realized she was unresponsive. Oscar tried desperately to revive Greta using his powers, but it was already too late.

  Oscar’s body trembled, his lips were quivering and tears streamed down his eyes. He was silent. He had finally attained the one thing he had always wanted and worked so hard for in that moment, none of it mattered to him. For the first and perhaps only time in his life, Oscar was overcome with immense grief. He shed a few tears, but he remained still.

  It was only when the baby cried again that Oscar snapped out of his trance. Oscar then took care to clean and groom the baby. When he finished, he looked into the baby’s eyes and spoke softly about naming him Norman because that is what Greta wanted to name him. He also mentioned how a small part of him died so that Norman would be able to live and he hoped that his newborn son would grow up to make him and his mother proud.

  Oscar wrapped Norman up in a blanket and carried him over to his desk. Oscar took out a journa
l that he faithfully used to keep track of the number of days that had passed since creating his system. Instead of adding an additional day to his tally he turned the page and wrote a short line of text at the top and began a new tally.

  After that, Oscar closed the journal and began the arduous task of preparing a proper burial plot for Greta. It took Oscar several days to retrieve items and to build a coffin. He planned to bury Greta behind his cottage because it was the peak of the tallest hill in the meadow. Oscar worked feverishly to prepare a burial plot and he only stopped whenever he needed to tend to Norman.

  Oscar completed the task of burying Greta. He was bothered by the exposed dirt representing her plot and he used his powers to create flowers to cover it. The flowers were small and colorful and this appeared to please and irritate Oscar at the same time. He liked looking at the flowers, but he also had the urge to plant more so he sprouted more flowers. He covered the hill and he started to cover another, but his concentration was broken when Norman began to cry again.

  Oscar went to care for Norman and as he tried to calm the baby, he felt compelled to pack his belongings. He wanted to go back