Zack, I don’t know. At this point, I’m not sure what to believe about anything anymore. I think we just have to leave here. Then maybe we’ll find some answers.
No, come on, that dream has to mean something. I mean, it really happened… or was going to happen. Jeez… Zack plumbed the depths of his mind for the hidden words that would unlock her to him. It’s chemistry Lilly! We have chemistry together. It’s like, did you ever do online dating?
No.
Well I did.
Loser.
Hey! Everyone was doing it.
Haha. I’m just kidding, I know they were.
Anyway, the funny thing about it is that you could never really tell exactly how you were going to click with somebody just from reading their online profile or emailing with them. Sometimes you’d sit down for a coffee with someone that you would’ve thought was a great match, but then it’d turn out that you could barely keep up a conversation.
Ok.
And other times, you’d meet someone that you thought was probably too different, but somehow it turned out that you were perfect for each other.
Well, it couldn’t have been too perfect, or else you’d be telling this to them right now!
Yes, but what I’m saying is that the difference is human chemistry. People are infinitely more complex than just their job, age, appearance, and a set of likes and dislikes, and you never know exactly how two people are going to get along until you throw them together and see. And with us, well it just works. We have that chemistry Lilly, can’t you feel it? I know you felt it that day back at the waterfall, remember?
Lilly could see that Zack was trying very hard. Yes Zack, we do have some chemistry. You’re right.
“I’ll take it!” he said aloud.
They laughed.
“And what about Lucky and Debbie?” Lilly asked. “Do they have chemistry too?”
“I think so.”
“Yeah, they’re both so perfect. It’s like the high school quarterback and the cheerleading captain, except that Lucky and Debbie are both such good people that it’s impossible to hate them.”
“Why would you want to hate them?”
“I don’t know, cause they’re so perfect?”
“Well, I know you have a history with Debbie, but don’t take that out on Lucky.”
“No no, Debbie and I put it behind us. I’m happy for them, I am. I was just saying…”
Zack and Lilly continued working into the afternoon. Then, when they were almost finished, there was another knock at the door.
“Hey guys,” said God, in an unusually casual voice.
“Hey,” they both said at once.
“So… whatch’ya doin’?”
“Oh, just taking a little break,” said Lilly.
“Yeah, I think we both just need some time to decompress,” said Zack.
“Sure, sure. But you know you could’ve built the ship quicker, don’t you? You didn’t have to start from scratch like this.”
“We know,” said Lilly, “but we wanted to have the fun of building it ourselves.”
“Oh, cool. Very cool,” God said. “At the same time though, don’t you want to get back to Limbo? Aren’t you wondering about Tarta, Klatan… Santar?”
“Of course,” said Zack, “but we’ve been through a lot recently.”
“Right, right. I can see that. It’s just that, well, I’m sorry to pry, but I’m not used to seeing you like this – so preoccupied, so engrossed in your own little world. Aren’t you at least going to ask me some questions? Maybe about some contradictions with Heaven or Limbo that you noticed recently? I always enjoy working through your little paradoxes so much.”
“Um, yes,” said Lilly. “There was something I’ve been meaning to ask you about. It was… um… abortion! I wanted to know about abortion.”
Really Lilly? Abortion? Really?
Shut up. “Religious people were totally wrong about abortion, weren’t they? I mean, a fetus isn’t a person, right?”
“Oh I’m so glad you asked!” said God. “I was wondering when you were going to bring that up. See, as with most things, the answer is not black or white, but something in between. In the time before I brought my kingdom to Earth, humans fought so much about issues like abortion because they refused to accept the inherent complexity involved. They wanted a simple answer: yes, it’s a person, or no, it’s not a person. But the answer lies in the middle.”
“How so?” Zack asked.
“Well, you have to ask yourself, what does it take to make a person? An embryo? A fertilized egg? An egg and a sperm, separate, but close enough to be dangerous? No, it takes more. And yet, at the same time, would anyone argue that an eight and a half month old fetus, wiggling and kicking, learning its mother’s voice… is not a person?”
“Yeah,” said Zack, “but with the fertilized egg thing, couldn’t the soul jump into the body right then, at the moment of conception? And then it would be a person from the very beginning? I mean, if you’re telling us now that that’s not true, cause there is no soul, like Father Kai was saying, ok, but pro-lifers didn’t know that back then.”
“I suppose, but one could just as easily have posited that the soul jumped into the body at birth, with baby’s first breath, and who could say which theory was correct?”
“But the soul entering at conception made at least some sense,” said Zack.
“Why venture into such conjectural waters at all? I gave humans bodies that they could see and feel right there – why look for the answers somewhere else?”
“Because bodies break down. Belief in the soul fulfilled a basic human need.”
“Haha. Humans. Always wanting more! I suppose that’s my fault, huh? But regardless my children, the body is the soul. And in that sense, a fertilized egg is a soul, but so is an unfertilized egg, and so is this room, this ship, and everything that you see around you – for they are all composed of the great energy that is the universe. But, when we say person, we are talking about something different. We are talking about the ability to have conscious thought. We are talking about brain waves; we are talking about the ability to feel pleasure and pain. And that, my children, occurs in the middle of the pregnancy. The embryo does not start out a person, but in time, it transforms. It evolves. And so, if I were writing the laws back in the days when human law mattered, I would have allowed abortion from conception until one or two months before the exact middle of the pregnancy, but would have banned it afterwards.”
Zack and Lilly stared blankly.
“I say a month or two before just to be safe.”
They continued staring.
“With some important exceptions of course.” He smiled. “But that’s just my opinion. I suppose it is a very tricky issue.” He winked at Lilly.
“Hmmm,” she said, finally reacting, “I guess that makes sense.”
Lilly! Come on. It’s the woman’s decision. Tell him.
“Really?” asked God, “that’s it? I basically just told you that in a lot of cases, abortion was wrong. Don’t you have a problem with that?”
“No,” Lilly said, “your explanation was very reasonable. I’m not completely stubborn.”
Lilly, he knows you don’t agree.
“Still, I am surprised,” said God. “Lilly, I don’t know how else to say this, so I’m just going to come right out with it. You are not yourself today!”
“I’m sorry. It’s just that what happened on Limbo really got to me. It broke my heart when they destroyed the Church and killed Klatu and the others, and it broke my heart again when I had to leave before going to the Arena myself. I’ll eventually be ready to go back down, but right now I think I just need some time. Do you understand?”
Good save.
“Yes…” God looked a little fazed, but quickly regained his composure. “Of course my child, I am sorry to pester you. I will let you be now. When you are ready, Limbo will be waiting, and Lucky, Debbie, and Father Kai will all be very pleased
to see you again. Oh, and Stan too! I almost forgot about our newest conscript. I think he will be a very valuable addition, and once again I am in debt to both of you for bringing another crusader to our cause. If not for your efforts, it might still be just Father Kai down there.”
“Yeah,” said Lilly bitterly, “and maybe Klatu and the other villagers would all still be alive.”
“Look God, she’s back!” Zack said.
“Come on Zack,” she said, “it’s not a joking matter.”
“Lilly,” God said, “do not blame yourself for what happened. You acted with a clean heart and a just mind, and not all ends can be foreseen. You may have made more progress on Limbo than you realize.”
“Maybe,” she said.
“Good, I’m glad you can see that. And now I will leave you to your well-earned break. Take care my children.”
“Take care,” they replied together, as God disappeared.
Lilly, I feel bad.
I know. I do too, but we have to go. God lied to us. He kept things from us, important things. Things we should know. I mean, what else isn’t he telling us?
Yes, you’re right. But hey, I was thinking, before we go, do you want to take just one more day here? I want to see my parents one last time. Then, maybe tomorrow night…
Good idea.
Zack dreamt again that night. This time, he was alone in the completed ship, seated in the dark, at a simple steel table. At the center was a book, the same book that Zack had seen in Lilly’s mind on the hilltop – red, with black trim and silver leaves on the cover. An ominous and foreboding voice called to Zack.
“Do you wish to read from the book?”
Zack sat in silence, afraid to move even a muscle.
Again the voice called. “Do you wish to read from the book?”
Zack knew that he did. “Yes. I want to.”
“Very well.” The cover opened, slowly revealing what could only be described as a glassless window, for the picture behind it was far too real to be a mere reproduction. Framed in the center was an ordinary schoolyard playground.
“I told you that you were there Zack. I told you that you were there that day…”
Zack! Lilly screamed, in silence.
Lilly!
There was a book!
I know, I saw it too. It showed me a playground. What did you see?
I saw an ancient place – a garden. Then there were pillars, huge white pillars; it was a temple.
What else?
That’s it. Then I woke up.
The next morning, Zack and Lilly split up to visit their respective families. Zack was eager, as he had not seen his parents in weeks, but the smoke at their door quickly tempered his mood.
“A little wake n’ bake?” Zack asked. “You never taught me that one when I was a kid.”
“Hey sunnie boy!” his father said. “Don’t be like that! Come join us. There’s nothing like a good old-fashioned joint! Heaven has every kind of drug imaginable, but nothing beats doing it the way we did it when we were kids!”
Zack’s mom laughed. Her eyes were red. There were empty bags of potato chips everywhere.
“No thanks,” Zack said, sitting down between them on the couch, just like when he was a kid. “What’re you watching?”
“History. Did you know how much of it there was on this planet that modern humans never knew about? From years 15,000 B.C. to 4,000 B.C. there were thousands of primitive cultures and civilizations that were lost forever, until now. Can you imagine? 11,000 years of history! It’s absolutely fascinating: kings, queens, empires, wars, religions, stories, songs, art…”
Zack spoke telepathically. That’s really interesting Dad, but did you know that all of that is still going on throughout the universe on its millions and millions of planets?
What are you talking about? There’s only Heaven and Limbo.
No, God has not told us everything. There are people on other planets too… and all kinds of other intelligent beings.
Zack’s parents quickly sobered up.
Zack! his mother exclaimed. It’s been months. Are you still questioning God? My baby, you need to put all of this to rest. Please.
No Mom. How can you just sit here watching TV and stuffing your faces? Don’t you want to know what else there is out there? Don’t you want to know why God keeps the other planets secret? Don’t you care about helping the people on Limbo?
Zack, his father said, at some level, those people deserve to be there; they made their own beds…
Dad! How could you say –
Zack, his mother interrupted, my baby. How did you get like this? So unhappy, so untrusting. Zack, there’s something I want to show you. It’s one of my most precious possessions in the entire world.
The memory began to play in Zack’s head. It was Christmas. He was his mom, sitting on the couch next to his dad, and they were sipping hot chocolate. A two-year-old Zack sat on the floor in a blue onesie, tearing through a tangled corpus of red and green wrapping paper.
‘Ok Wacky Zacky,’ his father said, once Zack had found the big yellow ball inside. ‘Come over here and throw out the paper.’
Zack toddled over and dropped the paper into the big plastic garbage bag. Then he headed back toward the presents.
‘Now remember Zack,’ his father said, ‘you have to be good throughout the rest of the year, or else Santa won’t come back next Christmas.’
Zack stopped dead in his tracks, turned, and looked at his parents. ‘He comes back?’
The memory faded away and Zack was back in the present. “Mom…”
“No wait,” his dad said, “I have one too.”
“Ok, sure Dad.”
In this memory, Zack was his dad, hiking in the woods alongside a four or five-year-old Zack. ‘All right Wacky Zacky,’ he said, ‘time to check the map.’ He reached into his pocket, pulled out a wrinkled yellow piece of paper, and unfolded it in his hands. On the right side, was a crude representation of the Eastern Seaboard with several red Xs. On the left, was a cartoon pirate face atop the words, ‘Blackbeard’s Family Adventure Seafood Restaurant,’ which Zack quickly covered up before childhood Zack could see. ‘Ok buddy, according to this, the pirates buried the treasure up there.’ He pointed – it was Zack’s favorite hilltop.
They headed off the trail and climbed up. When they reached the top, Zack pointed to a crooked pine and said, ‘According to the map, the treasure’s buried ten paces west of that funny guy right there. Why don’t you take out your compass and figure out where west is?’
‘Ok Daddy! Do you think it’s still here?’
‘I don’t know, we’ll just have to dig and find out.’
Childhood Zack took out a little plastic compass, looked down, wrinkled his forehead, unwrinkled it, turned, and started pacing. When he reached ten, he opened his backpack and pulled out a little gardening shovel.
‘All right buddy,’ Zack said to his old self, ‘that’s pretty good, but those were regular kid steps, not big pirate steps. I think we need to add just a little bit to oh… how about that bare spot right next to that big flat rock? If I were a pirate, I think I’d bury my treasure right there.’
‘Ok!’ childhood Zack said, scampering over. He bore into the loosened earth, and two minutes later, it parted to reveal a little blue coin bag. ‘Dad! Dad! It’s still here! I can’t believe it! We’re rich!’
Little Zack emptied the bag onto his backpack and walked his fingers through the silvery cache. There were coins from Canada, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain… and adult Zack could only wonder, was that really him down there? Had he ever been so young? So light and new? So easy and guiltless?
The memory faded away. How could Zack argue with that? For just a second, he considered showing his parents a memory of his own – the moment two years later when some neighborhood kids looked at the dates on the coins and explained that there was no way that they could be real pirate treasure – but he decided against it.
“Dad,” he said, “there’s something I want to tell you.”
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry about that stupid argument that we had in Hawaii about civil disobedience and the Boston Tea Party. You were right about the whole thing.”
“What?”
“You remember, at the Peking duck place. We argued about whether the colonists were wrong to destroy the East India Company’s private property. Remember?”
“I think I know what you’re talking about,” Zack’s mother said.
“Yeah,” Zack’s father said, “I think I remember vaguely. What was I saying? It seems like a lifetime ago.”
“I think you were arguing that –”
“It’s not important what he was arguing!” Zack’s mother broke in. “The important thing is that it’s over, and Zack apologized.”
“Yes, I’m sorry Dad.”
“Apology accepted. I’m sorry too, for whatever I might have said.”
The three of them looked at each other for a moment, each unsure what to say next.
“Mom… Dad,” Zack said, “if you guys don’t have any other plans today, and if you feel like taking a break from TV, it would really make me happy if we could go to Hawaii again, just the three of us, just for the day. Those vacations were some of the happiest times in my life, and I would love to experience that feeling again, just one more time.”
“We’d love to,” his mother said.
His father smiled. “I couldn’t think of anything more perfect.”
21
That night, with the Peking duck warm in his stomach, Zack felt at peace, and there was nothing left for him and Lilly to do but embark on their next journey, so they hopped into their little silver rocket ship and set sail. Lilly operated the controls, while Zack navigated.
They headed west for the Grand Canyon, steering between the numerous cloud-cities, griffins, phoenixes, pterodactyls, pirate ships, cruise liners, stealth bombers, and millennium falcons that now filled they sky’s upper echelons – all in stark contrast to the Native American campfires below, timeless and resolute in their ancient valleys. Having not visited the canyon since they were children, Zack and Lilly were excited. However, when they arrived, they found that the once devastating hollow was no match for their older, more jaded and technologically equipped personages, and they quickly zipped in, out, and through with ease, several times, before continuing west and plunging into the ship’s first real test – the deep black waters of the Pacific.
The Alpha and the Omega: An absurd philosophical tale about God, the end of the world, and what's on the other planets Page 21
