The GOD Box

by Melissa Horan

  May walked into her house without waiting for her comrades, which was apparently fine because Dane just walked in without knocking when they all reached the door. Her mother turned at the intrusion, and Dane gave her a big smile and addressed her as Janine. Even though she appeared to be in her night clothes, he walked up and gave her a big hug. It was clear she knew him, probably rather well, and liked him a great deal in a mother-in-law sort of way.

  When he let her go, she started crying. This wasn’t startling to Dane, who was laughing. In pity he just pulled her in for another hug to help calm her. The difference of her and Dane’s mother was black and white.

  “Six months!” She protested into Dane’s shirt. “I’d hate you all if I didn’t love you so much.”

  Dane kept smiling. Janine was probably about five foot five, and more petite than expected after knowing May. She had dark brown hair that hung to her shoulder blades, it had wrinkles in it like it was trying to curl, but gave up in exhaustion. Her face looked tired but pleased from the day – a regular 1940s house wife. With a few wrinkles she looked in the beginning stages of aging.

  May was sitting with her daughter on the bench they called a couch and the girl was chattering excitedly to her mom, telling her all about her aunts and uncles and the games they play. Most of it was nonsensical. Janine let go of Dane and wiped the tears off of her face, took some deep breaths and said,

  “Okay! Introduce me to everyone.”

  Obviously she knew Samson, but not Miek who went up and introduced himself… she laughed when he did so. Eventually Gabe decided Miek must have been joking, because they clearly knew each other. Of course she was anxious to hear about Gabe and Jonathan who were almost three times the average age of all in the group, but she didn’t seem the judging type. However, these weren’t their typical dinner guests. They were old men who stayed drunk in the bars and did their research in lonely classrooms. Not old men ready for an adventure with young adults. Gabe realized he was being oddly submissive and waited to be introduced. He frowned and heaved his breathes every so often so he was noticed and taken pity to.

  He looked around the small house. It was too small for any more than two or three people, in any practical sense. There was one open area that was a kitchen on the left and living area on the right which is what they just walked into. To the right there was a dark hallway that looked like it had two more doors. Probably bedrooms. The farthest door led into the attachment Gabe noted earlier. The living room was small and crowded. There were two ‘couches’ (as they called them) that were benches with those old chair pads, which people used to put on their dining chairs, strewn in no organized manner over the bench and the floor. The colors looked like they once matched but they were all dingy. Blankets were mostly folded, with a few disheveled ones where people had slept and not straightened. The kitchen was quite orderly, though dark. Gabe looked back at Janine.

  Jonathan seemed friendlier than ever. Oh brother. Gabe sighed again and looked from Jonathan to May’s mom. She was attractive, and Jonathan, despite all of his sullied emotional walls, noticed. Let’s not get into this mess, Gabe warned Jonathan with a look. That’s the last thing they need right now… physical or emotional “attachment”. Still, Jonathan was a good fifteen years older than her, so maybe she wouldn’t go for him anyway. Not that she would, in any circumstance go for Gabe. His frown changed slowly into a scowl. Dark brunette, soft eyes and lips, feminine jaw line, unlike May’s, she was tender and childlike though she was likely in her late thirties or early forties.

  Old, decrepit Gabe. Why can’t I just die? He would never have pleasure again… no happiness again, ever. Everything about him was undesirable, for any woman, or anyone. Gabe looked at May, who now stood with the three year old propped on her hip.

  She had seen what Gabe saw… and had seen the jealousy he felt. So shameful and dishonorable, but at this point, he was pretty sure he didn’t care.

  “Samson, watch those two, will you? Jonathan, no one is impressed.” She said, passing a reproving glance at Gabe as if he was responsible for Jonathan’s lust. That comment was almost encouraging to Jonathan except he now had Samson to get through. Then, she and Dane left to the front of the house again. No warning for Gabe not to think about it, no need, clearly.

  Janine invited them to sit at the table. Gabe moved quickly so that he could get the seat across from the window. Jonathan sat on the other side of Gretchen, talking to her kindly. Gabe fumed to himself: you’re a frickin dinosaur, shouldn’t you have learned by now to be okay with jealousy? Shouldn’t you be at peace with life?

  Outside, Dane had picked up the child and she was crawling from his chest to around his head and shoulders. May was smiling at her daughter and standing casually, conversing easily with Dane who was responding in between his playing with the little girl.

  Finally, May ran around for a little bit with her, playing tag. They teamed up on May because she was playing hard to get. Dane picked May up in the fireman carry and let the girl poke her now. How sweet. Inside, Gretchen was asking them questions about where they came from. Fortunately, ‘the past’ just sounds crazy, and Jonathan was trying to impress her, so he lied. Gabe didn’t care, so he went back to watching the little family outside. After quite some time, the little girl tuckered out and Dane picked her up and she laid her head on his shoulder. It was clear that they really loved him. May and Day’s smiles faded. Now the talk turned serious. They seemed to be deliberating about something. Not really arguing, but using lots of facial animation. Even when dinner was announced, they didn’t come in.

  Around dinnertime, in the house, they were joined by several other children – May’s siblings, and they all came inside.

  Within thirty seconds of being inside, they were all outside again, realizing there was just not enough room. Gabe counted five other children besides May. Thomas was the oldest boy who was near May’s age… in his twenties at least. Everything happened so fast with the in and out that Thomas was the only name Gabe caught. The middle child was probably sixteen, also a boy. There was another boy around fourteen or fifteen. Then the two youngest were five and three, a boy and a girl.

  Every single one of them was chattering loudly to May and Dane outside. Apparently Dane was just like a member of the family. How long had he stayed in this town before they left? Gabe didn’t understand why they weren’t hated, though… just disappearing the way they did. Oh well. Gabe followed them and went outside so that he could listen to their interactions with each other.

  Yet to be seen, was whether Thomas was trying too hard to impress May and Dane with his savvy political jargon, or if he was actually smart. They listened genuinely and didn’t try to blow him off, so they either loved him enough to care, or actually thought what he said was of value. The younger children tried to push Thomas aside to have their turn. Dane made a few playful comments to Thomas about girls.

  Dane was moderately attractive according to twenty-second century expectations, but Thomas’ face fit every qualification without any photo shop or coloring. He was a few inches shorter than Dane with tawny brown hair that was long and sticking out every which way. Lack of a farmer’s build seemed a little out of the picture, but he was average size.

  Inside, Janine made dinner with the help of a couple of the boys: Miek and the sixteen year old who both volunteered. Turned out to be something like a mix of vegetable stew and egg drop soup. Tasted… edible, but Gabe knew he’d be hungry in an hour. Good thing he had some beef jerky, just in case.

  Gabe suggested that he and Jonathan go outside to talk while Janine was near, so that if he refused he looked like a jerk. He thought that was pretty clever. The children were in back of the house finishing up dinner and preparing for final chores. A game of some kind was started. Dane wasn’t playing, but was standing and watching the scientists at a distance from the side of the house.

  Gabe needed to know what Jonathan was thinking. They still needed to be on the same team… or at least o
n the same page… or at the very least know if they really did have different motives and purposes.

  Both were pacing in opposite directions.

  “Look, they are doing okay. Maybe we just leave them be.” Gabe said.

  Jonathan’s immediate reply was terse, “Hell no. We haven’t seen everything yet to be able make a decision. Besides, I don’t think you are emotionally capable to make life and death decisions right now.”

  “As if you ever have been.” Gabe retorted.

  “No. The discovery of the last city is going to let them progress too quickly.”

  “And slip ups and matches and your pills hasn’t?!”

  “Well, if we could have finished conditioning our Adam and Eve, we wouldn’t have this mess. And it doesn’t matter, because you know we will start over, just like every time before. They’ve learned nothing to compromise us.”

  Old news. There were several reasons why the conditioning didn’t work. Gabe wished he would stop bringing that up. While they had tried to decide how to condition them, the most interesting conversations took place among the political, economic and religious leaders chosen to help with the project. How would they condition them? That was the question. Many thought that if everyone was the same religion, what would be the need for politics?

  ___

  One day, in an old mental hospital they gathered them all together and sat them down to talk about it. Up in a small room, Gabe, Jonathan and their employers looked down at them through a double-sided mirror. All in all, there were about fifteen people in the little room above and thirty in the room below.

  One of the group below started a list of morals that people should have according to the bible and all present religions, then, crossed off ones that were exclusive until they got a list of collective morals. Not even the complete Ten Commandments made it through the process. Everyone, meaning the scientists, philosophers and psychologists watching from the room above were laughing hysterically. How could you argue the Ten Commandments if you believed in the bible? And yet… they did… sort of. Still, some said that those weren’t collective, that God is merciful and loving, and not condemning. Gabe never got that… because then what was the point of the commandments? But then somehow at the same time they got on a kick of ‘I’m more righteous than you, so of course I keep the Ten Commandments’.

  Someone even said that that expectation was too high, especially for a set of people who are supposed to repopulate the earth, create government, form religion, decide what is right and wrong, create a money system, organize a society, and start out by limits on every side. It just wasn’t practical… of course, as much as they would love for everyone to love God and keep commandments, expecting that from mere mortals, just wasn’t realistic. No one could expect them to be perfect.

  Next, they tried to take their ideas and combine them with the politicians, some of whom were religious, some were not. What was barely agreed upon was to do unto others as you would have others do to you. Can’t go wrong that way, though, it was decided.

  Gabe and Jonathan had watched the group from behind the glass; not laughing. Quite disgusted, actually. It was embarrassing to watch.

  Technically they weren’t the head of the project, yet they had their own ideas already of how to set things off. There would be no God. Religion caused too many wars, too many judgments, too many rules. Religion was, what they called it, household conditioning. Kids could grow up to make their own choices… but not really. Childhood lessons were already ingrained. They assumed that most religionists would be fairly convinced on the point of God, being all knowing and merciful, would reveal himself if he saw fit, to a new society who needed him. The scientists convinced them that God was never gone, just religion. Disappointingly, it wasn’t all that easy for them to accept because if God knew they’d made the choice to abandon religion, he would likely punish the nation instead… at least at first. Then again, if those people were innocent, they wouldn’t know anything, and thus, by all knowing God, couldn’t be blamed. Of course, some were more attached to their religion than to God, so that was a problem, too.

  Certainly, it didn’t help their faith that certain prophecies were not being fulfilled. What could they answer to that?

  The politicians worshipped organization, checks and balances, power and control. Marxists, Democrats, Republicans, Capitalists, Oligarchies, Dictators of every sort. Questions that arose concerned what is freedom, do people need to be free to be happy, do they need to be happy to be civil? What is the purpose of government, why are their regulations to be enforced? The Religionists picked them apart with the incessant question, why? If people are to be regulated, why? If we ought to be free, why? If happiness is the goal, why? If people deserve happiness, why? Because they need to get along and allow others’ freedom. Because all of us are capable of thought and we will progress better and be happier if everyone can utilize their own experiences for good. Because, why not? People respond better when they’re happier. Because if the ultimate goal is survival, people have to want it.

  They quoted everyone from Freud, Aristotle, Marx, Mother Theresa, Gandhi, Buddha, Jesus, to The Beatles and Elvis Presley.

  Lights off, and a voice from the operator got them all to sit down and be quiet. “We’re done.” He said stoically, “Please exit the room in silence.” They all were at least capable of that – until they exited the room and the bickering started again. Gabe by then was frustrated, and unbelieving of the behavior of these biased, ignorant, adults with their exclusive ideas.

  Wanting to make his opinion simple and clear, Gabe moved to the table in the center of their upper room, where fifteen people couldn’t comprehend how to react. While still old and frail, he stood straighter than he did now, represented more power then, than he ever would again. Everyone looked at him because he was clearly going to say something profound. As if it were a Hollywood film, he slowly took his hand from his jaw where it had gone in the shock and disappointment. Pointedly, he jabbed the table with his index finger.

  “No one will ever agree. That is the whole point of starting over. No one knows what’s good for them, or for others, no one knows how to regulate the behavior of a nation. Everyone has tried, and that’s what’s got us in this mess. There will be no God. There will be no commandments… if there is a nature of right and wrong, they will find it. This is a re-creation. Not a replacement or a restoration. I will not be present if we do this again.”

  Well, you can assume that started a riot.

  ___

  Back in the present moment, Gabe responded to Jonathan, “I’m sure you know as well as I do that that wouldn’t have worked once people had begun to protest. We knew that… that’s why we found other means.” And they did find other means, in the knowledge of only a few others… a backup, just in case things didn’t fly smoothly with the people, or with the war. Perhaps if the people could remember how it was, also, they would be careful not to repeat it. Nearly impossible though it was to find people without very many mental/ emotional disorders in their background, and without religion (same thing) along with that, they found a few people from a few nations who fit their criteria.

  “What do you mean it wouldn’t have worked?! Of course it would have. The predictability of our conditioning was flawless. Repeatedly tested and tried. Results from ten years helped us almost reach perfection of teaching, of expanding their minds to grasp the organization of freedom.”

  “If only, if only! Let’s keep dancing in the cemetery of old ideas and hopes, shall we? The wondering if we actually know what we’re doing is starting to win. I’m concerned we invented a game that no one can ever win.” Gabe stopped pacing and stared at the ground. Jonathan ignored all social cues to be sympathetic. He was enraged.

  “Stop? Stop old man? Stop what we worked on our whole lives?”

  Gabe wasn’t sure who was in charge of this situation. Gabe just wanted to peck at him. His comment played to everything he really desired, but was just too ho
peless to accomplish. Gabe sighed, “Different tactics then! Maybe we don’t have to stop… just change our formula.”

  Jonathan was bearing down on him. “No! It’s supposed to work! Do you not see progress?! One more time, and we’d have it. Better conditioning of those we leave behind. We made a mistake last time and didn’t have the opportunity.”

  “Where are we planning on getting, huh? Simple nature? Is that the perfection we are looking for? De-evolution to the bare minimum for mere survival? That was never the intent. Acceptance was the intent! We never know what to expect, anymore, so we have to keep changing our ideals to the circumstances given and hope for the best.”

  Jonathan was ready to grab the old man and beat him.

  “I’ll give it a few more days.” Gabe said to calm him then continued, “I’m old, I’m tired, and I wish I would have died before this ever started. I know a losing battle when I see one.”

  “You’re vision of past, present, and future is gone. You can’t see shit!”

  Dane came from inside the house as Jonathan made his last comment. Gabe was so lost in thought, he hadn’t seen everyone re-enter the house.

  Dane looked from one to the next, not showing whatever amazement and horror he may have felt on his face. He said,

  “I think you guys need a break from each other. Besides we have a few ideas which we think are appropriate to share with you.”

  Gabe took the lead. Before Jonathan entered the house, Dane very kindly prompted him to take his medication. Jonathan refused on the grounds that he’d already taken too many that day. Dane said he’d wait until he was calmed down, then. Jonathan growled and stomped around. To attempt to get out his energy he lifted his hands in the air, tensely, as if he was mangling a large rabbit. Varieties of this behavior went on for ten or fifteen minutes outside, romping around like a distracted bear who wanted to eat his prey, but was committed to being vegetarian.