What the Hand: A Novel About the End of the World and Beyond

by Stockwell, Todd

  But later, they were granted a reprieve after California outlawed the death penalty. So, every seven years, the victims’ families had to relive the details of their loved ones’ suffering in front of the parole boards, so they could remind everyone of the viciousness of the crimes and keep the animals locked up. Still, the killers would show up, pleading their cases of youth, naivety, and sorrow.

  It didn’t work. Some things can’t be taken back once done. They would have to look to a higher power for some sort of absolution. But only one of them ever came to the realization that ultimately they had made their own decisions to butcher those poor people.

  Manson would never come to that conclusion, nor would he ever admit any wrongdoing. He would continue playing the victim through his mad rantings and die in prison after so many years, welcoming the whispers of the demons that were to guide him into hell.

  ***

  Millard Sinclair and I spoke for over an hour. Millard told me about the World Wars he had seen; I told him what I knew of the last wars. He told me about his experiences on the front lines of World War I and II; I told him about hanging around the barracks during the Gulf War, laying low through World War III, and hiding in a hole while millions perished at the Battle of Armageddon.

  He told me he was sitting in a trench with his best friend, William Corduroy, drinking bad coffee, when a mustard gas shell exploded nearby. A moment later he heard screams as shrapnel rained down on the trenches.

  ***

  Bad coffee was the God-given right of every U.S. service member. The United States Armed forces could develop a missile capable of hitting a squirrel between the eyes after being launched from an airplane 30,000 feet in the air, but they couldn’t make a decent cup of joe.

  ***

  Millard told me he had only turned his head for a second after hearing the explosion. When he turned back, Big Bill, as his friend was known, was bleeding all over from a spray of shrapnel. The mustard gas clinging to the shrapnel lodged in his face quickly worked its magic, causing much of it to melt away while he choked on the fumes—in another instant he was dead.

  ***

  Before World War I, chemical warfare was considered uncivilized. That’s when some French military leaders grew tired of staring at their toy soldier brigades lined neatly on the painted trench lines of their battlefield maps day after day without much movement of any kind, so they decided to stir things up by adding some gas to the game.

  It worked better than expected. With everyone running from the gas, the generals could finally do something. Toy soldiers and real soldiers were finally moving all over the place.

  Well, the Germans weren’t about to let the French have all the fun, so they decided to take chemical warfare to new levels and developed the first deadly gases for the battlefield.

  ***

  After World War I, several of the most proficient German chemical companies involved in the development of deadly gases merged to form I.G. Farben. During World War II, the owners were asked by the Nazis to develop a gas that could be used effectively to exterminate large groups of people quickly. I.G. Farben didn’t have to look very far, as they were already producing a pesticide that, with a little bit of tweaking, could be quite effective on humans. They named it Zyklon B.

  The Nazis, quite pleased with I.G. Farben and their special gas, ordered lots more. Farben and its owners made gobs of money. And even after the war, the bad press over the holocaust didn’t slow the company down one bit. They simply changed their name and began producing volleyballs and children’s aspirin, which made them even more gobs of money.

  ***

  Millard had known Big Bill since they were little kids, playing war with sticks in the woods near their Connecticut homes. All the boys came out to play war with their stick guns. They would run around shouting, “Bang, bang…you’re dead!” That was when they still thought war was fun. They would pretend to be fighting the Civil War because that was the last big war for America at the time. About half the boys would pretend they were fighting for the Union Army, and the other half for the Confederate side. They would spend a lot of time arguing about who would fight for which side. All the boys wanted to be on the Union side because they all knew the Union side had won. No American boy wanted to be on the losing side.

  ***

  Americans hated losing at anything, especially wars, because they were so used to winning. For nearly 200 years, Americans won war after war. We beat the French, we beat the British, the Spanish, the Mexicans, the Germans, the Japanese, and the Germans again. And though we should have had a wake-up after the North Korean stalemate, we shrugged it off as some sort of fluke, continuing to believe in our winning streak, our invincibility, our victorious and God-given destiny.

  Then the Vietnam War came along and kicked America’s butt. We were so ashamed of losing that we were too embarrassed to commit to any of the wars that followed. American politicians and journalists were the most embarrassed. They shamed the military into fighting wars with politically correct policies and regulations that tied the hands of soldiers in battle, so they would continually second-guess themselves, as if war were some kind of sporting event or debating match, causing the unnecessary death of even more brave soldiers. They decided they would rather let their boys and girls be butchered than be embarrassed again by a war.

  ***

  Millard didn’t quite know how, but he survived World War I after being wounded four different times. He received quite a few medals for bravery, and some, he told me, just for standing around. He, like many soldiers before him, once believed that standing around was the worst part of being in the Army. But that was before he saw so many friends blown to pieces.

  ***

  We did a lot of standing around when I was in the Army. We’d wake up in the middle of the night, splash water on our faces, dress in our fatigues, throw on our boots, run outside the barracks, jump in a truck, drive to some training area, jump out of the truck, line up in formation, answer to roll call, break up, and then stand around for two or three hours drinking the crappy coffee.

  While standing around, we’d moan and groan about not only the coffee, but the lack of sleep, the regulations, our commanding officers, and anything else we could think of. Soldiers in just such a situation coined the expression, “hurry up and wait.” We also complained about missing the war by a few months, losing the opportunity to fight for our country, and missing all the action. We were as dumb as could be.

  ***

  Besides giving him all kinds of medals, the U.S. government further rewarded Millard by drafting him back into the Army just in time for World War II. He was already past forty with a wife and four daughters and a bad taste for war in his mouth, but he went willingly and without complaint. There were very few draft dodgers in those days on the Old Earth.

  ***

  During the Vietnam War, there were all kinds of draft dodgers and war protesters. Some were simply men of peace and some were afraid. The reality was that men would always wage war, some justifiable and some not. Regardless of reason or legitimacy, men would have to fight and men would have to die. Some men could not let someone else take their place in line for death and some men could.

  After the men who bravely and willingly took their place in line for death, who had lost their friends and brothers and witnessed all manner of bloodshed and horror, came home from Vietnam, they were ridiculed and spat upon by many of the same men who stepped out of line. Later, some of those men became the politicians and journalists who continued spitting on soldiers with their absurd, defeatist, and politically correct agendas. Why did they spit on them? Answer: they were ashamed of themselves.

  ***

  Because of his World War I experience and medals, Millard was given the rank of captain and command of a bunch of boys chosen to storm Omaha beach during the invasion of France. This was arguably the most dangerous mission of the Second World War. The German defenses above that beach on the cliffs of Normandy were
so thorough and formidable Millard lost every one of his boys within eight minutes of the landing. The impervious Millard, on the other hand, didn’t receive a single scratch that day, or for the rest of the war for that matter. Millard never could understand why he survived another war, while so many good young men perished.

  ***

  People on the Old Earth often said such and such a death was God’s will or meant to be. It made them feel better, I suppose, to think their lost loved one had taken part in some big plan that was somehow more meaningful than someone else’s demise. So why did Millard and others survive when so many died? Answer: mostly dumb luck.

  ***

  We talked awhile longer about the wars, about life on the Old Earth, about his daughters and other things. I asked him lots of questions, saying little about myself. He sensed my avoidance and didn’t pry. He was an interesting and wise man, and I promised to visit him someday. By then it was close to noon, the sun directly over our heads. “I’ve got a long walk ahead. I should get going,” I said.

  “Yes, I should get back to work myself,” he said.

  I hesitated. “I never did anything important like that with my life. I had a chance once, but I failed everyone.”

  “We all have regrets…your daughter loves you,” he said.

  I wasn’t sure why he said it. I had only briefly mentioned Sophie. “I better go.” I started toward the fork, then turned back. “I’m sorry so many of your friends died for my American Dream. I’m sorry I wasted it. I’ve done some terrible things.”

  “We all have to answer for what we’ve done…but you’re here, George, because you’ve been given a second chance,” he said.

  “It was good talking with you, Millard…so long.”

  25

  A few hours down the road, I flopped in a meadow to take a nap in the short blue grass. I awoke to a full-grown lion licking my ear. This was not uncommon here in the New Kingdom, where animal and man not only lived together in perfect peace, but communicated on a nearly psychic level. The former king of the jungle was simply telling me hello. I sat up. “Hello,” I replied. “What are you doing, Lion? Do you want to walk with me a bit?”

  He seemed to say yes, and I asked him to lead me to water, so I could splash some on my face. The new bodies didn’t get dirty or anything, but old habits die hard, so most people showered and scrubbed and brushed their sparkling white teeth just the same.

  We walked a short distance through some woods to a lake, the color of purple Gatorade. A small herd of cattle grazed near the shoreline. The lion did not bother the cattle, nor would he ever eat cattle or any other meat again. He joined them, grazing alongside as if one of the herd.

  ***

  People are the only meat eaters in the New Kingdom. We don’t need to eat meat, or anything for that matter, but most of us still enjoy it. The markets are full of fresh beef, chicken, lamb, goat, venison, fish, and even dinosaur—every meat imaginable. Yet no animal had ever been slaughtered in the New Kingdom. The markets are stocked from warehouses that never empty, much like the bottomless baskets of fish and bread passed out by Jesus on the Sea of Galilee.

  ***

  Some people on the Old Earth despised the killing of animals for food or sport. They especially hated the use of animals in medical experiments. They would complain and curse, throw fake blood and even bombs, anything to stop the torture and killing of animals. The other side would argue that these “bleeding hearts” would rather see humans die than animals. And some of them would, but as with most things on the Old Earth the answers were somewhere in between.

  Just as there were people on the Old Earth who valued animal life over human life, there were despicable human beings who outright tortured animals or allowed for cruel means of wholesale slaughter to save a buck. Animal rights activists did great work to protect animals, improving living conditions, preventing animal torture and unnecessary slaughter.

  But some of these people would get carried away. Some of them would rather see people starve than eat meat, or take in a dozen homeless cats before they’d feed and house an orphaned child, or blow up a laboratory and kill a few security guards to protect a monkey.

  It wasn’t wrong to eat meat, wear fur to stay warm, or even experiment under humane conditions. God created animals for many purposes: food, clothing, protection, transportation, work, medicine, and companionship.

  And God initiated animal sacrifice not because He didn’t value animals, but because He did value animals, as most men did, especially before Christ became the sacrifice. When those men had to kill an animal because of their sins, it meant something. They treasured and loved their animals. It sure as heck made them think twice about sinning again.

  As for the animals, as much as they loved being squeezed to death by lonely old ladies, they’d have just as soon been on their way to heaven already.

  ***

  After I completed my washing ritual, I sat by the side of the lake enjoying the play of the many species now gathering at the water’s edge. Any animal that had lived with man on the Old Earth at one time or another could be found in the New Kingdom. I thought about my dogs and how they would have enjoyed this scene. Wiley was with Sophie, but the two dogs I had grown up with and taken care of were waiting for me when I arrived. If you had been good to your pets on the Old Earth, they were waiting for you. Because of the shooting of his beloved dog when he was just a boy, my father never wanted any pets around, and he certainly would never pay good money for a dog that could be gotten from the city pound. But my mom was able to convince him, anyway, to let us keep a couple of strays that wandered into our lives. My siblings liked them well enough, but for some reason it fell on me to walk and otherwise look after them, maybe because I was the only one willing.

  ***

  Missing but not missed in the New Kingdom are all the reptiles and insects, the “crawling things,” perfectly content dwelling down in the pit with Satan and the rest, as if they didn’t have enough problems with the heat and the stench and the teeth gnashing and such.

  The reason there are no reptiles or insects in the New Kingdom was simple: unlike other creatures, they are soulless. They have no way to temper their violently ravenous natures. So they are literally killing machines. But they had been created for specific purposes, mainly as food for smaller animals and to keep the plant cycles going and whatnot. Only, once Satan worked his magic, he made sure they continued proliferating to hazardous and maddeningly annoying levels. He and his Illuminati cohorts even genetically engineered their own super hideous and vicious versions. Man had an awful time keeping their verminous masses under control. But justice would prevail. Right now, old Lucifer was getting a taste of his own insect management polices down in the pit.

  ***

  Dinosaurs were spared the pit, being that they are only part reptile, having bird and mammal DNA in them as well. So God decided to give some of them souls. But it wasn’t enough to allow them to roam freely round the New Kingdom because the reptile in them made them uncomfortable living around humans and other animals. In other words, a dinosaur might just forget where he was and attempt to take a bite out of someone. Not that he could hurt the new bodies, but it would be kind of awkward for everyone, so it was best keeping them at a distance.

  Dinosaurs now live in a place called Dinosaur Planet—it is like a super Jurassic Park, but without all the attractions and such. People will be able to visit there one day, but there will be plenty of time for that. I plan on going there with Sophie; she once loved all things dinosaur.

  ***

  That dinosaurs even lived on the Old Earth was always held up by nonbelievers as some sort of proof the Bible was full of baloney. They would thumb their scholarly noses at the so-called Bible version of history, specifically its timeline for the creation of the earth and the genealogy of man, calculated at about 6000 years because of the seven day creation story and the lineages that follow. They would point to scientific data proving the existence o
f dinosaurs some sixty million years before the existence of man as part of their ammunition.

  The truth was that they didn’t understand the Bible or time. Even those big-brained Old Earth scientists, who had discovered and developed theories in quantum physics, were only skimming the surface of creation, time, and space. God had laid out the Biblical timeline and creation of the Earth in terms the earliest man might grasp, using the language of days in a week to overcome the still incomprehensible reality of eternity, folded time, and something so complex created from what man could only perceive as nothingness.

  One of those scientists, Albert Einstein, was the first to advance reasonable theories of space and time. He surmised that both time and space were relative to the motion or experience of the observer. He was right. And God had the best seat in the house.

  The Earth was both eons and seconds old at the same time. It was all there at the Hall of Knowledge. But, like most everyone else, I was a long way from understanding all of it. Even in paradise, with our enhanced cognizance, we still used but a fraction of our brains. The understanding would come, and we would have eternity to figure it all out.

  Before Einstein died, he came to the conclusion that there had to be a creator of some kind. This irritated a lot of scientists, especially those who held up Darwinism as some sort of religion. But even Darwin understood the gaps in his own theory. Still, most scientists and teachers continued pushing it as definitive truth.

  Even after the discovery of DNA revealed a genetic imprint, encoded with precise and specific instructions, too incredibly detailed to even suggest randomness, many of these stubborn brainiacs continued to ignore the mathematical impossibility of accidental life, which was more than sufficient proof based on the principles of their own god of science.

  As quantum physics suggested, what was possible was astounding, but it shouldn’t have been news to man. The Bible had already informed us that we could do anything, that we could move mountains were we so inclined. Jesus walked on water, turned water into wine, raised the dead, and on and on.