The Harvest

by John David Krygelski

  “Fascinating,” said Bonavente, sincerely interested in this new perspective. To Reese, he asked, “How does this description of Satan reconcile with what Elohim has said?”

  “There are several intriguing parallels.” Reese went on to relay Elohim’s description of the creation of Lucifer, the reality of the energy polarization with its toxic effects upon the others, His placement of Lucifer on Earth, and Lucifer’s discovery of his ability to possess a single person and connect to a multitude of others. He ended the narrative by saying, “What is interesting about all of this is that it seems to combine the description of Satan in Judaism with the Christian definition of the devil.”

  “How so?” asked Schmidt.

  “Elohim created Lucifer as a perfect being. There was nothing evil or imperfect about him. If all of the other angels had been created from the same end of the energy spectrum, so to speak, Lucifer would have been invited to remain in Heaven and would have thrived. It was a fluke, an unintended consequence of the laws of physics, that this was not to be the case.”

  “But my own image of the Almighty is that He could not make such a mistake,” objected Leo.

  Reese groped for a response as he glanced out the side window. He noticed a man in the anachronistic attire of the American colonies, standing on the sidewalk and staring, bewildered at the various sights around him. His view of the man was suddenly blocked by a taxi, coming to a stop next to them. As he began to look away, Reese recognized Walter Penfield in the cab.

  “Mario, have your driver honk, please,” he said as he pressed the button to lower the window.

  The driver, hearing the request, tapped his horn twice, causing Penfield to look in their direction, spotting Reese immediately. Before the cab could proceed through the intersection, Reese saw Penfield hastily hand some money to the driver. He and a woman Reese did not recognize got out of the taxi in the middle of the street and climbed into the now open door of the limousine.

  “It appears we are having a bit of a reunion,” Penfield said. As he and the woman settled into open spaces, he continued, “Gentleman, I’d like to introduce my wife, Doris. Doris, this is Reese Johnson. Please don’t call him Professor, Mister, or Doctor. This is Cardinal Mario Bonavente, and this is Rabbi Leo Schmidt.”

  After everyone had greeted Doris, Walter asked, “Do any of you have an idea why we’re all participating in this homecoming?”

  They all shook their heads, except Reese, who answered, “I have a feeling we’ve been called…by Elohim. But I don’t know why.”

  “It’s not like you, Reese,” Penfield said, “from the brief time we’ve spent together, for you not to have a theory.”

  Reese smiled. “Thank you, I think. As a matter of fact, I do; I just have a feeling it’s a little half-baked.”

  “We’ll be the judges of that,” said Bonavente. “Please share it.”

  Reese filled in the portion of his narrative previously left out, explaining to the group that Elohim had requested his opinion on a course of action. When he finished, Leo said, “Again, not exactly consistent with the all-knowing Almighty I’ve held so dear.”

  “Well, I think that’s kind of the point. I mean, that’s where I was heading, mentally, when I spotted Walter and Doris. Elohim describes Himself as, originally, a pure energy being – somehow sentient, somehow able to affect the energy around Him or within Him. I don’t know. Maybe, in the beginning, His being was the total of all of the energy there was. We’ve never really gotten into the specifics. Anyway, He altered a portion of the energy, His energy, and created matter, made the universe.”

  Turning to address Penfield, he said, “Walter, the way He explains it, energy and matter are two sides of the same coin.”

  “Phase states,” answered Penfield.

  “Pardon?” said Mario.

  “The best way to describe it would be to use water as an analogy. The molecule we know as water can be a gas – steam, a liquid – water, and a solid – ice. The three states are merely phases of the same material. In this particular case, the phase-state transitions occur as a result of temperature variations, complicated by pressure, but that’s not important. In my chats with Elohim, He discussed the energy/matter interrelationship, and it makes sense. It was alluded to by Einstein. Except the influence which causes the phase transition is velocity, with the critical point being the speed of light or maybe time. They’re sort of interrelated.”

  “Thanks for clearing that up,” said Bonavente sarcastically.

  Penfield chuckled. “Sorry, but this is not only fairly advanced physics, some of it is new to me, as well. Over the past few days, I’ve felt like a caveman being handed a laser. The deal is, it’s all plausible, I guess, for there to have been only energy in the beginning, as it were. It’s also plausible for Elohim to have been that energy, when you look at it from the same perspective as the group within physics who espouse the anthropic principle.”

  “Which is?” asked Schmidt.

  Reese, answering him, said, “It’s basically the perspective that we shouldn’t puzzle over the mystery of the million flukes and coincidences that must have occurred to allow us to come into existence…because we do exist. If we didn’t exist, that would mean the flukes hadn’t happened, but we wouldn’t be here to notice. Since we are here, we should just accept the flukes and move on. Kind of like not agonizing over the odds of winning the lottery, if you’re the winner.”

  “That’s a good description,” added Penfield. “Except, rather than an anthropic principle, we are talking about a…what…a ‘deitropic’ one. He, Elohim, simply is. Therefore, the bizarre chain of events, which had to have happened for Him to be, must have happened. Calling Elohim energy, matter, God, or whatever else is purely semantics and impossible to assimilate without indulging in the human tenancy to anthropomorphize Him.”

  “Well, that’s just it, Walter. We didn’t turn Him into a man so that we could relate to Him. According to Elohim, after setting the chain of events into motion which eventually resulted in mankind, He also chose to assume the form.”

  Penfield rubbed his face vigorously, a habit Reese had observed in the interview room more than once, before he said, “Wow. No offense intended toward my fellow humans, but why would He do that?”

  “To be close to us. And also to enjoy the sensory aspect of humanness. Again, it’s a weird concept, but Elohim, just like every other living being, wanted to reproduce. For us to reproduce, it’s easy. We borrow from the environment, by eating, drinking, breathing, absorbing sunlight, et cetera. When we produce a child, it is an amalgamation of all of those materials, created from the template of its mother and father. The dilemma for Elohim was that He was already everything. There was nothing external to Him for Him to borrow in satisfaction of His urge to have children.

  “At the stage when He was still pure energy, He created the angels, basically by splitting off pieces of Himself, but utlizing only positive energy. He soon discovered that interacting with them was like talking to a mirror. He realized that if He was to create a distinct being, it must somehow be not only separate but different from Him. He then created Lucifer. Rather than splitting off a small, positively charged piece of Himself, He distilled a new discreet portion of His energy, creating an entity with only a negative charge, rather than the balanced charge He possessed. Unfortunately, this new being, by its very existence, was physically dangerous to the other angels.”

  “He would be,” Penfield said. “Annihilation would result.”

  “He wanted a being, someone, something, who could interest Him, surprise Him. It was then that He created the physical universe, including Earth, mostly as an experiment. Leo, this is where I think I get close to answering your earlier questions. He toyed with Earth, experimenting, changing things, sometimes dumping the whole game over and starting again. Most of this is supported by the fossil record with several unexplained mass extinctions. He experimented and watched, rather than simply creating, not because He cou
ldn’t, but because He didn’t want to know the outcome in advance. Finally, the first man walked the Earth, springing into existence as a result of the trillions of random mutations set in motion by Elohim.

  “Just as He had patiently waited for a sign from all of the earlier creatures, a sign of that which He so urgently wanted in a separate being – free will, He watched early man. His patience was eventually rewarded by a man who surprised Him, who zigged rather than the zag Elohim expected, who showed the first indications of free will, that most prized of traits celebrated in Judaism.”

  Leo nodded.

  “Then, just as practitioners of animal husbandry do today, He gently segregated and encouraged this lineage, until He had created an entire race of free-willed people. To further perfect His new creation, Elohim split off small pieces of His energy, implanting them, one by one, into these free-thinking humans.”

  “Souls!” exclaimed Bonavente.

  “Yes. We call them souls. He saw them as His children, even though each soul was identical to all others. It was a perfect union. The soul elevated mankind, connected humans with the broader force of the universe. Mankind enhanced the souls by sharing its ability of free will, as well as by allowing the soul to partake in the feast of senses inherent in being human. Each touched, affected, and changed the other.”

  “In other words, the souls gave mankind connectedness, and mankind gave the souls individuality,” said Penfield.

  “Yes. And to protect His angels from accidental contact, He brought Lucifer with Him to Earth. It was here that Lucifer discovered an ability to experience life and human senses by occupying or connecting with mankind. In some cases, he supplanted the God-given soul, and in other cases, he developed a connection between himself and many others. He, too, was changed by the contact. Before that time, he was Elohim’s loving creation, pure and loyal. The human traits of envy, resentment, and hatred were some of the lessons he learned from us, causing him to conclude for the first time that he had gotten a raw deal from Elohim. All of his brothers, the other angels, were allowed to be together in Heaven, while he was banished. From the new perspective as a human, he began to despise his Father. These feelings grew in intensity until he became the malignant force he is today. As the years have passed, and Elohim has continued to skim off the cream of mankind for Heaven, the remaining souls, contaminated and corrupted by Lucifer, have remained…stranded, their number growing exponentially to the point where we are now essentially overwhelmed by the ‘evil inclination,’ as your faith, Leo, describes Satan’s influence.

  “Elohim, by His own choice, could not have anticipated this outcome, any more than a scientist who blindfolded himself and randomly mixed an unknown collection of chemicals could predict the final product. He still loves Lucifer, as any father would love his child, even a child who has gone astray. And He is also faced with the reality that Lucifer himself, in his purest form, is the most fundamental unit in the universe and therefore cannot be eliminated by further reduction. Because of these factors, Elohim fears that this may be His final visit…that since the balance between good and evil is so lopsided, mankind is on the verge of an unstoppable plunge into the abyss.

  “There is also an additional consideration, admitted by Elohim. He, too, has been changed by His immersion into humanness. He has become more ambivalent, I believe. In a nutshell, that’s the quandary Elohim is facing today, the topic on which He has asked my advice.”

  Everyone in the car was silent, mulling over the implications of Reese’s words. At last, Doris, who had not spoken since the introductions, said, “Well, I guess that explains why we were all brought here.”

  א

  Margo, casually flopped into one of the chairs in the borrowed office she and Burke were using, stood abruptly.

  “What is it, Margo?” asked Bill.

  “I need some fresh air. I think I’ll take a walk.”

  “We’re not getting anywhere here. Mind if I join you?”

  “No. Come on.”

  He followed her out to the hallway, and they walked silently to the elevator. Burke touched the down button, and a moment later the doors opened. The sole occupant was Craig McWilliams. “Going down?” he asked, smiling.

  “In more ways than one,” answered Margo sardonically.

  They entered the elevator. The light surrounding the L button was already lit, and the car began its descent. Before reaching the main floor, it eased to another stop, the doors opening to reveal Nicholas Reynolds, standing alone and waiting.

  “This is a little strange. What are you doing here?” Burke asked.

  As Reynolds stepped in, he answered, “I was double-checking the security tapes from this morning.”

  “Still no Elohim?”

  “Nope. He was in His room, then He was gone. None of the views from any of the cameras showed Him leaving.”

  “Well, we saw during the interviews that He doesn’t have any problem not being recorded,” commented McWilliams.

  “True,” agreed Margo.

  Reaching the lobby, the elevator doors slid open. They all expected someone else to be standing in front of the doors, but no one was there.

  “Where are we going?” Nicholas asked, following his bosses to the exit doors.

  “Don’t know,” answered Burke.

  “A walk,” said Margo.

  “Sounds good to me,” replied McWilliams. “Hey, I heard Abe Lincoln is over at the Memorial.”

  No one responded as they left the State building and continued to walk out into the dim grayness of the late afternoon.

  “What the heck?” said Reynolds.

  “What is it?” asked Margo, alerted.

  “Why is the Johnson detail here?”

  They all saw the black sedan parked at the bottom of the steps. Two FBI agents, who had been assigned to watch over Claire Johnson as well as Melissa and Matthew, were both leaning against the front fender.

  Nicholas trotted down the remainder of the steps and started to ask the two men why they were off their watch, when he heard a female voice yell, “Nicholas!”

  Turning, he saw Melissa running toward him. Standing behind her were Claire and Matthew. He met Melissa as she ran into his outstretched arms, nearly knocking him over. Bill Burke, having caught up with Reynolds, said under his breath, “She’s a little young for you, isn’t she?”

  Blushing, Reynolds said, “You caught me. This is my girl.”

  Hearing his words, Melissa hugged him even more tightly.

  Margo, joining Burke at the bottom step, said, “You were right. This is getting strange.”

  Just then a black limousine pulled to the curb behind the FBI sedan. Astonished, they watched as Reese, Mario, Leo, and Walter and Doris Penfield emerged from the back door.

  א

  Clayton Dean was halfway through reading the third briefing paper on his desk. He felt his neck muscles tightening as a result of the constant, fixed position, when he heard a soft knock on his office door.

  “Come in.”

  The door opened and Preston Bennett, looking tired and a little sheepish, entered the room with noticeably less energy than he usually displayed. Clayton, putting the briefing aside, looked over his subordinate and friend from top to bottom and said, “How are you holding up?”

  “Been better.” His fatigue was audible. “I just wish they’d let me talk to Debbie.”

  Concerned, Dean asked, “They won’t? Why not?”

  “They say it’s normal, part of the investigation, but they won’t explain it.”

  “Want me to see what I can do?”

  “No. That’s all right. They’ve let me see her…through the glass, you know.” Preston’s eyes clouded as he recalled the scene. “They wouldn’t turn on the speaker, so I couldn’t hear her, but she looked bad.”

  Both men briefly lapsed into an awkward silence, broken by Preston. “I still can’t believe it. Spying on me, for Pete’s sake!”

  “Has she said why?”

/>   “I don’t know. They told me she did it for ‘idealistic’ motives, whatever the hell that means.”

  Dean stared at Bennett, trying to find the right words. “Why don’t you take some time off?”

  “I don’t know. Thanks, though. Right now, working…or trying to…feels a little better.”

  א

  Reese and Claire stood off to the side, watching, as the ad hoc gathering milled on the sidewalk. “Reese, do you know what’s going on?”

  “You mean, why are we all here? Yes and no. After Cardinal Bonavente and Rabbi Schmidt picked me up and then we found Walter and Doris, we all talked about Elohim and Lucifer.”