In a bedroom at six o’clock a.m. a digital alarm
clock had rung, waking up a married couple. Both husband and wife
were around forty-five years of age and they lived alone. Their
kids had graduated college and found jobs out of state. The couple
was lonely, and there was a constant sense that they needed
something new lest their relationship stagnate or founder.
The husband, Dan, was a good-looking man and had
aged well. He was tall with a lightly tanned complexion with
sprinkles of grey on the sides of his otherwise dark-brown head of
hair. Martha, on the other hand, had not aged well. She was short
with a stocky build and of pale complexion save for a few blotchy
spots of red on various parts of her face. Her hair was completely
grey and she never bothered to dye it.
Martha got up, turned on the light, and proceeded
downstairs to make Dan breakfast. This is what she did every day of
the week, and Dan was so accustomed to this that he never thanked
her for it since he was in his mid-twenties.
Dan got himself ready, then went downstairs and ate
his breakfast with his wife. He checked if he had all of his
necessary belongings and rushed off to work without bothering to
kiss his wife goodbye.
He got in his Altima and drove off. But instead of
going on the highway, which was the fastest route to get to his job,
he parked the car at the nearest gas station and proceeded to make a
phone call on his cell phone. He dialed the number and after a few
rings, someone picked up:
“Hello, ConTech International, Human Resources
Department. May I help you?”
“Hi. Nancy,” said Dan in a hoarse voice. “I have to
call in sick today. I think it’s the flu. I couldn’t even finish
the dinner Martha made last night. I need to make a doctor’s visit
today.”
“Sorry to hear that, Dan. Okay, I’ll let everyone
know. Feel better, okay. At least you’ll have the weekend to rest
up too. Hopefully you’ll be better by Monday. You know, nothing
really gets done in this office when you’re not around.”
“Thanks, Nancy. Yeah, I’ll be sleeping it in this
weekend. I’m sure I’ll be better by Monday.”
“Okay. Rest up.”
“I will. Thanks.”
They hung up and Dan made a second call.
“Hi Trace.”
“Hi Dan,” said a woman’s voice. “Bill left a half
hour ago. As I said the other day, he’ll be back from the city late
tonight, around 8 o’clock. So come on over. I’ll make some drinks
for us.”
“I told them at work that I have the flu,” he
chuckled.
“Don’t you think that excuse has gotten old?” she
laughed.
“Everybody tells me to get the flu shot. I keep
telling them that I keep forgetting. But they buy it.”
“How about your wife?” Trace asked.
“She knows nothing,” Dan said dismissively. “Forget
her. She’s so focused on our kids and what they’re doing that she
doesn’t question what I do anymore.”
“Well, that’s good for us, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is. What she doesn’t know, won’t hurt
me.”
Trace laughed. “Well then, come on over. I bet you
can’t guess what I’m wearing.”
“Is it the black one-piece lingerie? Or the red
dress with the thin straps?”
“You’ll find out,” she said coyly.
“Alright. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
“I’ll be waiting. Bye.”
“Bye.”
It only took Dan a short while before he parked his
car adjacent to the sidewalk in front of Trace’s house. As he got
out of the car and approached the walkway, Trace opened the door and
smiled.
She was a beautiful woman of about thirty-eight
years, tall and slender, and she was wearing a red dress with
high-heeled shoes to match.
Dan smiled and raised his eye brows.
“The dress,” he said.
“The dress,” she said in a way that showed she was
satisfied with his response. “Come in. The drinks are ready.”
Dan walked in, and Trace closed the door behind him…
*****
In a suburban neighborhood, two children were
walking on the sidewalks side-by-side. One of the children was
bouncing a basketball. The other was humming a tune he had learned
in his elementary school music class. Then there was a sound of
SMASH! The unsuspecting children jumped as they were startled by
the sound of a large glass object being broken, and they immediately
started running back to their homes. The sound came from the house
eight yards away at 237 Mullins Street. It was a small one-story
house, with painted white shingles, a small garage, and of moderate
upkeep. Inside the house, a couple in their mid to late thirties
was arguing.
“Michael! Are you listening to me?! Do you ever
listen, or are you stupid? Why did I ever marry you?! Do you like
this life that we live? We are stuck! We are stuck here in middle
class suburbia! My God, all that money for my education and I end
up a suburban housewife…”
She started to cry.
Her husband got up from the couch and tried to
console her by putting his hand on her shoulder, but before he could
do this, she swatted his hand away.
“Get away from me!” she yelled. “This is all your
fault!”
She continued sobbing.
“I’m sorry, Kate,” the husband spoke. “The
economy’s bad, and we’d be doing a lot better if I hadn’t gotten
laid off. I’m working two jobs now. We’re struggling, but if the
economy picks up…”
“The economy will never pick up!” interrupted Kate.
“Don’t give me that! You’re giving me excuses! If you would have
been a little more motivated and ambitious, and hadn’t decided to
take the easy route, we would never have been in the position we are
in. This is all your fault. We are so pathetic!”
Kate started to sob again.
“Honey, we’ll make it work. If we’re patient and
focused, I think…”
“Oh shut up! You don’t know what you’re talking
about!” she yelled. “You have no idea how the world works. You
don’t even have the guts to ask for a raise. You have no ambition.
You’re just like your parents. Made in the same image as mommy and
daddy. You heard about the Davis’s, didn’t you? They’re moving out
of this neighborhood. They’re buying a three-story house in a good
neighborhood with a good school district. Why? Because Jim has
ambition that you lack! And I’m stuck raising our child. Oh,
you’ll be such a good role model for her! You don’t help me around
the house. You don’t help me with raising our kid. You don’t…”
Kate continued to upbraid Michael, and he continued
to put up little defense. Then the sound of broken glass started up
again, and it was loud enough to be heard by the neighbors next
door.
*****
Kelly and her mother had a tumultuous relationship.
There was practically no topic that they never argued about. From
how Kelly dressed, how late she stayed out, to boyfriends, they had
covered it all. The source of the conflict was that Kelly’s mother
was an overprotective parent and Kelly was a young woman who enjoyed
going out and having fun with her friends. This was one of their
typical arguments…
Kelly’s worried mother had been pacing back
and forth in the living room for over an hour. Her husband sat on
the couch and let out a sigh. Both husband and wife seemed
stressed.
“I can’t get in touch with Kelly,” she told her
husband. “She’s not picking up her cell phone.”
The husband sighed again.
The mother’s cell phone started to ring, and she
quickly answered the phone.
“Hi Kelly. Where are you?”
“I’m at Gallagher’s.”
“Is that a bar?”
“Come on, Ma. I really hope you’re not gonna start
again. I’m twenty-one years old.”
“How often do you go to bars, Kelly? You were just
at one yesterday.”
“I’m serious, Ma! I don’t need this today! I had a
hard week with school and work and I want a drink. Julie and
Michelle are here, so it’s not like I’m drinking alone. The loser
drunks drink alone. They’re the ones who become drunks. I’m with
friends. This is what people my age do. You’re living in the
eighteenth century…”
“But Kelly, I’m just worried that someone might put
something in your drink…”
“For God sakes, Ma! What is your problem?! I’m not
a child anymore! You’re treating me like a child! People go out
drinking on the weekends. They have fun. This is what people do.
Really! What do you know about life?! You never amounted to
anything. Give me a break, Ma!”
“Kelly, please stop being vicious,” the mom
pleaded. “I just worry. I don’t want you to become an alcoholic
because…”
“How do you know how much I drink?! Are you with me
when I go to bars? No, so shut your mouth!”
“You really shouldn’t talk to me this way,” the
mother said, exasperated. “You should treat me better. I’m your
mother,” she said as her voice started to crack.
“You start with me and you have the nerve to talk to
me this way?! You’re a witch!” the daughter screamed, and she hung
up the phone.
The mother turned to her husband and started to sob.
“She’s being vicious again, John. I don’t know what
to do with her. I feel we lost her.”
The husband just shook his head and said, “I don’t
know what to tell you, Mary.”
Meanwhile at Gallagher’s, Kelly started talking to
Michelle who was sitting next to her at the bar. There was loud
music and the bar was packed with patrons.
“I hate my mom.”
“Yeah, I heard it all. You called her a witch. I
thought that was kinda funny. Ha! What a loving family you come
from.”
“I really hate her.”
“But I agree with you. I mean, this is the
twenty-first century. Women should be allowed to act like men. If
men can go out, drink, and have fun with their guy friends, women
should be able to do the same with their girl friends.”
“Yeah, but she’s so clueless she doesn’t see that.”
“And you gotta go out and grab the bull by the
horns, not stay at home, be a housewife, and rely on a man. That
almost never happens anymore. Well, there’s Stacy and Mike.”
“But they have no life. They never go out,”
retorted Kelly. “And Mike’s a wimp. I’d never date a guy like
that.”
“I love it when you’re catty like this. You’re so
funny,” said Michelle as she laughed with a smile. “You’re right.
They are goody-goodies.”
“My mom has no idea. This is how you gotta be to
survive. She has no idea what I’ve been through, and when I went
through a really difficult time in my life, she could do nothing to
help me. This is who I am and she needs to deal with it.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty nasty too. It’s a bite-or-be-bit
world.”
“Don’t you mean a dog-eat-dog world?” asked Kelly
with a chuckle.
“Yeah, same thing,” said Michelle, as she chuckled
too. “To the catty ladies,” she said with emphasis, as she
put up her gin and tonic for a toast.
“To the catty ladies,” said Kelly, with a smile,
holding her margarita in hand.
They chimed their drink glasses together.
After a few minutes of conversing at the bar, the
two were greeted by two young men and a young woman.
“Hey!” said Michelle. “It’s Julie, Gary, and Mark.
How’s it going guys?”
“Same old,” Mark responded.
“Work sucks,” said Gary.
“Amen,” said Kelly and Michelle together
unintentionally, and they all laughed.
*****
Going home on the bus, a fifth grade boy sitting in
a back seat looked distressed. He was socially awkward with few
friends who spoke with an occasional lisp that was particularly
prominent when he was anxious. He was fidgeting with his school bag
and was repeatedly looking out the window as if he was looking for
someone. When he was at his stop, he took his belongings and got
off the bus. As he started to walk home, he thought, I hope they
forgot. They say that stuff to everyone. I hope they forgot.
He walked one block and was beginning the second
when he saw twenty yards away five young boys rounding the corner
one street over. When he saw them, the boy started to dash straight
ahead, hoping to get home before the boys found him. He was able to
run thirty yards until one of the larger boys grabbed and held him.
Then he let him go.
“Hey there, Lenny. We just wanted to talk with
you,” said a boy with reddish-brown hair moussed up and a gold
earring in his left ear. “Remember what we were talking about in
lunch?”
“Yeah,” said Lenny.
“So what were we talking about?” said the red-haired
boy.
“That I wathe going to karate clathes,” mumbled
Lenny.
The boys chuckled.
“And then I said I wanted to see how good you were.”
“But I wathn’t trying to thay I wathe tough,” Lenny
protested.
“I just want one match.”
“Yeah, just give him one match,” said a smaller
kid. “It’ll be fun.”
“For us,” said another kid standing beside the
red-haired boy.
They all laughed.
“I’m gonna get a match,” said the red-haired boy,
and then he pushed Lenny.
Lenny fell, but quickly got back up.
“He’s scared,” said the smaller boy.
“I don’t wanna fight,” Lenny said.
The red-haired boy slapped Lenny in the face and
grabbed him in a headlock.
Lenny pushed the boy away.
“Oooh, he’s starting with you,” said the smaller
boy, excitedly.
The red-haired boy pushed Lenny back and swung a
right hook, hitting him square in the nose.
Lenny fell to the ground, cupping his nose in his
hand, as his nose started to bleed profusely.
“Oh my God!” he screamed. “My nothe ithe broken!
Oh my God! Oh my God!”
All five boys started laughing hysterically. The
red-haired boy was laughing so hard that he was beside himself.
“His nothe!” the smaller boy said as he pointed at
Lenny amid loud cackles, and they all laughed harder.
Once they stopped laughing, the red-haired boy
smiled and said, “There ithe no God.”
They all started laughing again.
“Forget this,” said the red-haired boy. “He
can’t fight. He’s a joke.”
Then the five boys started to walk away, leaving
Lenny all alone, on the ground, holding his bleeding nose.
*****
It was a warm, summer day at approximately 5:30
p.m., about the time when Dan left Trace’s house, Kate and Michael
ended their argument, Kelly got off the phone with her mother, and
young Lenny was on the ground bleeding from being punched in the
nose, when a world-shaking event occurred that reached the
foundations of earth and soul.
There was suddenly a loud BOOM that was heard
throughout the world. Wherever people were on Earth, in Europe, the
Americas, Asia, Africa, and Australia, this BOOM was heard. It was
so loud that it was heard even by the deaf. Immediately after this
unearthly sound, there was a halt in all motion, as if Time itself
had ceased. All clocks and watches stopped. Automobiles halted in
motion. Bicycles too. Planes were halted in mid-air. All animals,
including humans, stopped as if they were frozen in Time. Everything
was at a standstill. Then there came a voice:
“THE WORLD WAS CREATED IN SIX DAYS. THEN, A
DAY OF REST. NOW IS THE EIGHTH DAY.
I HAVE RETURNED.
WOE BE TO THE ONE WHO REFUSES TO FOLLOW THE
LAW REVEALED THROUGH REVELATION AND THE LIGHT OF NATURE,[1]
AND INSTEAD CHOOSES TO FOLLOW THE BASER INSTINCTS. WOE BE TO THE
ONE WHO BY GAINING THE WORLD, LOSES THE SOUL.[2]”
After a pause that rattled as much as the
booming voice that pierced the conscious and unconscious defenses of
every human on the planet came the words ordained to change the
course of all human lives and all human history and the life of the
planet itself:
“I GAVE YOU ONE LAW. YOU BROKE IT. I GAVE
YOU TEN COMMANDMENTS. YOU BROKE THEM. I GAVE YOU SIX-HUNDRED AND
THIRTY-ONE. YOU BROKE THEM. NOW COME THE NEW LAWS…”
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