The Namers

The news was as usual today. Unrest in the Middle East, a five/four split in a Supreme Court decision, a budget crisis in your state, and in your city a contentious bond issue. I yawned and pondered an idea for a story. A very clear idea for a story, more like a memory.

Then the enormous ship appeared fifty miles above Earth, in an orbit that had it stationary above a point not so far from Jerusalem. In an hour, it moved to Rome. In another to Mecca, in another to Istanbul, in another to Salt Lake City, Utah, then finally to Battle Creek, Michigan. In that five hours, it had not attempted to contact us, and it had answered no hails of the dozens of nations and millions of people who tried.

The first four cities containing religious significance obvious to most of Earth, and Salt Lake City being rather famous for Mormons, it wasn't too hard for most to google that Battle Creek, Michigan was the "capitol", so to speak, of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a mid-sized branch of Protestantism, itself a branch of Christianity. I knew this without googling, as I was a member of that church.

What their interest in that city or faith was, none knew. Certainly not any of us Adventists, though you may be sure that opinions - each allegedly inspired - were plentiful enough. The run on food supplies, weapons and survival gear didn't surprise anyone of any faith. And many from the Sunday worshiping faiths were now outdoors, presumably not wanting their heads to hit their living room ceilings if they were "raptured" up. My church doesn't believe in that kind of rapture, so I stayed inside.

Those of us watching the news learned that the ship was like a donut and spinning at a rate that would work out to exactly 1g in centrifugal force. It had no discernible propulsion gear, and had what looked like ancient Hebrew letters on it, which translated into English was "Namer", or more literally, "ones that name". What the three random Hebrew letters before "Namer" meant, no one knew. Not that each news outlet didn't each have at least half a dozen biblical experts speaking volumes of meaningless theories about what those letters could mean, each blue sky speculation more speculative than the last.

It was exactly 24 hours later that the voice came, and by that time all the stores and gun shops were empty, in America at least. I was betting that it was much the same in any of the civilized parts of the world, West and East. As usual, the third world would be left with praying as their only option.

The male voice came over televisions, radios, phones and computers. It was in the language of each person who heard it. "Your world is a fallen world. Ours is not. We are here to name things, then we will depart as we arrived, in peace. The flying machines with destructive tools on it that are near us must withdraw. The facilities with other destructive devices aimed at our Father's ship should cease tracking us. Satan's human representatives are not to attempt to further contact us, or come near us. Some few slaves that we may choose to contact, we will do so personally. That is all."

"That is all". How little they knew our governments, or "Satan's representatives" as it tickled me to hear them called. Me being a philosophic anarchist, and Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" being one of my favorite essays. The United States, Russia, the European Union and the PRC all had orbital weapons that none had admitted to having before. They did not back off. Nor the Air Forces of those same powers, which were seeing which among them could fly up highest before coming back down.

Till they all came down. Rather forcibly. The craters left by each killer satellite, star wars style space weapons, rockets and jet planes that fell were rather larger than they should have been, but then it was discovered that the mass of each of those things had increased by twelve. Exactly twelve. They had simply and instantly fell out of the sky, powerless and heavier than we had thought such materials could be.

And the power went out at each missile facility that had missiles aimed at the ship. I was surprised - as were many - that such was all that happened. After the crashes, I had expected all the bases, submarines and silos to explode. Still, the deaths of quite a few fighter pilots and astronauts did give the governments and media their eagerly sought opportunity to declare that Earth was at war.

All that drama, and here it was only day two. And this is where I come in. And yeah, I was surprised as anyone to be one of those "slaves" chosen for contact. A sphere about twenty feet in diameter landed outside of my house. My phone - and not the phone of any of the guests of the sober living home I ran, or the phone of my wife - started speaking. "Leave your house and enter the sphere. Or your life will cease. If you choose that option, you will have five minutes to prepare for that."

Well, I'd seen "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" as a kid, and knew that I'd have gone into that sphere without the threat, so with a quick "I love you" to my wife, I was out the door. A hole opened, I walked through it, it was empty inside, just a hollow sphere. I stood in the middle and the hole that I'd came through closed.

No g-forces hit me. In fact, I was just thinking of sitting down on the floor while waiting for take off when the hole opened again. Expecting an angry wife, instead it was a human woman, but easily nine feet tall, perfectly proportioned and completely nude. I was at the ship. "Please come with me, and do not sin while here." Tall order, I thought, watching her turn around and walk down the hall. I was remembering about the whole "lust in the heart" thing, and wondering if they read minds.

I knew myself well, and so knew better than to pray that I not notice a good looking woman, though I did send a brief prayer up for that just in case I could finally get that one answered and cured. I was mainly praying that only God would judge me, and that much later. And that my hosts would only punish me for overt sins like stealing or killing. I never had any trouble with those sins anyway.

As we passed through the broad corridor, door-less rooms on either side showed a variety of these human looking giants engaged in various activities. Including four instances of sexual activity, which looked quite robust. None, no matter what they were doing, wore clothes. In yet another room, one of us - presumably another "slave" from our planet - was sitting in an oversize chair, answering questions in Russian.

Finally we entered a room, also door-less, and she motioned for me to sit down. I did, grunting a bit as I climbed into the chair, and then dangling my feet idly as they did not touch the ground. I waited. She looked up and said to the air, "Subject number 62, lesser northern landmass, esskay 'the United States'." I asked, "What's 'esskay'?" and she replied, "Satan's Kingdom. We understand that you describe your places not only geographically but by which servants of Satan rule you slaves."

I said, "I can't say I agree with much anything our government does, but isn't 'Satan's Kingdom' kind of overstating it? We're a democratic republic, and I doubt even one percent of one percent of us worship Satan."

She looked at me and said, "I thought those of your particular faith were better versed in the Book our Father gave you to try and be redeemed. Doesn't it record the temptations of your Savior, and how Satan offered Him all the Kingdoms of Earth, every where and every when, if only He'd bow down to him?"

"Yes", I said, "It does say that, and I am familiar with that. What of it?"

"If it was a temptation", she said, "It could only be one for it being within Satan's power to grant. Thus logically, all the Kingdoms of Earth are his. But we knew this anyway - your original ancestors chose Satan's rule over all the Earth when they rejected our Father's rule."

I nodded. "Makes sense. What are you here for? To save us?"

"No", she said, "That's your Savior's job, and He already did it. We're here only to name. You will aid us in minor clarifications as we have already acquired all your data."

"Your ship is 'the ones who name'?", I asked. "No", she said, "Our Father's ship is just a vessel for getting us where we need to go. We, the crew are Namers, so we named it that. Unlike your world, we believe word-symbols should be descriptive."

"What's a Namer do, I mean, I don't understand what you mean by that.", I said.  She answered, "We specialize in following the rule to name things, which is the start and end of all that you call 'Science'. Our Father commanded us - and your people as well - to do this at the beginning. We chose to follow that rule, your people do not."

"Yes, I think we do.", I said. "We call it 'Science', like you said."

"Your 'Science" started quite late on that, given that your world and ours were created at the same time. And your scientists do not do very well at it, given that they all speak in languages that are very imprecise and lead them to many confusions. And they, prompted by pride and Satan, reverse the natural order of what it means to be a Namer.", she said.

"How so? I mean, what order?", I asked.

"They start by assuming our Father does not exist, then if anything tends to contradict their Science, and indicate Him, they reject that. Had they started knowing He does exist, then they'd have rejected any false or misleading data that would tend to contradict Him. This slows you down considerably.", she answered.

"Take for example how you use the word 'universe' for this local Known Universe of galaxies and also for the Entirety of Existence.", she said. "Then, because you think you know what started the Known part, you figure then you've discovered that the Entirety of Existence had no Creation, thus no Creator. It never occurs to any of you to simply ask, 'What caused the Big Bang?'. No, you stop there and figure that you've achieved all wisdom and disproved our Father, when you really just proved that you name poorly."

"So the Big Bang is real and we weren't created six thousand years ago?", I asked.  She looked exasperated and said, "The Big Bang is real and was created six thousand years ago.  The space/time created then stretches out in all dimensions, including 13 billion years back to that event.  And many more billions forward."

Another of her kind came in, this one a man, probably a foot taller than her. "Number 58, the man from the main northern landmass, SK Russia was killed by me. He expressed a desire to mate with one of us. Do we need another from his area?"

"No", the woman questioning me said, "The Russian language and their use of it is worse than those who use English. 'Nyet' means 'no', but from observing them, their 'Da' most often also means 'no'. They not only refuse to accurately label like those who speak English, but they seem to be deliberately trying to not accurately label."

"You speak of sin", I rather foolishly spoke up, "But you just killed a man who expressed a desire for sex?"

The man walked over to me. "Fallen one, I was not speaking to you. But it is no sin to kill a Fallen, for they already chose death. My actions only fulfilled the sentence that our Father passed on them six thousand years ago. The sinner will have opportunity to be judged come the resurrection."

"What made you think he wanted to mate?", I asked. "Fallen one, he said to me, 'I'd like a piece of that, eh?', and was referring to the woman questioning him.  Fornication is a sin, so is coveting another man's wife. He was warned, as were you."

With that he turned around and left.

I spent time then clarifying for her different things that she felt were named in fashions that were at odds with what they must be. Sometimes it was mundane things, like how "ice tea" referred to any tea at room temperature or cooler, it need not have ice in it. Other times it pertained to more weighty subjects, like "freedom".

That was a hard one. I said that it usually meant one was able to do things of their own choice without being harmed by others. She said, "It is a state of being in which you may sin without consequence?"

I said that wasn't quite it. That you could, in free countries, sin some sins, so long as they did not hurt others, but if you broke the laws of that nation, you could still be punished. "Breaking God's law is a part of this 'freedom' but breaking Satan's laws is not?" I paused then said, "I guess it works out that way. But free nations, in theory, have less laws that must be followed."

"Your nation says it is 'free'. But you have many laws, many more than some other nations. Why do you say you are free?"

"I think we remember stories of how we were free. And we hope for future freedom. And I guess in the meanwhile, each generation just thinks that this state of less freedom than we'd desire is temporary.", I answered, having given that thought before.

"That is not being free.", she said. I figured, what the heck, and asked, "What is 'freedom', then?

"It is doing whatever you please, any time you please, without having to ask any other being, and being responsible only to our Father.", she said at once.

"You mean 'God'?", I said.

"I mean our Father. He has a name, and He gave it to you, and only Fallen would dare to simply refer to Him by a generic title like 'god' rather than give Him due respect.", she answered.

"How is it freedom if you're responsible to your Father?", I asked.

"Because you are confusing two things. One is a state of being able to do anything you like at all, and that is only an attribute of our Father. The second, this 'freedom', is doing anything you please, any time you please, but with your will and desires already attuned to your Father. It is that you do not desire to do something He would dislike - which then gives you the ability to do anything you would like. See, there is no 'sin' when there is no disobedience to His will."

"I see", I said, and actually think I did see. "Can you then do what we would call miracles?"

She said, "It would not be that I did something that violates our Father's law - what you call 'laws of nature'. It would be that our better understanding of how His universe works lets us do things that you would think were miracles. Or in some cases, that I might need a pause or change in a specific law, and since my will is attuned to His, and all I do done to His glory, He would grant that request instantaneous to my needing it."

That raised some possibilities. I tentatively asked, not sure if she'd answer, "Is that how your ship got here? It was like you just appeared."

She said, "It is not our ship, it is our Father's ship. We built it in orbit of our planet, and when it was done as He had said it needed to be done, we reviewed the upcoming assignment, told Him we were ready, and He made it to be here. From what the namers who specialize in metaphysics told me, it has to do with Him opening a hole that lets us leave one point on the space/time continuum and enter on another, but with the four seconds of transit time withdrawn."

Then she got me back to my task, though I'd have loved to ask more questions. I affirmed for her that "tax" and "extortion" were equivalents. And that "voting" was a form of violence the majority used against the minority. And that "collateral damage" meant "murdering innocents". And that "enhanced interrogation" meant "torture".

"If you have a meaningless phrase for something evil, then it is not evil as far as you're concerned? Is that how you Fallen go about your lives thinking all is well?", she asked.

I said, "Some of us know it is wrong. Some of us know what 'doublespeak' is. Some of us, including me, hate and fear our system. What would you have us do?"

The male who'd killed the Russian came in again. And answering me, said, "Why not resist Satan's representatives?"

"You mean a revolution?", I asked. He looked at her inquiringly. She said, "It's where some of them decide to violently remove the group robbing them and ruling them and replace them with others who still rob and rule them. I think the theory is that they may be robbed and ruled less. That has rarely happened, though, and never for long. There is a consolidation period, then the robbery and ruling carries on the same, or as is often the case, worse. Oddly, the word 'revolution' is truthful, as this is but a social wheel spinning round and round, never stopping, and never changing."

"Have none of you ever thought of just removing Satan's servants, and not replacing them with others?", he asked me. She glared at him at once.

"Yes", I said, "Many have thought of that. But the - well, okay, servants of Satan - control the military and police forces, so unless you have others of power who can run the revolution, then it will fail. And as their reward, they expect to rule after. Those of us who do not believe in government are called 'anarchists', but we do not agree on much either in how to achieve that or how it would work after."

Seeing her glare, he shifted to their native language, some ancient Hebrew root language, I guess. It was seemingly very fast. The conversation didn't last long.

He said, "It's been but a couple of days, and already association with you Fallen is contributing to my improper phrasings, though I accept responsibility for my confusion. I do not mean "removing" Satan's servants, but of simply ignoring them. Your Savior counseled that you render to such what is their due, but that is only if you are making use of their ways. If you do not earn this 'money' of theirs, they do not then try and take such, do they? And if you are not questioning their authority, they are not harming you, are they?"

I thought about that. I said, "It is true that if you lead a good and Christian life, or even just a peaceful one, not breaking any of their laws, that it is unlikely that they'll focus on you. It is good advice, and some do follow that. But the money, though, that is hard to forgo. Without it, one could hardly live much of a life. Houses, cars, food, it all takes money."

He looked menacing. Well, more menacing, he had started out pretty mean looking. "You are saying then that it is better to serve the servants of Satan because it gives you material comfort? That you don't trust our Father to provide for your daily bread? Or that you do trust Him to, but wish more than simply that daily sustenance?"

I sat silently for awhile. They let me. "You're correct. Most of us either do not trust Him to actually answer what we call 'The Lord's Prayer', or if we do think He could do that, we come up with reasons for why it's really okay for us to desire more."

The female replied, "You know this? Does this mean you will now live differently?"

I carefully asked, "If I speak an honest answer, will you promise not to kill me?"

"Why do you ask that?", said the male.

"I was warned not to sin, so do not wish to lie. But - hypothetically - if one was to say they weren't sure if they could now change, would that count as a sin, to not have decided whether to sin in the future?", I said.

I had hoped for a chuckle from them over my dilemma, but they conversed again. He then said, "Honesty is always appropriate. If you said that you were about to sin, then that could warrant our fulfilling your death sentence now. But simply being unsure of if you can repent of all manner of sins in general would not. Your Savior died for all your sins, past, present and future. Short of an overt sinning act, you are safe."

I sighed. "Then I'm not sure if I can forgo money. I'm not entirely sure that is the way to go. And even if I tried to live in the woods or on the street without money, that would not exactly be a happy life, and I'm unsure if following the Word is truly something that should cause such distress."

"Honest. But pathetic.", he said. "There are men of this Fallen world who've suffered a great deal more for our Father than living off of roots and berries or on these streets of yours. We will pray you shed Satan's chains at some point. Comfortable as you feel they are."

And he exited the room.

She got back to it. Homeopathic. Natural foods. Gluten free. Based on a true story. Words and phrases that had one alleged meaning and a real, deeper or alternate meaning. The "Does this dress make me look fat?" question with the obligatory, "Of course not!" was a lengthy conversation.

"It is a lie you tell a woman you love. That is wrong.", she said. "Check Mark Twain", I said, "he must be in your data base. There can be kindly lies."

She paused with her eyes staring off into nothing. "I see. Perhaps this is a mechanism for peaceful interaction on a Fallen world. One where there can be such things as wrong weights or less than desirable looks. It is still wrong, though. If you both love each other, then honesty should only be took as an opportunity to correct and improve."

I laughed. She paused and stared into nothing again. Then a brief smile, the only one I'd seen from them so far. "I understand your laughter, I think. It is a thing to release excess energy that comes from an interrupted defense mechanism. You perceived the pain and strife the truth would cause, realized that you'd not actually ever do that, and expelled your breath in a form of relief. Is that so?"

"That is how some who study it here understand it. If I guessed you don't laugh, I'd be right, wouldn't I?", I said.

"You are correct. We know the word from your database, and have seen it in several of you. And in your movies. We never have anything to fear, so we never have reason to laugh.", she said.

"Perhaps laughter is a consolation prize gave only to the Fallen.", I ventured.

She shook her head. "Not quite. It is a flaw, like eating meat. By the nature of your Fall, some things would be inevitable. 'Ye shall surely die' was true, and only the possibility of life ceasing can create in a being the emotion 'fear', and only that can cause the response of 'laughter' when the fear is averted. Likewise, not having access to an abundant garden meant that meat eating would be needful in some cases. Though we see that's been greatly abused."

"I don't think it's fear of death that causes laughter.", I said.

"No", she said, "But that death exists creates the emotion of fear. And then that emotion, once existent, is used as a means of trying to avoid all manner of situations that you perceive to be destructive of your life, your livelihood, your status, your self-esteem and such. Any threat to those is a threat to your social stability, your financial security, your relationship ties, and thus is perceived as making your life more or less insecure. So death is ultimately behind all fears. We have all eternity before us, though.  So no laughter of relief is ever needed."

A soft chime played. She said, "We can go down to this world now. Will you wait here, or would you accompany me so that I can ask you any questions I have at once?"

I agreed to go with her, though not sure what this would entail. As it turned out, they believed that they had enough data now to make direct observation more meaningful than it would have been if they'd just gone down at once. Each would now be going down, all with a Fallen companion like me.

We went to the sphere I had come up in. Or one just like it, who knew? We both entered. We both exited.

Into the middle of a campus. The reaction of the crowds of students there was intense and immediate. She looked surprised, then looked up and spoke in that language of her's. Instantly everyone within five yards of us dropped to the ground, dead, as it turned out. The crowd surged back.

Some hardy few still tried to approach, but as soon as they got within five yards, they died. The same voice that had announced their arrival before spoke up, again out of every electronic device on Earth. "We will walk among you. You will not approach any of us. You will not speak to us unless spoken to. You will commit no sins in our presence. That is all."

I looked at her. I asked, "Your ship put a death zone around you?" She answered, "No, I asked our Father to, and then to avoid further interruptions my ship sent the warning so none of you could claim surprise."

"Sucks for those first few, who died before the warning.", I said. "Merely their death sentence being fulfilled. Our Father knows their hearts. They've the same chance as any of you.", she said.

"You say that God did this when you asked? Because I didn't hear Him answer you.", I said.

She looked at me. "There you go again. Your wife, what do you call her?", she asked. I said, "Her name is Katie." She asked, "Is that what you call her?"

I thought about it and said, "Well, no, usually I call her 'honey'. It's a term of endearment. People who love each other or feel affection for each other often use words like 'honey' or 'dear'."

She said, "Why don't you just call her 'woman'? That's what she is, right?"

I said, "I don't think she'd care for that. A bit impersonal."

"And yet", she said, "You call your god 'God'. Perhaps that's at least one reason you do not hear Him answer."

"You sound like a Jehovah's Witness.", I said. "They're big on only calling Him by His name."

I was looking at the dead bodies while she calmly spoke. Having been a Security Policeman in the Air Force and having worked as a hospital Security guard, I was familiar with dead bodies. And as dead bodies go, these were peaceful and clean enough. Which somehow made it sadder, the more because they were so young.

She was saying, "They're not 'a' Jehovah's Witnesses, just Jehovah's Witnesses. There is only one of our Father, even if those who attempt to be His witness get His name wrong. And we almost parked over their New York City headquarters. They do at least get that His name matters. But their other failures, especially not following the Sabbath, let us choose your faith's city."

"So mine is the true faith?", I asked, distracted away from the dead students in my eagerness to hear I'd chose the right faith.

"No", she said. "There is no 'true faith' on this fallen world in the sense of a religious organization. Some few come closer than others in various matters of stated belief, all of any size are mere collections of revenue and power. Under the guise of a benevolent aid society and charitable outreach, they preach false doctrines and lead most of you away from any semblance of the truth."

A couple approached us then. An older man in the black suit and collar of a Catholic or Episcopal cleric. And a young woman dressed in a rather modest long skirt and with her hair in a bonnet. Apostolic? Amish? Well, probably not Amish. And some conservative religious girls dressed modestly even if they weren't Apostolic or Pentecostal Christian.

They paused at the bodies, and the Namer I was with said, "Come no closer." They looked at each other, joined hands, and stepped over one of the bodies. Instantly the man died, the woman looked surprised, then sad, and she continued towards us.

I winced, wondering what would happen to this young woman, but the Namer only glanced up, cocked her head, then looked down and said, "Greetings, daughter of Eve. I've been given to understand that our Father does not desire you to have your death sentence fulfilled right now. Yet I still have naming to do. Will you depart from me in peace?"

"May I ask you a question, Holy One?", she asked. The Namer said, "Given your status, in spite of all things this terrible planet has on it, you may." She immediately asked, "Holy One, is it true that those who rule our planet are in service of Satan like you said?"

"How can you doubt it, daughter of Eve?", replied the Namer. "The top 1% of Satan's Kingdom of the United States own more than half of it. And what they do not outright own, they control through the government they own. We are not aware of any businesses, churches or properties not owned by this government of yours. Now why would any good or holy people want to own all the means of production and all the fruits of everyone else's labor?"

"They wouldn't", the girl said. "But we aren't a fully socialist nation, we have private property. The government doesn't own everything you say."

"Yes, it does", replied the Namer. "Businesses are 'incorporated', which then exist and operate solely off of that State charter. Without it, they do not exist. Churches rushed to incorporate and get that charter, thinking it would make them more independent of the government's taxing power, but it really just gave them nothing extra, while making them an agency of the State. Which is why you see Satan's symbol of his nation displayed near the alter of each church. The flag. Which most of you salute or stand for when commanded to."

"My parents own their house", said the girl. "And doesn't that flag represent the people of the nation, not the government?"

"My poor distant, distant cousin.", said the Namer. "Your parents pay a yearly fee, property tax, to the government, or it would take back it's home soon enough. And they don't own anything below or above the ground the house is on, nor can they do anything to the house or ground without permission, and a permission paid for at that. And the flag? It represents who the people belong to. Not the people themselves. Has it ever stood for the Native Americans of this horrid kingdom? Or the African descendants here? Or any of the others who came for freedom and stayed in debt bondage or wage slavery?"

"And that it is a Kingdom, doesn't that tell you anything?", the Namer continued. "Did not your Father tell you not to have a King or ruler, to not be like those who had such?"

"I'm sorry, when did He say that?", asked the girl.

"In the Bible He gave you. Everyone on this poor planet was under the rulership of Satan and his human representatives. Except for our Father's chosen people. And in First Samuel, chapter 8, doesn't it describe how when His chosen people asked for a ruler, to be like other nations, that He told them not to, and warned that they would cry out in that day for any ruler they set above them?"

"Yes", she said, "They did. I guess I didn't take that to mean all governments, only Kings. We don't have Kings."

The Namer said, "You used to have Kings who gave the discontented people a target to kill while the wealthiest kept exploiting them. The Kings having got tired of that, it became easier to let you all select your masters every few years, and the wealthiest can still exploit you through them. But King or Congress, President or Potentate, it is all men who tell you what to do and not do, instead of leaving you alone to worship your Creator. And the wealthiest, the ones your Savior said were unlikely to ever get to Heaven, are the ones who always are in charge of whoever that is."

"Are all wealthy truly of Satan then?", the girl asked.

"As usual, your way of naming is confusing things, which I'm sure Satan encourages.", the Namer said. "If by 'wealthy' you mean some local doctor, doing more good work than others, and having a bit more because of that, then he may or may not be of Satan, but that is not being 'wealthy' in the sense I am describing. I am speaking of the one percent of your nation, those who are worth - or so their pride tells them they are worth - dozens of those doctors. But their wealth is not that modest amount more of merely triple or quadruple yours. And their wealth is not had by saving lives. No, their wealth is hundreds and thousands of times yours, and comes from arcane rules of property and capital and inheritance, and machinations involving the control of the government and many other tricks that have nothing to do with any kind of creation or production. Let alone life saving."

"Those types, with their amassed billions of dollars while millions of desperate starve, they are the ones truly of Satan, the ones who have no more chance of heaven than that camel going through a narrow gate."

The girl said, "But it sounds like you're speaking of socialism, isn't capitalism better?"

The Namer said, "Socialism is a word with so many meanings that it may just as easily mean 'anything I don't like'. I am not advocating that the rich have all they own seized by the government - and as they do own the governments, they are never in danger of that. But how would pointing out that no one man 'earned' a billion dollars be the same thing as absolute across the board property seizure?"

"But wouldn't the government have to use force to make them give up such great wealth?", the girl said, "And isn't that socialism?"

"The same government uses force to send young and poor men off to die for those wealthy, that their overseas factories and markets might be protected at little or no cost to them. How is it 'freedom' when the government makes the poor go and die for the rich, but 'socialism' if the rich must in any way give a bit of mere property to the poor?"

"But", the girl said, "Our own spiritual leaders say that the Bible says we are to submit to our leaders, as there is no authority that is not ordained of God."

"They are lying to you, like they do so often.", said the Namer. "The Apostle Paul was speaking to specific people and for a specific time and place. And making some good points about how it is better to be concerned with spiritual salvation and not to look to revolution or reform for salvation. Do you imagine, for instance, that our Father wanted Jews to submit to the Nazis, or the Sioux to the United States?"

The young girl looked clearly and steadily up at the Namer. She said, "I think I understand. I wish you well on our world, and apologize for any distress you suffer here. I will keep you and your kind in my prayers, and pray that we meet again one day."

This seemed to touch the Namer, for she simply said, "I thank you. You and such as you will be in my prayers, that nothing on this world lead will lead you astray. I will see you in the hereafter if that is His will. I will hope that it is."

With that, the young woman nodded and turned away, her eyes shining.

It struck me that this Namer didn't seem to mind if I might be lead astray by anything I saw or heard while with her. Most likely I was probably so astray that it mattered not. Still. "What do I call you?", I asked the Namer out of the blue. I guess I realized that it was silly that I was having the oddest adventure of my life - of anyone's life - and didn't know the Namer's name!

She said, while still looking at the departing woman, "You don't really use proper forms of address any more. I am the wife of Michael ben Nimrod, a Tender. I would be addressed by non-family members as something like 'Goodwife Michael' in your language. Perhaps as in past parts of your history, you should simply call me 'Goody Michael'."

"No equality of the sexes?", I asked.

She said, "The sexes aren't equal any more than a dog is equal to a cat. But that makes not one lesser or greater than the other, just different. Once married, we are 'one flesh', so act in unison and of one accord."

"What if you disagree, don't you have to defer to him then?", I asked.

She said, "That 'defer' thing was given as instruction to your Fallen world. Because it was known that you Fallen would never be able to agree in all things. It was an attempt to aid you. I gather that Satan has made that into an ugly thing. In our world, there is no 'deferring' as wives and husbands never disagree. Remember, it was Eve disagreeing with Adam and our Father, that had your world fall."

"But surely you have your own name?", I asked.

"Yes", she said. "It's Keziah. And if you call me that, you will die. It is sinful to address another man's wife as if you are some intimate relation of hers."

We had started walking while she said this, and she casually picked me up by the back of my shirt and lifted me over the bodies. The crowd was watching intently from afar, and not quietly, either.

She scanned the whole crowd. She started to walk again, then stopped and asked, "Why did you not ask about the paid deceiver who died back there?"

I laughed. She waited. I said, "Fallen we may well be, but most of us know that our paid holy men are usually anything but holy. They can be, sure, but only a fool would bet on it."

"Only a fool would bet on anything. But I understand. So you again name opposite as to what they are. This is a world of lies.", she said. "Let us go to class now."

We entered the auditorium where a biology class was to be held. It was empty, save for the Professor at the front with a man in military garb. A two star General. Which told me the big boys weren't going to take any chances on their august selves dying, so had sent this patsy in. But he had to know why they'd sent him, so it was brave of him to try.

"Welcome to our World.", he started, then promptly died. Another General came in to the room, with only one star, and waited silently. Goody Michael watched him. He still said nothing. She said, "Speak and be done with it, but make it brief."

Addressed first, he answered, "Thank you, Visitor. We would like to welcome you to our world, and to dispel any misunderstandings you have of us. Many of us are Christian, we worship what I am thinking is the same God. We'd like to establish normal relations with your world."

"We understand already. There are no misunderstandings. You, for instance, are in charge of men who will harm and murder others if your leader - a servant of Satan - tells you to. You never inquire as to if such should be harmed or die, you simply do it. As to your worship, it is meaningless to us. If it is real, you'll have what our Father promised, if it is not, then not. There will never be relations of any type with this world as it is. Tell your boss's boss Satan to flee now, and perhaps that would give us pause. Otherwise, we're done."

He said, "You have misunderstood us. We do not work for Satan. We are charged with protecting lives and freedom. Like for instance, we must ask that you stop killing innocents."

She said, "You mean like how you kill people in dozens of nations about the globe? And in any case, there are few real innocents on this world, and they will not be harmed. By us, anyway. I can't speak for your drones."

"I'm instructed to let you know that if you cannot agree to stop killing people, then we will have to take measures to stop you.", the General said. I could not help but feel a bit of pride in his saying that, I was myself a bit upset with the casual arrogance of these Namers.

"You will take such measures as your Master commands you to. He has already been misleading you into trying to use force against our Father's ship, and you saw how futile that was.", Goody Michael said. "Do your worst, Fallen. You'll find we're not as easy prey as the tiny nations and primitive people that your vaunted military glories in besting."

The General looked angry, then grim, then resigned. He tapped his eyeglasses, dropped to his knees as if to pray, and then the world went white, and I knew no more.

I awoke with the sound of a trumpet fading away. I was floating upwards with a great multitude of people, from all times and places. We were all nude, but somehow I could sense whether any given one was from my past, my present or my future. Apparently I had been in the sleep of the grave a long time, for there were many from future times past mine floating up with me.

Time had little meaning. That is, whether it was a few minutes or centuries of us forming up into a line, I could not say. Various conversations were had among ourselves, at random times. Often it was some of us trying to explain what we thought was happening to those who had not had the benefit of church teachings, or worse, had "benefited" by the wrong teachings.

In such accounts as this, it is natural for the author to aggrandize himself, everyone must be the hero of their own narrative. But I knew better. I had known better before, on one level, but now I knew better down to my core. I was not the hero of my own or any other narrative. I was among the vast majority of mankind, damned, and worse, damned by my own stupidities, sins and willful pride.

But wait!

No, just kidding. There was no last minute reprieve. It was my turn before the Throne, some split infinity later, my life was reviewed, Christ at my side. While it was not like watching a TV or movie screen, like they used to show in those Chick Publication tracts, it was still kind of like that. How to put it? My life did pass by before Jesus and I, there were even pauses at times as if He was giving me some chance to say something in my defense.

I hung my head. I had no defense. He knew it, too. Not in anger, but in a stern sadness, He -

But wait!

Goody Michael was striding towards us! She looked inquiringly at Jesus, He nodded and made a hand motion indicating that we depart towards the Recording Angel only a few yards away. We stood before the Metatron and he said, "This is not a reprieve. The wages of sin is death, and the gift of eternal life was not accepted by you. The pit awaits you, but this Namer here has need of you, and her and her type are denied nothing they find needful. You will go with her, and she'll return you when she has no further use for you."

He looked over at another line when he said that. One that was for those destined for the pit. There was no crowding or pushing in that line, but it was inordinately long. Conceivably I could be back in time not to lose my place in it. Had there even been any saved?

I glanced quickly in the other direction, to see some few departing heaven-ward away from the Throne, having been found worthy of His gift. The Metatron looked impassive, though I sensed his disgust at me, for how I could wonder about the justness of Heaven?

Goody Michael and the Metatron exchanged a look, and next thing I knew I was back in time and space, back in Boston...

...where all was charred and smoking ruins, ringed about in the distance by broken buildings. Noxious smoke stung my nose and tongue, and my ears were filled with far off screams, various sirens, roaring flames.

It was pretty clear what had happened. I sat heavily down on some melted slag heap composed of metal, rubble, and who knows what else. I was still nude. I put my head in my hands and wept. "It will be awhile before you are sent back to get in line for the pit.", Goody Michael said. "Get up, we must now go find another biology class."

"It's over.", I said, not moving. Misunderstanding me, Goody Michael said, "No, it is not over. SK of the USA has attacked we Namers in every city we appeared in. Nerve gas, germ warfare, lasers, sonics, massive artillery rounds, MOABs and - here - a hydrogen bomb. Besides killing their fellow Fallen that they were supposedly 'protecting', the weapons had no effect. Death is only for sinners. Not our kind."

I laughed. "And I think it's been established that I'm one of those sinners! The 'over' I meant was that I'm damned to Hell, the second death, the one that is final! Without too much offense, I wasn't really thinking about how this may or may not have impacted your mission!"

She said, "It's not like you were not warned. Ask me to feel for those in some tribe that your sick scientists keep primitive for their own anthropological curiosity. They've had no chance, they I feel for. But you? Could you have heard the message more clearly, more often, more over and over? Don't answer. Let us depart."

We walked out of the blast radius, I knew not where, just following her. No harm came to me from the rubble, shards, heat or such. I was guessing, but not caring, that the radiation wasn't harming me either. Or at least that it would not interfere with me accompanying her.

We were far enough away from Ground Zero that some were leaving various houses and buildings. Including an escaped convict in an orange jumpsuit who was holding a mild looking man hostage while a cop was pointing a gun at him and screaming for him to drop his knife. I guess it took an atom bomb and a hostage situation for they to have overlooked her and I coming near.

Goody Michael gave the scene a brief glance, and with a small wave of her hand the cop and hostage dropped dead. The escaped prisoner looked down at their bodies with disbelief, then up at us. She told him, "That Bible your captor always wanted you to read was true, even if he was not. Accept your Savior. Do not assume you've much time."

He went off crying, perhaps to look for that Bible. As we continued, I asked her, "That cop wanted him to read the Bible?" She said, "No, his captor did." I said, "You mean his hostage?"

She stopped and said, "This is why naming is so important. You are so used to false names that you cannot see what is in front of you. Tell me, what do you think you saw?"

I said, "A criminal was threatening to kill an innocent man and a cop was trying to stop that. Then you killed the good guys and let the bad guy go. No doubt you've some holy sounding reason."

She said, "A man was being held against his will for breaking Satan's laws. True, that man had also broke our Father's laws, but that was not why he had been in the jail. His captor was what you call a chaplain, a supposed holy man who incompetent to have others willingly and voluntarily seek his insights, instead had Satan's Kingdom steal from the citizens - taxes - so he could spread his half-truths to a captive audience. The cop had mace and a stungun, and plenty of time to wait the situation out, but decided, and pretty much instantly, that this was an opportunity to kill someone without getting in trouble, and to look like a hero."

I said, "If the guy you let go broke God's - er, our Father's - laws, why did you let him go?"

"Because unlike the other two, he never had a chance. I felt sick and sorry for him.", she said.

"No chance?", I asked. "What of free will? I mean, look at me, I'm already condemned!"

She seemed angry. It was more of a feeling that she was, I could not see any tell tale outward sign. She said, "Did your mother drink and smoke while you were in the womb? No. But his did. He was born with 20 IQ points less than you have because of that, and with a lifelong inclination to drink, or what your 'scientists' speculate to be some unknown 'alcoholic gene'."

"He was 'raised' like a feral animal", she continued, "While you were read to daily, doted on, and sent to a nice pre-school. While you were learning the alphabet at 3, he was sitting in a feces filled diaper in the corner, shivering at the yelling and screaming between his mother and that night's boyfriend. You were always well fed, he got terribly unhealthy snacks at best, or stale charity bread and old canned goods, his mom's food stamps being sold for drugs."

"In school, you went to one of the normal ones, not great, but not so terrible as his. His was based on his color, because while your society figures that if you don't talk about it doesn't exist, it really is the case that the schools are as much segregated as ever. Mostly by income, but that works out to color all the same. While you had art class, he had abuse, while you had books, he had beatings, while your teacher had an assistant to aid her with 12 kids raised with some semblance of civility, his teacher was different every other month, had no assistants, and 28 wild kids with no manners or knowledge of morals."

"You graduated early with all that attention, and with your 110 IQ nourished instead of negated. He dropped out at 17, with his 90 IQ having been starved for any content, and having been expelled for the school's zero tolerance policy on bullying, he having been the victim, but admitting that he had thrown a punch back against the teen gang member who'd tried to rape him."

"You then went on to receive elite training in the world's most advanced military. He went on to drug use and petty crime. You could then play in college dorms. He could play in crack dens. You could take trips. He could only trip. Your every error received patient instruction from successful and mature people who wanted only the best for you. His every error received punishing incarceration, as a rule unjustly and/or capriciously applied, from all manner of uncaring and barely educated fools who had dismissed him from the start."

"You received words of wisdom and counsel, from when you were a toddler to when you left home. He received pain and filth and degradation, from his low-weight birth to his malnourished and drug addled adulthood when he was drove out of his house by the latest boyfriend who wanted to be the only jobless male loitering there."

"You, armed with every advantage your terribly sinful and Satan-led society yet provides, then chucked it all for a variety of sinful debaucheries, cheap hedonistic crap and an overweening pride that had you actually think you were holier than others. You weren't. Rather it was simply that your 20/20 vision in spotting the  hypocrites around you blinded you to your own sins and hypocrisies. You were finally aiding others a bit, and figured you were an unsung martyr instead of a somewhat barely functioning fallen being."

"Meanwhile, this man that you and your type saw as a charity case at best and an irredeemable outcast at worst, was groping towards the light as best he could. Which was awesomely pathetic in the feebleness of that effort, but he did at least know that some effort was needed, which was more than the bullying cop and homosexual chaplain could say."

"Homosexual?", I interjected. "What's that have to do with anything?"

"Because it is a sin! And because worse than that, he would counsel that it was not, and by his example, lead others to think that it was not! And all for his secret hate of his Creator having the Bible clearly say that his childhood mal-imprinting and over-indulgence in perverse sex-play did not excuse his sins. All other sins, he is fast enough to preach that such are 'free will' choices, but his own are - according to his self-serving excuses - just the way he was born!"

"You killed him for the sin of homosexuality?", I asked.

"No", she replied, "I had those two die so that the poor animal groping towards humanity would have some small chance to do so. He has beaten five people in his life, including women, and robbed three dozen more, but the crimes done to him by all in this world who were equipped to know better softened my heart to him. In this broken world, with all of you broken, it sickened me to see how those in charge, and those who have accommodated themselves to Satan's order of things, would make life so terrible for him, then blame him for responding exactly as they made sure he was raised to respond."

"And yet he is going to the pit when he dies, if he fails to repent. Is that fair?", I asked. "Because from what you've been saying, that doesn't sound fair."

She glared at me. "Still questioning the justice and mercy of our Father? Even now? It was your worrying about the lack of true spirituality of the Pharisees of this world that played a large part in your lack of salvation. You should have focused on yourself, and not worried so much about those who were getting their rewards here on Earth."

She was silent for a moment. Then she said, "What if the pit only burned off the sinful parts of you? And if enough non-sinful parts were left, you were then allowed to grow and enter into heaven then? Would that satisfy your sense of justice?"

My heart leapt. "Yes!", I cried out. "That's just fine! Oh, thank heavens!"

She looked at me with contempt and said, "I asked only a hypothetical, you utter fool. I do not say it is that way, and certainly the book our Father gave you does not say that. I also find it hard to believe that you could still be so arrogant as to think that there would be much left of you after the sinful parts were burned away. Here is the best I can tell you - and attend carefully. You know from standing before the Throne that your judging of others and focusing on what you perceived to be their flaws was wrong. Can you even now see that your flaw is so terrible that you just tried to pass judgment on how the Most High, the Creator of Heavens and Earths, our one and only Father conducts His own Creation?"

I could see it. But I felt not shame but anger. Maybe I was little, maybe I was fallen, maybe my own righteousness was as of filthy rags, but could I not still see what was or was not right?

While she had said earlier that they could not read minds, she now said, "I see now that as you've had time to re-write in your memory how things transpired, that your initial shame - felt more because you thought you should, and that it would some how be to your credit - has revealed itself as but a false cover under which the Pride of the Morningstar lurked all along. It was as the Metatron made me aware. And to my own shame, I actually had some doubt, I actually thought that you had some potential."

"Who are you to judge me?", I snarled. "Oh, you've the power, you've shown you can kill with impunity, but where is your moral high ground? What, that you chose your ancestors better than I did? Mine fell, and yours did not, so you can kill and be a saint, while I only serve and yet are classed a sinner?"

"And to think you were in the top twenty percent of those who have some morality. And I see that gives you pride to hear, though it should make you weep with fear for the eighty percent. Know that in any of your prisons and asylums there is also a top twenty percent. I imagine the rats in your sewers feeding on feces and foulness have their own top twenty percent. They are rats all the same - and you are fallen all the same.", she said, and with that she waved her hand.

We appeared in a cave, but not near the entrance, rather in some giant cavern deep under some mountain. The illumination was electric, but from what power source I did not know. It was very beautiful, the way such are, and in one raised section, overlooking an underground lake, was what looked for all the world like a living room. Another nine foot tall woman, also nude, got up from an oversized easy chair, with a remote control in her hand.

She looked surprised. She pointed the remote at a flatscreen hanging from wires attached to the cave ceiling, and the TV went off.

"I was wondering if you would come and visit. I'd have contacted you, but did not wish to presume.", said the cave woman. "If it pleases you, my name is Sarai. I am the last of my kind, and title-less, so the name may be used without offense."

Keziah said, "I needed this fallen one to meet you. And I need to learn a bit more of things of this world from you. Good news, though. I am to tell you that you may come with us. We were told in advance that we could take any unfallen with us. Are you truly the only one left?"

Sarai nodded. "I had three children from a son of Seth, but as such were only half unfallen, the last died of old age shortly before Christ came. And of their children, the last died of old age around the time of the discovery of the Steam Engine. None of their offspring, my great grandchildren, lived past 100. I could obviously have more half fallen but long lived children, but it's too painful watching them die, so I do not."

I said, "You're an unfallen on our world? How is that possible?"

Sarai addressed me, saying, "Nephew, the Adam and Eve that are your ancestors are mine, too. But I am not descended through Cain or Abel, but instead I was their older sister. I was born before the fall, those two were born after. Having never ate of the fruit, I have not experienced death, nor can I. Unless I should choose to sin."

It was doubtful then that Sarai could laugh any more than Keziah could, but they each looked at each other and smiled over the "choose to sin" comment. Keziah said to me, "But she could choose to sin - and if she did, she would surely die. It would take as long as it took Adam and the first few generations, a few hundred years, easily. But she would die. It matters not then who your ancestors are, fallen or not, you can sin. She can sin. I can sin. There is free will."

"You have free will to sin - fine.", I said, "But where is our free will not to sin? We are born into sin, and all of us are sinners, there are none of us righteous, no not one! Where's the fairness in that?"

"Oh, it would be terribly unfair, Nephew.", Sarai answered, "Were it not for Jesus having died so that you could be saved from the sinful errors of my parents. It is they you should be angry at, not our Heavenly Father."

I nodded. I said, somewhat grudgingly, "Makes sense. I suppose. A raw deal that I needed saving for something I had nothing to do with, though. A raw deal for your kids and grandkids, too, apparently."

"And an even rawer deal it would have been if our Father hadn't sent His son as your Savior.", Keziah retorted. "And know please the obvious - the kind of people that won't accept Jesus, are the exact kind who would have ate the forbidden fruit. So do not weep that you were not in the Garden with Adam and Eve, your failure even now to truly accept Christ is clear evidence as to what your diet would have consisted of!"

Keziah then turned to Sarai and asked, "Were you watching us on their news?"

"No", said Sarai, "I was watching what they call a Lifetime movie and contemplating how thoroughly Satan rules a place called Hollywood, where the majority of their movies are made."

"Lifetime is pretty clean", I said. "Compared to other things."

"Hardly", Sarai said. "The violence and action and gratuitous sex of other genres can be bad, true, but Lifetime is much worse. They work very hard to trick girls and women into leading the most miserable and loveless lives imaginable. Whatever is likely to cause the female the most pain, the most distress, that is what they advocate and show as 'good'. I had once thought that some men who profoundly hated women must write these, but I have learned that such are somehow thinking they are doing good, no doubt being influenced by Satan to imagine so."

"What are you talking about? That channel is 100% pro-woman!", I said.

Sarai said, "If it stars a young girl, it teaches that she should always ignore her father's advice as he is old fashioned and out of touch. If it stars a young woman, just starting out as an adult, then it shows that she should not 'settle' on some safe and productive man from a good family, but should do anything but that. Like running off with an 'artist' or 'singer' who 'understands' her while not working or doing anything productive. Or just trying to have a career of her own, though fifty years of women's liberation has taught that such rarely leads to happiness for the woman. Or sometimes having her choose a lesbian relationship."

"Oh, they show some of them married to heterosexual men.", I said. "It's not as bad as all that."

"Yes, it is.", she said. "The only heterosexual marriages they show - in the main - are of middle aged women. And when middle aged women are the stars of the movies, it's showing the husband cheating on them, trying to kill them, secretly married to others, unemployed, abusive, or all of the above. Her 'success' then is measured in how fast she can divorce him. Then she is rewarded by all his property and some fantasy of her cookie recipe being turned into some thriving catering business. Instead of losing most everything and living bitterly alone in an apartment as is more true to how real life is. It is as if Hollywood wants women to choose the worst decision possible at each stage of their life."

I was about to speak up when Sarai continued, "And finally if it is an old lady starring, they show her either as a lesbian or as content to be alone. And none of you are ever content to be alone. From cradle to grave, Lifetime movies - and too many other movies about women - show disastrously sinful and stupid choices as good."

I could see that my great, great, great infinitely great grand Aunt's self-imposed exile here in this cave had not been well for her mental health. Perfect she might be, but I could only imagine what binge watching such endless crap for a century could have done to her.

Goody Michael looked a bit worried for Sarai, too, but only said, "You've saved me a trip, and I thank you for that. In fact, you can help me more than this one can. He thinks that our Father is unjust. In fairness, he was found wanting at the Day of Judgment to come. But still. I don't need his self-pitying crap and his sad pretense at righteous wrath."

With that Goody Michael started to wave her hand at me, to send me back to the line to the pit, probably. But Sarai raised her voice without yelling, kind of a Captain's voice of command, if you've ever heard that. "Hold!", she said. "He is yet my kin. I will go with you, but let me meet you at the next college you're wishing to go to, after I first converse with him. I'll take care of where he needs to go."

Goody Michael nodded her head in agreement, almost deferentially, and with no word of good bye or thanks to me, disappeared. "So she can travel without those white spheres, by teleporting. Can you?", I asked - oh, Aunt Sarai, I supposed she should be called.

"Yes, I can", Sarai said. "If I need to, our Father does that for me. It is not teleporting in the sense you are thinking, but it is handy for rapid travel. I am going to be leaving with her, and leaving this world, but would aid you and my kin if I could. And if you let me."

"How do you mean?", I asked.

"My spiritual brethren have not treated you cruelly as they and I would reckon it, especially given our broader and more dispassionate viewpoint centered about an absolute faith in our Father. But my mostly solitary existence here over the millennia has gave me a certain sympathy for you and the rest of my fallen nieces and nephews, a certain empathy that is obviously lacking in them.", she explained.

I asked, "What are you going to do, then? You know they've killed many of us around the world?"

"I know", she said, "And in a very real sense, that was okay. Yet in another sense, I would rather it not have been that way. It is not that they were wrong, or that they sinned. But there are ways in which proprieties can be respected, without any prerogatives of theirs being stepped upon. I will see to it that such is done."

"What does that even mean?", I asked. "And why is she so big on finding a biology class?"

Sarai said, "She's fascinated about how thoroughly Satan has got your scientists, the masses of men in general, and even most of the people of supposed faith, to believe in evolution. She wants to hear a lecture on it to see if it is convincing in any way. I'll let her know in advance that she'll be disappointed. Meanwhile, I'll be making a correction."

"What correction?", I asked.

"It is possible for them to have done all they did, and learn all they have learned and will learn, but without this world being disrupted as they have. I will now ask my Father - and He is my own Father and yours as much as He is theirs - to set things right, for this world of mine. I know He will do so, for my will is always in accord with His, and I'd not desire it were it not possible to be."

"So those arrogant others were wrong?", I asked.

"No, they were not", she said. "It is only that they have their tasks and desires, and I have mine. They are not even going to conflict with mine here. I'm simply making sure that all of us get all that we justly desire. And the correction for that is not so great. When done, our world will carry on as if none of them had ever come here. There'll be no memory or record of their arrival. They'll have never been here, and all will be exactly as it would have been without them."

"But they'll still have their data?", I asked. "Because if they don't, they'll be back."

"They'll still have their data.", she said. "And you still can be saved. As you won't have been killed in the atomic blast that will never have took place. Giving you - and others in your position - an extra chance rarely afforded to any."

I looked stubborn, or so I imagine I did, as she said, "You'll probably waste that chance. You'll have memory of all this, but you'll convince yourself it was a dream or just a story idea, and you'll figure you're not really so bad. You'll still figure that as long as you can point to someone who is doing worse, especially if you perceive them to be wrongly in authority, that you with all your sins will be okay. You won't be."

A thought struck me. A silly one, perhaps, but when would I have a chance to ask again? "Are the movies really that bad? I mean, that was quite a diatribe you gave about Lifetime movies. Could you maybe have just been hiding here too long?"

"Yes", she said. "They are that bad. They are in the main destructive of the family, destructive of faith, destructive of goodness and foster a sense of envy and strife in the audience. Never minding the rampant deviant sex displayed and implied. The watching of almost any movie at all, or TV show, or net playing or gaming is a waste of the time and talents of all men.  In all cases they portray good as bad and bad as good.  Always anti-Christian.  Always pro-debaucheries and perversities.  I could go on.  Almost endlessly, as I've had little entertainment but all this electronic crap the past 100 years. But enough. Time to set things right. Then I can depart before this world literally gives me gray hairs."

And she waved her hand.

The news was as usual today. Unrest in the Middle East, a five/four split in a Supreme Court decision, a budget crisis in your state and in your city a contentious bond issue. I yawned and pondered an idea for a story. A very clear idea for a story, more like a memory or dream.