The God Experiment

Chapter No.46. Warning.

Chapter No.46. Warning.

It was inevitable that the Vestal Virgins would make an appearance, especially when Sylvia was present. They popped in when the Steris family and their new adopted daughter were enjoying a cookout in the backyard.

"We are pleased with your incorporation of a new member. You have shown tolerance and acceptance without shame, which has pleased us. We are not here to regulate your social mores. They are yours to enjoy. We are only interested in how you deal with adversity. Be careful in how you act."

They vanished.

"They don't believe in idle talk, do they," Sylvia said.

"Pretty much," James said. "Evidently, they're not concerned about you, despite the fact that you're not actually part of our family."

"I think we should take her to one of our healing sessions," Janet proposed. "She needs to sense how it feels to help people who are essentially dying."

"I don't really know how to heal people," Sylvia said. "How do you diagnose a disease and then cure it?"

"Believe me, that power is already in you," James said. "It just comes naturally."

"You people have fought demons. How do you do that?"

"We're able to shoot powerful energy beams from our eyes, James said. "You just look at them and give them a blast."

"That sounds crazy."

"Yeah, but it's how we have to do combat."

Old Bob, the next-door neighbor looked over the fence. "Hey Steris, who were those women I saw in your back yard?"

Robert looked at him. "They're ladies from the annual picnic church committee. They wanted to know if we would help them bring food."

"You sure they weren't from the choir? They were dressed for it."

"They like to be formal when they visit parishioners," Robert said.

Old Bob waved his hand dismissively and turned around and waked to his house.

"I'm surprised that your neighbor doesn't realize who you really are," Sylvia said.

"Dad likes to play the comedian," James said. "He's the master at deflecting his perception of us."

They laughed.

"You all seem to be comfortable with your superhero status," Sylvia said. "What do you do for fun?"

"Dad likes to take us to foreign locations for dinner," James said. "Although, in most cases we end up preventing a disaster. We also flew to the top of Mount Everest, but we ended up rescuing some climbers that were caught in an avalanche."

"We believe that these situations are not random or accidental," Robert said. "They are how the Vestals have us conveniently at crisis situations."

"Dad saved our country from being nuked twice," James said. "He's able to sense when bad things occur."

"So, you consider playing out your roles as superheroes is your entertainment," Sylvia said.

"What else could we do?" Robert asked. "We are what we are, and that's what we are."

"You sound like Popeye," James said, grinning.

They laughed.

Sylvia whiped her brow. "I could use a nice swimming pool right now. It's hot."

"We can't afford anything like that," Janet said.

"Who needs to afford it," James said. "We could just create one."