Hereafter

Hereafter: Part II Graduation Day, Chapter 30

30

 

 

MY REVELATION BROUGHT OUR new mother tears of joy as the significance of what I’d just told her sank in. Things were moving so quickly. Not only did we have to find ways to survive in the caves, provisions would have to be made to raise and nurture Yamara’s child—the firstborn to our growing clan. The basics, food and water, were under control.

As long as we always saved some scraps of food, the miracle of multiplying what was left continued to bless and support our personal sacrifices on behalf of the Creator’s Cause. Regular well water was kept separate from the jugs of Holy Water which also continued to be a blessing for smaller miracles, from quenching a craving for a glass of Chianti to curing the common cold.

Living in the caves, shelter was a given and because of the constant 65 degree temperature, there was no need for heating or cooling as the seasons changed. For other incidentals, scouting parties went out after dark to scavenge from the many empty homes and apartments scattered throughout the vast abandoned older part of Catania. Within a couple of weeks, the relentless pressure to find us had died down.

It was relatively safe to go out at night because the police were deployed to put down rebellions in other cities as word of what we had done spread throughout Calidari. I wouldn’t say that President Cain was worried, but instead of the Raftalgar Square massacre extinguishing our movement, it was growing. Word of what was going on in other cities got back to us as we took in refugees.

Some groups tried sit-ins, while others engaged in civil disobedience and work stoppages. Some revolts were more violent than ours, involving vandalism, indiscriminate attacks on Citadel employees, and even bombings of government buildings. They were all quickly crushed with merciless overwhelming force. Feeling hopeless, the refugees were encouraged when we told them our stories about the miracles and many came to believe in the Creator.

Our fledgling band of Creationists accepted a calling to carry on an oral tradition of spreading the Good News of how the Creator was going to help us change the oppressive world we lived in for the better. So many were faithfully and loyally responding that we developed sacraments in order to establish traditions we could pass down.

Those who participated in our Blessing of the Bread sacrament, during which we also blessed the water, were baptized into our Creationist faith and received the special Gifts of the Creator’s Spirit. Believing in life after death, we held Blessing of the Dead ceremonies during which we both remembered and celebrated the life of the one who was now residing in the Hereafter. At birth, our Blessing of the Baby sacrament we welcomed the newborn soul into our faith community.

Some among us were called to write down an account of how our understanding of the Creator came to be. These scribes reported how the Creator first touched me before sharing Gifts with others and so I held a prominent place among the faithful, as if I were sent by the Creator to minister to the people. I knew differently—I understood that we were all the Creator’s children, but given their limited understanding I allowed them to place me on a pedestal.

It had its advantages. In our secular society, women were second class citizens—not allowed to own property, forced to be subservient to their husbands, could be bought or sold like cattle, and could be abused or assaulted without any consequences. At least within our small community, because of me women were respected and regarded as a man’s equal.

All these developments were important and felt right to me, but I still wasn’t aware of any Grand Plan for my life—at least nothing of the scale and nature of the Mission I’d accepted in heaven before incarnating to Calidari. Perhaps it is only the historians who celebrate certain figures from the past—people who in the hindsight of centuries of clarity declare this person or that as having made a significant contribution to the evolving world they lived in. All I knew was that what was happening to me, and around me, seemed right, truthful, hopeful, and important.