The Prayer

Chapter 1 - The Power of Hwaiian Pizza

Gerry Ewing was nothing extraordinary, in fact he was completely ordinary. In many ways he felt far too ordinary. His girlfriend had left him for someone else, he had a nine to five desk job, a university degree that he hadn't been able to use and a university debt that would be enough to make anyone cry. He trudged through the cold New York rain and found himself soaked by the time he made it to his cruddy apartment building. His sodden shoes squelched as he made his way through the entrance hall, he had hoped that the lift had been fixed but no such luck. Gerry let out a long tired sigh, headed for the stairs door and mentally tried to prepare himself for the five flights that lay before him.

By the time he had reached the fifth floor he was knackered. He had taken his drenched jacket off on the second floor and stood on the fifth floor corridor with his hands on his hips breathing heavily.

"Those stairs never get any better" he panted to himself. He tossed his jacket over his shoulder, picked up his briefcase and headed for his apartment.

Gerry's apartment was nothing particularly special, so it suited him perfectly. It had a small living room, a galley like kitchen, a compact bathroom, his room and (according to the advertisement when he bought the place) a spare room that you couldn't swing a cat in. He carelessly chucked his jacket on the back of an armchair, began to loosen his tie and slumped on his battered red sofa. He was still breathing heavy from the stairs and began to think, a very dangerous thing, I'm sure you'll agree. He couldn't help but think about the mess of a life that he had found himself with, nothing just seemed to be working out for him and it wasn't like he didn't try to work things out - take for example his girlfriend, or rather ex girlfriend. Gerry had tried to work on things with Liz, truly he had tried to make it work, she was the reason he had moved to New York in the first place to try and make things better. Turns out she was seeing someone at her work, he was fitter, richer, drove a better car, lived in a better house and was just generally better. He rolled his eyes when he thought about how she was living with him now somewhere in Manhattan and then let out a groan, like he had been stabbed when he started to think about his job. I wish I could tell you exactly what Gerry's job was but it was so mindless that even he wasn't entirely sure what his exact purpose was. Gerry eyed his classics degree from Ohio State and thought about all the lies he was told about having doors opened for him with 'such a useful degree' and rolled his eyes. He sighed again and looked to his fridge and as if on cue his stomach rumbled. He sighed again and pulled himself up from the sofa and began to move to his bedroom to get off his tight white work shirt and black trousers.

He returned to the kitchen wearing some torn joggers and an old Motley Crue shirt only to open the fridge and see that he had pretty much nothing that would satisfy his growing hunger. He figured that since it was a Friday night, he may as well just order in something and get it delivered, thus fulfilling his hunger, stopping him from going out in the rain and would mean he wouldn't have to climb up those awful stairs again. He shuddered at the thought of having to climb up those stairs, soaked to the bone and that pretty much sealed the deal and he ordered from the take away down the street. Gerry then began to get himself comfortable on the sofa, daydreaming about the pizza and garlic bread that were on his way to him, his phone rang and saw it was his mother. He closed his eyes and debated about whether he should ignore it but realised that she would just keep phoning and it would be far better for him to deal with it now so he could enjoy his food when it came. He prepared himself and got ready to put on a fake happy voice for his mother.

"Hey ma, wasn't expecting to hear from you tonight" Gerry said in his best customer service voice.

"Oh am I interrupting something? A...date perhaps?" Laughed Mrs Ewing, in her typical fake high pitched laugh that would be enough to send any dog mad.

"Nope, just didn't expect to hear from you that's all"

"Oh" said Mrs Ewing, not even bothering to hide the obvious disappointment in her voice. "Well I just thought I would see how things were for you, in the big city and all!"

Gerry cringed at her language, "it's fine, works the same so no change on that front"

"No other news to report?"

"No not since two nights ago when you asked" sighed Gerry.

Silence fell over the phone line.

"And your..."

"Still single since Liz?" Finished Gerry. "Yea ma, I'm still single"

"Oh, such a shame, I don't know what's wrong with you"

"Me neither" mumbled Gerry to himself.

"What was that? I think the line is going funny" shouted Mrs Ewing. "GERALD?! GERALD! CAN! YOU! STILL! HEAR! ME!"

Gerry had removed the phone from his ear and was holding it at an arms distance from himself to try and not be turned deaf by his mother's bellowing high voice.

"Yea ma you don't need to shout" he said.

Mrs Ewing, either didn't hear or didn't care and continued to yell down the line. "I'M GOING TO GO NOW! MAYBE DO A LITTLE PRAYER FOR YOURSELF!"

"Yea and who will I pray to?" Laughed Gerry.

"I SHOULD THINK ANYBODY YOU THINK WILL LISTEN! BYE DARLING!" And just like that she hung up the phone and the apartment was silent.

Gerry couldn't help but let put a sigh of relief that the phone call was over but then started to think about what his mother had suggested.

'Have a little prayer' he thought. 'Have a little prayer to anyone you think would listen'. Gerry first of all thought about what he would pray for, he wanted a better job, to be successful to make his mother leave him be, to get a dog (Liz would never let him have one) and to just be happy in general. He then began to think about who he could pray to and started ruling some out and by the time he had done this his food had arrived. The poor delivery boy was soaked through the skin, but still Gerry was quietly thankful that it wasn't him, he gave the boy a tip and shut the door. It was as he was making his way back to the sofa that he again caught his degree out of the corner of his eye and began thinking about the old gods - You know like Zeus, Ra, Odin and Pluto.

Gerry switched on the tv and tried to watch an old episode of Friends (the one with the rumour in case your interested) but he couldn't pay attention to it, his mind was wandering far too much.

'Such a stupid idea...do a little prayer' He thought to himself as he munched on another piece of his Hawaiian pizza. 'Then again it wouldn't do any harm...I mean it would only be a joke'.

Gerry half watched another two episodes of Friends and by this time he had decided that he may as well do it because why the hell not.

He didn't have any altars in his flat and thought that little dishes with pizza in them should be enough to please any God. Gerry then got to work and cut the four remaining slices into smaller chunks and then placed them into nine dishes. Now all that was left to do was to decide who each bit was going to be for. He eventually decided on Thor, Zeus, Venus, Athena, Loki, (for a laugh) Apollo, Isis, (Gerry always thought she was pretty cool with her magic in the mythology) Osiris and Ra. Gerry laughed at himself aloud, "God I must truly have lost my mind"

Gerry looked at his watch, half eleven and yawned. Suppose he had to go and do a shop for proper food tomorrow and the thought of fighting through the busy New York streets was already draining him. He yawned again, checked the lock on his door and headed for bed, not giving an ounce of thought to the nine dishes with, now, cold bits of pizza in them. Perhaps, He should have given them thought as through this rather simple gesture he triggered something in the cosmos of the world as something or someone was the first to awaken from a very long nap.