Listen closely for time is of the essence.
Last night while I slept with bills for blankets a vision was bestowed upon me. It was of the end times and left we with tremors when I awoke.
Bright lights had enveloped me. I knew not what it was. Then a figure came to me, the face and features I know not, it was bright and I didn't have my glasses on. But the voice rang true and clear. The spirit said unto me, "be not afraid, for there is nothing that you can do". So I heeded the words and accepted the reality.
"Okay." I shouted over the bright lights piercing my eyes.
"I come with a great message and an honorable task to bestow upon thee".
"Okay", I once again shouted, this time however with an added shrug of the shoulders.
"The end is near and the pawns are all in place. Neither the exact hour, minute, or second is really known, but I do believe that it will be coming sometime this month, however things are kinda busy...ahem, as I was saying, the end is near. Some of those that are close to you and some that are far away are going to be swept up like children's teeth under a pillow.
The world around you is changing and the rapture will soon devour the righteous and leave only the wicked and wretched to rule the world. However have no fear for the world that you know will not be changed. Television programming, both secular and religious, will not change. Politicians will still make pointless speeches and time will tread on. Those that are to be taken will be few and far between. But that's besides the point. It's going to happen and for the most part, you won't know.
However your job is to lead those that are left out of the dark and into the light."
A "Huh?" was all that I could muster, I was still worried about the t.v. programming. I knew that he had mentioned it, but wasn't sure what he was really trying to point out.
He repeated, "you will be the leader of the masses throughout the entire seven years of tribulation. However, it's not really our job to give you post or anything like that. You're just supposed to lead; however you do it is up to you. Personally I gotta tell you that we got a little pool going as to how you are going to pull it off. Anne Frank thinks it's going to be a marionette show in the classical style and Billy Graham thinks it'll be revivals. I keep tellin' 'em it's not going to be anything like that. I think your just going to fail. I could be wrong though..."
"I'm sorry", regaining my composure,"but what the hell, oh can I say that?"
"Not like you're going up in the first wave, say what you want".
"Okay. I still don't know what you are talking about. I mean, I remember some of the talk of the 'end of days' in bible camp, but I never really payed attention. So I'm not sure what to make of this dream".
"Oh this is no dream", the spirit firmly stated, "this is your calling, this is your job, your purpose. You are nothing and we are expecting you to be something".
"Well what is it that I am going to be fighting against? What is it that I am supposed to stop. Life is...moving for me. I mean, I'm not happy, but I'm not suffering. I'm doing alright".
"Do you not look around? Have you not seen the world that you are allowing to revolve around you? You think that it's 'alright'? You think that you aren't 'suffering'? My friend apathy has made you blind. You are happy with ignorance and you are content with nothingness. When you were a child you dreamed of great things and now you are content to watch it all wash away around you. You have nothing and you are alright with that. You sit by and wait and watch as your world is driven further and further away from it's proper course, which by the way, no one knows any more or much less even cares. This isn't even a pious or religous message, we've given up on those foundations a long time ago, at least since those that were to lay them lost the blueprints and just started winging it..."
He trailed off with a look of exhaustion and dispair. Rightly so, he could see that I just didn't get it and could probably somehow tell that I only wanted to get back to my dreams, the regular type, you know those that you forget twenty minutes after you make them.
"If you can't understand my words then perhaps you can understand my message through your own eyes".
He then reached out and gently touched my head pushing it firmly onto my pillow. The vision slowly creapt into my eyes. At first it was light, then suddenly dark. I saw a the ground as a bird sees. As I slowly came across the crowds below I could see the looks of pain on their faces as they marched in a line some dressed in nothing but ragged dress shirts and stripped ties. Dockers wrinkled and worn as they trod shoeless in the mud. It was straight out of a medevil painting; I could hear the gnashing of teeth, or at least a million voices crying out "hello" into their cell phones. In the middle of the line I could see the figure of Allan Greenspan lashing out aimlessly among the crowd with his cat of nine tales telling the people to get in line and accept the mortgages that lie before them.
"Nothing you can do but join the ranks of the lower classes", I heard him growl out, "You thought that with a home and land came freedom and control, well you were wrong. We have placed the lenders high in our ranks and have backed their increasing interest rates and predatory ways, I hope that you enjoyed that free cap Timmy and your free apron Mrs. Wilson. The road to slavery is payed with innocent gifts and 0% for a year...after you are ours you don't think, you just do. Monthly minimums paid are your churchs and the truth is our work week; only one way out and we have taken that away as well. Only thing left is to increase the divide and join those that have already been forsaken and shamed into the lower class. There is nothing that I cannot change and nothing that we cannot take away. Death is your only release and health care is improving. So expect to feel my presence for the rest of your days".
It struck me as odd at the time as well; he always appeared to be so sweet and kind. It looked as though everytime he raised the interest rate on t.v. that he almost felt bad about it but that there was just nothing that he could do. However now that i think about it I did one time notice one of those hand-grip balls in his palm. Strengthing the ole grip I imagine.
Moving on we ascended upon a public crowd gathered to hear the vice president speak, it was brief but he was moving about in his natural ways, hiding nothing and caring about less. I caught the end of his speech and it was time for questions and answers. Someone made the mistake of lofting a soft inquisition into Cheney's business dealings when the increasingly fat cat bloated out a "shut the fuck up. What do you know? That's just perposturous. I don't even know what you are getting at but I can tell you that the companies I deal with are nothing up upstanding and righteous. They are working to help the 'people', yes, just the common stupid people. If it wasn't for their kindness people like you couldn't even buy soap to wash the filth off of yourself. You wouldn't be able to survive if we weren't working in foreign countries. Everyone acts as though my contacts and my favoring of certain corporations is wrong. Well I don't know any better and as far as I'm concerned it's right. My God says it's right and you can't touch him. Only I know my God and he favors my business's; we are blessed to have me in office and blessed that I can work as a middle men. What do they do? Well I don't know. That's not for me to decide. I'm just a vessel between what's right and what's good".
It was at this time that he moved on waving off the heap of reporters and viewers. He was carried off by a silent mob, as Dick doesn't like loud crowds, he finds them unnecesary and disrubtive to his heart.
The last stop that we were to make was next to a construction camp. It was filled with ragged workers barely fed and some wearing nearly nothing. I noticed a sign that read "Lower Mississippi Reclamation Project". It was at this time that I saw a much stronger and better dressed man begin to yell and point and order the others about.
"That is Michael Chertoff, he is the foreman of the project", the spirit quietly wispered.
In the background I could see masses of individuals working on what appeared to be a circular base covering miles of ground.
"It will be his greatest legacy", the spirit stated, shaking his head in a style of disbelief.
"If only he could understand that it won't end her. If only he could understand..." while he hung his head we continued to get closer to the building sight. It was at this time that I saw a large creature who seemed to have one body but three heads; each with it's own fine clumb of thin, greying hair which has been parted to one side.
In disbelief I began to say, "is that who, who I think..."
"It is. he no longer has a reason to hide what was inside; as this is a glimpse of the future those that would care have been taken, the rest simply follow and marvel. Although they are made to do his work some still believe that he is like them, that he understands them. They are building a tower to the sky".
As I looked at this seemingly fictious character I listen to what it is that he is shouting to the masses. Each of his three mouths are moving and a massive chorus of charm and simplicity is broadcast out onto the crowd. They listen, content and moving about their job. Those that look up, stop, or give any notion of anything but total faith are quickly taken care of by Chertoff's aides.
The message is a mixed one of spirituality, reverence, preservation, and supremacy. It is somewhat overt, but thinly hidden by pleasantries in the manor of speaking and within it's context. Who doesn't want to survive and live a charmed life like the one these people are existing in? What do they really know. No looking up here, no seeing the true beast that is telling you the lies. If they are even lies. Who knows? No ones looking that's for sure.
As we drift farther and farther away from the scene and from the earth that I am soon to inherit I hear these final words,
"This tower will bring us closer to our purpose as not only American's but as human beings. From this we can see those that wish to hurt us while becoming closer to the one that has blessed this land. Although some of us will not live I will make sure that the job is done. This tower shall be occupied at all times by at least a few fellas with binoculars and shotguns. The lives of those that were lost in it's contruction will be forgotten and the glory of this thing shall live on. Your lives are not important in the whole scheme, what's important is what is left behind to those that can properly use the thing to it's real potential...." it carried on, but sadly enough I was carried away.
When I awoke I wiped the sweat from my brow and sat up wondering if it was all true. I didn't know what to think. After slipping in and out of snooze periods I finally got up and decided that it was nothing.
Sitting down to coffee and the morning news I realized it was all true.
"...speculations remain high, Greenspan to raise interest rates...in unrelated news actor Tom Selleck mysteriously vanishes..."
That guy could never do wrong.
this horrible story of the apocolypse is brought to you through the partnership of: Iowa Student Loans and Citicards, with additional frustration from the Yen losing ground over the US Dollar.
or at least she was nice enough to fake it and buy me some cake. So that's that...enough about the birthday.
Or at least you would think so with that kind of look on their faces. Really though they look like a couple of Yaks, or yakuza's. But they don't have the colorful suits and sunglasses on like that real thing. The one on the right is an old student of mine and is now a graduate student here at Eichi. The other fella is a friend of Yusuke. Good times had by us and them.
