Monday, April 5, 2010

agathokakological -chapter 1 cont.

the now-lost soul, who's name was shen but now armen, continued on his way to the coffee shop. he walked with the red letter still in hand. he remembered it. pulling it close to his face he tried to read it. all he saw were three strange letters. they made sense, g-o-d, but they didn't. in fact every time he tried to figure it out he could not. he realized suddenly that the letters were laid out backwards. it wasn't g-o-d, it was d-o-g. dog. it made sense. someone was in too much of a hurry and misspelled it. He did. but that didn't matter. the letter was addressed to a dog. or maybe it was a poor attempt at slang, dawg. nevertheless, it meant nothing of importance and He left it with him. He wouldn't just want it thrown away. or would he? no. so armen opened it. he pulled it open and peered inside. nothing was inside. tossing it to the ground he continued walking. it was of no concern to him.

...

as the door slammed shut, He admired His work. a masterpiece. He could barely hold back His laughter as he watched armen stand and exit the other side of the bus station. the fool. that's all he was. nothing could have gone wrong if it was His first one. but of course it wasn't. He had made many to forget. He was proud of Himself. no one else who had ever or ever would could confuse people so well. He buttoned five of the six buttons on his military stylistic jacket. of course it was modern and metro. He enjoyed not only being better than others, but looking better. He sported a fedora. black. like His jacket. His shoes were green. His eyes were too. He had black jeans on. His shirt was the same green as His shoes. He had graying hair. His face had only enough wrinkles to show that He was no long a "young" adult. He looked at his watch, which had a black leather band with a silver clock piece. it was nearly noon.

...

"hey, grab that over there. no, under the car." the youth group would go out once a month to clean up this short stretch of road. it was their way of giving back to the community. what had the community ever given them? they were picking up the trash today. and a good thing because it is supposed to rain all next week. that would be an awful mess. they decided to go a week early. only a couple of the regulars couldn't make it and there were several new members along this time. no one cared about giving back to the community. they were all wretches. all they wanted was to spend time with their friends. some of them were dating other members of the youth group.

ashley was hoping for a chance to date the captain of the football team. but unfortunately being on the cheerleader team wasn't enough to get his attention. so she joined youth group. she could get his attention this way. maybe? she hoped. and it was working. kinda. not as well as she hoped. c'mon, it had been three weeks. they did talk more and even flirt every once in awhile. but that's not enough. ugh. she hated how he would talk to jenna. it wasn't that he talk to her more, but he didn't need to talk to her at all. isn't 'hi' enough? "hey, jake. what's up?

"picking up trash. you haven't picked up any?"

"of course i have."

"you sure do know how to keep your hands clean." the trash was often sticky and grimy, leaving muck on the teen's hands.

"well... i have a reputation to keep up. you should know that. i have to impress the guys." she winked.

he blushed. it wasn't much of a flirt but it caught him off guard. she liked it. she knew he might get mad, he was that way, but she couldn't help herself. everyone else was on the other side of the street, and the wind made their voices almost fade into nothing. "i guess." what was he thinking. he liked her. he needed to say something. anything. "well, you are... uh. impressive." was that too much? he couldn't look at her. he knew his face was a hot red. it burned.

"thank you!"

his face cooled. it wasn't too much. he looked at her. "so. i am going to a movie in a few hours. well. at seven. i have a few friends coming. wanna come?"

this was it. she was supposed to go home and do homework. "supposed" to. "sure! so, i'll meet you there?" would he catch on? did he remember?

"you got a car?"

"well no, i'll have to get a ride."

"why don't i give you one."

she could barely believe what she heard. "yes!" it came out almost a shout. "yes, that would be awesome!" a bit more controlled. well we better get this done." she reached for a red envelope and noticed him reaching for it too. she continued. he continued. their hands touch. their faces turned red. they looked at each other. "sorry."

"ha, it's ok. i know you meant it." he winked. she melted. picking up the letter, he turned it over and opened it. a single gold letter was inside. he pulled it out. it was heavy for just paper. it was gold."look at this."

"wow, who would just throw that away? is that real gold?"

he handed it to her, "see?"

"wow!" she wasn't talking about the gold. it was what was on the gold. a picture.

"it says, God."

"where?"

"here." he pointed to the middle. "it's taking up almost the whole thing," he said a bit agitated.

"i don't see it. what, are you joking?" she was a little flustered herself.

"what do you see?" trying not to get her more riled up.

"just a picture." her voice was soft against the wind. he knew he was in love with her.

"just a picture?" he hoped.

"yes. ok, stop. this isn't funny. if you want to keep pretending, do it to someone else." he knew he had to do something.

"ok, i'm sorry. that was a bad joke." please.

"ok, just don't turn out to be a jerk." she smiled. slightly.

"so, that's a cool picture." he still saw 'God'. he didn't know why she wasn't seeing it, but didn't care. he compromised. "you can have it."

"we'll share it"

he smiled.

"we'll call it the picture of god." he smiled, hinting at a laugh.

"ok." she laughed.

...

He felt it. it was working. only two hours ago He planted his seed of contempt. He was good. He was now at a church. He looked across the street and saw a bar. no reason to go there. they're all lost already. He liked the church. He could get an average of two souls a week. just enough so no one caught on. someday the church would give up for lack of growth.

"hello, welcome back." He hated the greeters. always smiling. they were hard. they didn't know his name. He had managed to figure theirs out. wretches. He played along. shook the hand of the younger. ignored the older. "would you like a program?" the older continued. He ignored him.

He sat in the front. He had to play the game the right way. besides He liked attention. no one else dressed like Him in church.

...tbc

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