Virgin (48 page)

"Tear down
your walls, children, and find Harmony.

"You have
become masters of your world. You have struggled to the apex of your corner of
Creation. You rule it now. But with mastery comes obligation. The rulers of
Creation become responsible for it.

"Remember
this: every living thing, animal, reptile, vegetable, contains a spark of the
Creator.
You hold within yourselves the brightest spark, but not the
only spark. It is arrogant of you to think that all other living things were
put
here merely to be disposed of at your
whim. They were not. A balance must be struck. It is a law of Creation that one
thing must die that another may live, a law that holds true for all things, for
the plants as well as the animals. But you fail in your responsibility when you
wantonly lay waste to the land. You dim the spark within when you kill for
sport and not for sustenance, when you kill for mere vanity to steal another
creature's beauty to wear as your own, or cause a creature pain to test the
paints and scents you daub on your bodies. All life has value. Yes, there is a
hierarchy in that value, but nothing that lives is without it.

"And if
you must respect the place of the lower life-forms in the world around you,
certainly you must cherish the life-right of your fellow humans a thousand-fold
more. You must not diminish, must not damage, must not shorten the lives around
you, for in doing so you also smother His spark within yourself. And nothing
dims that spark, nothing hardens the human heart to the value of human life
more than the ghastly slaughter of war. You must halt all war, children,
especially the unseen war: Never shall there be true peace around you while you
wage war on the unborn lives within you.

"Respect
all
life, children, and find Harmony.

"Abolish
your ceremonies, your communions, your sacrifices, real and symbolic; discard
your dietary laws, cast off your clerical vestments, disband your sects, cease
calling yourselves
Catholic or Christian or Jew or Muslim or Buddhist, for
these customs, these identifications, these sects, these labels serve only to
set you apart from your kin.

"Silence your
prayers. He will not answer because He will not listen while you call out from
within walls that separate you from your kin. Cease your worship, your
kneeling, your bowing, your prostrating, your fasts, self-denials, and
self-inflicted injuries. You demean not only yourselves but your Creator when
you believe that such obeisances please Him. Harmony is the only prayer He
heeds.

"Abandon
your rituals, children, and find Harmony.

"Do not
look to Him for guidance or relief; look instead to each other.

"Close
your churches, your temples, your mosques, for these are the most tangible and
obvious walls between you. Gather instead in the streets and parks and squares
where there are no walls. Try to reach Him by reaching each other.

"Discard
your Bible, your Koran, your Torah, for each is only partly true, and they lead
you into the belief that you have found the One True Path to God, or the One
True Voice that will catch His ear. You have not. And that delusion raises
another wall, a wall of exclusivity. He did not create you to be divided.

"Forsake
your beliefs, children, and find Harmony.

"I say
again, use your own lives well, and respect each life around you. You are all
kin. Touch one another. You are all living this life together. And so you must
all work together toward creating Heaven. It is possible. You have the power.
You need only find it and use it.

"If you do
not, if you continue along the same path you have trod these thousands of
years, you will create a hell for yourselves and your children.

"Look not
for a Third Coming. And act not in fear of eternal reward or punishment. Your
reward or punishment is here. This is your world, these are your lives. He has
given them to you.
Use them well, make the most of them, make them
mean
something,
make them
count.
For
this
is your Heaven or Hell. You have the
power to make it either. The choice is yours.

"Do not
wait for the Rapture of the faithful, or for the Tribulation of the unbeliever.
They will not come from on high. Your rapture arises from each other, as do all
your tribulations. Heaven or hell will be of your own making. You have but to
choose.

"This then
is the whole of the law:

"Find
Harmony, children, and you will find Love."

26

Paraiso

Dan had
listened raptly. She'd been speaking to the world, he knew, to all of
humankind, but he'd felt as if she were speaking only to him. For what she'd
said reflected exactly his innermost thoughts and feelings. Because of his
vows, his membership in the priesthood, he'd been afraid to vocalize them, even
to himself. But now that
she
had said them, he could acknowledge what
he'd sensed,
known
all along.

He wondered if
that was why he was here, in this house, in her presence--in
His
presence--why
he'd been with her all along.

As the Virgin
finished speaking she touched Carrie's bowed head and said, "Come, my
devoted one."

Carrie rose to
her feet. The Virgin held out her hand and Carrie took it.

The Virgin
said, "Our time here is done."

Our time is
done.
What did she mean by that?

Dan swallowed
and addressed her again.

"Wait . .
. please. Can't you . . . bring her back? Make her live again? You can do that,
can't you?"

The Virgin
shook her head. "Her time here is through. She is coming with me."

"With you?
You're taking her away? Where?" Dan felt a sob building in his chest. He
still hadn't come to terms with Carrie's death. "Oh, please. I've only
just begun to know her. You can't take her away from me now."

"I haven't
taken her away. One of your brothers did that."

And then Carrie
and the Virgin began to rise.

When they were
floating half a dozen feet above the floor, they began to drift toward the
ruined windows, toward the sea, toward the towering column of water that waited
for them.

"Wait!"
cried another voice. It was the man who
called himself Kesev, whom the Mother
called Iscariot. "Mother,
please wait!"

Their seaward
drift slowed.

"Yes,
Judas?"

"What of
me?"

"What of
you, Judas?"

"Am I to
be left here alone? Haven't I suffered enough? Two thousand years, Mother!
Haven't I earned forgiveness?"

"Forgiveness
does not come from me, Judas. You know that."

"Then
intercede for me, Mother. He listens to you. Don't leave me here alone.
Everyone I've ever known has left me. Please . . . I do not deserve this
anymore."

The Virgin
paused, as if listening, then extended her free hand toward Judas.

"Come."

Judas rushed
forward, leaped to catch her hand, and when their fingers touched, he floated
up to join her, clutching her hand in both of his.

Dan saw tears
in Judas's eyes, and felt them well up in his own. Carrie . . . Carrie was
leaving.

He fought the
urge to call her back, knowing she wouldn't, couldn't respond. He'd lost
her--not now, not today, but yesterday, when Emilio had put a 9mm hole in her
heart.

The three of
them drifted through the ruined window frames, out into the storm, toward the
gargantuan swirling, roaring column of water that loomed outside.

Dan ran to the
frames, clung to one, leaning over the precipice that fell away to the pounding
surf below. He sobbed unashamedly and let the tears flow down his cheeks.

He watched
longingly as their progress accelerated and their retreating forms shrank.

Soon they were
lost in the mist.

Moments later,
the cyclopean waterspout began to retreat, shrinking as it moved off into the
Pacific. Gradually it thinned from a thousand yards across to a slender
tornado-like funnel, and then it was gone.

The storm, too,
was gone. Magically, the encircling winds died, the fog melted away, the clouds
dispersed. Midday sunlight burst free and flooded the sky, warming Dan's face
and spirit.

He clung there a few moments longer, wiping his eyes, gathering
his wits, girding himself to face a world without Carrie. Finally, when he
turned away, he saw Senator Crenshaw leaning over the hospital bed, whispering
to his unconscious son.

"Did you
hear that, Charlie? You're going to be well again. All I've got to do is give
away everything I own. But that's no problem, Charlie. I'll set up trusts for
everything, even for Paraiso.
That way all my assets will be out of my
control, but we can still live here. And I'll
put my nomination bid on
hold. I won't do anything until you're better, Charlie. After that, you'll see
the
goddamndest
campaign you ever saw in your life. You just wait and
see, Charlie."

As Dan walked
past he couldn't resist saying, "You just don't get it, do you."

"What?"
Crenshaw said, straightening. "What do you mean?"

"Weren't
you listening?"

"Of
course, I--"

"Then
think about what you heard, fool."

Dan could spare
not any more time here. There was a new world outside. He could feel it.

He hurried up the stairs and burst out into the new fresh air. He
had no idea what he'd find when he got back to civilization, but he knew the
events of the past few moments had changed it forever.

For better or
for worse? And for how long? He would see.

He dearly
wished Carrie were here to explore it with him. And maybe she was. She'd
touched his life so deeply, he knew he'd always carry a part of her with him.

He thrust his
hands into his pockets and realized that Carrie was still with him in a more
tangible way. He pulled out her Ziploc of powder and clippings and stared at
them. Whatever he found out there in the new world, he was sure now that the
new age of miracles was not over yet.

Perhaps it had
just begun.