Within the Walls of Hell (13 page)

Vladimir
: (
Feels dejected with his head bent to the ground. Raises his head after a while
) If really the people were manipulated by some individuals who wanted to seize power, would I have been justified in intervening in the way I did?

Messenger
: let's not get into conditionality. Conditionality has its place only when there is room to make amends. It is possible in that world below your feet and my master being very patient always gives Everyman many chances to make amends. But amends must be made only down there. But since you've asked, I will give you an answer. I will not say if your kind of intervention would have been justified or not. But let's look at the reasons why someone would want to seize power in the first place. There could be disparities in chances between competitors. That is, the incumbent could decide to use state resources in his campaign while the other competitors get just tokens which might not be enough. The incumbent might be that one who promise a lot and delivers very little and yet want the people to continue entrusting their destinies into his hands by either constantly modifying the constitution, putting in place a sophisticated rigging machinery which rejects the choice of the people or he or she could decide to cook up reasons to sideline the other competitors who might pose as ‘threats'. If rules are laid down and anybody who comes to power serves his term and at the end leaves without trying to change initial rules, there will hardly be anything like forceful take-over. Forceful take-over occurs mostly because man by nature likes to cheat. And anybody who wants to remain in power or get to power by any means possible is out not to serve the people, though they would always claim to want to serve the people. But in reality, they are out to serve themselves. But in such situations you are supposed to use your head and be on the side of justice.

Vladimir
: (
In desperation
) I was just trying to serve my country and to prevent it from sinking into chaos.

Messenger:
He who knows the right thing and fails to do it is as guilty as the one who consciously and out rightly does a wrong thing. If you stood by those people whom in their vast majority objected to the touching of the sacred book of their land, then you would have been serving your country. But you preferred to serve a handful of those in power who did not care about the poor and sick populace or what ever they had to say. Are you trying to make me understand that a handful of government officials became synonymous to a nation? You and I know that is not possible. Those people you dispersed, killed and imprisoned formed the nation and they were the ones you ought to serve. But no, they were not the ones you served… you served your bosses and yourself. By doing that you implemented the policy of “let the poor, the underprivileged and the unemployed die so that those in power or those who matter can survive.” They reminded you and your superiors of your failure as leaders. That not withstanding, you were asked to personally execute some of the people you arrested during that unrest. Weren't you told that you were not supposed to kill?

Vladimir
: I was just doing my job.

Messenger
: You violated my master's fifth command in the name of doing your job? Are you telling me that you preferred human laws over the laws of my master?

Vladimir
: The people I was asked to personally execute were a danger to many people and the state. They had ideas which could set the country ablaze and the only way to save the state was to eliminate such people.

Messenger
: Eliminating such people was violating the fifth law of my master. As far as I know, life imprisonment behind solid iron bars can prevent any man alive from being a threat to the state if at all, the accusation is founded. Let me tell you something about crime and punishment. When my master was down there doing his evangelization mission, a woman was one day brought to him. The people who dragged the woman to my master accused her of committing adultery. The penalty for such an offense was death by stoning. The people had expected that my master would just give His accord that the woman be stoned to death but my master saw things differently. “Let he who has never committed an offense be the first to cast the first stone,” my master said. No body dared to do it and those who dragged the woman to my master started dispersing one after the other until at the end the woman was left alone. By saying that he who has never committed any offense should be the first to cast the first stone, my master was asking those present to do self examination. That means that before you set out on a condemnation path, you should examine yourself first. You executed many people because they committed offenses. How were you different from them? By ordering the death of someone, supervising or carrying out the execution of someone for whatever reason, you are casting the first stone. Casting the first stone is telling the world and your creator that you've never committed any offense which is not true. By sparing the life of the adulteress, my master restored life and no man has the right to destroy it. You cannot create life and so, should not destroy it in the name of doing your job. (
A brief
silence follows
) One last question; what happened between you and Hakim Willis, who was an officer under your command?

Vladimir
: Why all these questions? Can't you see you are torturing me? There is no lawyer here to defend me and no witnesses here to back me up. Why do you ask me all these questions when you already know the answers?

Messenger
: You do not need a lawyer or witnesses here. My master sees and knows everything. My master does not want you to feel that you have been unjustly treated and that is why these questions are coming up. So, should I ask the question again?

Vladimir
: Please stop torturing me.

Messenger
: Ok. But I will tell you what happened between you and Willis. He had a very beautiful wife who was not working and had children to look after. One day they had an occasion and invited you. As soon as you set your eyes on his wife, you started imagining and feeling what her body could feel like. You put her in a very desperate situation by threatening to have her husband fired if she didn't comply. She thought of her jobless situation and the children she had to raise and was forced to give in. To keep away her husband, you always sent him on missions that lasted for days and weeks. Whenever Willis was away, you did whatever you pleased with his wife even though she never wanted it. Just as anything that happens under the sun and can never be hidden forever, you were caught one day when Willis returned earlier than expected. Instead of apologizing as any normal person would do in such a situation, you felt that it would be so humiliating to do so to a junior officer. You instead were insisting that he go complete his mission. A fight ensured in which you exchanged gunshots. Your shot caught him in the left shoulder while his caught you below the abdomen. You died eight minutes after the gunshot without making amends with either him or my master. That act with Willis' wife was a violation of my master's ninth commandment. Do you still feel you are unjustly kept here? Are you worthy of that kingdom over there?

Vladimir
: (
Remains silent with eyes and mouth wide open as if in a trance)

Messenger:
I know it is not easy coming face to face with reality. Since you wouldn't want to be bothered with further questions, I would tell you what happened to Ted Jennifer. She was appointed to fight against the production, sale and distribution fake pharmaceutical products. There were a number of men who became rich and powerful thanks to the sale of the illegal and harmful drugs. Seeing that their empire was going to crumble because of the successes registered by Ted Jennifer, they waged war against her. They sent assassins to murder her and they succeeded. Your blame in that was that you were benefiting from the production, sale and distribution of the fake pharmaceutical products as those involved paid you money to allow them do their business. Ted Jennifer was kilt just a few blocks from where you were. You did not intervene and ordered your men to stay away because you had earlier been paid money and after receiving the money, you promised not to intervene. Saving people in danger was your job but you facilitated the murder of Ted Jennifer. When questioned by reporters after the incident, you claimed that things happened very fast and you were not aware of what was happening a few blocks from where you stood. The reporters had no choice but to believe what you said because they were humans. Here you cannot tell such lies because the evidence would be played before your eyes. You were as guilty as those involved in the sale of the fake drugs as well as the assassins. However, there is one more thing I have to tell you before I take my leave. What I have to say concerns my master. When He was down there in that world where you've just come from doing His teaching mission, a man one day walked up to him. “What must I do to gain eternal life?” the man asked. My master gave him some prescriptions and they were the Ten Commandments. “I have followed all those prescriptions all my life,” the man said. My master admired and praised him for that and told him that there was something still lacking. When the man sought to know what the missing thing in his life was, my master told him that he had go and sell everything he owned and give the money to the poor and after doing that he should come and follow Him (my master). The man went away very disappointment because he was a very wealthy man. Do you know why the man went away disappointed? It was because he was too attached to his wealth and could not imagine himself living a life of poverty. That is to tell all of you here that respecting the Ten Commandments and being religious are not enough. Those two are just stepping stones to the kind of life that lead to eternal life. You have to associate action to the respect of the commandments and being religious. The action my master wanted the man to associate was using just a small fraction of his wealth to buy clothes for those that were necked, buy food for the hungry, buy some medicine for the sick,…. In short, little acts of charity. But the man got disappointed and did not want to include action to his religious life which in effect was service to humanity. Almost all of you here went to prayer houses and knew the commandments. You had to associate that ‘service to humanity part' or action part to it through the posts of responsibility you all occupied. Did you serve humanity? You start preparing for eternal life when other people's problems become a preoccupation to you and you help them find solutions to them. That is associating action to your religious life.

 

(
Exit Messenger
)

 

Curtain.

 

 

 

 

(The gate opens and someone walks in. He is met at the gate by the Messenger)

 

 

Cain
: (
To the messenger
) are you the luggage carrier? I'm afraid there is no luggage to carry.

Messenger
: I'm no luggage carrier. I'm a messenger.

Cain:
A messenger? Whose messenger?

Messenger
: I work for the one who made everything that you knew in that world below as well as all what you can see here.

Cain
: I know who that is. Down there he was referred to as The Most High, Creator, Supreme Being, …. He had many names. But wait a minute, I was told that up here there were beautiful flowers, trees of all sorts, animals and birds living next to one another without being afraid, …quite a lot of nice things. But I see none here. I guess all those preachers just had their heads in the clouds.

Messenger
: Maybe…..maybe not.

 

(
As
they walk by the rooms of Carlos and Vladimir
)

 

Cain:
(
To messenger
) Look, those guys in those two room don't look ok. What's wrong with them? Are they sick?

Messenger
: Sort of.

Cain
: Then I think I might be of help. I was a medical doctor down there. But I wonder if they would have the money to pay for my services. I am expensive and very conscious of it. When I was down there, I dealt only with the rich. Anyone who came to me and claimed to be poor was sent elsewhere or if they remained begging, they ended up dying.

Messenger
: But I thought that when you are a medical doctor, your first priority should be to save lives and not bother whether they are rich or poor.

Cain
: Well, yes….but that was the ideal and nobody liked the ideal. You know, I came from a modest family and I was not bright in school. So my parents used money to push me through schools and bought me certificates. Towards the end of my third year in the university, there were not prospects of ever finding a job. My parents still had to deep their hands really deep into their pockets to buy my way into the medical school. They went in for a loan and assembled six million which they paid. It did not end there….since I was not bright, they still had to keep bribing the lecturers to give me good marks until I finally graduated. When I started work, I had to recover back all the money they spent. I thought that after recovering the money, I would stop. But that was not the case. I soon discovered how it was so easy to make money from patients and my appetite for it became insatiable. I began to have numerous girl friends, good cars, beautiful houses, long travels to towns and cities that had sandy beaches….the list is long. Life was good down there. You can now understand why I made mention of money. Money is good.