GOD of a man

“Ego is the degenerated state of pride, however it’s birth is a process of gradual evolution.”

Chapter Nine: What is GOD?
Dated: 9th August, 2425

There is a wide gulf between honour and ego. However man, in spite of all his intellectual abilities, is rarely able to distinguish one from the other, especially when he himself is the one who needs to be judged. The mightiest of nations that considered giving up as an insult to their honour failed to realize, it was not their honours they were fighting to protect, rather their ego’s that would have been deflated by the mere thought of giving up. Their follies lead to the total collapse of human civilization. Thankfully by GOD’s grace, humanity still survived but somehow GOD himself was forgotten.

BANG!! A loud noise reverberated across the length and breadth of the ocean, tearing the night sky as if somebody had sliced it’s chest with a sabre. The four fast asleep occupants were rudely woken from their quiet sleep.

“What the hell was that,” Clara asked, not that she expected an answer but such was the shocking effect of the sound never heard before in their lives.

“Where are Steve and Robin?” Nakata asked his own question, rubbing his eyes.

“Lets’ go out and see what’s happening,” Andy suggested as he hopped out of his small bed.

They all rushed out of the small compartment for the crew on the LCM-8 and walked out through the wheel-house to the deck where they saw Steve standing with a gun resting on his shoulder.

“What are you doing? What happened? What’s that? That’s a gun,” Daniel may not have run out of questions but Steve was in no mood to answer any.

“Where’s Robin? What did you do to him? Why?” Clara broke down. She had seen one too many murders in her short life, it was hard for her to control her emotions.

“Relax! Everything’s fine,” Steve calmly replied.

“Where is Robin?” Daniel’s voice got a bit rough. Steve gave him a glare and shifted his gun from one shoulder to the other. Daniel laboured to swallow the saliva that had accumulated in his mouth.

“Help! Over here! I am here,” Robin’s faint voice was heard from somewhere.

“I can hear him,” Nakata said, “But where is he? I can’t see him.”

“Help! I am loosing my grip,” Robin cried out again.

As everybody frantically looked around Steve walked straight to where Robin was standing, bent over and grabbed Robin from his clothes and pulled him up from the side of the boat, where he had tumbled over and nearly fallen into the sea.

“Damn you Steve! What the hell do you think you are doing,” Robin roared as he finally managed to gather his breath.

“What happened?” Andy asked.

“He tried to kill me. He’s a murderer,” Robin was incensed.

Steve swung the gun into his other hand and said, “No! I didn’t try to kill you. If I wanted to, you would have been dead by now.”

“But what happened? Why did you fire a gun? And first of all where did you get the gun?” Daniel asked.

Robin became quiet cause he knew why Steve did what he did.

“I was the last one to leave the White-Scube that day,” was all that Steve said as he walked towards the wheel house.

Clara was still visibly shaken and crying. Nakata was trying to console her, while Andy and Daniel got busy whispering with each other. Robin sat there motionless for a while and then finally got up and went inside.

“I hope this makes it even today,” Robin said to Steve who looked at him as if trying to confirm if Robin had any remorse to what happened.

“You are lucky, we need a navigator for this trip,” was all that Steve said.

Meanwhile, others had also returned inside.

“Why are you carrying a gun? How and where did you get it?” Clara broke down again as she asked Steve her few questions. “Just throw it away. Throw it into the water,” Clara continued before Steve could answer.

“Bad idea! We may need it during our trip,” Steve said.

“Need it for what?” Andy asked.

“We are not the only ones who eat meat, and we are definitely not the only ones who have survived the radiations,” was all Steve said.

The night went on quietly after that. Next morning everyone was up early, and now that they all had taken their turns at being sea sick, on the deck enjoying the view of the sea, which became boring after a while.

“Whenever you are on deck make sure to keep a close watch on the number of fish you see in water. It is important to know so that we don’t run out of food,” Steve said as everybody turned around towards him and listened intently.

“Nakata, grab the radiation detection equipment from inside. We need to closely monitor the radiation levels, every six to nine hours for our own well being,” Steve cautioned them regarding the only other major concern that they had at that time.

It was a bit chilly in the open so everybody returned inside the boat. They all sat down and chatted about a few nick knacks for a while before boredom finally began to catch up with them.

“Damn! It’s so boring out here,” Andy complained.

“Boring? I am happy I don’t have to do anything,” Daniel laughed

“Yeah! Wait for a few more days and we’ll see,” Clara taunted him.

“Few day? He’ll be looking for something to do in a few hours I reckon,” Robin joined in the fun.

“Actually guys, I think I have a solution for that,” Nakata said.

“Are you going to dance? Please spare me the agony,” Andy took a dig at him and everybody burst out in laughter.

“Well, you can have mine too in that case. Agony, that is,” Daniel joked.

“What do you want to do?” Steve asked Nakata.

“Wait I’ll show you something,” Nakata said as he rushed to the bed compartment and came back with a diary in his hand.

“What’s that?” Clara asked.

“It is the diary of a soldier I found on the Phantom. I picked it up hoping to read it someday for fun. It’s going to come in real handy now I guess,” Nakata replied.

“That’s great,” everybody became excited and quickly gathered around Nakata as Steve stood manning the wheel.

“What year is the diary?” Steve asked.

“Oh, it does not say any date or year but the guy has written the dates on his own before every entry he made in the diary,” Nakata replied.

“What’s the name of the soldier?” Clara asked.

“Let me see,” Nakata said as he fumbled with the pages to open up the title page, and tried to read it. “The ink has become faint over the years making it a bit hard to read but let me see,” he said.

“There it is. It’ says against name, Lieutenant Christopher Hahn,” Nakata replied.

“What’s the first entry?” Clara was all excited.

“It says, dated 5th January, 2012,” Nakata said as he started reading. The first entry read:

“YES! I’ve found her! She is the one for me! Man you wouldn’t believe it. She’s such a sweet angel. She’s gorgeous and she’s the one for me. Thankyou James, for inviting me to your wedding and thankyou Suzie, for introducing me to my suga-cream. I am in love man. I am in love.”

“Suga-cream, that’s a lovely name,” Clara comented.

“Hey, let him read. Don’t interrupt,” Daniel said.

“Oh c’mon, where’s the fun in it if we won’t chat about it? Besides how long will this diary last anyway?” Clara questioned.

“Anyway guys, stop fighting. That was all that he had written for that day,” Nakata replied as he turned the page and said, “The next one’s dated 6th January, 2425.”

“Today I went out on my first date with my suga-cream. She’s so amazing. Oh Stefani, where had you been all my life? I can’t explain, she’s so soft, so compassionate, so beautiful, so loving and caring and yet so strong and proud. Man, this is the girl for me. I’ve hardly spent an hour with her and I already want to spend the rest of my life with her.”

“Wow! Was he a soldier or was he a poet?” Nakata added his bit.

“Do you mind carrying on?” Andy rebuked him jokingly.

“What? I was just chatting?” Nakata complained.

“Leave the chatting part to us, you just do the reading bit,” Daniel said as everybody burst out in laughter.

“Ok fine! The next one is dated 9th January, 2012,” Nakata said as he turned the pages around to make sure he didn’t miss anything.

“Hey Suga-cream! How are you love? It was really nice to join you in your two day stint at the welfare camp in Papua New Guinea. I am totally amazed at your humanitarian side. You are so young and so full of love for everyone. Never ever change that babe. I love you heaps!”

“Why does he have to write so small entries?” Nakata complained.

“How much do you write daily,” Robin took a dig at him this time.

“Damn you people! I am not going to read any further,” Nakata complained and tried to get up. Steve pulled out his gun and put it to his head and said, “Sit down!” He quietly slipped back into his place and continued reading.

“It say’s 10th January, 2012,” he continued.

“Man I can’t hold it anymore. I’ve decided. She’s the one for me. I want her for the rest of my life as my life. I’ve planned it all. I am going to ask her out tonight, take her to the beach, just me and her, we’ll have a quiet dinner together and some wine and I am gonna get down on my knees and ask her, will you please make my future worth making my present day by day, everyday, for the rest my life? Will you please make me understand what happiness is? Will you please make me a complete man with his own little family? Will you please be the light of my life? Will you please marry me? Dear GOD, please help me. Please make her say yes so that we can come to your Church and seek your blessings for our future.”

“What is GOD?” Nakata asked.

“And what is Church,” Clara asked.