GOD of a man

“What a shame humanity is, the Son of GOD is punished like a thief, while ordinary thieves are revered like GOD!”

Chapter Twenty Seven: The Rebirth
Dated: 25th December, 2426

If there was one word that would best describe majority of the political leaders or kings the world has ever seen it would either be a thief or a dacoit. Men who have ever ascended to power, be it by popular mandate or be it by the mandate of sword, if they brutally victimized the ordinary people in medieval and ancient times, they have only fleeced them across the modern societies. At the end of the day, all they did was part the ordinary men and women of their meagre earnings and build their own riches, riches they were never able to use beyond a fraction in their life times. If they were dacoits in ancient and medieval times, they can only be described as thieves in modern society. This might appear to be a bad reflection on those who lead but the truth is, it’s the ordinary men and women who are bigger culprits. It is ordinary people who unfailingly fail to notice the conceit in these mortal beings and instead revere them to a position meant only for GOD. What a pity those who revere and praise true GOD and talk truth are only beheaded, crucified or made to drink poison while those who cheat, dupe, loot and terrorise are eulogised. However one thing that can be said about the unpredictable humanity is, once the ordinary awake and rise, they accomplish extra-ordinary and the same frauds end up on the wrong sides of barrels and across the wrong edge of guillotines.

Robin represents everything that could possibly be wrong with the intent of a man intrusted the reigns of those who trust him, yet he enjoys the highest position among his clan. But the only truth about a lie is it doesn’t last. However, it does take time for the truth to surface.

Steve and Clara were living two different lives on the same side of a vast ocean. Steve was as cut off from GOD as any human being can possibly be while his only company Clara was a devout believer and was already preaching her son what is the first duty of every mother, the truth. However Steve was beyond the limits of all her reasoning.

Another difference between the two was that Clara had accepted the thought of being left behind on this side of waters for the rest of her life and her son being left without a mate for his entire, Steve was yet to give in. There was a violent storm always brewing inside him, a strong feeling that he has to fight the fate and get to his kith and kin at any cost. His only limitation was he had no means. He was afraid of letting the thought of being left behind grabbing a hold of him. He was fighting what his head was telling him because his heart wasn’t ready to accept it. His mind had already given up but his heart was clinging on to hope.

However that day when he saw the woman in Clara taking a bath, his control over himself and grasp over realities gave way. The lonely man in his heart overran the guardian of his morality and ethics in his brain. But then that guardian never enjoyed an absolute control of him.

“Steve! Stop looking at me like that! You are embarrassing me,” Clara spoke faintly as she noticed Steve staring at her frame like a wild cat ready to pounce on its’ prey.

“Clara, you are one gorgeous girl I’ve ever seen in my life,” Steve spoke as he got up.

“Steve, you are scaring me now!” Clara tried desperately to hide herself within her body. Her arms folded around her chest tighter as she almost crept towards her clothes, looking down and away from Steve and moving sideways towards him.

“Clara, I love you!” Steve said.

“Have you gone mad? Do you know what you are saying?” Clara was taken aback and retorted immediately.

“Why what’s wrong with that? I am a man and you are a woman,” Steve said as he took one big step and reached around to Clara and took her in his embrace.

“Steve, you know I love Nakata and you have a wife and a kid,” Clara replied and tried to get out of Steve’s hold.

“Don’t be ridiculous! Nakata is dead. I am alive and right here with you. My wife and kid, I am never going to see them again. You are a woman. We both have needs,” Steve said as he violently turned Clara around and tried to kiss her as she resisted ferociously.

“You have lost your mind Steve. Let go off me. I love Nakata and I will always love him,” Clara said as she used all her strength to force Steve away from her.

“Oh C’mon Clara, this is not the first time we will be doing this,” Steve said as he crushed Clara in his grip.

“What happened between me and you was a mistake. I was wrong, you were wrong. That will never happen again. Let go off me now,” Clara said.

“That’s what you think,” Steve said as he pushed Clara on the beach and tried to force himself on her. Clara fought viciously, digging her nails in Steve’s face as she tried to force his torso off her using her knees. Steve grabbed her hands and pinned them down to the ground and used his legs and body weight to pin her legs. Clara was defenceless.

“Don’t worry Clara, we have our whole lives to live together and you will have to accept me one day any how,” Steve said as his face turned darker than the darkest nights in broad daylight. The darkness that covered his face was shrieking louder than any other sound in the immediate surroundings. The sound of his darkness drowned the sound of waves that nearly refused to hit the shores.

“I love you Clara,” Steve said as he lowered himself to kiss Clara who turned her face away violently. But before Steve could cross all the remaining limits of decency and morality, a very faint sound stopped him, a sound that was fainter than any sound that was originating at that beach at that hour.

Shoji Katsuo, or “my life” as Clara called him, or “my little Nakata” as Steve lovingly called him, his soft giggling announced his return from the land of dreams to the real world. And the whole world seemed to have stopped to listen to him. He giggled again as Steve turned his face around and looked at him. He looked back at Steve and giggled again, laughed at Steve and his tiny arms and feets twisted and turned in rapid succession as if he was carrying the whole sky on them and spinning it around like a ball. He was yelling without saying a word, “Pick me up! Pick me up! Cuddle me! Love me!”

The darkness on Steve’s face vanished as if it was never there. Clara turned her face around to see what stopped Steve as his grip on her hands and legs slackened. She could have kicked him hard and pushed him off her at that moment, attacked him and hurt him with a stone that wasn’t lying too far away from her but she saw the darkness fading from his face and kept quiet.

Steve got off her, looked at the baby and then looked at Clara again. His shriek was loud enough to wake up even those long buried under the sands. He clutched his face in both his hands and collapsed on his knees and cried out loud. In fact, he wailed.

Clara picked up her clothes and dressed herself up while her little baby watched a grown up man crying the way he should have been crying. Clara kept quiet and let Steve lighten the burden on his conscience.

“I am sorry Clara! I am sorry! I have ashamed myself! Please forgive me! Please pardon me for my sin!” Steve cried out when he was finally able to speak a few words.

Clara walked up to him and knelt opposite him. She held his hands in her hands softly and pulled them away from his face revealing his red, swollen eyes full of tears of shame, “Steve, you are forgiven!”

“Clara!” Steve cried out at he collapsed in her arms and broke down again, “I’ve let you down! I’ve let my wife down! Nakata will never forgive me!”

“No Steve, you have been re-born!” Clara replied.

Clara’s words quietened Steve immediately as he raised his head up again and looked at Clara with surprise.

“Yes Steve, today GOD has been kind enough on you to give you a second chance in life. This Steve whose face I am holding in my hands is a new Steve. You have been reborn today by GOD’s will,” Clara replied.

“What do you mean?” Steve asked like a curious child.

“Steve, you had a big mass of sins behind you, looking for your head. The goodness in you had been protecting you from harm all this time and today GOD has been kind enough on you to rid you from the sins you were going to commit in future. HE’s changed you forever Steve. This is a new you,” Clara tried to explain in words that made no sense to Steve.

“I don’t understand Clara. You are not mad at me? Are you not angry at me for trying to do what I did to you?” Steve asked surprised.

“No Steve!” Clara replied.

“Why? How can you not be mad at a vicious man like me who just tried to outrage your womanhood?” Steve was all the more surprised and taken aback.

“Steve, what you did was a punishment for all the sins that I have committed,” Clara replied, “GOD punished me for my unfaithfulness. I deserved every bit of this punishment. And now that the punishment has been served on me, I am finally free of my sins.”

“I don’t understand. What do you mean?” Steve was still at loss.

“Steve, there are two stages of reformation of a human being before he becomes eligible for the love, adulation and acceptance of GOD,” Clara replied, “First, the person is reborn as his eyes are opened to sins he has already committed in his life or has become habitual of indulging in, and then in the second stage he or she is punished for the sins they had committed before they were reborn. That makes that person free of all sin and worthy of GOD’s love. I was reborn the day I almost died, today I have been punished for my sins. I am ready for GOD’s love now.”

“How do you know? You also said your GOD has gifted you your child. Why will he gift you something if you are not worthy of HIS love? And if what you are saying is true then why did Nakata die so painfully? What was his sin? Why was Nakata punished?” Steve asked so many questions in one time.

“Nakata was sin free in this life. If GOD made him suffer the pain then HE gifted him with a child. My child is the fruit of Nakata’s penance in spite of being sin free in this birth,” Clara replied.

“You still don’t understand my question, why did he have to suffer if he was sin free and then die as well?” Steve inquired.

“He died because it was time for him to re unite with HOLY FATHER forever. He had lived the purpose of his life. He had to suffer pain because his present life might have been full of goodness and completely sin free but he possibly still had some sins against his name left over from the previous life that were yet to be punished. Perhaps he was never reborn in his previous birth or maybe he died before being adequately punished,” Clara tried to explain it to Steve.

“I don’t believe you. You story has too much hypothetical reasoning involved. Nothing you say can be proved. If this was Nakata’s second birth then why didn’t he remember his first birth?” Steve asked.

“Nobody remembers their previous birth because we human have a bad habit of forming deep associations. If you remembered who and what you were in your previous birth, you will start looking for your surviving kith and kin. That will disrupt their lives, your life and lives of those who are associated with you in this birth. Then there will be old enmities which will be revived again and the social fabric will fragment,” Clara explained.

“Then why wasn’t he punished for his sins in his previous life itself?” Steve asked.

“He possibly had more sins against his name than the time he was allocated for his life,” Clara replied, “He probably died before he could be adequately punished. If he had been adequately punished he would have already re-united with GOD and would have been in heaven.”

“That’s all absurd and rubbish. I don’t believe a single word you say. No doubt Henry detested those who believed in GOD. You people only have make belief stories to tell and you people would like them to be passed off as eternal truths as well. There is no such thing as GOD, re-birth, sin and punishment. I don’t believe a single word you say and I don’t believe in GOD,” Steve said.

“Perhaps you don’t, yet,” Clara quipped.

“Anyway Clara, what I did today was wrong and I am extremely sorry for it. I promise it won’t happen again,” Steve replied, ashamed at his actions but now calmed completely by the conversation he had with Clara.

“I know Steve. You have changed forever now,” Clara replied, “You have been reborn today and you will believe in GOD one day.”

“That will never happen Clara,” Steve said, “I am too practical minded for any mythology.”

“You will Steve,” Clara replied with a faith worthy of a person who has been rid of her sins and invited to join the paths that lead to saintliness.

“Don’t be so sure,” Steve commented.

“I know it Steve, for sure,” Clara replied.

“How can you be so sure?” Steve asked.

“Because Steve, some people start believing in GOD when they are reborn and some do it when they are punished,” Clara answered, “You don’t believe in HIM today when you have been reborn. You will when you will be punished.”

“So you are saying, I will be punished too? That’s the best joke I’ve ever heard. Who will punish me when it’s only three of us here and who will punish me if the others came around too and what will they punish me for?” Steve asked as he laughed.

Clara smiled.

Steve saw a glow on her face, brighter than what he saw that day on the ship when she woke up from near death, a glow that outshone the brightness of everything that was lit by sun at that place, at that hour. Something within him got scared.

Time kept tricking along and the years changed places as future became present and present joined the past. It had been almost two months at sea for the people of Hatsu Saisho as they made their way across the seas towards their new home. The initial euphoria of being a part of an adventurous journey and the excitement generated by the thoughts of establishing a new and better home had faded away in less than twenty four hours of leaving their shores and a longing for what had been left behind had taken over. And the longing only grew as the hardships at sea broke them one by one.

Their rafts were uncomfortable even when they opened up the penguin skin tents and folded them on one side. The sun dried their bodies faster than the rain could fill their containers. Food was scarce than home and water always had to be in a trickle, just sufficient to help them survive another day. The progress was slow as the fastest they could travel was the slow speeds the rafts managed using wind. They tried to power their way using oars but the exertion coupled with food and water scarcity aggravated their miseries. They finally accepted that they were at the mercy of fate. Luckily for them, their fate didn’t have a storm in store for them so far.

Another safe day culminated into a calm night with one man or woman still awake to man each raft in case any incidence of concern was to happen. In the absence of artificial lighting, moon light or star light restricted their vision and generally travelling at night used to be along the course set in the evening only. The rafts were all tied to the main boat, the LCM 8, by separate ropes of varying length. This was done to avoid two rafts hitting each other by mistake. The rafts toed the LCM in a straight line and the motor boat was used to travel between the rafts and the boat to provide the only change available for everyone. Occasionally Robin and Daniel’s wives used to oar their raft next to the LCM to have a word with their husbands. Robin and Daniel were meanwhile busy trying to build new bridges between newer shores.

“How long before we will get to the shores on the other side?” Rosaline Williams, Robin Sutherland’s wife asked him as her raft sailed next to his LCM. She had to literally shout for a conversation as the noise of the boat’s engine drowned her voice.

“Don’t worry sweetheart, won’t be long before we’ll see land. Have patience, we are on the right track,” Robin yelled back.

“That’s what you said yesterday. That’s what you say everyday. Can’t you give us a fair idea?” Rosaline asked again, “These crafts are so uncomfortable they make one feel the journey much longer than it has been. It feels like we all have been imprisoned in an open jail with everywhere to go and yet no where to go.”

“Don’t loose patience my love. You are my strength and everybody else in these rafts is looking up at you to live with an example. Be my strength,” Robin tried to reason with her and relax her. Rosaline realized there is nothing Robin can do and resigned to her situation.

“She will cause a mutiny this way. You need to do something,” Daniel who was standing next to him, looked around to see if they were alone and almost whispered in his ear.

“I know!” Robin said, “But what will they do and where will they go even if they mutinied?”

Robin’s statement reassured Daniel. Robin then asked, “Do you remember sharks?”

“Yes! Why?” Daniel asked.

“How far do you reckon we are from that area?” Robin asked.

“I don’t know, perhaps already there!” Daniel replied, “Why do you ask?”

“How are things developing between you and Natalie?” Robin asked.

“Not too encouraging! That rascal Andy won’t leave her side and she seems to like him hanging around her as well. One of these days I will just push him into the sea,” Daniel got furious as he talked about the association developing between Andy and his doctor, the gorgeous Natalie.

“Relax! We are politicians and not executioners. We will work a plan for them, but you need to get your act together and up your ante,” Robin stated, “You are going to be lonely soon.”

“What do you mean?” Daniel asked.

“People are born and people perish! It’s the law of nature,” Robin said as he looked around and loosened the rope tying the raft carrying his wife and Daniel’s wife with the guiding ship, their LCM, leaving them guideless on a heartless sea to drift on their own.