Chasing the Shadow of God

Her eyes widened as Pete sat there in silence. Is this it? Is he ready to pop the question? Is it really happening now? It has been a really bumpy couple of years for them but they managed to make it this far. She has always been on the edge of the fence with thier relationship what with him being profoundly inconsistent with his emotions. She knows he loves her but there are times when she feel that he's got something else in his heart besides love for her. And recently it's been bothering her. But then she just recently realised that he might be just afraid of committing.

It was yesterday when he called her, wanting for them to talk. A serious talk. So she recons this might be it. There was never a very big recent problem they had so he can't be breaking up with her. And she doesn't really want to entertain that thought anyway. So she feels this is it. He is asking THE question.  And she already has an answer. More or less.

Pete sat there in silence. He kept thinking how he would say it to her. Will she say it upfront? But how does he know would she react? What if she reacts negatively? It might be the end of everything. Everything has been progressing quite perfectly from day 1. But at this stage, how can he be so sure, with all the complexity and improbabality of things? Adn if she reacts positively, is he really ready? Does she deserve this life that he will be giving to her?

Or does he have to tell her how it all happened? Start from day 1 and slowly retell what happened eversince. Until now. And then finally
tell her. At least she will consider the weight of their journey if anything else. But would it just be more painful to live everything, the good and the bad, then in the end just end up with her melting her heart out?

But Pete needs to say it now. Or it will just go on forever and ever in this state. This needs to progress no matter what the outcome might be.

So Pete broke his silence. And he decided that he will just say it up front. Whatever happens will happen.

"Annie. I have to tell you something."

Annie sat there in silence, eyes widening in anticipation.

"Annie. You are a  robot I created."

Her heart started melting.

Laundrytime

Agent Voltaire's laundry dump has been rotting on the corner of his apartment for almost one year now. His lone skin hanging on his virtually empty cabinet is the last one of his outfit. Unfortunately, he has another job early tomorrow morning. His target is the Prime Minister of the Visayan Republic. High profile. And the day after he has another one. The target is still unknown but is also a powerful person according to his barker.

He really need to get the laundry done. Good thing there's an express washer downstairs from his apartment. Zero evidence. Fast clean. Their ads say. Agent Voltaire smirks at their clever ad. Nowadays, people are not what they seem. Everyone has a second job. Everyone's day job is just a front for the dirty exploits they do after their 8 to 5 work hours.

The barker on the Jeepney terminal is the person giving him the targets.

The washers downstairs are erasers-- they clean up evidence of crimes, dispatches bodies etc.

The cigarette vendor is a CIA double agent.

The tricycle driver is a getaway driver.

The cellphone repair guy is a signal hacker and surveillance specialist.

The girl who sells sampaguita is an assassin-chemist specializing in natural poisons from the flower she sells.

This city is a cove of espionage, assassinations and false identities. Everyone has a dark story they don't want anyone to know about. A dirty story that does not need cleaning. A story that will destroy their entire lives once exposed to the world.

But the dirty will not remain dirty. Soon laundry time will come and no single bad deed will remain uncovered and unpunished.

Agent Voltaire dials the hotline for his laundry. The cellphone repair guy listens to the call and forwards it to the cigarette vendor. The next morning after that, the barker will be whispering something to the sampaguita vendor who will then give Agent Voltaire a lei of flowers as a gift. She will ride a tricycle to her apartment and then remove her skin and throw it to the 1 year-old dump she's got rotting on the corner.

Laundry time approaches yet again.

The Philosopher from Across the Stars

"It is the interaction of but two bodies that gave rise to the entire universe."

Thus said the philosopher from Cygnus X1, whose worldship is parked on Earth's Himalayan parking ranges at the moment.

"In the beginning was Darkness. In the beginning was light. But just that. Light and Dark. Nothing more nothing less.

But Darkness found Light and Light found darkness. And then the Great Explosion came about. And the entire universe was born right after. Did that answer your question?"

"Uhmm... I'm still not quite clear about it, saer." The person on the microphone said. "If everything came from the interaction of Light and Dark, then where did the Light and Dark came from?" There was a soft murmuring among the participants in the assembly hall.

"Ahh. Now you are asking something different. This is a scientific convention. Am I right?"

"Yes saer."

"Then what you are asking is not thematic to this gathering. For it is not something we will discuss in a room full of scientists like yourselves. But If you want answers then so be it. But don't blame if you won't believe it." The philosopehr paused for a while. "So in the beginning, god created..."

"Saer, if I may interrupt. You just said this is a scientific convention. If you are going to preach about god, and religion and those faith-based beliefs, then please just stop because everyone knows..."

"Ahh, but that's what I thought you would say. I will not talk about your religions, or beliefs. Those are things I know you would dismiss immediately and I would too, because they are not based on scientific facts. I'm talking about something else. You all know how knowledgeable our race is. We're far, far advanced than you are, technologically, mentally and in every aspect that you can think of. I have a huge pool of knowledge you can't even fathom how enormous. You're entire body of knowledge; scientific, philosophical, literary, religious, all of those compared to us are just like a baby uttering her first syllable. That's how primitive your minds are.

I'f I am going to tell you the literal explanation of the origin of things, It would be like you talking to a dog about algebra. What I am doing is replacing words unfathomable to you with words that are familiar and would translate satisfactorily in your very young minds. And you'll just have to believe that these are true." The philosopher paused again.

"So, as I was saying," the philosopher continued "...in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of god was hovering over the waters. And god said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light."

Hungry? Jolliburp Delivers!

It's been an hour since I placed my order in Jolliburp Online. I still haven't received any call of confirmation from their call center whether they received my order or what. I'm getting hungry. And I'm bad when I get hungry.

I called their hotline to follow-up my order.

"Good evening! This is Jolliburb Delivery. May I ask for your full name please?" the agent on the other side of the phone said.

"My name is Stan. I placed an order online more than an hour ago but I still haven't received it."

"Ok sir. May I know the transaction number".

"Alright wait a sec." I checked my email for the transaction number I got from the automated response email. "It's 297938712."

"Please hold sir. I'll just verify."

"Okay. Please hurry up. I get bad when I'm hungry". I didn't get a response. Maybe she's already checking my order.

A few minutes later the agent returned to the phone.

"Sir, your order is already processing. Please wait for a few minutes."

"Alright. But please hurry. You don't want me getting hungry."

"Ok Sir thank you."

A few more minutes passed by. Then my phone rang.

"Hello."

"Good evening Sir! I'm from Jolliburp and I just like to confirm your order."

"OK." What! you're still just confirming my order?!?!. What the hell! I'm starting to get hungry.

The agent blabbered on and on about my order. Then confirmed my address for delivery. I just said yes.

"Sir, the order will arrive in 30 to 45 minutes. Are you willing to wait?"

Of course I am. After all those time waiting just to cancel last minute? "Yes. I'm willing. But please hurry. I'm getting hungry. And it's bad when I'm hungry."

"Ok sir. Thank you for calling Jolliburp."

Another 15 minutes passed. Still no delivery. And I'm officially hungry. This is bad.

Another 15 minutes passed. I heard a knock on the door. I walk to the door and open it. I saw the delivery guy bent down picking up my orders from his carrying case. He lifts 2 paper bags from his carrying case then faces me.

Suddenly, the delivery guy's eyes widened. Then he dropped the two paper bags. He suddenly jerked backwards and bumps on the wall behind him, almost falling over. Then he sprints very, very fast down the hallway and into the exit stairways. I can hear him screaming from afar.

Good thing he dropped the bags. I'm really hungry. So I picked up the two bags with my four tentacles and shoved them both into my mouth, not even bothering to remove the bags. I can  feel the two bags bulging in my throat into my stomach. That was good!!! My 16 eyes circled in satisfaction.

After my meal, I just crawled my way inside my condo. I felt bad for the delivery guy. But I keep telling them, they wouldn't want me getting hungry.

Parrajeep

I waited for a parrajeepney with a route from Greenbelt 1, Earth-44 to Greenbelt 2, Earth-89. One came but it was full. I held on the steel bars on the door to hang but the driver stopped me.

'Bawal ho ang sabit. Pasok ho kayo, may isa pa.' [You are prohibited from hanging. Please come in, there's one seat left.]

I was grateful that there indeed was one small space left for one passenger. I squeezed my self into the seat. It was too narrow for me. Only one cheek of my butt is sitting on the seat. But the jeep has already started running so I have no choice but to endure.

Along the way, I felt too uncomfortable that I decided to get off.

'Boss, para na ho dyan.' [Boss, I'll get off here.] I recon we might be at Earth-56 by now but it doesn't matter. My leg muscles are cramping due to my impossible position. I have to get off. But the driver stopped me.

'Bawal ho bumaba dito. May ParraPolice'. [You are prohibited from getting off here. There are ParraPolice in the area.] So I endured.

At long last, we arrived at Earth-89. It was a great relief. The passengers started getting off. I follow suit. But the driver stopped me, to my irritation.

'Bawal ho kayo bumaba. Hindi pa kayo bayad.' [You are prohibited from getting off. You haven't paid yet.]

Death of the family

I will miss all of you. I will miss our fun times together. I will miss brother's noise. I will miss sister's nagging. I will miss father's advice and mother's concern.

I will miss our bonding. Our family time watching soaps on TV while eating popcorn. I will miss spending Christmas with you. I will miss our exchange gifts.

I will miss everything.

But it has to end here. You have to go. I have to let you go. I have to do this for myself. I have to be free. Free from all of you. You should not control me. You should not be dictating how I live my life.

So this is goodbye. After this I'll be free. And all of you will be gone. Stuffed in some gray box and buried somewhere in this forsaken room full of all my forsaken things. It's time.

I will miss you. But you have to go. Goodbye everyone. Goodbye my Sims Family. I had a great time playing with you.

The Waiting Shed at the Border of the Blackhole

"Going South?"

"Yeah. How do you know?"

"My gift." She said, while pointing to the thin, pink almost gelatinous antenna on her forehead. "They call these caldousil. It's like an advance nose in your race."

I looked at it with feigned amazement. I've never seen it in person but I have read about them before, sometime over the last 40 years during one of my Xenopology classes. 

"I'm Klathykksi. You can pronounce it Klat with your tongue." She offers her hand to shake. But I know she's not shaking hands. I've read it before. So I pull my hand out, spit on the back of my palm and slaps it to the palm of her outstretched hands. She seem quite surprised by what I did, her black eyeballs widened. But her eyes then start to close into a slit. She is feeling the spit with her hypersensitive skin.

She is a Krayohian. From the 178th quadrant of the Andromeda galaxy. Marine-based lifeform. Salt-based. The have highly enhanced senses of smell and feeling. But almost completely blind. Life span of 255 Earthian years. Only female exists. They reporoduce asexually via psychomitosis. 

I learned it all from college.

Our race is one of the weakest lifeforms in the universe. We don't have special organs or body parts. We did not evolve any extraordinary appendages. Even the lower lifeforms in our planet are more equipped with special organs than us. What we excelled in is learning how to use tools and using them to our advantage.

That's why the Earthian government decided that we should excel in knowledge. But not the knowledge to exceed the Wikians. Their mental prowess are far, far superior than us. Almost infinite brain capacity. What we did focused on is on the 'street  knowledge' of the universe. What things do we need to know to protect ourselves. How can we survive out there. 

You may think it's almost combative and competitive in nature. Learning how to survive by finding out things about other races. Learning other's weaknesses.

But it's how we survive. How our species will survive.

'Nice meeting, you. You have a nice life ahead of you.' The Krayohian greeted as a warpbus docks. 'And by the way, if you happen to pass by 178th, just spittulate and they will know that we are acquaintances. See yah!'

In that entire conversation I said exactly only 5 words. And yet I have forged an alliance between two races from different corners of the world. My mission here is accomplished.

Another warpbus arrives. Time to proceed to the next target.